168 GENERAL BENEVOLENCE, 
to be well fpoken of, whilft we fpeak ill of others. The admo- 
nition given by the wifeman is excellent : “ Curfe not the king, 
ct no not in thy thought ; and curfe not the rich in thy bed- 
sc chamber, for a bird of the air fhall carry the voice, and that 
€< which hath wings fhall tell the matter.” The advice is 
founded in good policy, but charity forbids us to defame 
under pain of everlafling punifhment. It is very emphatically 
faid, and as true of your fex as of mine, that “ a man of ill 
u tongue is dangerous in his city, and he that is rash in his 
Ci talk, fhall be hated.” This, madam, is no satyr upon you; 
I do not remember to have ever heard you fpeak ill of any hu- 
man being. 
Charity leads us yet a great way farther ; we muft learn to 
bear the ill manners of fome, and the ignorance of others; 
to compaflionate the proud, and forgive the revengeful ; 
and, in general, to fupport fuch a habit of good-will towards 
mankind, as will difpofe us not only to defend the poor from 
opprefTion, and to preferve the indigent, but alfo to be ready 
even to die for the fervice of mankind. 
If nothing is truly our own, but what we have given to 
others ; to be rich in the light of god, is to be charitable : and, 
indeed, what is the wealth of india to the man who is taking 
his leave of this world ? and what {lender fecurity have we of 
remaining in it for a {ingle day I We ought, therefore, not to 
extend our folicitude to remote confequences. I am in eafy cir- 
cumflances, my neighbor is in diftrefs ; if I enter into the me- 
rits of his cafe, I fhall do a good adion. Reafon no farther ; 
for if we add, if I do not enter into the merits of his cafe, I 
2 fhall 
