Philanthropy

PHILANTHROPY. Almsgiving is as old as man. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as ancient as the Nile pyramids, there is found this memorial ascription : "He gave bread to the hungry, water to' the thirsty, raiment to the naked; he gave a boat to the man who had none." Similarly in the ancient Hebrew scriptures we read (Deuteronomy xv. 7 and 8) : "If there be with thee a poor man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates in thy land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt surely open thy hand unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need." And of all the parables to be found in the New Testament none is better known or more deeply burnt into the conscience of Western civilization than that of the Good Samaritan. The Muslim world in like manner preserves the maxim : "Prayer carries us half way to God, fasting brings us to the door of his palace, and alms gains us admission." While the spirit of benevolence that animates all philanthropy is unmis takably reflected from the remote past, it is evident that there has been an evolution in the technique of giving. Various groups of the modern social order resent the idea of alms, regarding such forms of assistance as undemocratic. So the use of the word charity is often avoided. Present day benevolence, philanthropy, no longer content with the cure of human ills after they arise, strives ever to prevent them, and, as a final goal, seeks through constructive effort the positive achievement of health and happi ness throughout the world. It is a curious fact that the word philanthropy, which in origin means simply "love to mankind," has no exact equivalent or synonym in our language. Further, its employment as an English word is comparatively recent, one of its earliest appearances in its present form occurring about 1650 in a sermon by Jeremy Taylor. Moreover, the use of the word to designate some humanitarian activity as "a philanthropy" is a development of the last so years.

The purpose of this article is not to discuss the history of ancient and mediaeval benevolence, various aspects of which are treated in the article CHARITY, but to indicate the chief develop ments that have characterized modern philanthropy since about the beginning of the 19th century.

The Nineteenth Century.

Between 1775 and 1800 there were significant beginnings of that notable philanthropic activity which was to characterize the 19th century. Conspicuous among its forerunners in England were John Howard, pioneer in prison reform, and Sir Samuel Romilly, who sought to abolish the bar baric features of British criminal law. In France Charles Michel Epee laid the foundations of modern instruction for the deaf and dumb, and Jean F. Oberlin laboured effectively for social improve ment. Another leader was the American scientist, Benjamin Thompson, afterwards Count Rumford, who organized in Bavaria (1785-95) a system of workshops, called houses of industry, thereby largely suppressing begging.

The change from the domestic to the factory system of manu facture at the beginning of the 19th century brought about a great shift of the labouring population, accompanied by a phenomenal growth of cities, nowhere more striking than in Great Britain between 1800 and 185o and in the United States between 185o and 1900. In 1800 London was the only city in Great Britain with a population of over 1 oo,000. The next largest cities were Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, each of which had about 75,00o inhabitants. Yet at the end of the century all these places, including London, had multiplied in size from more than seven to nearly ten times. In 1800 Philadelphia, then the largest city in the United States, had a population of 28,000, as contrasted with about i so American cities of equal or greater population in 1900. Similar urban growth took place in Germany, Belgium and other industrial countries of Europe.