lus wealth has as his charge the
industrious and ambitious; not those who need everything done for them,
but those who, being most anxious and able to help themselves, deserve
and will be benefited by help from others and the extension of their
opportunities at the hands of the philanthropic rich.

It is ever to be remembered that one of the chief obstacles which the
philanthropist meets in his efforts to do real and permanent good in
this world is the practice of indiscriminate giving; and the duty of the
millionaire is to resolve to cease giving to objects that are not proved
clearly to his satisfaction to be deserving. He must remember Mr. Rice's
belief, that nine hundred and fifty out of every thousand dollars
bestowed to-day upon so-called charity had better be thrown into the
sea. As far as my experience of the wealthy extends, it is unnecessary
to urge them to give of their superabundance in charity so-called.
Greater good for the race is to be achieved by inducing them to cease
impulsive and injurious giving. As a rule, the sins of millionaires in
this respect are not those of omission, but of commission, because they
will not take time to think, and chiefly because it is much easier to
give than to refuse. Those who have surplus wealth give millions every
year which produce more evil than good, and which really retard the
progress of the people, because most of the forms in vogue to-day for
benefiting mankind only tend to spread among the poor a spirit of
dependence upon alms, when what is essential for progress is that they
should be inspired to depend upon their own exertions. The miser
millionaire who hoards his wealth does less injury to society than the
careless millionaire who squanders his unwisely, even if he does so
under cover of the mantle of sacred charity. The man who gives to the
individual beggar commits a grave offence, but there are many societies
and institutions soliciting alms which it is none the less injurious to
the community to aid. These are as corrupting as individual beggars.
Plutarch's "Morals" contains this lesson: "A beggar asking an alms of a
Lacedaemonian, he said: 'Well, should I give thee anything, thou wilt be
the greater beggar, for he that first gave thee money made thee idle,
and is the cause of this base and dishonorable way of living.'" As I
know them, there are few millionaires, very few indeed, who are clear of
this sin of having made beggars.

Bearing in mind these co