wonder you do not let your own servants be taught a
little. The maids can scarcely tell a letter, or say the Lord's
Prayer, and you know you will not allow them time to learn. William,
too, has never been at church since we came out of town. He was at
first very orderly and obedient, but now he is seldom sober of an
evening; and in the morning, when he should be rubbing the tables in
the parlor, he is generally lolling upon them, and reading your
little manual of the new philosophy." "Mrs. Fantom," said her
husband, angrily, "you know that my labors for the public good leave
me little time to think of my own family. I must have a great field;
I like to do good to hundreds at once."

"I am very glad of that, papa," said Miss Polly; "for then I hope
you will not refuse to subscribe to all those pretty children at the
Sunday School, as you did yesterday, when the gentlemen came a
begging, because that is the very thing you were wishing for; there
are two or three hundred to be done good at once."

_Trueman._ Well, Mr. Fantom, you are a wonderful man to keep up such
a stock of benevolence at so small an expense. To love mankind so
dearly, and yet avoid all opportunities of doing them good; to have
such a noble zeal for the millions, and to feel so little compassion
for the units; to long to free empires and enlighten kingdoms; and
yet deny instruction to your own village, and comfort to your own
family. Surely none but a philosopher could indulge so much
philanthropy and so much frugality at the same time. But come, do
assist me in a partition I am making in our poor-house; between the
old, whom I want to have better fed, and the young, whom I want to
have more worked.

_Fantom._ Sir, my mind is so engrossed with the partition of
Poland, that I can not bring it down to an object of such
insignificance. I despise the man whose benevolence is swallowed up
in the narrow concerns of his own family, or parish, or country.

_Trueman._ Well, now I have a notion that it is as well to do one's
own duty as the duty of another man; and that to do good at home is
as well as to do good abroad. For my part, I had as lieve help Tom
Saunders to freedom as a Pole or a South American, though I should
be very glad to help them too. But one must begin to love somewhere;
and to do good somewhere; and I think it is as natural to love one's
own family, and to do good in one's own neighborhood, as to any body
else. And if every man in every f