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spise it; and I am afraid you were not, at the time of your great kindness to me; because, as you were so good in providing for my temporal advantage, I cannot think you would have neglected to point out to me how I might obtain the greatest good of all-even eternal life. That your honour may attain to this blessedness, is the daily and fervent prayer of

"Your most grateful servant,

"O'PHELIM."

When Mr. Whately returned to the drawing-room, this letter naturally became the subject of conversation, as well as the great benefits accruing to an individual and a nation from the cultivation of talent, which, when it is found among the poor, must be entirely lost, if not drawn forth and fostered by benevolence.

“This ought, I think," said Mr. W., "to become a national concern; a small annual grant could not be more beneficially applied, than in educating at College, or apprenticing to various arts, such poor children as give proof of genius, the cultivation of which ought not to be left to accident, as it now is."

1 "I have lately been reflecting on this subject,” replied Mr. D'Arcy, and I shall make an effort to procure such a grant. On some matters, which have been considered to be civil, as well as moral or religious duties, legislation, I conceive, has greatly erred. Overstepping its legitimate boundary of justice and general interest, it has endeavoured to rule conscience and control the heart, intruding upon the sovereignty of nature and of God.

It has attempted to force religious duties by Acts of Parliament, and charitable ones by a poor's-rate; and both piety and benevolence were nearly suffocated in the rude grasp of law. Neither can possibly exist any farther than they are voluntary; without which the first is not religion, but hypocrisy; and the second not charity, but necessity.”

"I am quite of your opinion,” replied Mr. Whately, "and it appears to me, that the Creator has himself provided, in the very nature of man, as well as by supernatural influence, for the maintenance of piety and charity. To offer some sort of religious worship is an instinct of mankind; and the strong emotion of pity equally prompts to acts of humanity, such as the relief of suffering and want. When law interferes with these dictates of conscience and feeling, it turns the course of a fertilizing stream into a marsh, that swallows it up, or puts a dam across, which causes a destructive overflow; but when, on the contrary, government affords means for the general cultivation of the understanding, and the particular development of genius, either in literature or the arts, it works a mine of gold for the national benefit, which the poverty of the possessor prevented him from opening, and is a duty prompted alike by self-interest and benevolence."

"the

"If this were the case," replied Mr. D'Arcy, painful unsuitableness we now so often perceive between a man and his calling, would cease. We should no longer see those whom nature has formed to be poets, artists, philosophers, and divines, following the

plough, or bound to the lathe. In different degrees of capacity, adapted to all those occupations which the wants of our present state require, the wisdom of the 'Creator is seen; but it is the vices of individuals, or the neglect of society, which prevents the happiness and benefit that would accrue from talents rising to their proper sphere. To see every man equal to his situation, and his situation equal to him, is an equality I shall always be anxious to promote, in spite of the frowns of the aristocracy of learning or wealth."

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That is," replied Mr W., as I now clearly perceive, the only equality sanctioned by nature, common sense, and benevolence."

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CHAPTER XXXVI.

FEMALE PENITENTIARIES.—TENDENCY OF THE THEATRE.

MR. D'ARCY had been one morning to call on his friend the Dissenting Home Missionary, whom he considered his chaplain, often saying that he wished he could persuade all gentlemen residing where there was a deficiency of stated preachers, to revive an old custom in a new and improved form, and support many such evangelists to labour around them. The object of his call was, to ascertain whether he could not give him a day amidst his numerous engagements, during the ensuing week, as he particularly wished him to be present on an interesting occasion, which he waited this good man's leisure to fix; for he did not, like some men of rank, expect every inferior person to disarrange their plans on his account, and he always considered whose duties and engagements were most important, before he expected others to yield them up to his own. He called next on the clergyman with the same design, and found him engaged with a gentleman, who was warmly, and even rudely, pleading with him to preach for an object he appeared to disapprove; and in answer to an objection Mr. D'Arcy did not hear, the stranger said with asperity, just as the latter entered the room,

“I must say, Sir, your reasons are pharisaic and inhuman."

Mr. Malony's countenance showed that he felt this indignity, and was struggling to repress any unchristian expression of his feelings; and Mr. D'Arcy, while he shook his hand with sympathetic emotion, bestowed a merited rebuke by saying, "No gentleman who is acquainted with my friend's character could speak of his motives in such terms."

"I hope," replied Mr. Sullivan, "I shall be excused if I am a little warm in a good cause, especially knowing that Mr. Malony's influence against our institution may be extensive. I wish it may not have reached to you, Sir, on whom I meant to call next, to solicit your support."

"And if I should decline it, as I am quite sure my friend has done, from conscientious motives, though I do not yet know for what institution you are pleading, am I also to expect uncharitable imputations? Surely; persons who are not generally indifferent to such applications ought at least to be supposed to be simply mistaken in their judgment when they disapprove of some particular form of charity. It is no slight trial to a

risk of being considered

benevolent man to run the hard-hearted, nor to a sensible one to be classed among the eccentric and peculiar. Such persons would deem reputation very cheaply lost for a guinea, if their motives were selfish, and a refusal from such an individual would lead me to think favourably, a priori, of his reasons for it."

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