Part 3
The town is divided into six districts, and each district into about twelve divisions. To each of these divisions a visitor is appointed, and this office is voluntarily undertaken by some benevolent individual. The number of ladies who devote themselves to this duty considerably exceeds that of the gentlemen. The recommendation most urged by the visitors is the exercise of frugality. The industrious poor are exhorted to save, at a time when they have the power of doing so--thus reserving to themselves the means of obtaining the enjoyment of such comforts as they could not otherwise procure, at periods when their exertions produce to them less profit. As an inducement to prefer the future good to the present gratification, a small addition from the funds of the society is made to the savings of individuals.
The visitors receive deposits, however small--enter these sums in a book--and pay them over to the treasurer. The depositors feel that they may have their money at any moment they think proper to call for it, unchecked in their demand, save by the moral restraint which would prevent them from requiring it for vicious or wasteful occasions. Deposits are returned either in money or in such articles as are wanted by those receiving them, the small gratuity already noticed being always duly added. The number of depositors, and the sums deposited, have been gradually increasing. Many of these depositors have, at various times, candidly confessed to the visitors, that but for their interference and the facility thus afforded to them for saving, their money would have been spent on things useless in comparison with those comforts which frugality has enabled them to procure.
Here then was a sum of money distributed among those who had a right to it--who were under no obligation to any one, farther than that which is incurred when others interest themselves in our welfare. While the depositors enjoy the comforts thus obtained, they feel, with a proud satisfaction, that these are not doled out to them by means of the poors’ rates, nor administered to them by the hand of charity, but are derived from their own savings, and result from their own industry, prudence, and forbearance.
This feeling of independence thus called forth, raises man in the scale of being; and an institution which fosters or awakens this ennobling sentiment, offers, besides all other claims to merit, a sufficient proof of its great value.
The above outline has been given in the hope that its consideration may prove of general utility.
That class of labourers whose earnings are the least profitable, generally earn more in the summer than in the winter, while their expenses during the latter season are always the greatest. It is then during the former period that the prudent labourer would lay by to meet the increased demands at the latter time. If a person can only get twelve shillings per week during the winter months, and fourteen shillings per week during the summer, since he can live much better on twelve shillings per week in summer than on fourteen shillings per week in winter, he would act wisely to lay by two or three shillings weekly at the one time, and thus provide for the deficiencies of the other. But he may ask, how is this to be effected?--he has no “district society” in his neighbourhood--no kind visiting friend to remind him of the propriety of saving, and to receive his small deposits. The savings’ bank is at some distance--it is inconvenient to send there--it requires time, and is therefore expensive to be constantly going there himself--in short, a thousand reasons will always suggest themselves as excuses for not doing at all what is not done with hearty good will. But to save money it must be put as much beyond our reach as possible--it will burn in our pockets, and will be got rid of somehow or other. What then is to be done? We remember when we were young possessing a small earthenware pot with only a slit in it for an opening, and so constructed that whatever was put in could not be got out again without destroying the pot. This was the receptacle for our spare money, and whenever any temptation was felt to spend the little savings, the circumstance of being obliged to break the jar previously to appropriating its contents, always induced us to pause for reflection. The result of such deliberation generally showed that the money was about to have been expended uselessly, and that it would be much better to leave the pot whole, and to go on putting in instead of taking out. The benefit of this prudent determination was ultimately reaped, at a time when it was most acceptable. We would recommend a plan somewhat similar to this to those who are desirous of constantly making small savings. A tin box might be made at a very small cost, with a lock and key to it, and a slit at the top, large enough to put any sized piece of money into it, and a piece of cloth so placed in the inside as to act like a valve, affording ingress, but not egress, to the coins. This box should be locked, and the key intrusted to some one to whom the possessor would not like to apply on trivial occasions. It should be put in a safe place, but where it might often meet the eye, and should be looked upon as a friend who will furnish a supply of extra comforts during winter time. But as it is not Fortunatus’ purse, which we read of in fairy tales as abounding with an exhaustless fund, it must receive its supply from the practice of self-denial, by withholding from oneself any unnecessary gratifications when the means of procuring them are at hand, and slipping the money that was to purchase these in the slit of the box.
This box then may stand in lieu of a visitor of the District Society; and every time anything is put into it, it may be considered as a friend ready to afford its assistance in the time of sickness, in the hour of distress, or during those periods when expenses are greatest and wages least.
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LYCIDAS.
One of the most beautiful minor poems of Milton, though slightly obscure in some passages from the use of antiquated phrases, and in one instance strongly imbued with the author’s political feelings, is his Monody of Lycidas. This was written in Milton’s 29th year, on the occasion of the untimely death of his friend, Mr. John King, who was drowned in the passage from England to Ireland. The character of the poem is pastoral, it being assumed that the author and his lamented friend were brother shepherds:--
“For we were nurst upon the self-same hill; Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill. Together both, ere the high lawns appear’d Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, We drove a-field, and both together heard What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, Batt’ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night Oft till the star that rose, at evening, bright, Toward Heav’ns descent had slop’d his west’ring wheel.”
The complaint of the poet on the shortness of life, and the glowing reply of Phœbus to his lamentation, is one of the finest passages in the whole compass of English verse:--
“Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th’ abhorred shears, And slits the thin spun life. But not the praise, Phœbus reply’d, and touch’d my trembling ears; Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Nor in the glist’ring foil Set off to th’ world, nor in broad rumor lies, But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; As he pronounces lastly on each deed, Of so much fame in heav’n expect thy meed.”
But Milton’s soul was nourished with the hopes of the Christian, as well as excited with the ambition of the poet;--and thus the monody finely concludes with an eloquent expression of the only real consolation under every such calamity:--
“Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more, For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead. Sunk though he be beneath the wat’ry floor; So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed; And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, Through the dear might of him that walk’d the waves, Where other groves and other streams along, With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. There entertain him all the saints above, In solemn troops and sweet societies, That sing, and singing in their glory move, And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.”
[Illustration: Lycidas. From a design by Fuseli.]
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That sanctity which settles on the memory of a great man, ought, upon a double motive, to be vigilantly sustained by his countrymen; first, out of gratitude to him, as one column of the national grandeur; secondly, with a practical purpose of transmitting, unimpaired, to posterity the benefit of ennobling models. High standards of excellence are among the happiest distinctions by which the modern ages of the world have an advantage over earlier, and we are all interested by duty as well as policy in preserving them inviolate.--_From a Memoir of Milton in ‘The Gallery of Portraits.’_
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This liberty in conversation (fiction and exaggeration) defeats its own end. Much of the pleasure and all the benefit of conversation depends upon our opinion of the speaker’s veracity.--_Paley’s Moral Philosophy._
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Transcriber’s Notes
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Illustrations have been moved in some cases to natural breaks in the text. Itemized changes from the original text:
• p. 148: Added missing or misprinted “t” in “advantageously” in phrase “may be advantageously consulted.” • p. 148: Added missing or misprinted closing single quote after “trials” in phrase “It appears from a note in the ‘Criminal Trials,’ vol i. p. 361.” • p. 150: Capitalized “Capitol” in phrase “the title and prerogatives of poet-laureat are revived in the Capitol” to match other references. • p. 150: Added semicolon after phrase “uncorrupted by avarice, sensuality, or ambition.” • p. 150: Added missing period after phrase “or become wantonly instrumental in producing them.”