Take a passage from the Life of Washington: "Reuben Rouzy, of Virginia, owed the General about one thousand pounds. While President of the United States, one of his agents brought an action for the money; judgment was obtained, and execution issued against the body of the defendant, who was taken to jail. He had a considerable landed estate, but this kind of property cannot be sold in Virginia for debts, unless at the discretion of the owner. He had a large family, and for the sake of his children, preferred lying in jail to selling his land. A friend hinted to him that probably General Washington did not know anything of the proceeding, and that it might be well to send him a petition, with a state. ment of the circumstances. He did so, and the very next post from Philadelphia after the arrival of his petition in that city, brought him an order for his immediate release, together with a full discharge, and a severe reprimand to the agent, for having acted in such a manner. Poor Rouzy was, in consequence, restored to his family, who never laid down their heads at night without presenting prayers to Heaven for their 'beloved Washington.' Providence smiled upon the labors of the grateful family, and in a few years Rouzy enjoyed the exquisite pleasure of being able to lay the one thousand pounds, with the interest, at the feet of this truly great man. Washington reminded him that the debt was discharged; Rouzy replied, the debt of his family to the father of their country, and the preserver of their parent could never be discharged: and the general to avoid the pleasing importunity of the grateful Virginian, who would not be denied, accepted the money, only, however, to divide it among Rouzy's children, which he immediately did."

There is an interesting fact related of the hero of Poland, indicative of his customary practice of almsgiving. Wishing to convey a present to a clerical friend, he gave the commission to a young man of the name of Teltner, desiring him to take the horse which he himself usually rode. On his return, the

messenger informed Kosciusko that he would never again ride his horse unless he gave him his purse at the same time; and on the latter inquiring what he meant, he replied: "As soon as a poor man on the road takes off his hat and asks charity, the animal immediately stands still, and will not stir till something is bestowed upon the petitioner; and as I had no money about me, I had to feign giving in order to satisfy the horse, and induce him to proceed." This noble creature deserved a pension and exemption from active service for the term of his natural life, on account of his superior education and refined moral sensibility.

Among the bright galaxy of noble names, that of John Howard will ever take prominent rank in the list of benefactors. After inspecting the receptacles of crime and poverty throughout Great Britain and Ireland, he left his native country, relinquishing his own ease, to visit the wretched abodes of those who were in want, and were bound in fetters of iron in other parts of the world. He travelled three times through France, four through Germany, five through Holland, twice through Italy, once through Spain and Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and part of Turkey-occupying a period of about twelve years. Without the few bright spots in the world's arid waste of selfishness, that occasionally irradiate the gloomy lot of the oppressed and poor, what a dreary life of deprivation and sorrow would be their portion. Man is necessarily a selfish being to a certain extent, but the social principle is no less an attribute of his nature; and the divine injunction requiring him to love his neighbor as himself, was doubtless imposed for the preservation of the weak and dependent, as well as being the palladium of all the virtues of our social economy. As a class, the poor are, indeed, often prodigal of their gifts, while the affluent are no less penurious; the former may almost be said to rob themselves, while the latter defraud society of the common inheritance of mankind. To choose between the two conditions, indeed, were not difficult; the

"golden mean "-neither poverty nor riches-should be the aim of all; yet, in the words of the prince of poets,

Poor and content, is rich, and rich enough:
But riches endless is as poor as winter

To him that even fears he shall be poor.

The author of "Notes on Life" judiciously sums up the question in the following paragraph.

"The philosophy which affects to teach us a contempt of money, does not run very deep; for, indeed, it ought to be still more clear to the philosopher than it is to ordinary men, that there are few things in the world of greater importance. And so manifold are the bearings of money upon the lives and characters of mankind, that an insight which should search out the life of a man in his pecuniary relations would penetrate into almost every cranny of his nature. He who knows, like St. Paul, both how to spare and how to abound, has a great knowledge; for if we take account of all the virtues with which money is mixed up-honesty, justice, generosity, charity, frugality, forethought, self-sacrifice-and of their correlative vices, it is a knowledge which goes near to cover the length and breadth of humanity; and a right measure and manner in getting, saving, spending, giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing, would almost argue a perfect man.”

