Cicero frequently speaks of universal charity, charitas humani generis; but it does not appear that the policy or the beneficence of the Romans ever induced them to establish charitable institutions, in which the indigent1 and the sick might be relieved at the expense of the public. There was a receptacle for strangers at the port of Ostia, called Xenodokium, St. Jerome renders this justice to the Romans. Almshouses seem to have been unknown in ancient Rome. A more noble usage prevailed — that of supplying the people with corn. There were in Rome three hundred and twenty-seven public granaries. This constant liberality precluded2 any need of almshouses. They were strangers to necessity.
Neither was there any occasion among the Romans for founding charities. None exposed their own children. Those of slaves were taken care of by their masters. Childbirth was not deemed disgraceful to the daughters of citizens. The poorest families, maintained by the republic and afterwards by the emperors, saw the subsistence of their children secured.
The expression, “charitable establishment,” maison de charité, implies a state of indigence4 among modern nations which the form of our governments has not been able to preclude3.
The word “hospital,” which recalls that of hospitality, reminds us of a virtue5 in high estimation among the Greeks, now no longer existing; but it also expresses a virtue far superior. There is a mighty6 difference between lodging7, maintaining, and providing in sickness for all afflicted8 applicants9 whatever, and entertaining in your own house two or three travellers by whom you might claim a right to be entertained in return. Hospitality, after all, was but an exchange. Hospitals are monuments of beneficence.
It is true that the Greeks were acquainted with charitable institutions under the name of Xenodokia, for strangers, Nosocomeia, for the sick, and Ptokia, for the indigent. In Diogenes Laertius, concerning Bion, we find this passage: “He suffered much from the indigence of those who were charged with the care of the sick.”
Hospitality among friends was called Idioxenia, and among strangers Proxenia. Hence, the person who received and entertained strangers in his house, in the name of the whole city, was called Proxenos. But this institution appears to have been exceedingly rare. At the present day there is scarcely a city in Europe without its hospitals. The Turks have them even for beasts, which seems to be carrying charity rather too far, it would be better to forget the beasts and think more about men.
This prodigious10 multitude of charitable establishments clearly proves a truth deserving of all our attention — that man is not so depraved as he is stated to be, and that, notwithstanding all his absurd opinions, notwithstanding all the horrors of war which transform him into a ferocious11 beast, we have reason to consider him as a creature naturally well disposed and kind, and who, like other animals, becomes vicious only in proportion as he is stung by provocation12.
The misfortune is that he is provoked too often.
Modern Rome has almost as many charitable institutions as ancient Rome had triumphal arches and other monuments of conquest. The most considerable of them all is a bank which lends money at two per cent. upon pledge, and sells the property if the borrower does not redeem13 it by an appointed time. This establishment is called the Archiospedale, or chief hospital. It is said always to contain within its walls nearly two thousand sick, which would be about the fiftieth part of the population of Rome for this one house alone, without including the children brought up, and the pilgrims lodged15 there. Where are the computations which do not require abatement16?
Has it not been actually published at Rome that the hospital of the Trinity had lodged and maintained for three days four hundred and forty thousand five hundred male and twenty-five thousand female pilgrims at the jubilee17 in 1600? Has not Misson himself told us that the hospital of the Annunciation at Naples possesses a rental18 of two millions in our money? (About four hundred thousand dollars.)
However, to return, perhaps a charitable establishment for pilgrims who are generally mere19 vagabonds, is rather an encouragement to idleness than an act of humanity. It is, however, a decisive evidence of humanity that Rome contains fifty charitable establishments including all descriptions. These beneficent institutions are quite as useful and respectable as the riches of some monasteries20 and chapels21 are useless and ridiculous.
To dispense22 food, clothing, medicine, and aid of every kind, to our brethren, is truly meritorious23, but what need can a saint have of gold and diamonds? What benefit results to mankind from “our Lady of Loretto” possessing more gorgeous treasures than the Turkish sultan? Loretto is a house of vanity, and not of charity. London, reckoning its charity schools, has as many beneficent establishments as Rome.
The most beautiful monument of beneficence ever erected24 is the H?tel des Invalides, founded by Louis XIV.
Of all hospitals, that in which the greatest number of indigent sick are daily received is the H?tel Dieu of Paris. It frequently contains four or five thousand inmates25 at a time. It is at once the receptacle of all the dreadful ills to which mankind are subject and the temple of true virtue, which consists in relieving them.
