In our eyes, misery, of whatever kind,
poverty, suffering, misfortune, grief, evil, no matter how produced, or
in what social class they show themselves, have equal rights. Whatever
his opinions or beliefs, an unhappy man is, before all else, an unhappy
man; and we ought not to attempt to turn his face to our holy mother
Church until we have saved him from despair or hunger. Moreover, we
ought to convert him to goodness more by example and by gentleness than
by any other means; and we believe that God will specially help us in
this. All constraint is bad. Of the manifold Parisian miseries, the most
difficult to discover, and the bitterest, is that of worthy persons
of the middle classes who have fallen into poverty; for they make
concealment a point of honor. Those sorrows, my dear Godefroid, are
to us the object of special solicitude. Such persons usually have
intelligence and good hearts. They return to us, sometimes with usury,
the sums that we lend them. Such restitutions recoup us in the long
run for the losses we occasionally incur through impostors, shiftless
creatures, or those whom misfortunes have rendered stupid. Through such
persons we often obtain invaluable help in our investigations. Our work
has now become so vast, its details are so multifarious, that we no
longer suffice of ourselves to carry it on. So, for the last year we
have a physician of our own in every arrondissement in Paris. Each of
us takes general charge of four arrondissements. We pay each physician
three thousand francs a year to take care of our poor. His time belongs
to us in the first instance, but we do not prevent him from attending
other sick persons if he can. Would you believe that for many months we
were unable to find twelve really trustworthy, valuable men, in spite
of all our own efforts and those of our friends? We could not employ
any but men of absolute discreetness, pure lives, sound knowledge,
experience, active men, and lovers of doing good. Now, although there
are in Paris some ten thousand individuals, more or less, who would
gladly do the work, we could not find twelve to meet our needs in a
whole year."

"Our Saviour had difficulty in gathering his apostles, and even then a
traitor and an unbeliever got among them," said Godefroid.

"However, within the last month all our arrondissements are provided
with a Visitor--that is the name we give to our physicians. At the same
time the business is increasing, and we have