320 FABLES. 



lives : they are like the light and the rain, and 

 diffuse a good all around them. But wealth, when 

 it falls to the lot of those who want benevolence 

 and humanity, serves only as an instrument of 

 mischief, or at best produces no advantage to the 

 rest of mankind. The good man considers himself 

 as a kind of steward to those from whom fortune 

 has withheld her smiles, and thus shews his 

 gratitude to Heaven for the abundance which 

 has been showered down upon him. He directs 

 the superfluous part of his wealth at least, to the 

 necessities of such of his fellow-creatures as are 

 worthy of it, and this he would do from feeling, 

 though there were no religion which enjoined it. 

 But selfish avaricious persons, who are generally 

 knaves, how much soever they may have, will 

 never think they have enough, much less be 

 induced, by any consideration of virtue or religion, 

 to part with any portion for the purposes of charity 

 and beneficence. If the riches and power of the 

 world were to be always in the hands of the 

 virtuous part of mankind, it would seem, according 

 to our human conceptions, that they would produce 

 more good than in those of the vile and grovelling 

 mortals, who often possess them. Without any 

 merit, these move apparently in a sphere of ease 

 and splendour, while good sense and honesty have 

 to struggle in adversity, or walk in the dirt. But 

 the all-wise Disposer of Events does certainly 

 permit this order of things for just, good, and 

 wise purposes, though our shallow understandings 

 are not able to fathom them. 



