hose true philanthropy of heart I
had heard much. I expected to follow her to the alms-house, the
hospital, and the garret, and I was not disappointed. Thither she went,
and for purposes the kindest and most noble. She relieved their pressing
wants; ministered consolation in the kindest tone; and gave religious
instruction wherever needed. But, then, she kept a strict calendar of
all these pious visitings; and that, too, for the entertainment of her
company. All were called upon to hear the history of the appalling
scenes she had witnessed; the tears of gratitude that had fallen on her
hands; the prayers--half articulate--that had been offered for her by
the dying; and to hear her attestations of disregard to the opposition
she had to encounter in these her labors of love. Who, with such an
appeal, could withhold their commendations? I, therefore, of course, as
I listened again and again to the same tale to different auditors, heard
many pretty complimentary speeches about magnanimity, &c.; and, getting
somewhat weary, I drew nearer to the lady's guests, till I actually
thought I heard from one--he was a clergyman, I believe--an inward
whisper that he would like to refer his friend to the four first verses
of the sixth chapter of Matthew, but that it would be impolite. If my
listening powers were too acute when I heard this, let me turn monitor
at once, and assure my young friends, if they would have their
conversation listened to with pleasure, they must be economists with
_self_ as their subject.

On behalf of the very young, we certainly have it to plead, that they
know very little of any thing but what is, in some sense, their own. If
they talk of persons, it must be their parents, their brothers and
sisters, because they are the only people they know; if they talk of any
body's affairs, it must be their own, because they are acquainted with
no other; if of events, it must be what happens to themselves, for they
hear nothing of what happens to any body else. As soon, therefore, as
children begin to converse, it is most likely to be about themselves, or
something that belongs to them; and to the rapid growing of this
unwatched habit, may probably be attributed the ridiculous and offensive
egotism of many persons in conversation, who, in conduct, prove that
their feelings and affections are by no means self-engrossed. But the
more indigenous this unsightly weed, the more need is there to prevent
its growth. It has man