In place of the visitors he now received letters, as many as
if he had been a cabinet minister. It was the same old story, only
less affecting, because generally deficient in style, and faulty as
to spelling, and no longer illustrated by tearful, vigorously mopped
eyes, abysmal sighs, and hands wrung till they cracked. For a time
Wilhelm went to every address given in these letters, in order to
see and hear for himself, but after awhile his powers of
discrimination were sharpened, and he learned to distinguish between
the impositions of swindlers and professional beggars, and the real
distress which has a claim to sympathy.
By degrees, it is true, he became convinced, even in the chill
dwellings of real poverty, that this was hardly ever entirely
unmerited. Where it had not been brought about by laziness,
frivolity, or drink, its source was to be found in ignorance or
incapacity, in other words, in an inefficient equipment for the
battle of life. He judged all these circumstances, however, to be
the outward and visible signs of obscure natural laws, and that to
interfere with rash and ignorant hands in their workings was as
useless as it was unreasonable. He therefore pondered seriously
whether, by denying to a portion of mankind the qualities
indispensable to success in the struggle for existence, Nature
herself did not predestine them to misery and destruction; whether
the irredeemable poor--those who after each help upward invariably
fell back in the former state--were not the offscourings of
humanity, the preservation of whom was a fruitless task, and
altogether against the design of Nature?
Fortunately, he did not allow his deeds of brotherly love to be
darkened by the shadow of these and kindred thoughts.
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