sery is
humiliating; inasmuch as the latter is for the most part the result of
misconduct, and often of idleness and drunkenness. Poverty is no
disgrace to him who can put up with it; but he who finds the beggar's
staff once get warm in his hand, never does any good, but a great amount
of evil.

The poor are often the happiest of people--far more so than the rich;
but though they may be envied, no one will be found willing to take
their place. Moore has told the story of the over-fed, over-satisfied
eastern despot, who sent a messenger to travel through the world, in
order to find out the happiest man. When discovered, the messenger was
immediately to seize him, take his shirt off his back, and bring it to
the Caliph. The messenger found the happiest man in an Irishman,--happy,
dancing, and flourishing his shillelagh. But when the ambassador
proceeded to seize him, and undress him, he found that the Irishman had
got no shirt to his back!

The portion of Agur is unquestionably the best: "Remove far from me
vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food
convenient for me." The unequal distribution of the disposition to be
happy, is of far greater importance than the unequal distribution of
wealth. The disposition to be content and satisfied, said David Hume, is
at least equal to an income of a thousand a year. Montaigne has observed
that Fortune confers but little. Human good or ill does not depend upon
it. It is but the seed of good, which the soul, infinitely stronger than
wealth, changes and applies as it pleases, and is thus the only cause of
a happy or unhappy disposition.

England is celebrated for its charities. M. Guizot declares that there
is nothing in this land that so fills the mind of the stranger with
amazement at our resources, and admiration at our use of them, as the
noble free-gift monuments raised on every side for the relief of
multiform suffering. The home philanthropist, who looks a little deeper
than the foreign visitor, may be disposed to take another view of the
effects of money-giving. That charity produces unmixed good, is very
much questioned. Charity, like man, is sometimes blind, and frequently
misguided. Unless money is wisely distributed, it will frequently do
more harm than good. If charity could help or elevate the poor, London
would now be the happiest city in the world; for about three millions of
money are spent on charity, and about one in every three of the