object, and under the direction of those who make
the appeal, our labor or money will be lucratively invested in the service
of humanity. There are, certainly, benevolent associations and enterprises
for the very noblest ends, whose actual utility is open to the gravest
doubt. It is sometimes difficult even to determine a question of justice
or equity, simply because the circumstances of the case, so far as we can
understand them, do not define the right. Instances of this class might be
multiplied; but they are all instances in which there is no obscurity as
to our obligation or duty, and therefore no question for moral casuistry.
We are, however, obviously bound, by considerations of fitness, to seek
the fullest information within our power in every case in which we are
compelled to act, or see fit to act; nor can we regard action without
knowledge, even though the motive be virtuous, as either safe or
blameless.

*The measure or limit of duty* is with many conscientious persons a
serious question. Here an exact definition is hardly possible, and a
generous liberty may be given to individual taste or judgment; yet
considerations of fitness set bounds to that liberty. Thus direct and
express self-culture is a duty incumbent on all, yet in which diversity of
inclination may render very different degrees of diligence equally fitting
and right; but all self-centred industry is fittingly limited by domestic,
social, and civic obligations. Thus, also, direct acts of beneficence are
obviously incumbent on all; but the degree of self-sacrifice for
beneficent ends need not, nay, ought not to be the same for every one; and
while we hold in the highest admiration those who make the entire
surrender of all that they have and are to the service of mankind, we have
no reason to scant our esteem for those who are simply kind and generous,
while they at the same time labor, spend, or save for their own benefit.
Indeed, the world has fully as much need of the latter as of the former.
Were the number of self-devoting philanthropists over-large, a great deal
of the necessary business and work of life would be left undone; and did
self-denying givers constitute a very numerous body, the dependent and
mendicant classes would be much more numerous than they are; while the
withdrawal of expenditure for personal objects would paralyze industrial
enterprise, and arrest the creation of that general wealth which
contributes to the general comfor