You have the knowledge of
the good that you are doing, and that, for you, is sufficient. You know
that, thanks to your generosity, suffering is relieved, and you know
that, thanks to the science of your surgeons, this relief is not merely
momentary, but that the wounded man who would have remained a cripple if
he had been less ably cared for, will be, thanks to you, completely
cured, and that, instead of dragging out a miserable existence, he will
be able to live a normal life and support a family which will bless
you. Such men will owe it all to the persistence of your generosity.
I return always to that point, and it is essential. To give once is a
common impulse, common to nearly all the world. It means freeing one's
self from the suffering which good souls feel when they see others
suffer. But to give again after having given is a proof of reflection,
of an understanding of the meaning of life; it is to work intelligently;
it is to insure the value of the first effort; it means the possession
of goodness which is lasting and far-seeing. That is a rare virtue. You
have it. And that is why I express a three-fold thanks, for the past,
for the present, and for the future--thanks that come from the bottom of
the heart of a Frenchman.
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