ses, where the immortal mind is pining in stupidity and
ignorance, or racked with the fever of baleful passions, and how small
the number, so elevated in sentiment, and so enlarged in their views, as
to appreciate and sympathize in these far greater misfortunes! The
intellectual and moral wants of our fellow-men, therefore, should claim
the first place in our attention, both because they are most important,
and because they are most neglected.

Another consideration, to be borne in mind, is, that, in this Country,
there is much less real need of charity, in supplying physical
necessities, than is generally supposed, by those who have not learned
the more excellent way. This Land is so abundant in supplies, and labor
is in such demand, that every healthy person can earn a comfortable
support. And if all the poor were instantly made virtuous, it is
probable that there would be no physical wants, which could not readily
be supplied by the immediate friends of each sufferer. The sick, the
aged, and the orphan, would be the only objects of charity. In this
view of the case, the primary effort, in relieving the poor, should be,
to furnish them the means of earning their own support, and to supply
them with those moral influences, which are most effectual in securing
virtue and industry.

Another point to be attended to, is, the importance of maintaining a
system of _associated_ charities. There is no point, in which the
economy of charity has more improved, than in the present mode of
combining many small contributions, for sustaining enlarged and
systematic plans of charity. If all the half-dollars, which are now
contributed to aid in organized systems of charity, were returned to the
donors, to be applied by the agency and discretion of each, thousands
and thousands of the treasures, now employed to promote the moral and
intellectual wants of mankind, would become entirely useless. In a
democracy, like ours, where few are very rich, and the majority are in
comfortable circumstances, this collecting and dispensing of drops and
rills, is the mode, by which, in imitation of Nature, the dews and
showers are to distil on parched and desert lands. And every person,
while earning a pittance to unite with many more, may be cheered with
the consciousness of sustaining a grand system of operations, which must
have the most decided influence, in raising all mankind to that perfect
state of society, which Christianity is designed to s