Page:The reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor (IA b21971961 0001).pdf/18

iv Let us therefore make the inquiry into all that concerns the, and the promotion of their happiness, a ; let us investigate practically, and upon system, the nature and consequences, and let us unite in the extension and improvement of those things which experience hath ascertained to be beneficial to the poor. Let the labours of the industrious, the talents of the wise, the influence of the powerful, and the leisure of the many, be directed to this important subject; and let us be assured, that united and patient industry will not fail of success.

The principle of all modern improvements in the sciences—in the arts—in every thing in which the industry of man has extended the narrow limits of human knowledge—that principle, without which all is conjecture and hazard, has never yet been properly applied to the concerns of the poor. A search after what has really augmented their happiness and virtue—after what use and experience have given their