I hardly fear his terrible shape
It seems so like my own;
It seems so like my own,
Because of the fasts I keep;
Oh God, that bread should be so dear
And flesh and blood so cheap!"

To the philanthropist or the benevolent sympathiser like Lord Selkirk,
who aims at benefiting suffering humanity, it is not the trouble, the
self-sacrifice, or the spending of money in relief that is the worry,
but it is the bitterness, the suspicion, the unworkableness, and the
selfishness of the poverty-stricken themselves that disturbs and
distresses the benefactor's heart. It is often too the heartlessness and
prejudice of those who oppose the benefactor's plans that causes the
generous man anxiety and even at times despair. Poverty in its worst
form is a gaunt and ravenous beast, that bites the hand of friend or foe
that is stretched out toward it. So Lord Selkirk found it, when he
undertook to help the poverty-stricken Celts of the Scottish Highlands
and of the West of Ireland. He had the sympathising heart; he had the
true vision; and he had as few others of his time had, the power to
plan, the invention to suggest, and the skill and pluck to overcome
difficulties, but the carrying out of his intent brought him infinite
trouble and sorrow. His prospectus, offering the means to the
poverty-stricken people of reaching what he believed to be a home of
ultimate plenty on the banks of the Red River, was an entirely worthy
document. His first point is, that his Colonists will be freemen. No
religious tenet will be considered in their selection. This was even
freer that was that of Lord Baltimore's much-vaunted Colony, on the
Atlantic Coast, for Baltimore required that every Colonist should
believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. Then, the offer was to the