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dition. There is no doubt but the proper use of riches implies that a man should exert all the good qualities imaginable; and if we mean by a man of condition or quality, one who, according to the wealth he is master of, shews himself just, beneficent, and charitable, that term ought very deservedly to be had in the highest veneration; but when wealth is used only as it is the support of pomp and luxury, to be rich is very far from being a recommendation to honour and respect. It is indeed the greatest insolence imaginable, in a creature who would feel the extremes 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 joined 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 public 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 clothing, 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, than all the jewels that can hang in her hair, or can be clustered in 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 disportioned to the rest of mankind, while he enjoys wealth, and exerts no benevolence or bounty to others. As for this particular occasion of these schools, there cannot any offer more worthy a generous mind. Would you do an handsome thing without return? do it for an infant that is not sensible of the obliga tion. Would you do it for public good? do it for one who would be an honest artificer. Would you do it for the sake of heaven? give it to one who shall be instructed in the worship of him for whose sake you

give it. It is methinks a most laudable institution this, if it were of no other expectation than that of producing a race of good and useful servants, who will have more than a liberal, a religious education. What would not a man do, in common prudence, to lay out in purchase of one about him, who would add to all his orders he gave the weight of the commandments to enforce an obedience to them? for one who would consider his master as his father, his friend, and benefactor, upon the easy terms, and in expectation of no other return but moderate wages and gentle usage? It is the common vice of children to run too much among the servants; from such as are educated in these places they would see nothing but lowliness in the servant, which would not be disingenuous in the child. All the ill offices and defarnatory whispers, which take their birth from domestics, would be prevented, if this charity could be made universal; and a good man might have a knowledge of the whole life of the persons he designs to take into his house for his own service, or that of his family or children, long before they were admitted. This would create endearing dependencies: and the obligation would have a paternal air in the master, who would be relieved from much care and anxiety from the gratitude and diligence of an humble friend attending him as his servant. I fall into this discourse from a letter sent to me, to give me notice that fifty boys would be cloathed, and take their seats, at the charge of some generous benefactors, in St. Bride's church on Sunday next. I wish I could promise to myself any thing which my correspondent seems to expect from a publication of it in this paper; for there can be nothing added to what so many excellent and learned men have said on this occasion: but that there may be something here which would move a generous mind, like that of him who writ to me, I shall transcribe an handsome paragraph of

Dr. Snape's sermon on these charities, which my correspondent inclosed with his letter.

"The wise Providence has amply compensated the "disadvantages of the poor and indigent, wanting "many of the conveniences of this life, by a more "abundant provision for their happiness in the next. "Had they been higher born or more richly endow❝ed, they would have wanted this manner of edu"cation, of which those only enjoy the benefit, who "are low enough to submit to it; where they have "such advantages without money, and without price, "as the rich cannot purchase with it. The learning "which is given, is generally more edifying to them, "than that which is sold to others: thus do they "become more exalted in goodness, by being de"pressed in fortune, and their poverty is, in reality, "their preferment."

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No. CCXCV. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7.

Prodiga non sentit pereuntem foemina censum:
At velut exhausta redivivus pullulet arca
Nummus, et e pleno semper tollatur acervo,
Non unquam reputat, quanti sibi guadia constent.

But womankind, that never knows a mean,
Down to the dregs their sinking fortunes drain:
Hourly they give, and spend, and waste, and wear,
And think no pleasure can be bought too dear.

MR. SPECTATOR,

Juv.

DRYDEN.

'I AM turned of my great climacteric, and am · naturally a man of meek temper. About a dozen years ago I was married, for my sins, to a young 'woman of a good family, and of a high spirit, but 'could not bring her to close with me, before I had ' entered into a treaty with her longer than that of 'the grand alliance. Among other articles, it was 'therein stipulated, that she should have four hundred 'pounds a year for pin-money, which I obliged my'self to pay quarterly into the hands of one who acted " as her plenipotentiary in that affair. I have ever 'since religiously observed my part in this solemn C agreement. Now, Sir, so it is, that the lady has ' had several children since I married her; to which, if I should credit our malicious neighbours, her pin-money has not a little contributed. The edu 'cation of these my children, who, contrary to my expectations, are born to me every year, straitens me so much, that I have begged their mother to 'free me from the obligation of the above-mentioned 'pin-money, that it may go towards making a pro'vision for her family. This proposal makes her ' noble blood swell in her veins, insomuch, that find'ing me a little tardy in her last quarter's payment, 'she threatens me every day to arrest me; and 'proceeds so far as to tell me, that if I do not do her

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