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CHAP. X. 



Of the Direction of our Charity. 



An important and interesting inquiry yet remains, 

 relating to the mode of directing our private 

 charity, so as not to interfere with the great ob- 

 ject in view, of mehorating the condition of the 

 labouring classes of people, by preventing the po- 

 pulation from pressing too hard against the limits 

 of the means of subsistence. 



The emotion which prompts us to relieve our 

 fellow-creatures in distress is, like all our other na- 

 tural passions, general, and, in some degree, indis- 

 criminate and blind. Our feelings of compassion 

 may be worked up to a higher pitch by a well- 

 wrought scene in a play, or a fictitious tale in a 

 novel, than by almost any events in real life : and 

 if among ten petitioners we were to listen only 

 to the first impulses of our feelings without 

 making further inquiries, we should undoubtedly 

 give our assistance to the best actor of the party. 

 It is evident, therefore, that the impulse of bene- 

 volence, like the impulses of love, of anger, of 

 ambition, the desire of eating and drinking, or 

 any other of our natural propensities, must be 

 regulated by experience, and frequently brought 

 to the test of utility, or it will defeat its intended 

 purpose. 



