s of the rich, in spite of the highly extolled rage
for almsgiving.

You know that I have always been an enemy to what is termed charity,
because timid bigots, endeavouring thus to cover their sins, do violence
to justice, till, acting the demigod, they forget that they are men. And
there are others who do not even think of laying up a treasure in heaven,
whose benevolence is merely tyranny in disguise; they assist the most
worthless, because the most servile, and term them helpless only in
proportion to their fawning.

After leaving Sleswick, we passed through several pretty towns; Itzchol
particularly pleased me; and the country, still wearing the same aspect,
was improved by the appearance of more trees and enclosures. But what
gratified me most was the population. I was weary of travelling four or
five hours, never meeting a carriage, and scarcely a peasant; and then to
stop at such wretched huts as I had seen in Sweden was surely sufficient
to chill any heart awake to sympathy, and throw a gloom over my favourite
subject of contemplation, the future improvement of the world.

The farmhouses, likewise, with the huge stables, into which we drove
whilst the horses were putting to or baiting, were very clean and
commodious. The rooms, with a door into this hall-like stable and
storehouse in one, were decent; and there was a compactness in the
appearance of the whole family lying thus snugly together under the same
roof that carried my fancy back to the primitive times, which probably
never existed with such a golden lustre as the animated imagination lends
when only able to seize the prominent features.

At one of them, a pretty young woman, with languishing eyes of celestial
blue, conducted us into a very neat parlour, and observing how loosely
and lightly my little girl was clad, began to pity her in the sweetest
accents, regardless of the rosy down of health on her cheeks. This same
damsel was dressed--it was Sunday--with taste and even coquetry, in a
cotton jacket, ornamented with knots of blue ribbon, fancifully disposed
to give life to her fine complexion. I loitered a little to admire her,
for every gesture was graceful; and, amidst the other villagers, she
looked like a garden lily suddenly rearing its head amongst grain and
corn-flowers. As the house was small, I gave her a piece of money rather
larger than it was my custom to give to the female waiters--for I could
not prevail on her to sit down--wh