The Kanzas news., 1857-08-29
Munificeht Reouests

6C4aCotSs
Moses Sheppard, thrifty Quaker mer-
chant of New Orleans, was, fen days AGO,
gathered 10 his fathers.'' His will be-
queathes 5000, 900 for the purpose of founds
ing an Insane Asylum. Blessed be his
memory. Honored be the fame of all men,
who, when unable longer to retain their
hold on their thousands or their millions,
consecrate them TO some benevolent insti-
tuition or purpose.
And yet we would rather sound the
praises of the living than the dead philan-
thropist. We had rather bless the name
than remember the fame of our fellow -crea-
ture. We can not help admiring the living
benefactor more than we can revere the
dead one. Il is true each carries out the
Christian principle in different way
One seems to love his neighbor as himself !;
and the other provides first for his own
household: The former, however, seems to
be willing to inciir the possibility of per-
sciial want for the good of others; while the
latter is only desirous of having his vast
possessions accrtie to the benefit of man.
kind, when it becomes absolutely certain
that they can no longer benefit himself.
But it is the practical rather than the
theoretical view of this subject we wish to
present. We believe that one hundred
thousand dollars-be the same mere or less
under the management or advisory direc-
ton of the living donor, will benefit the
world more, as a general rule, than fte
times the sum in the hands of the slow,
cumbrOus, and expensive machinery of
trustees, executors, administrators, ETC.
We believe all historical data viii sustain
us in this assertion.
The Girard College, of Philadelphia, the
Smithsonian Institute, at Washington, and
the Astor Library, of New York, are noble
benefactions to humanity. They will serve
as enduring monuments TO preserve the
memories of their wealthy founders from
forgetfulness. But the donor of the Coop
er Institute, who still sojourns among us in
the flesh, with a prospect of many years of
earthly enjoyment and usefulness, will not
only be honored by the existing generation,
and live in history, but will hive the salts
faction of assuring and witnessing the real
ization of his plan of benevolence.
Mr.. Peabody, the eminent English bank
er, now on a visit to his native country. has
just made donation of half a million of
dollars to found an Institute in Baltimore,
comprehending library, picture gallery,
lecture hall, musical department., etc. Geo.
Peabody has done well in following in the
footsteps of Peter Cooper. If the example
should become contagious with our rich
men, we can imagine no one, unless they
have lazy and dissipated relatives, who viii
be sorry.
Yet after all. these gigantic bequests and
these magnificent temples of science, art,
or charity, are mainly adapted to the few.
They do not precisely meet the public want;
nor are they the best means for securing
the greatest good to the greatest number"
They are very like some of our richly-en-
dowed and gayly-adorned churches excel
lent accommodations for the saints, but no
place for sinners.
The development of humanity and the
redemption of society-the solution of the
great problems of sociology-requires sci
entifc and charitable institutions on small
er scale, and correspondingly more numer
GUS. Nearly all of our mammoth institu
tions, except almshouses, asylums, and pen
itentiaries, whether endowed by public or
private munifcence, benefit mainly the up
per and middling classes, those who are best
able to help themselves. The poor, and
ignorant, and vicious, who most need cor
rection, protection, and assistance, are left
to the tneagre aid afforded by associations
for the poor, and the chance charity of the
passer-by, whose pitiful bounty merely con-
templates raising the wretehed object of it
above the danger of immediate starvation or
freezing.
In behalf of these, we recommend to
those who have been successful in business,
not to wait to become miIlionaires-forI
riches always will have wings-but to plant
at oiiee, with the fertilizing dust of ten,
twenty, or even fifty thousand dollars, the
seed of some tree of knowledge and benef
cence, which, in their lifetime, they can
nurture and direct, whose branches shall be
for the healing of the nations, and whose ex
ample shall mark the era of a new dispense
tion - life Tzszsfr0fp1