Ch. X. Of the Direction of our Charity. 369 



not receive it cannot possibly conceive themselves 

 in the slightest degree injured. Every man has 

 a right to do what he will v^^ith his own, and can- 

 not, in justice, be called upon to render a reason 

 why he gives in the one case, and abstains from 

 it in the other. This kind of despotic power, es- 

 sential to voluntary charity, gives the greatest 

 facility to the selection of w^orthy objects of re- 

 lief, without being accompanied by any ill conse- 

 quences ; and has further a most beneficial effect 

 from the degree of uncertainty which must ne- 

 cessarily be attached to it. It is in the highest 

 degree important to the general happiness of the 

 poor, that no man should look to charity as a fund 

 on which he may confidently depend. He should 

 -be taught that his own exertions, his own industry 

 and foresight, are his only just ground of depen- 

 dence ; that if these fail, assistance in his distresses 

 can only be the subject of rational hope; and that 

 even the foundation of this hope will depend in 

 a considerable degree on his own good conduct, 

 and the consciousness that he has not involved 

 himself in these difficulties by his indolence or 

 imprudence. 



That in the distribution of our charity we are 

 under a strong moral obligation to inculcate this 

 lesson on the poor by a proper discrimination, is 

 a truth of which I cannot feel a doubt. If all 

 could be completely relieved, and poverty ba- 

 nished from the country, even at the expense of 

 three-fourths of the fortunes of the rich, I would 

 be the last person to say a single syllable against 



VOL. ir. n B 



