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the supplicating eye , and the still more eloquent language of the tear of gratitude . To such appeals he cannot be insensible . As strongly as he , if himself in adverse circumstances , would desire relief , so strongly does he feel impelled to offer it whenever the opportunity and the power are afforded him . He adds , moreover , to his benefits a tenfold value , by the manner in which they are bestowed . The wounded spirit feels his care not less than the injured frame or the destitute condition ; and as the oil and wine of the good Samaritan to the lacerated body of the
perishing victim of violence , so do his words of consolation descend with healing influence upon the rended heart of the despairing mourner . No ostentatious display of generosity , —no attempt to enhance the magnitude of the benefit conferred , ever wounds the feelings of the object of his kindness ; he is anxious rather to lighten than augment the painful burden of obligation —rather to undervalue than to exaggerate the importance of his services ; he anticipates the wishes of the unhappy before they are expressed ; he reads in their looks those wishes which they are backward to express ; he shows , in short , in all his language and behaviour , that kind commiseration for their sorrows , and that delicate attention to their feelings , which adds to his benefits a value not to be estimated by their pecuniary amount , and excites a feeling of attachment and gratitude far beyond what wealth or power alone are able , by the most costly gifts , to
purchase . ' Thus do the sufferings of others call forth in such minds only more ardent benevolence and more persevering kindness . The removal of them , nay , the very endeavour to remove them , adds to the happiness and welfare of their being ; for they , and they only , can , as Mr . Jevons beautifully expresses it , c find in every breast the chords which jar , and touch them , if touch them they must , with a gentle hand . ' Let us then , for our mutual comfort and enjoyment , try to cultivate this Christian refinement , so closely connected with our best moral interests ; and let us take heed that we never mistake for its healthy and improving influences , that morbid and fashionable delicacy which is the offspring of luxury and selfishness , and a narrow-minded anxiety about our own peculiar enjoyments and circumstances .
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Poetry is not the privilege of a class , either in its production or its enjoyment . It belongs to humanity . Nature frames , without reference to rank , the internal organization from which it results , and scatters abroad , with profuse and universal bounty , the ex-* 1 . Corn Law Rhymes . 3 d edition . London , 1831 . 2 . The Village Patriarch , a Poem , by the Author of Corn Law Rhymes . London , 1831 . 3 . Love , a Poem , by the same , 3 d edition , London , 1831 .
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THE POOR AND THEIR POETRY * .
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On Refinement of Character . 19 d
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 189, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/45/
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