NOVEMBER iii 



would have found a fitter place in the writings of a hea- 

 then. I had also got you one or two more books, but I 

 am afraid to send them, lest you should think I presume 

 too much upon y® permission you gave me. One of them 

 was an Essay upon the nature and true value of military 

 glory, and another upon the education of the poor as 

 the best kind of charity we can do them. Depend upon 

 it, it is so ; and all indiscriminate relief, given as it 

 generally is for the selfish purpose of gratifying our own 

 benevolence, partakes not of the real nature of charity, 

 which regards the good of the object ; and, while it 

 tends to diminish their own exertions in the present, 

 prevents them from acquiring those habits of providence 

 and self-dependence which, in the long run, constitute 

 their only chance of respectability and happiness. There 

 is no fear the stream of charity will want channels in 

 which to flow, and I also do not believe that its sources 

 are the least likely to be dried up. There are more 

 funds required for education and y® support of some 

 kinds of hospitals than will, I fear, ever be supplied. 

 You would find Mrs. Marcet's "Conversations on Polit- 

 ical Economy" very useful, and there are some good 

 reasons given in the beginning why ladies should be 

 acquainted with the principles of the science. Let me 

 recommend to you, as connected with your German 

 reading, Madame de Stael's work on Germany. I have 

 derived great pleasure from reading it. And though she 

 occasionally goes out of her depth, and her facts are 

 not always correct, there is a good deal still of profound 

 reflection and much valuable information in the work. 

 I wUl mention to you a few others of the books which I 

 have most admired. I am not, however, a miscellaneous 

 reader ; I wish I could be ; but I have not a retentive 

 memory, and as reading is to me valuable only in pro- 

 portion as I retain what I read, I confine my studies 



