and improvidence. In cases such as these, improvidence is not only a
great sin, and a feeder of sin, but it is a great _cruelty_. In the case
of the father of a family, who has been instrumental in bringing a
number of helpless beings into the world, it is heartless and selfish in
the highest degree to spend money on personal indulgences such as drink,
which do the parent no good, and the mother and the children, through
the hereditary bad example, an irreparable amount of mischief. The
father takes sick, is thrown out of work, and his children are at once
deprived of the means of subsistence. The reckless parent has not even
taken the precaution to enter a Provident or a Benefit Society; and
while he is sick, his wife and children are suffering the pangs of
hunger. Or, he dies; and the poor creatures are thrown upon the charity
of strangers, or on the miserable pittance wrung from the poor-rates.

It would seem to be of little use preaching up an extension of rights to
a people who are so supinely indifferent to their own well-being,--who
are really unconcerned about their own elevation. The friends of the
industrious should faithfully tell them that they must exercise
prudence, economy, and self-denial, if they would really be raised from
selfish debasement, and become elevated to the dignity of thinking
beings. It is only by practising the principles of self-dependence that
they can achieve dignity, stability, and consideration in society; or
that they can acquire such influence and power as to raise them in the
scale of social well-being.

Brown, the Oxford shoemaker, was of opinion that "a good mechanic is the
most independent man in the world." At least he ought to be such. He has
always a market for his skill; and if he be ordinarily diligent, sober,
and intelligent, he may be useful, healthy, and happy. With a thrifty
use of his means, he may, if he earns from thirty to forty shillings a