y replied, "As to my girls, the elder ones I trust are such
veterans in their trade, that your approbation can do them no harm, nor
do they stand in need of it as an incentive. But should the little ones
find that their charity procures them praise, they might perhaps be
charitable for the sake of praise, their benevolence might be set at
work by their vanity, and they might be led to do that, from the love of
applause, which can only please God when the principle is pure. _The
iniquity of our holy things_, my good friend, requires much Christian
vigilance. Next to not giving at all, the greatest fault is to give from
ostentation. The motive robs the act of the very name of virtue. While
the good work that is paid in praise, is stripped of the hope of higher
retribution."

On my assuring Mrs. Stanley that I thought such an introduction to their
systematic schemes of charity might inform my own mind and improve my
habits, she consented, and I have since been a frequent witness of their
admirable method; and have been studying plans, which involve the good
both of body and soul. Oh! if I am ever blest with a coadjutress, a
directress let me rather say, formed under such auspices, with what
delight shall I transplant the principles and practices of Stanley Grove
to the Priory! Nor indeed would I ever marry but with the animating hope
that not only myself, but all around me, would be the better and the
happier for the presiding genius I shall place there.

Sir John Belfield had joined us while we were on this topic. I had
observed that though he was earnest on the general principle of
benevolence, which he considered as a most imperious duty, or, as he
said in his warm way, as so lively a pleasure that he was almost ready
to suspect if it _were_ a duty; yet I was sorry to find that his
generous mind had not viewed this large subject under all its aspects.
He had not hitherto regarded it as a matter demanding any thing but
money; while time, inquiry, discrimination, system, he confessed, he had
not much taken into the account. He did a great deal of good, but had
not allowed himself time or thought for the best way of doing it.
Charity, as opposed to hard-heartedness and covetousness, he warmly
exercised; but when, with a willing liberality, he had cleared himself
from the suspicion of those detestable vices, he was indolent in the
proper distribution of money, and somewhat negligent of its just
application. Nor had he ever