It is not _Charity_ which we must cultivate and practice: it is _Justice_ to one another. Charity is what an opiate is to a patient: it soothes for the time but the same bad consequences result as follow the drug. We must teach ourselves that the Golden Rule must be actually practiced in order to reach and raise those who need to be helped. And again she emphasizes: The Golden Rule must be practiced every day and not merely formulated as a pious recital on Sunday. Investigating the routine of the patient’s life, she would help her to reorganize it along the lines of hygiene, of economics, and of a balanced perspective; and then would follow a reëducation not only of the patient but of the patient’s family and even friends. In this way, her influence extended to the men of the family and of the community. And these vied with the women in acknowledging their indebtedness to what they called her “common sense.” She depicts this aspect of her work so clearly in a couple of sketches written in later years that they are inserted here to add to the definiteness of the outlines of this phase of her history. The first of these (_Souvenir of the New England Hospital Fair_, 1896) is: A LESSON _I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver._--SHAKESPEARE. Mary was the third child of five in a family in humble circumstances. The father, an industrious journeyman carpenter, aided by the thrifty mother, managed to keep all the children in attendance at the free public schools of Boston until they graduated at the age of about fifteen years. Soon after leaving school, Mary obtained a situation as child’s nurse in the house of a rich family, with whom she remained nine years in the varying capacity of nursemaid, chambermaid and seamstress. She then married a journeyman plumber twenty-six years of age, he being thus two years her senior. He had laid by from his earnings a sum of money about equal to what Mary had saved from her nine years’ wages, and these combined were amply sufficient to set them up in respectable housekeeping in a neatly furnished tenement having a kitchen, dining-room, living room and chamber, also a storeroom and bathroom. In due time, the baby made its appearance and found awaiting it a handsome cradle, and a wardrobe not only comfortable but pretty and plentiful. The young father with no small pride carried his son and heir, arrayed in a white cashmere cloak and suitable belongings, while by his side walked his prettily dressed wife, when on Sunday afternoons they went to visit friends and relatives. Thus far, all was well. After the lapse of five years and a half, four little ones formed the pride and the care of these young folks; and it was just seven years from the time of their marriage that I first entered their home as visiting doctor from the dispensary, the indigent being attended at their homes when illness prevented their coming to the free dispensary at the clinic hours.