her to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched
out. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my Soul
grieved for the poor? Let me be weighed in an even ballance, that God
may know mine Integrity. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant
or my maid-servant when they contended with me: What then shall I do
when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did
not he that made me in the womb, make him? and did not one fashion us
in the womb? If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have
caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel myself
alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof: If I have seen any
perish for want of cloathing, or any poor without covering: If his
loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece
of my sheep: If I have lift up my hand against the fatherless, when I
saw my help in the gate; then let mine arm fall from my
shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. If I have
rejoiced at the Destruction of him that hated me, or lift up myself
when evil found him: (Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin, by
wishing a curse to his soul). The stranger did not lodge in the
street; but I opened my doors to the traveller. If my land cry against
me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain: If I have eaten the
Fruits thereof without mony, or have caused the owners thereof to lose
their Life; Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of
barley_. [8]

[Footnote 1: Cleomenes to Pantheus,

'Would I could share thy Balmy, even Temper,
And Milkiness of Blood.'

'Cleomenes', Act i. sc. I.]

[Footnote 2: that]

[Footnote 3: the Patrons of the Indigent]

[Footnote 4: 'Proverbs' xix. 17.]

[Footnote 5: 'Rel. Med.' Part II. sect. 13.]

[Footnote 6: 'Matt.' xxi. 31, &c.]

[Footnote 7: The Epitaph was in St. George's Church at Doncaster, and
ran thus:

'How now, who is heare?
I Robin of Doncastere
And Margaret my feare.
That I spent, that I had;
That I gave, that I have;
That I left, that I lost.']

[Footnote 8: 'Job' xxix. 2, &c.; xxx. 25, &c.; xxxi. 6, &c.]

* * * * *

No. 178. Monday, September 24, 1711. Steele.

'Comis in uxorem ...'

Hor.

I cannot defer taking Notice of this Letter.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I a