VINE IN ITALY. 113 



the reformation of the offender, the prevention 

 rather than the punishment of crime, actuates the 

 benevolent legislator. 



Age is robbed of its infirmity by asylums for 

 the destitute widow, where the song of gratitude 

 ascends to Him who has promised that " the 

 righteous shall not be forsaken, nor his seed left 

 to beg their bread." 



The shafts of disease are averted by our hos- 

 pitals; blindness and deafness are stripped of 

 half their ills, and a race of unfortunates, doomed 

 to a life of moral darkness, enjoy the charms of 

 cultivation. 



The happiest commentary on a benevolent 

 precept, is afforded by the orphan asylum ; and 

 on the foundation where the truest benevolence 

 laid the corner stone, charity has raised her 

 chaste and beautiful temple, where helpless in- 

 nocence is reared and protected, and, by a course 

 of sound instruction, fitted for the duties of life. 



Societies for the promotion of that first of vir- 

 tues, Temperance, are established throughout the 

 land, but the principal sinew of their operations 

 is unstrung. 



The cultivation of the vine will do more 

 towards the furtherance of their object, than a 

 host of non-consuming resolutions. On all ef- 

 forts, shall legislators look with indifference, and 

 withhold from the moral improvement of the 

 community the aid so liberally granted to rail- 

 ways and canals, and sectional improvements ? 

 We hope otherwise, and that the fostering hand 

 of government, in aid of the numerous associa- 

 K 2 



