213.
The author has made an attempt in this character to draw a picture of what is too often seen, a wretched being whose heart becomes hardened and spited at the world, in which she is doomed to experience much misery and little sympathy.

The system of compulsory charity by poor's rates, of which the absolute necessity can hardly be questioned, has connected with it on both sides some of the most odious and malevolent feelings that can agitate humanity.

The quality of true charity is not strained.

Like that of mercy, of which, in a large sense, it may be accounted a sister virtue, it blesses him that gives and him that takes.
It awakens kindly feelings both in the mind of the donor and in that of the relieved object.

The giver and receiver are recommended to each other by mutual feelings of good-will, and the pleasurable emotions connected with the consciousness of a good action fix the deed in recollection of the one, while a sense of gratitude renders it holy to the other.