Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1839-06-13
WHOLE No. 479.

FRoM DR CHANNING's Discourse srfd
THE FRATERNiTr or CnrRcIiEs Tile
great calamity of the poor IS not their pow
veriy, understanding this word In the usual
sense. but the tendency Of their priValionsI
aud of their soca rank, To degradation ri
mind. When compare together different
cInsses NJ existing at this moment IN the
civilized world, | cannot think the dIflerenro
between the rich and the poor, in regard td
mere physical suffering, so great as'is some
times imagined. Vastly more in this con-.
,nunity die from eating too much than from
eating too little vastly more from excess
q an starvation. So as TO clothing, many
shivcr froin want Of dofcDces against tho cold
but there is vastly more suffering among the
rich from absurd and criminal modes OF dress,
which fashion has sanctioned, than among the
poor from deficiency of ralncnt Our
daughters are oftener brought to tile grave
by their rich attire, than our beggars by their
hakedDess. SO the poor are often over
worked, but they suffer less than many
among the rich who have no work to do, no
interesting object to fill up life, to satisfy the
infinite cravings OF man for action. Accord.
ing to our present modes of education, how
many of our daughters are victims OF ennu',
a misery unknown To the poor md more M
toll. II is not then the phy ysical suffering of
the poor, but their relation TO the rest of So
ric,y, the want of means of inward life, the
degrading influences of their position to
which their chief misery is to be traced.--
Let not the condition of the poor be spoken
of as nece ssurily wretchcd. Give them the
Christian spirit and they would find IN their
lot the chief elements Of good. Nor let It
he said that the poor cannot enjoy domestic
happiness for want Of the means of educating
their children. A sound moral Judgment -
Of more value in education than all wealth
aud all talent. For want ofthis, the children
of men Of genius and opulencc are often the
worst trained in the community. What pre-
sent do civilization and science make Ia the
poor? Strong drink, ardent spirits, liquid
poison. liquid fire, a type OF The fire OF hell.
In every poor mans neighborhood flows
Lcthean stream which laps hun tor awhile IN
oblivion Of all his cares and sorrows. The
power Of this temptation can he little under
stood by those whose thirst Tor pleasure IL
regularly supplied by succession OF inno'
cent pleasures, who meet soothing and ex-
citing objects wherever they turn. The un-
educated poor without resource IN books. IN
their families, in well spread board, IN
cheerful apartments, IN places OF fashiunauis
resort, and pressed down by disappointment,
debt, despondcnce, and exhausting tolls are
driven by an impulse drcadiully strong, To
the haunls of intcmpcrance; and there they
plunge into misery sorer than all the tor
lures invented by man. They qncnch tho
lights Of reason, cast Off the characteristics
of humanity, blot out Gods image as far as
they have power, and take their place among
the brutes. Terrible misery! And this
comes To them from the very civilization IN
which they live. They are victims to the
progress of science and the arts tor these
multiply the poison which destroys them
They are victims To the rich; for 1t Is The
capital Of the rich which erects the distIlery,
and surrounds them with temptations TO self
murder. They are victims to partIal nd
yanccment of society, which multiplies gra'l-
fcations and allureInents without awakening
proporliouate moral power to withstand them.
We are hoping to form new men and women
by literature and science; but all IN valn.-
We shall learn in time, that moral and re-
liglous culture is the foundation and strength
of all true cultivation that we are deformlng
human nature by the means relied on for rs
growth, and that the poor, who receive care
which awakcns their conscirnces and moral
sentiments, start under happier auspicies than
the prosperous, who place supreme depcn.
dcnce on the education of the intellect ana
the taste. 1t is the kind not the extent ut
knowledge, by which the advancement ofa
human being must be measured; ana that
kind which alone exalts man is placed with
in the reach of ALL Moral and Religious
Truth this is the treasure of the intellect,
and all are poor without it, This 'ransccnds
physical truth as far as heaven is liitod above
the earth.