odily disorder, even
though we possess every convenience that can mitigate its violence! Not
all the dainties which can be collected from all the elements, the
warmth of downy beds and silken couches, the attendance of obsequious
dependants, are capable of making us bear with common patience the most
common disease; how pitiable, then, must be the state of a
fellow-creature, who is at once tortured by bodily suffering, and
destitute of every circumstance which can alleviate it; who sees around
him a family that are not only incapable of assisting their parents,
but destined to want the common necessaries of life, the moment he
intermits his daily labours! How indispensable, then, is the obligation
which should continually impel the rich to exert themselves in assisting
their fellow-creatures, and rendering that condition of life which we
all avoid less dreadful to those who must support it always!"

Acting from such principles as these, Mr Barlow was the common friend of
all the species. Whatever his fortune would allow him to perform he
never refused to all who stood in need of his assistance. But there is
yet a duty which he thought of more importance than the mere
distribution of property to the needy--the encouragement of industry and
virtue among the poor, and giving them juster notions of morals and
religion. "If we have a dog," he would say, "we refuse neither pains nor
expense to train him up to hunting; if we have a horse, we send him to
an experienced rider to be bitted; but our own species seems to be the
only animal which is entirely exempted from our care." When he rode
about the country he used to consider with admiration the splendid
stables which the great construct for the reception of their horses,
their ice-houses, temples, hermitages, grottoes, and all the apparatus
of modern vanity. "All this," he would say, "is an unequivocal proof the
gentleman loves himself, and grudges no expense that can gratify his
vanity; but I would now wish to see what he has done for his
fellow-creatures; what are the proofs that he has given of public spirit
or humanity, the wrongs which he has redressed, the miseries he has
alleviated, the abuses which he has endeavoured to remove!"

When he was told of the stubbornness and ingratitude of the poor, he
used to say, "that he believed it without difficulty, for they were men
in common with their superiors, and therefore must share in some of
their vices; but if the interes