, the dearest part of charity,
you will at once have the pleasure (and it is no small one) of
helping to save a worthy family from starving, of redeeming an old
friend from jail, and of putting a little of your boasted
benevolence into action. Realize! Master Fantom--there is nothing
like realizing. "Why, hark ye, Mr. Trueman," said Fantom,
stammering, and looking very black; "do not think I value a guinea;
no, sir, I despise money; it is trash; it is dirt, and beneath the
regard of a wise man. It is one of the unfeeling inventions of
artificial society. Sir, I could talk to you for half a day on the
abuse of riches, and on my own contempt for money."

_Trueman._ O, pray do not give yourself the trouble; it will be an
easier way by half of vindicating yourself from one, and of proving
the other, just to put your hand in your pocket and give me a
guinea, without saying a word about it; and then to you, who value
time so much, and money so little, it will cut the matter short. But
come now (for I see you will give nothing), I should be mighty glad
to know what is the sort of good you do yourself, since you always
object to what is done by others? "Sir," said Mr. Fantom; "the
object of a true philosopher is to diffuse light and knowledge. I
wish to see the whole world enlightened."

_Trueman._ Amen! if you mean with the light of the gospel. But if
you mean that one religion is as good as another, and that no
religion is best of all; and that we shall become wiser and better
by setting aside the very means which Providence bestowed to make us
wise and good; in short, if you want to make the whole world
philosophers, why they had better stay as they are. But as to the
true light, I wish to reach the very lowest, and I therefore bless
God for charity-schools, as instruments of diffusing it among the
poor.

Fantom, who had no reason to suspect that his friend was going to
call upon him for a subscription on this account, ventured to praise
them, saying, "I am no enemy to these institutions. I would, indeed,
change the object of instruction, but I would have the whole world
instructed."

Here Mrs. Fantom, who, with her daughter, had quietly sat by at
their work, ventured to put in a word, a liberty she seldom took
with her husband, who, in his zeal to make the whole world free and
happy, was too prudent to include his wife among the objects on
whom he wished to confer freedom and happiness. "Then, my dear,"
said she, "I