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    -r-I once ; but if to gratify the calls of compassion he the only motive to action , seiCWai been little eradicated from the mind . Benevolence can scarcely be thus

    cultivated . The passive

    desire have been formed , before it has become habitually our actuating motive , we require the perception of the . wished-for good to preserve it in its full vigour .

    Now how seldom is our-mite perceptibly or probably beneficial , when indiscriminately given * at our doors or by the way-side . How muck might it tell if devoted to aid the exertions of honest

    industry ; to supply instruction to the ignorant ; to add a few comforts to the scanty portion of the child of affliction ? ' Trite it is that among the tribes of beggary , benevolende Can often

    'discriminate individuals , whom benefi - cence may snatch from misery , may at least relieve till Providence sends relief still more efficacious j and here the claims of duty are obvious : but arc we hence to

    inter that benevolence may be indulged to indolent , inefficacious charity ? - . Far be it frnm me to wish to restrain the emotions of pity , 1 should grieve . to see the youth , in whose mind prudence has nofyet

    been founded on benevolence , listening to its cold admonitions , and forming calculations whie'h might excuse present , but would not prompt to future exertions . But I would aim to give his conipaiasion that direction which wo told point . to ^ e' ^ evolcincc ^ -r-bcwev ^ o

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    lence which should become . tike habit of hig / souVwhidh should % e inwrougnt in "his fMme , arid direct to steady exertion , when . trie thrilling chords of compassiqri

    cease to vibrate . Does it jsuit the general harmony of the mofal world , that the culture of individual benevolence should require the sacrifice of the general gQO < l t Experience confirms what 'religious philosophy dictates , that the interest of the individual cannot

    be separated from the interest of the community ; nor the interest of the community from that < S { the species . * :. And the geiierajL truth admits here of exact atfd obvious application . Indolence and wretchedness follow ctfose in

    the steps of indiscriminate chanty ^ —rand , on the other hand , Vi ' pdtiiy to the claims ofdistress will arise in the place of , inactive ^ selfish compassion ^ when time shall h ^ ve *

    diminished the vigour of if > im * pulse ? and the frequent detection of imposture led -to cliss the ' taje of modest , suffering merit , wi ( li that of the artfcil , prbf ^ s | iorial mendicant . Tlie * mcchamsm ot

    social good 'and of private benevolence , is impeded , in proportiQ ^ to the prevalence of the indiscriminate , application of the ability to do good ,, * over that which is regulated by a judicious attention to its result . .

    The necessity of a judicious regulation of the exertions of benevolence appea : rs > then , sufficiently obvious . It aiay not be useless to state a few general p ' rmci pk's , 4 which . may tend to prodqee , on the basis of compassion , steady , active , . disinterested benevolence . ¦•' ¦¦ All "the objects of beneficence may be convSeniently-classed . Under

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    On the Preptr Direction-of * BenevolentExtrturn . l § t

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1808, page 131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2390/page/11/