*
There is no doubt that the poorer classes in our country
are much more charitably disposed than their superiors in
wealth. And I fancy it must arise a great deal from the
comparative indistinction of the easy and the not so easy
in these ranks. A workman or a pedlar cannot shutter
himself off from his less comfortable neighbours. If he
treats himself to a luxury, he must do it in the face of a
dozen who cannot. And what should more directly lead to
charitable thoughts? Thus the poor man, camping out in
life, sees it as it is, and knows that every mouthful he
puts in his belly has been wrenched out of the fingers of
the hungry.
But at a certain stage of prosperity, as in a balloon
ascent, the fortunate person passes through a zone of
clouds, and sublunary matters are thenceforward hidden from
his view. He sees nothing but the heavenly bodies, all in
admirable order, and positively as good as new. He finds
himself surrounded in the most touching manner by the
attentions of Providence, and compares himself
involuntarily with the lilies and the skylarks. He does
not precisely sing, of course; but then he looks so
unassuming in his open laudau! If all the world dined
at one table, this philosophy would meet with some
rude knocks.
*
Forgive me, if I seem to teach, who am as ignorant as the
trees of the mountain; but those who learn much do but skim
the face of knowledge; they seize the laws, they conceive
the dignity of the design--the horror of the living fact
fades from the memory.
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