sleep regularly and completely recovered.
Subsequently, in the legislative state of Albany, my father opposed the well-known draft laws against vivisection and experiments on living animals, which remained undecided at the last meeting. He spoke of the case we have just described, and declared that at one time, during the performance of Dr. Carrel's experiments, he could never have imagined that they would find practical application, that more than one human life would be saved with their help.. And even less could have imagined that one of the first lives saved in this way would be the life of his own child.

Foundation of all help

If it were possible to educate people so that they would find help in themselves, we could eradicate many of the ills of our lives by the root.
This is the basic proposition of all help, which requires eternal repetition, even at the risk that this just proposition from constant repetition will be forgotten and lost sight of.
The only lasting good for a person is that which he himself achieves and achieves himself. Money received by a person without labor is rarely a boon and much more often a curse for him. This is where the main reproach thrown at speculation lies. The dangerous thing is not that it most often results in loss rather than profit, although this is also true, but the main point of the objection to its existence is the consideration that successes in it generate much more harm than even failures. The same applies to money, and to everything that a person can receive as a gift from another. Only as an exception is it possible for such a gift to be truly productive. Only by teaching people self-help will we lay the foundation for a lasting good deed.
Doctors who study the problems of the suffering of the human race tell us that, most likely, the presence of forces that conquer diseases in the human body itself and the victory of the organism over disease is possible only when these forces are in harmony with each other, in a normal position. Therefore, it is possible to insure oneself against diseases by the general strengthening and development of the organism, and it is best, indeed, the best thing to heal an attached, crept-in disease with the support and development of natural remedies contained in the organism itself. It is absolutely clear that such failures experienced by a person in life are based on some defect in his body, some kind of weakness, spiritual or bodily, weakness of will or temperament. The only way to eliminate this shortcoming is to strengthen the organism by overcoming this shortcoming with the help of internal, inherent to everyone, strength. Only this educational work, accessible to everyone, is the true path to success.
We all would like to see a more or less fair distribution of life's goods. Many at times rather immature projects of this kind have already been proposed, most of them proving that their drafters have a very poor idea of ​​​​the essence of human nature and, if one of these plans were carried out, our whole civilization would suffer a terrible catastrophe. I am firmly convinced that the cause of the economic inequality of people must be sought in their personal dissimilarity among themselves (in terms of characters, views, and other things) and that it is possible to achieve a wide distribution of wealth and prosperity only through a strong personality in which it will be possible to develop the whole complex of the above-described properties. But они, эти свойства, без личного содействия людей, выработаны быть не могут, и поэтому лучшим видом помощи ближнему, как я уже сказал, будет развитие в нем способности к самопомощи.
We must constantly keep in mind that cash money is not enough for the education of mankind, and that there will always be money for this goal is too small. How important, then, is the ability to spend this money, perhaps in the most rational way, in order to extend the funds for as long as possible!
In these pages I have more than once frankly expressed my opinion, according to which in business life it is possible, by working together and avoiding useless expenses, which are a fruitless waste of strength, to achieve the highest degrees of success. The same principle, in my firm conviction, and that I hope to see with my own eyes, the same principle applies entirely to the art of giving. This principle, already recognized as essential in the industrial field, due to the exorbitant growth of its requirements, should open to philanthropists a way to benefit as many neighbors as possible with a whole series of grandiose benefits.

Some Basic Principles

Even at the risk of making this chapter boring—and I have been told that this deficiency should be avoided by the inexperienced writer altogether—and apologizing in advance, I feel it necessary to set forth here a few of the basic principles which have always underlain my own plans. For a long time now I have not undertaken any important work, at least in general terms, without being guided by these principles, and I am convinced that in philanthropy, without first committing yourself to such a strictly marked route, you will not achieve anything sensible.
My own conversion to the belief that a strict preliminary plan of action is a matter of first necessity in philanthropic matters also happened in the following way.
Until 1890, I followed the will of chance in distributing money to and fro when I was asked to do so. I made inquiries about the person in need of help, about his circumstances as accurately as I could, and acted with such zeal to show myself a conscientious person that my nerves almost gave out, and all this in order to then instinctively, without someone else's guidance, to get out on the true path to this charitable work. Then it occurred to me to consider the correct organization of these plans in order to achieve their expansion and development of the business, exactly the same as we gave to other business plans. I will try to set out the basic principles that we have worked out and have served since then as a guiding thread for me in my future activities, a soil that I hope to cultivate.
I may be overstepping the mark of good manners in talking about such purely personal matters, and I'm willing to admit it, but you can excuse me for this, because I'm talking about something in which my family and many friends took a considerable part, which means I'm not talking about myself alone.
Every person, whether he realizes it or not, has his own code of life philosophy. Hiding somewhere far away in the recesses of our brain, the basic principles, whether we put them into words or not, govern our work, the conditions of our existence. But необходимо, чтобы его идеалом было: вносить свой труд, как бы мал он ни был, туда, где его силы найдут наилучшее применение, – будут ли они денежной силой или практической работой, – в содействии прогрессу человечества.
The ideal of everyone should certainly be the desire to apply their means, both in the field of practical activity, and, of course, in the field of charity, for the sake of the progress of human civilization. And the question, what is civilization and what are the laws that govern it, has long been studied in detail. Our donations have continually been made in those ways to further the desired end, the progress of civilization. If someone came to our office and asked the department for charity what, in their (employees') opinion, is the essence of civilization, he would receive the answer that, on a detailed study, it turned out that the common name of civilization means the following provisions, its components:
1. Прогресс в способах поддержки существования, то есть, прогресс в достижении обилия и содержательности средств питания, одежды, жилища, прогресс гигиены на научных основаниях, прогресс общего оздоровления и прогресс в области торговли и промышленности, в возрастании общественного благосостояния и etc.
2. Progress in the forms of government and legislation, that is, progress in relation to legislation that provides everyone, with the availability for each individual of the greatest area of ​​​​personal freedom, justice, tranquility and a single law for all.
3. Progress in the field of literature and linguistics.
4. Progress in the field of natural sciences and philosophy.
5. Progress in the field of arts and aesthetic education.
6. Progress in the field of morality and religion. Here the question may arise, which of the following areas is, so to speak, the main one for the rest, then you will be told that a definite answer cannot be given, that this is a purely academic question, that all these areas imperceptibly flow into one another. But история нам говорит, что в начале периода каждой цивилизации, люди заботятся сперва о добывании средств к существованию, а затем уже понемногу наступает пора прогресса в других областях. Although from the point of view of higher requirements, it is indecent for such material issues to be in the first place, they are still the foundation of the whole civilization, and without them it is not conceivable.
Therefore, we have tried to use our means, as far as possible, to improve the comforts of life, so that they become cheaper and more accessible to everyone. For this use of capital, we do not expect particularly warm gratitude, our sacrifice is insignificant - it is simply a means of the best achievement of success. And although we are still lagging behind in other areas of the elements of civilization just listed in comparison with