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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PAUPERISM

takes them, and that of all policies this is the most inhuman.

Such appear, then, to be the main features of the problem of pauperism. Its main antidote heretofore has been the discipline of life which has enforced prudence, self-restraint, and self-sacrifice for the sake of others. If this is to be removed something will have to take its place, for pauperism, which is the negative of these virtues, will not suffer itself to be ignored or treated by methods of obscurantism. The alteration now proposed is the discipline of the law with inspector and policeman in the background. We may be permitted to doubt whether it will prove less irksome or equally effective.