A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

now contributed to aid in organized systems of charity, were returned to the donors, to be applied by the agency and discretion of each, thousands and thousands of the treasures, now employed to promote the moral and intellectual wants of mankind, would become entirely useless. In a democracy, like ours, where few are very rich, and the majority are in comfortable circumstances, this collecting and dispensing of drops and rills, is the mode, by which, in imitation of Nature, the dews and showers are to distil on parched and desert lands. And every person, while earning a pittance to unite with many more, may be cheered with the consciousness of sustaining a grand system of operations, which must have the most decided influence, in raising all mankind to that perfect state of society, which Christianity is designed to secure. Another consideration, relates to the indiscriminate bestowal of charity. Persons, who have taken pains to inform themselves, and who devote their whole time to dispensing charities, unite in declaring, that this is one of the most fruitful sources of indolence, vice, and poverty. From several of these, the writer has learned, that, by their own personal investigations, they have ascertained, that there are large establishments of idle and wicked persons, in most of our cities, who associate together, to support themselves by every species of imposition. They hire large houses, and live in constant rioting, on the means thus obtained. Among them, are women who have, or who hire the use of, infant children; others, who are blind, or maimed, or deformed, or who can adroitly feign such infirmities, and, by these means of exciting pity, and by artful tales of wo, they collect alms, both in city and country, to spend in all manner of gross and guilty indulgences. Meantime, many persons, finding themselves often duped by impostors, refuse to give at all; and thus many benefactions are withdrawn, which a wise economy in charity would have secured. For this, and other reasons, it is wise and merciful, to adopt the general rule, never to give alms, till we have