Essays, or discourses, vol. 1 (of 4)

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

Et jam nemo ferre potest, Cæsar ve priorem

Pompeiusve parem.

XXXVII. They contend for the Empire, hazarding in the competition, life and liberty. How each is possessed, with the fear of his rival becoming victorious; what miserable forsaken man, did fortune ever place in such a strait, that in order to better his condition, he should be obliged like Cæsar, in the dead of the night, to commit himself to the rage of a tempestuous sea? Amiclas, at the same time, knows no other cares, than those of exploring the sea, and spreading his nets to dry in the sun. Others are agitated and tossed about on the plains, and in the fields, while he is secure amidst the waves. He catches fish in the sea, while others on land fish for tempests. At the expence of a little labour, the water affords him as much as is necessary to support life; when the great fatigues of Cæsar and Pompey, serve only to precipitate on them a violent death. The din of so much martial noise, disturbs not his rest; while each of the two chiefs, finds in his own heart, a continual alarm to awaken him. He fears nobody, because no one covets his fortune; but if any body should be so prudent as to covet it, he may enjoy the same thing, without despoiling Amiclas. Cæsar and Pompey for the present, mutually fear each other. The vanquished person in future, fears all the world, and the conqueror has to fear all those who envy him.

XXXVIII. The heathen poets, feigned poverty to be a divinity, on account of the mischiefs it preserved people from, and the goods it produced; but Lucan, calls it the mother of great men; and Horace says, that to this deity, the Romans owed the virtues of a Curius, and a Camillus. Aristophanes the Greek, erred much in his description, when he represented her as a savage fury, always ready to commit acts of desperation. These extraordinary furies, are much more common among the rich, than the poor, although it is true, that they rage with the greatest violence, in such poor people as have been formerly rich; at least, during the time they are in the noviciate state of their misfortunes.

SECT. X.

XXXIX. I would not have it be understood, that by the eulogium I have just ended on poverty, I mean to speak of absolute poverty, but of the relative; not of the state of beggary, where people are in want of what is precisely needful; but of that limited moderation, which administers to nature, no more than what is absolutely necessary, and what her wants demand; and that, at the expence of bodily labour. In truth, when I speak of beggars, I am at a loss what to say, or what decision to make concerning them. On the one hand, I see them suffer great inconveniences, and on the other, I see many people betake themselves to that way of life, who could earn their living by their labour, and who prefer going from door to door, to working in the field, or even to leading an idle life in an alms-house. Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, in his Book on the Vanity of the Sciences, says of those who go about pretending to occult science, that they would not change their condition, for that of nobility; and I believe he says right.

XL. All those voluntary poor, who are not so in the gospel sense, and for that reason, not comprehended in the benediction of Christ, are the pests of the states they inhabit, or where they strole about. They live well, not only without being of the least advantage, but are even an injury to the community. Like the ants, they are serviceable to themselves only, and a nuisance in the place where they make their nests, and where they run about. For which reason, they are not tolerated in any republic, that is governed by the maxims of good policy.

XLI. Disabled or impotent beggars, are legitimate creditors of our compassion. There is notwithstanding, great difference among those of this class. Those who are afflicted with habitual disorders, it cannot be denied, are very miserable, and especially if they do not sweeten their toil, with a due resignation to the divine will; but if they do, they will become the most happy, or those, who fall within our Saviour’s description of the most fortunate. The disabled by the loss of a limb, or by a defect in the organization of parts of their bodies, if they have a tolerable share of ingenuity, and have the art of begging with address, fare admirably; and not a few of them, have left behind at their deaths decent sums of money. Those who are ill-favoured, and ugly, find it difficult to subsist, especially, if nastiness in their persons, is joined to the deformity of their bodies. The error into which people fall, in the ordinary distribution of charity in this particular, is great, they being apt to deal out their bounty with an unequal hand. The beggar, who has a pleasing and moving way of painting his distress, is relieved by almost every one, and more especially if he has a good countenance, and looks clean in his shabby dress. There is scarce any body who does not shun and loath the ill-favoured and driveling poor: but we ought to remember, that Christ our Lord, is as much the representative of the one, as of the other; and as a Redeemer, is rather inclined to favour those of the most displeasing and despicable aspect: thus Isaias describes him in his most sacred passion, Non est species ei, neque decor: and a little lower, Quasi absconditus vultus ejus, & despectus. And that christian piety should not despise, or avoid those who are afflicted with loathsome diseases, the same Prophet compares our Saviour to the lepers, Nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum.

XLII. But without having recourse to so high a motive, natural reason will instruct us sufficiently, that we should not only distribute equally, but exceed in our donations, to those who are deformed and of an unhappy aspect, because these last experience the most sufferings, and are in the greatest necessity. The others, as I observed before, will never want any body to assist them with more than they stand in need of. The first require pity to be exerted in their favour with all its force, although their ungrateful appearance should strike us with horror. And I protest for myself, the alms which the narrowness of my fortune will permit me to bestow, is distributed, much more in favour of those of a disgusting and a forbidding aspect, than in favour of those who have a persuasive manner, and a winning outward appearance.

XLIII. But it is proper that I should repeat, that I did not intend to take into the comparison I have been making, the sort of poor I have just described; but those only, who procure themselves food, raiment, and shelter, by the sweat of their brow, proportioned to the necessities of nature, without advancing to any kind of exceeding. This is what I call humble fortune, and that which I judge to be at least equal to the exalted and brilliant, enjoyed by the opulent and great; and it seems to me, that I have sufficiently proved it so. But I judge also, that the condition of those who are placed in a middle station of life, is preferable to either of them. I mean such as possess a moderate income, and can go through life, without experiencing the pinchings of the one state, or the troubles incident to the want of accommodations of the other.