Page:Whole works of joseph butler.djvu/236

205 2. Amongst the peculiar advantages of public charities above private ones, is also to be mentioned, that they are examples of great influence. They serve for perpetual memorials of what I have been observing, of the relation which subsists between the rich and the poor, and the duties which arise out of it. They are standing admonitions to all within sight or hearing of them, to "go and do likewise," Luke x. 37. Educating poor children in virtue and religion, relieving the sick, and correcting offenders in order to their amendment, are in themselves some of the very best of good works. These charities would indeed be the glory of your city, though their influence were confined to it. But important as they are in themselves, their importance still increases by their being examples to the rest of the nation ; which, in process of time, of course copies after the metropolis. It has, indeed, already imitated every one of these charities: for, of late, the most difficult and expensive of them, hospitals for the sick and wounded, have been established: some within your sight, others in remote parts of the kingdom. You will give me leave to mention particularly, that in its second trading city, which is conducted with such disinterested fidelity and prudence as I dare venture to compare with yours. Again, there are particular persons very blameably inactive and careless, yet not without good dispositions, who, by these charities,