elves into
close communication with the people in the several parishes of London,
and endeavour to assist them in many ways. But they avoid giving
indiscriminate alms. Their objects are "to help the poor to help
themselves, and to raise them by making them feel that they _can_ help
themselves." There is abundant room for philanthropy amongst all
classes; and it is most gratifying to find ladies of high distinction
taking part in this noble work.

[Footnote 1: See _East and West_, edited by the Countess Spencer.]

There are numerous other societies established of late years, which
afford gratifying instances of the higher and more rational, as well as
really more Christian, forms of charity. The societies for improving the
dwellings of the industrial classes,--for building baths and
washhouses,--for establishing workmen's, seamen's, and servants'
homes,--for cultivating habits of providence and frugality amongst the
working-classes,--and for extending the advantages of knowledge amongst
the people,--are important agencies of this kind. These, instead of
sapping the foundations of self-reliance, are really and truly helping
the people to help themselves, and are deserving of every approbation
and encouragement. They tend to elevate the condition of the mass; they
are embodiments of philanthropy in its highest form; and are calculated
to bear good fruit through all time.

Rich men, with the prospect of death before them, are often very much
concerned about their money affairs. If unmarried and without
successors, they find a considerable difficulty in knowing what to do
with the pile of gold they have gathered together during their lifetime.
They must make a will, and leave it to somebody. In olden times, rich
people left money to pay for masses for their souls. Perhaps many do so
still. Some founded almshouses; others hospitals. Money was left for the
purpose of distributing doles to poor persons, or to persons of the same
name and trade as the deceased.

"These doles," said the wife of a clergyman in the neighbourhood of
London, "are doing an infinite deal of mischief: they are rapidly
pauperising the parish." Not long since, the town of Bedford was
corrupted and demoralized by the doles and benefactions which rich men
had left to the poorer classes. Give a man money without working for it,
and he will soon claim it as a right. It practically forbids him to
exercise forethought, or to provide against the vicissitudes