domestic slaves, the
transfer of motherly duties to slave nurses, the loss of that homely
education which for most people comes only from the practical details of
life--all this in later Greece and Italy, and far into Christian times,
prevented that permanent invigoration and reform of family life which
Jewish and Christian influences might otherwise have produced.

PART III.--CHARITY IN ROMAN TIMES

The words that suggest most clearly the Roman attitude towards what we
call charity are _liberalitas_, _beneficentia_ and _pietas_. The two
former are almost synonymous (Cicero, _De Offic._ i. 7, 14). Liberality
lays stress on the mood--that of the _liber_, the freeborn, and so in a
sense the independent and superior; beneficence on the deed and its
purpose (Seneca, _De Benef._ vi. 10). The conditions laid down by
Cicero, following Panaetius the Stoic (185-112 B.C.) are three: not to
do harm to him whom one would benefit, not to exceed one's means, and to
have regard to merit. The character of the person whom we would benefit
should be considered, his feelings towards us, the interest of the
community, our social relations in life, and services rendered in the
past. The utility of the deed or gift graded according to social
relationship and estimated largely from the point of view of ultimate
advantage to the doer or donor seems to predominate in the general
thought of the book, though (cf. Aristotle, _Eth._ viii. 3) the idea
culminates in the completeness of friendship where "all things are in
common." _Pietas_ has the religious note which the other words lack,
loving dutifulness to gods and home and country. Not "piety" only but
"pity" derive from it: thus it comes near to our "charity." Both books,
the _De Officiis_ and the _De Beneficiis_, represent a Roman and Stoical
revision of the problem of charity and, as in Stoicism generally, there
seems to be a half-conscious attempt to feel the way to a new social
standpoint from this side.

Roman times.

As from the point of view of charity the well-being of the community
depends upon the vigour of the deep-laid elemental life within it, so in
passing to Roman times we consider the family first. The Roman family
was unique in its completeness, and by some of its conditions the world
has long been bound. The father alone had independent authority (_sui
juris_), and so long as he lived all who were under his power--his wife,
his sons, and their wives and children, and