who would feel the Extreams of Thirst and Hunger,
if he did not prevent his Appetites before they call
upon him, to be so forgetful of the common Necessity
of Human Nature, as never to cast an Eye upon the
Poor and Needy. The Fellow who escaped from a
Ship which struck upon a Rock in the West, and join’d
with the Country People to destroy his Brother Sailors
and make her a Wreck, was thought a most execrable
Creature; but does not every Man who enjoys the Possession
of what he naturally wants, and is unmindful of the
unsupplied Distress of other Men, betray the same Temper
of Mind? When a Man looks about him, and with
regard to Riches and Poverty beholds some drawn in
Pomp and Equipage, and they and their very Servants
with an Air of Scorn and Triumph overlooking the Multitude
that pass by them; and, in the same Street, a Creature
of the same Make crying out in the Name of all that
is Good and Sacred to behold his Misery, and give him
some Supply against Hunger and Nakedness, who would
believe these two Beings were of the same Species?
But so it is, that the Consideration of Fortune has
taken up all our Minds, and, as I have often complained,
Poverty and Riches stand in our Imaginations in the
Places of Guilt and Innocence. But in all Seasons
there will be some Instances of Persons who have Souls
too large to be taken with popular Prejudices, and
while the rest of Mankind are contending for Superiority
in Power and Wealth, have their Thoughts bent upon
the Necessities of those below them. The Charity-Schools
which have been erected of late Years, are the greatest
Instances of publick Spirit the Age has produced:
But indeed when we consider how long this Sort of
Beneficence has been on Foot, it is rather from the
good Management of those Institutions, than from the
Number or Value of the Benefactions to them, that they
make so great a Figure. One would think it impossible,
that in the Space of fourteen Years there should not
have been five thousand Pounds bestowed in Gifts this
Way, nor sixteen hundred Children, including Males
and Females, put out to Methods of Industry.
It is not allowed me to speak of Luxury and Folly
with the severe Spirit they deserve; I shall only therefore
say, I shall very readily compound with any Lady in
a Hoop-Petticoat, if she gives the Price of one half
Yard of the Silk towards Cloathing, Feeding and Instructing
an Innocent helpless Creature of her own Sex in one
of these Schools. The Consciousness of such an
Action will give her Features a nobler Life on this
illustrious Day, [1] than all the Jewels that can
hang in her Hair, or can be clustered at her Bosom.
It would be uncourtly to speak in harsher Words to
the Fair, but to Men one may take a little more Freedom.
It is monstrous how a Man can live with so little
Reflection, as to fancy he is not in a Condition very
unjust and disproportioned to the rest of Mankind,
while he enjoys Wealth, and exerts no Benevolence
or Bounty to others. As for this particular Occasion