The  elevation  of  the  Poor  requires  that  the  institution  of
the  Family  be  established  and  maintained  among  them  in  its
original  sanctity.  The  problem  of  pauperism  in  great  cities
weighs  more  and  more  upon  the  reflective  and  philanthropic.
Many  are  the  expedients  of  benevolence  for  reheving  the
poor  without  adding  to  their  degradation,  yet  it  is  weU-nigh
impossible  to  administer  charitable  reUef  for  any  considerable
period  of  time  without  in  the  very  act  degrading  the  recipi-
ent. As  yet  many  of  the  plans  of  benevolence  have  been
only  expedients  ;  they  do  not  reach  the  seat  of  pauperism  in
society,  and  therefore  accomplish  little  for  its  cure.  A  per-
fect remedy  may  not  be  j^ossible ;  but  certain  it  is  that
alms-giving,  whether  occasional  or  systematic,  and  the  whole
operation  of  charity,  touches  only  upon  the  surface  of  this
monstrous  evil,  and,  as  before  hinted,  tends  to  perpetuate  if
not  to  aggravate  that  which  it  seeks  for  the  moment  to  re-
lieve. Schools  of  industry  begin  at  a  deeper  stratum  than
mere  charitable  rehef,  and  w^orking  upward  from  this  lower
level  they  tend  to  elevate  those  who  come  under  their  influ-
ence. But  these  do  not  go  down  to  the  very  foundation  of
the  evil  with  which  they  attempt  to  cope.  Asylums  and  other
institutions  for  training  children  away  from  their  parents  are
but  expedients  to  lessen  the  evil  in  the  next  generation.
