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While, therefore, it is unquestionably both proper and humane that invalids should be maintained at public expense in asylums, when without homes, or disabled from earning their own living, it is for the interest of all that those institutions should be as few in number as possible, so that whenever an individual can support himself out of one, he should be induced to do so, on the principle of cultivating self-respect and personal independence. Their doors should be opened only to the absolutely dependent, confirmed and incurable invalids. All others, who can do better, should be encouraged to attempt a higher and more useful sphere. In order to secure this, however, public opinion must be educated into the realization of its importance, and the necessity of adopting measures which shall combine to impart both a practical and economic, as well as a humane solution to this problem. When this end shall have been secured, the details will follow according as practical experiment shall develope them.

PROPOSITION SECOND.

As far possible, invalids should be restored to their original homes and the communities to which they belong should absorb by assigning to them, by conventional agreement, the lighter occupations; and no provision separating them from their families, or diminishing their domestic responsibilities, should be encouraged. For, wherever invalids have homes, public opinion should be directed to these as the best places for them; the object always being to keep them from ultimately drifting into town or county pauper asylums.

Home is generally the best hospital, even as repose is often the best remedy. Experience also shows that men will endure greater privations and discomforts, without murmuring, in their own homes, than the most trifling ones in public institutions. For, although they may be beneficiaries, the sense of gratitude towards the power which provides for them, never so abundantly, is not sufficient to overcome the feeling of restraint, which required obedience to the rules of an establishment generally occasions in its inmates. These retreats, however well situated, and with whatever advantages of locality and adornment supplied, are yet dull and heart-crushing to most persons, in whom the idea of residence is, in some degree, associated with compulsion. The regulations relating to hours -- to roll-call -- to permissions of absence and to penalties for infractions of rules -- become irksome and intolerable, and men are ready to put up with anything at home, rather than be prisoners of state in a palace. This is human nature, and exemplifies itself in all public institutions, the world over. Since the increase in the scale of pensions in France, following upon the Crimean and Italian wars, young men can scarcely be induced to enter the Invalides. They prefer, with the modicum allowed them (365 francs per annum), to live at home and pursue whatever avocations they can. Their sense of personal independence is thus cherished and kept intact. They feel that they are producers and not consumers merely, and instead of being burthens upon the State, are contributing something to its productive industry and wealth. This sentiment, the best incentive to effort and acquisition, although founded to some degree upon pride, is yet deserving of cultivation, and should be fostered in all communities as among the virtuous springs to action by which men are stimulated. For, after all, man is only so far a man as he is identified actively with the movement of his race; and while drones and laggards may wear the outward form of manhood, it is very certain that they belong only to its lowest expression.

If such be the experience of the old countries of Europe, how much more will it not prove so in our own, where the expansive character of our civilization, and the multitudinous channels opened to talents of all grades, enable every man to find some occupation suited to his abilities. Except those completely blind, or who have lost both arms, no man among us need starve for want of something to do. The list of occupations cited hereafter, will exhibit the variety of callings which can still be pursued by one-legged, one-armed, or partially infirm men. Of course there will be many whose condition of oscillation, between intermissions and recurrences of chronic disease, is such that no steady work can be performed by them. But even these need not necessarily be housed in hospitals. They can pursue, at home, many minor occupations, such as tending stores, toll-gates and bridges, or acting as flag-men, starters, etc., on railways, or make themselves useful as janitors of public buildings; in fact, doing anything which does not require constant or protracted muscular effort, and in which, too, their families can assist them more or less. All the lighter trades may be included in this category, as well as those duties of superintendence requiring intelligence and skill rather than manual labor.

It is not difficult to conceive that, in this way, a very large number of disabled soldiers can find occupation, and be furnished the means of earning a respectable livelihood. It is only necessary to have them classified according to ability, and to enroll them descriptively in some central bureau (see Propos. 8th) where employers can come and select them according to the kind of labor they wish performed, in order to place their talents at once in the market and secure them their full value. Nothing would be more creditable to the humanity of our civilization than to assist, by some method of rational distribution, founded upon both mental and physical ability, these war-worn veterans in supporting themselves with dignity and manly independence. But in order to do this, they should be assisted only up to the joint necessary to obtain an opportunity to labor. Beyond this, any adventitious aid would only clog ambition and deaden industry. They need help to secure a foothold in the great field of occupation, to enable them to obtain places of employment, and after that, they may be trusted to labor for themselves -- the true manhood showing itself, if ever, in the desire to toil for independence rather than to accept a living however legalized by enactment.