It is impossible to avoid frequently drawing a contrast between a fête at Versailles or an opera at Paris, in which all the pleasures and all the splendors27 of life are combined with the most exquisite28 art, and a H?tel Dieu, where all that is painful, all that is loathsome29, and even death itself are accumulated in one mass of horror. Such is the composition of great cities! By an admirable policy pleasures and luxury are rendered subservient30 to misery31 and pain. The theatres of Paris pay on an average the yearly sum of a hundred thousand crowns to the hospital. It often happens in these charitable institutions that the inconveniences counterbalance the advantages. One proof of the abuses attached to them is that patients dread26 the very idea of being removed to them.
The H?tel Dieu, for example, was formerly32 well situated33, in the middle of the city, near the bishop’s palace. The situation now is very bad, for the city has become overgrown; four or five patients are crowded into every bed, the victim of scurvy34 communicates it to his neighbor and in return receives from him smallpox35, and a pestilential atmosphere spreads incurable36 disease and death, not only through the building destined37 to restore men to healthful life but through a great part of the city which surrounds it.
M. de Chamousset, one of the most valuable and active of citizens, has computed38, from accurate authorities, that in the H?tel Dieu, a fourth part of the patients die, an eighth in the hospital of Charity, a ninth in the London hospitals, and a thirtieth in those of Versailles. In the great and celebrated39 hospital of Lyons, which has long been one of the best conducted in Europe, the average mortality has been found to be only one-fifteenth. It has been often proposed to divide the H?tel Dieu of Paris into smaller establishments better situated, more airy, and salubrious, but money has been wanting to carry the plan into execution.
Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.
Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to be destroyed, but when the object is to preserve them it is no longer so. Yet the H?tel Dieu of Paris has a revenue amounting to more than a million (forty thousand pounds), and every day increasing, and the Parisians have rivalled each other in their endowments of it.
We cannot help remarking in this place that Germain Brice, in his “Description of Paris,” speaking of some legacies40 bequeathed by the first president, Bellievre, to the hall of the H?tel Dieu, named St. Charles, says: “Every one ought to read the beautiful inscription41, engraved42 in letters of gold on a grand marble tablet, and composed by Oliver Patru, one of the choicest spirits of his time, some of whose pleadings are extant and in very high esteem43.
“Whoever thou art that enterest this sacred place thou wilt44 almost everywhere behold45 traces of the charity of the great Pomponne. The gold and silver tapestry46 and the exquisite furniture which formerly adorned47 his apartments are now, by a happy metamorphosis, made to minister to the necessities of the sick. That divine man, who was the ornament48 and delight of his age, even in his conflict with death, considered how he might relieve the afflicted. The blood of Bellievre was manifested in every action of his life. The glory of his embassies is full well known,” etc.
The useful Chamousset did better than Germain Brice, or than Oliver Patru, “one of the choicest spirits of his time.” He offered to undertake at his own expense, backed by a responsible company, the following contract:
The administrators49 of the H?tel Dieu estimated the cost of every patient, whether killed or cured, at fifty livres. M. Chamousset and the company offered to undertake the business, on receiving fifty livres on recovery only. The deaths were to be thrown out of the account, of which the expenses were to be borne by himself.
The proposal was so very advantageous50 that it was not accepted. It was feared that he would not be able to accomplish it. Every abuse attempted to be reformed is the patrimony51 of those who have more influence than the reformers.
A circumstance no less singular is that the H?tel Dieu alone has the privilege of selling meat in Lent, for its own advantage and it loses money thereby52. M. Chamousset proposed to enter into a contract by which the establishment would gain; his offer was rejected and the butcher, who was thought to have suggested it to him, was dismissed.
Ainsi chez les humains, par14 un abus fatal,
Le bien le plus parfait est la source du mal.
Thus serious ill, if tainted53 by abuse,
The noblest works of man will oft produce.
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1
indigent
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的 | |
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precluded
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| v.阻止( preclude的过去式和过去分词 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通 | |
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preclude
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| vt.阻止，排除，防止；妨碍 | |
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indigence
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| n.贫穷 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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applicants
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| 申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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abatement
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| n.减(免)税，打折扣，冲销 | |
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jubilee
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| n.周年纪念；欢乐 | |
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rental
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| n.租赁，出租，出租业 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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monasteries
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| 修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
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chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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24
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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splendors
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| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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subservient
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| adj.卑屈的，阿谀的 | |
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31
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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32
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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33
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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34
scurvy
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| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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smallpox
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| n.天花 | |
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incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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38
computed
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| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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40
legacies
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| n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 )；遗留之物；遗留问题；后遗症 | |
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41
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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42
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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43
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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44
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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45
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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46
tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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47
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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48
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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49
administrators
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| n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师 | |
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50
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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51
patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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52
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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53
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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