The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1839-06-19
From The Louisville Literary Nsps- Letter.

From The Louisville Literary Nsps- Letter.
CHARITY.
Loveliest Of the heaven-born trio, whittier,
from the contact Of selfish humanity hast thou
taken thy flight While thy sister, Hope,
still decks with rainbow coloring the horizon
of existence, and while thy eldest sister,
Faith, still assures to the Responding bosom
the substance OF things unseen. why hast
thou forsaken the precincts of mortality, as if
they were all unit for thy pure ethereal es-
sence. And well, mayhap, mayst thou deem
them SO: yet, gentle spirit, before thou takest
thy last farewell Of earth, look back with
plying eye upon the sad, discordant elements
which will need the kindly influence Of thy
smile. As the au,umnal sun, when culmina-
ting from the equator, may be supposed to
look with sorrow upon the northern cline he
is about to leave exposed TO the black and
rude blasts OF winter, SO wilt not thou sigh
when thou lookeat down from thy empyrean
height upon the storms Of passion and the
powers of hate, which but await thy with
drawal to deform with demon darkness the
human soul?
Such might we suppose to be the refec-
tons Of one, who from the loop-hoes of his
retreat calmly looks out upon the sea Of life.
And truly, if there is one virtue, one senti-
ment Of the breast that demands apotheosis, it
is that to which our invocation is addressed.
Hope and love, and the thousand streams that
minister to the heart, concentrate their trea-
sures upon one idol, and that idol is self; but
it is the peculiar and beautiful province of this
queen Of virtues, to turn their affections from
their too narrow resting place, and shed them
as the gentle dews of Hermon' upon the
IF .ub, ,b La; t1,a, IL cc
life II is an aphorsm as false as il is trite,
that charity begins at home. Far from it.
The circle that contains our ouH, is ever the
last that is blessed with her heavenly vista
ton. Tho ties of nature that link us in in
dissoluble bonds to those who mingle their
blood with ours, are enough to secure us in
every duty resulting from the relation but it
belongs to charity alone to connect us with
the outer world, and to hold the silken cords
that bind us all in one common brotherhood.
Her wings are ever plumed for flight abroad
to minister to others woes; and to CLEAN up
whatever Of good, erring humanity may yet
have left She runnelh the earth's wide cir
cult round
In our intercourse with our fellow men
there is one error from which result most Of
the evils to which that intercourse is subject.
We are too apt to be led astray by abstrac-
tons. We set up an ideal standard, clothed
with all the attributes Of ideal excellence, and
endeavor to compare every mind and every
action with its measure, without giving one
thought to the countless and unknown cir
cumstances, which in the tangled maze of
human motive may have contributed TO give
them their present form and coloring. In the
forum of conscience, we reject the rule which
is of such sacred utility in the halls Of JUS
tice that no action is to be considered by it.
self, but must be viewed in all its relations
with other actions, which thus extenuate or
even change its nature. This, then, may
furnish definition Of Charity it is the feel
ing which disposes us to withhold censure
from the conduct Of others, until fully ac-
quanted with the motives that dictate and
the circumstances that led to it or in the abb
sence Of such knowledge, to place on it the
best construction it will possibly bear. 1t is
easy to perceive how opposed this is TO the
practice of the world, and even to human ma
lure itself If it is true, as Rochefoucaut
remarks, that there is in the misfortunes Of
our best friends some thing not unpleasant TO
us. it is no less true, that our selfishness finds
pleasure in contemplating the failings Of
our fellow mortals. Whether it is that we
suppose an exhibition Of the faults of another
draws for time attention from our own, or
whether we delight in the contrast afforded
TO our virtue by another's vice, certain il is,
that mankind have rarely been disposed to
mete out to others, the same palliating judg-
menls which they pass upon themselves.
Could our nature in this respect be chang
ed what an altered aspect might the world
present to our gaze. Though we might not
be prepared TO say with Hamlet, that there
is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it
So yet we might be disposed to think, that
there is nothing so debased as TO retain no
traces Of its primitive excellence, and no one
so utterly changed as TO have lost forever the
lneaments Of the Architect divine Instead
of starring with loathing adherence from the
contact of the man of crime upon whose
head the law is about to wreak its vengeance;
instead OF viewing him no longer as man
but demon, we might in pity behold him as
one nerbaps as much sinned against as sin
ninr. we might think Of him as being once
like ourselves, but, in the trying period Of his
youth thrown helpless upon an unfeeling
world
"Lord OF himself that heritage Of woe
his young affections dried at their fountain,
and every impulse that might have prompted