Though Mr. Stanley had checked my impetuosity in my application to him,
and did not encourage my addresses with a promptitude suited to the
ardor of my affection: yet as the warmth of my attachment,
notwithstanding I made it a duty to restrain its outward expression,
could not escape either his penetration or that of his admirable wife,
they began a little to relax in the strictness with which they had
avoided speaking of their daughter. They never indeed introduced the
subject themselves, yet it some how or other never failed to find its
way into all conversation in which I was one of the interlocutors.
Sitting one day in Lucilla's bower with Mrs. Stanley, and speaking,
though in general terms, on the subject nearest my heart, with a
tenderness and admiration as sincere as it was fervent, I dwelt
particularly on some instances which I had recently heard from Edwards,
of her tender attention to the sick poor, and her zeal in often visiting
them, without regard to weather, or the accommodation of a carriage.
"I assure you," said Mrs. Stanley, "you over-rate her. Lucilla is no
prodigy dropped down from the clouds. Ten thousand other young women,
with natural good sense, and good temper, might, with the same
education, the same neglect of what is useless, and the same attention
to what is necessary, acquire the same habits and the same principles.
Her being no prodigy, however, perhaps makes her example, as far as it
goes, more important. She may be more useful, because she carries not
that discouraging superiority, which others might be deterred from
imitating, through hopelessness to reach. If she is not a miracle whom
others might despair to emulate, she is a Christian whom every girl of a
fair understanding and good temper may equal, and whom, I hope and
believe, many girls excel."
I asked Mrs. Stanley's permission to attend the young ladies in one of
their benevolent rounds. "When I have leisure to be one of the party,"
replied she, smiling, "you shall accompany us. I am afraid to trust your
warm feelings. Your good-nature would perhaps lead you to commend as a
merit, what in fact deserves no praise at all, the duly being so
obvious, and so indispensable. I have often heard it regretted that
ladies have no stated employment, no profession. It is a mistake.
_Charity is the calling of a lady; the care of the poor is her
profession._ Men have little time or taste for details. Women of fortune
have abundant leisure, which can in no way be so properly or so
pleasantly filled up, as in making themselves intimately acquainted with
the worth and the wants of all within their reach. With their wants,
because it is their bounden duty to administer to them; with their
worth, because without this knowledge, they can not administer prudently
and appropriately."
I expressed to Mrs. Stanley the delight with which I had heard of the
admirable regulations of her family, in the management of the poor, and
how much their power of doing good was said to be enlarged by the
judgment and discrimination with which it was done.
"We are far from thinking," replied she, "that our charity should be
limited to our own immediate neighborhood. We are of opinion, that it
should not be left undone anywhere, but that _there_ it should be done
indispensably. We consider our own parish as our more appropriate field
of action, where providence, by 'fixing the bounds of our habitation,'
seems to have made us peculiarly responsible for the comfort of those
whom he has doubtless placed around us for that purpose. It is thus that
the Almighty vindicates his justice, or rather calls on us to vindicate
it. It is thus he explains why he admits natural evil into the world, by
making the wants of one part of the community an exercise for the
compassion of the other. As in different circumstances, the faults of
one part of mankind are an exercise for the forbearance of the other.
"Surely," added Mrs. Stanley, "the reason is particularly obvious, why
the bounty of the affluent ought to be most liberally, though not
exclusively, extended to the spot whence they derive their revenues.
There seems indeed to be a double motive for it. The same act involves a
duty both to God and man. The largest bounty to the necessitous on our
estates, is rather justice than charity. 'Tis but a kind of pepper-corn
acknowledgment to the great Lord and proprietor of all, from whom we
hold them. And to assist their own laboring poor is a kind of natural
debt, which persons who possess great landed property owe to those from
the sweat of whose brow they derive their comforts, and even their
riches. 'Tis a commutation, in which, as the advantage is greatly on our
side, so is our duty to diminish the difference a paramount obligation."
I then repeated my request, that I might be allowed to take a practical
lesson in the next periodical visit to the cottages.
Mrs. Stanley replied, "As to my girls, the elder ones I trust are such
veterans in their trade, that your approbation can do them no harm, nor
do they stand in need of it as an incentive. But should the little ones
find that their charity procures them praise, they might perhaps be
charitable for the sake of praise, their benevolence might be set at
work by their vanity, and they might be led to do that, from the love of
applause, which can only please God when the principle is pure. _The
iniquity of our holy things_, my good friend, requires much Christian
vigilance. Next to not giving at all, the greatest fault is to give from
ostentation. The motive robs the act of the very name of virtue. While
the good work that is paid in praise, is stripped of the hope of higher
retribution."
On my assuring Mrs. Stanley that I thought such an introduction to their
systematic schemes of charity might inform my own mind and improve my
habits, she consented, and I have since been a frequent witness of their
admirable method; and have been studying plans, which involve the good
both of body and soul. Oh! if I am ever blest with a coadjutress, a
directress let me rather say, formed under such auspices, with what
delight shall I transplant the principles and practices of Stanley Grove
to the Priory! Nor indeed would I ever marry but with the animating hope
that not only myself, but all around me, would be the better and the
happier for the presiding genius I shall place there.
Sir John Belfield had joined us while we were on this topic. I had
observed that though he was earnest on the general principle of
benevolence, which he considered as a most imperious duty, or, as he
said in his warm way, as so lively a pleasure that he was almost ready
to suspect if it _were_ a duty; yet I was sorry to find that his
generous mind had not viewed this large subject under all its aspects.
He had not hitherto regarded it as a matter demanding any thing but
money; while time, inquiry, discrimination, system, he confessed, he had
not much taken into the account. He did a great deal of good, but had
not allowed himself time or thought for the best way of doing it.
Charity, as opposed to hard-heartedness and covetousness, he warmly
exercised; but when, with a willing liberality, he had cleared himself
from the suspicion of those detestable vices, he was indolent in the
proper distribution of money, and somewhat negligent of its just
application. Nor had he ever considered, as every man should do, because
every man's means are limited, how the greatest quantity of good could
be done with any given sum.
But the worst of all was, he had imbibed certain popular prejudices
respecting the more _religious_ charities; prejudices altogether
unworthy of his enlightened mind. He too much limited his ideas of
bounty to bodily wants. This distinction was not with him, as it is with
many, invented as an argument for saving his money, which he most
willingly bestowed for feeding and clothing the necessitous. But as to
the propriety of affording them religious instruction, he owned he had
not made up his mind. He had some doubts whether it were a duty. Whether
it were a benefit he had still stronger doubts; adding that he should
begin to consider the subject more attentively than he had yet done.
Mrs. Stanley in reply, said, "I am but a poor casuist, Sir John, and I
must refer you to Mr. Stanley for abler arguments than I can use. I will
venture, however, to say, that even on your own ground it appears to be
a pressing duty. If sin be the cause of so large a portion of the
miseries of human life, must not that be the noblest charity which
cures, or lessens, or prevents sin? And are not they the truest
benefactors even to the bodies of men, who by their religious exertions
to prevent the corruption of vice, prevent also in some measure that
poverty and disease which are the natural concomitants of vice? If in
endeavoring to make men better, by the infusion of a religious
principle, which shall check idleness, drinking, and extravagance, we
put them in the way to become healthier, and richer, and happier, it
will furnish a practical argument which I am sure will satisfy your
benevolent heart."