The origin and development of the moral ideas

student “should always without sloth give alms out of whatever he has for food.”185 The Brâhmana who has completed his studentship should without tiring “perform works of charity with faith.”186 Almsgiving confers merit on the giver, it frees him from guilt, it destroys sin;187 “for whatever purpose a man bestows any gift, for that purpose he receives in his next birth with due honour its reward.”188 On the other hand, he who cooks for himself alone eats nothing but sin.189 Speaking of the modern Hindus, Mr. Wilkins observes:—“The charity of the Hindus is great…. There is no poor-law in India, no guardians of the poor, no workhouses, excepting for the Europeans in the Presidency towns. The poor of a family, the halt, the lame, the blind, the weak, the insane, are provided for by their family, if it is at all able to do it; in cases where there are few or no relatives, then the burden is taken up by others. It is a ‘work of merit.’”190

Of the ancient Persians Thucydides said that they preferred giving to receiving.191 To be charitable towards the poor of their own faith was among them a religious duty of the first order.192 Zoroaster thus addressed Vîshtâspa:—“Let no thought of Angra Mainyu ever infect thee, so that thou shouldst indulge in evil lusts, make derision and idolatry, and shut to the poor the door of thy house.”193 The holy Sraosha is the protector of the poor.194 In the Shâyast it is said that the clothing of the soul in the next world is formed out of almsgiving.195

It seems that among the ancient Egyptians charity was considered no less meritorious.196 “The god,” M. Maspero observes, “does not confine his favour to the prosperous and the powerful of this world; he bestows it also upon the poor. His will is that they be fed and clothed, and exempted from tasks beyond their strength; that they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary tears be spared them.”197 In the memorial inscriptions, where the dead plead their good deeds, charity is often referred to. “I harmed not a child,” says one Egyptian, “I injured not a widow; there was neither beggar nor needy in my time; none were hungered, widows were cared for as though their husbands were still alive.”198 In the inscription in honour of a lady who had been charitable to persons of her own sex, whether girls, wives, or widows, it is said, “The god rewarded me for this, rejoicing me with the happiness which he has granted me for walking after his way.”199

Charity was urgently insisted upon by the religious law of the Hebrews.200 “Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land”; “for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.”201 Even “if thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: … the Lord shall reward thee.”202 Especially in the Old Testament Apocrypha and in Rabbinical literature almsgiving assumed an excessive prominence—so much so that the word which in the older writings means “righteousness” in general, came to be used for almsgiving in particular.203 “Shut up alms in thy storehouses: and it shall deliver thee from all affliction.”204 “As water will quench a flaming fire, so alms maketh an atonement for sins.”205 “For alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life.”206 The charitable man is rewarded with the birth of male issue.207 Almsgiving is equal in value to all other commandments.208 He who averts his eyes from charity commits a sin equal to idolatry.209 To such an extreme was almsgiving carried on by the Jews, that some Rabbis at length decreed that no man should give above a fifth part of his goods in charity.210