And what are the prevailing sentiments of the fat parasites towards their lean colleagues? Either pity or contempt. Their whole faith and all their actions naturally breed contempt for poverty, although they make some effort to conceal it. It is quite in consonance with a belief that money makes people refined, generous, dignified, gracious, subjects of reverence and models for emulation, and that those who have no resources cannot aspire to these notable qualities. But their pity, which is the mainspring to their so-called charity and is reserved more especially for the destitute, is misplaced, and would be better applied to themselves if only they could see the true position they fill in the general design of human society. “Epargnez aux pauvres votre pitié,” says Anatole France, “ils n’en ont que faire. Pourquoi la pitié et non pas la justice? Vous êtes en compte avec eux. Réglez le compte. Ce n’est pas une affaire de sentiment. C’est une affaire économique. Si ce que vous leur donnez gracieusement est pour prolonger leur pauvreté et votre richesse, ce don est inique et les larmes que vous y mêlerez ne le rendront pas équitable.... Vous faites l’aumône pour ne pas restituer. Vous donnez un peu pour garder beaucoup et vous vous félicitez. Ainsi le tyran de Samos jeta son anneau à la mer. Mais la Némésis des dieux ne reçut point cette offrande. Un pêcheur rapporta au tyran son anneau dans le ventre d’un poisson. Et Polycrate fut dépouillé de toutes ses richesses.” Together with the pity there is a lurking misgiving that they do owe the poor something, so, in blind ignorance and in fear of the full amount of their debt being demanded of them, they pay out driblets either with ostentation and self-congratulation or else trying almost pathetically, yet in vain, to pump into their gifts some of the sentiments which they conceive should be associated with pure charity.