August 10

“Charity too is a frightful evil – not real charity but subscription charity. Every human being has scope enough for all the money and all the effort he can spare in behalf of misfortunes which are known to himself personally, or to members of his home-circle. The gigantic subscription lists which are vaunted as signs of our benevolence, are monuments of our indifference.
. . . . . . . . . . .
“I am beginning seriously to believe that all bodily aid to the poor is a mistake, and that the real thing is to let themselves straight; whereas by giving alms you keep them permanently crooked. Build school-houses, pay teachers, give prizes, frame workmen’s clubs, help them to hep themselves, lend them your brains; but give them no money, except what you sink in such undertakings as above.”

ED. DENISON

“He gives nothing but worthless gold
Who gives from a sense of duty.
. . . . . .
The Holy Supper is kept indeed,
In whatso we share with another’s need;
Not what we give; but what we share,
For the gift without the giver is bare;
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbour and Me.”

LOWELL