We must not forget that, while some few abuse wealth, there are vastly more who know its appropriate use and worth. With such, money is the procurer of our common blessings. Money is then the universal talisman, the mainspring of our social system, the lever that moves the world. Some moderns, like Socrates (who wrote in praise of poverty on a table of solid gold), cynically speak against wealth. It is, however, the great motive agent in all departments of the social economy; helping on the civilization of the world, and ministering not merely to the elegances, but also the essentials of life. Money

represents labor. An eloquent writer* asks "who can adequately describe the triumphs of labor, urged on by the potent spell of money? It has extorted the secrets of the universe, and trained its powers into myriads of forms of use and beauty. From the bosom of the old creation, it has developed anew the creation of industry and art. It has been its task and its glory to overcome obstacles. Mountains have been levelled, - and valleys been exalted before it. It has broken the rocky soil into fertile glades; it has crowned the hill-tops with fruit and verdure, and bound around the very feet of ocean, ridges of golden corn. Up from the sunless and hoary deeps, up from the shapeless quarry, it drags its spotless marbles, and rears its palaces of pomp. It tears the stubborn metals from the bowels of the globe, and makes them ductile to its will. It marches steadily on over the swelling flood, and through the mountain clefts. It fans its way through the winds of ocean, tramples them in its course, surges and mingles them with flakes of fire. Civilization follows in its paths. It achieves grander victories, it weaves more durable trophies, it holds wider sway than the conqueror. His name becomes tainted and his monuments crumble; but labor converts his red battlefields into gardens, and erects monuments significant of better things. It rides in a chariot driven by the wind. It writes with the lightning. It sits crowned as a queen in a thousand cities, and sends up its roar of triumph from a million wheels. It glistens in the fabric of the loom, it rings and sparkles from the steely hammer, it glories in shapes of beauty, it speaks in words of power, it makes the sinewy arm strong with liberty, the poor man's heart rich with content, crowns the swarthy and sweaty brow with honor, and dignity, and peace."

We have not mentioned a class who have been styled parvenu, such as have acquired wealth, and with it the vulgar passion for display. Such characters are to be found in all

Rev. Mr. Chapin.

communities, but especially in those of recent formation. Unless culture and refinement accompany the possession of great wealth, the deformity is but the more obtrusive.

"Worth makes the man, the want of it the fellow,
The rest is naught but leather and prunello."

A gentleman has been defined "a Christian in spirit that will take a polish." The rest are but plated goods, and, whatever their fashion, rub them as you may, the base metal will show itself still.

Whether in ermine or fustian, there is no disguising character the refined may be seen in the latter, as palpably as the vulgar in the former:

"You may daub and bedizen the man as you will,

But the stamp of the vulgar remains on him still."

It is from this class that virtuous poverty has most to suffer. These are they who "grind the faces of the poor," who, notwithstanding the proverb that "poverty is no crime," yet treat a man without money as if he were without principle; who gauge the wit and worth of a man by his wearing-apparel and his wealth; who deem it absurd for a poor man to assert his possession of intelligence, learning, or, in fact, any endowment whatever. Goldsmith, referring to this depreciating influence of poverty, says-a poor man resembles a fiddler, whose music, though liked, is not much praised, because he lives by it; while a gentleman performer, though the most wretched scraper alive, throws the audience into raptures.

The want of money but deprives us of friends not worth the keeping it cuts us out of society to which dress and equipage are the only introduction, and deprives us of a number of needless luxuries and gilded fetters.

"I am rich enough," says Pope to Swift, "and can afford to give away a hundred pounds a year. I would not crawl upon