what is necessary, belongs to the poor, and ought to be given away. The poor, no longer looked down upon, became instruments of salvation. To them was given the first place in the Church and in the Christian community. St. Chrysostom says of them, "As fountains flow near the place of prayer that the hands that are about to be raised to heaven may be washed, so were the poor placed by our fathers near to the door of the Church, that our hands might be consecrated by benevolence before they are raised to God." Gregory the Great announces, and the Middle Ages re-echo, "The poor are not to be lightly esteemed and despised, but to be honoured as patrons.' Thus it happened that even in the darkest periods, when all other Christian virtues were nearly extinct, charity survived unimpaired.1 Later on Protestantism, by denying the atoning effect of good deeds, deprived charity of a great deal of its religious attraction. And in modern times the enlightened opinion on the subject, recognising the demoralising influence of indiscriminate almsgiving, rather agrees with the principles laid down by Cicero and Seneca, than with the literal interpretation of the injunctions of Christ. 3 In the course of progressing civilisation the obligation of assisting the needy has been extended to wider and wider circles of men. The charity and generosity which savages require as a duty or praise as a virtue have, broadly speaking, reference only to members of the same community or tribe. Kindness towards foreigners is looked upon in a very different light. "The virtues of the Negroes," Monrad observes, "are entirely restricted to their own tribe. The doing good to a stranger they would generally find ridiculous." 5 To the Greenlander a foreigner, especially if he be of another race, is "an indifferent object, whose welfare he has no interest in furthering." 1 Uhlhorn, op. cit. p. 294 sq. 2 St. Chrysostom, De verbis Apostoli, Habentes eumdem spiritum, iii. II (Migne, op. cit. Ser. Graeca, li. sq. 300). 996 The Bedouin, says Doughty," has two faces, this of gentle kindness at home, the other of wild misanthropy and his teeth set against the world besides." At higher stages of civilisation the duty of charity embraces a wider group of people, in proportion to the largeness of the social unit or to the scope of the religion by which it is enjoined. But it is still more or less restrained by national or religious boundaries. M. Amélineau observes that the charity referred to on ancient Egyptian papyri is "la charité limitée à ceux de la même nation." 2 According to Zoroastrianism, charity should be restricted to the followers of the true religion; to succour an unbeliever would be like a strengthening of the dominion of Evil. The Zakât, or legal alms of the Muhammedans, must not be given to a non-Muslim, because it is regarded as a fundamental part of worship; similarly the Sadaqah, or offering on the feast-day known as 'Idu'l-Fitr, is confined to true believers." Nor has Christian charity always been free from religious narrowness. Fleury says that the early Christians, in the care they took of the poor, always preferred Christians before infidels, because "their principal regard was to their spiritual concerns, and to their temporal welfare only in order to their spiritual." The principle of the Church was, "Omnem hominem fidelem judica tuum esse fratrem."7 In the seventeenth century the Scotch clergy taught that food or shelter must on no occasion be given to a starving man unless his opinions were orthodox. On the other hand, Christianity of a higher type preaches charity towards all men ; and so does advanced Judaism and Buddhism. It is said in the Talmud, with reference to the treatment of the poor, that no distinction should be made between such as are Jews and such as are not." In modern times charity now and then 6 Fleury, Manners and Behaviour of the Christians, p. 133 sq. 7 Laurent, Etudes sur l'histoire de PHumanité, iv. 94. 8 Buckle, History of Civilization in England, iii. 277. 9 Gitin, fol. 61 A, quoted by Katz, other nations. steps over the barriers of nationality even when the sufferers belong to distant nations. Whilst our indigent compatriots are generally recognised to have a greater claim on our pity than needy strangers, a great calamity in one country readily calls forth a charitable response in Mr. Pike believes that the contribution of one hundred thousand pounds sterling which England, in the year 1755, when Lisbon was laid in ruins by an earthquake, sent for the relief of the sufferers, inaugurated this new era of international charitableness.. "Compassion," he observes, "was at last shown by Englishmen, not simply for Englishmen and Protestants, but for foreigners professing a different religion; pity, for once, triumphed over intolerance and national prejudice." And in war, in the case of enemies rendered harmless by wounds or disease, the growth of human feeling has passed beyond the simple requirement that they shall not be killed or ill-used, and has cast upon belligerents the duty of tending them so far as is consistent with the primary duty to their own wounded. However, it must not be imagined that this humane principle, which has only lately been recognised in Europe, is a unique outcome of Christian civilisation at its height. It is said in the Mahabharata that, when a quarrel arises among good men, a wounded enemy is to be cured in the conqueror's own country, or to be conveyed to his home. Strangely enough, even from the savage world we hear of something like an anticipation of the Geneva Convention. Among certain tribes in New South Wales, as soon as the fight is concluded, "both parties seem perfectly reconciled, and jointly assist in tending the wounded men. "4 Der wahre Talmudjude, p. 38. Cf. 1 Pike, History of Crime in England, ii. 346. 2 Convention signed at Geneva, August 22, 1864, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field,' in Lorimer, Institutes of the Law of Nations, ii. Appendix no. vi. Hall, Treatise on International Law, p. 399. Heffter, Das Europäische Volkerrecht der Gegenwart, § 126, p. 267, n. 5. 3 Mahabharata, xii. 3547, quoted by Lorimer, op. cit. ii. 431. Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 160. The gradual expansion of the duty of charity is due to the fact that this duty, in the first place, is based on the altruistic sentiment, and consequently follows the same general law of development. Many cases referred to above imply that savages are by no means strangers to affection, and that in their communities there is not only mutual assistance, but general kindness of heart. Numerous instances to the same effect might easily be added. When a Fuegian is very ill the near relatives show much grief;1 and Darwin tells us that the Fuegian boy who was taken on board the Beagle and brought to Europe, used to go to the sea-sick and say, in a plaintive voice, "Poor, poor fellow!" 2 The Veddahs are praised not only for their charitable behaviour towards each other, but for their natural tenderness of heart.3 The aborigines of Victoria are said to "have the greatest love for their friends and relatives," and to testify the liveliest joy when a companion after a long absence returns to the camp.* Forster mentions an instance of affection among the natives of Tana, which, as he says, "strongly proves that the passions and innate quality of human nature are much the same in every climate."5 Melville declares that, after passing a few weeks in the Typee valley of the Marquesas, he formed a higher estimate of human nature than he ever before entertained. It can hardly be doubted that in every human society there is, normally, some degree of social affection between its members; and it seems that the evolution of this sentiment in mankind has been much more in the direction of greater extensiveness than of greater intensity. Where the members of a group have affection for each other, mutual aid will be regarded as a duty both because it will be practised habitually, and because a 1 Bridges, in A Voice for South America, xiii. 206. * Darwin, Journal of Researches, p. 207. 3 Sarasin, op. cit. iii. 545, 550. 4 Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 138. 5 Forster, Voyage round the World, ii. 325. 6 Melville, Typee, p. 297. 7 See infra, on the Origin and Development of the Altruistic Sentiment. 3 failure to afford it will call forth sympathetic resentment on behalf of the sufferer. But we need, here again, to look below the surface. Men may be induced to do good to their fellow-creatures not only by kindly feelings towards them, but by egoistic motives; and such motives, through having a share in making beneficence a tribal habit, at the same time influence the moral estimation in which it is held. The Basutos say that "the knife that is lent does not return alone to its master "--a kindness is never thrown away.1 Of the Asiniboin, a Siouan tribe, Mr. Dorsey states that "nothing is given except with a view to a gift in return." When the Andaman Islanders make presents of the best that they possess, they tacitly understand that an equivalent should be rendered for every gift. Among the Makololo " the rich show kindness to the poor, in expectation of services." 4 In his description of the Greenlanders, Dr. Nansen observes that all the small communities depend for their existence on the law of mutual assistance, on the principle of common suffering and common enjoyment. "A hard life has taught the Eskimo that even if he is a skilful hunter and can, as a rule, manage to hold his own well enough, there may come times when, without the help of his fellows, he would have to succumb. It is better, therefore, for him to help in his turn."5 That similar considerations largely lie at the bottom of the custom of mutual aid and charity both in uncivilised and more advanced communities, we may assume from the experience of human nature which we have acquired at home. And such motives must be particularly active in a society the members of which are so dependent on each other's services and return-services, as is generally the case with a horde of savages. Moreover, by niggardliness a person may expose him 1 Casalis, op. cit. p. 310. 2 Dorsey, Siouan Sociology,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xv. 225 sq. 3 Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 95. p. 511. 5 Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 304 sq. Cf. Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 173; Parry, op. cit. p. 525. |