The blessedness of life
depends far more on its interest than upon its comfort. The need of
exertion and the doubt of success, renders life much more
interesting to the poor than it is to those who, unblessed with
anxiety for the bread that perisheth, waste their poor hearts about
rank and reputation.'
'I thought such anxiety was represented as an evil in the New
Testament.'
'Yes. But it is a still greater evil to lose it in any other way
than by faith in God. You would remove the anxiety by destroying its
cause: God would remove it by lifting them above it, by teaching
them to trust in him, and thus making them partakers of the divine
nature. Poverty is a blessing when it makes a man look up.'
'But you cannot say it does so always.'
'I cannot determine when, where, and how much; but I am sure it
does. And I am confident that to free those hearts from it by any
deed of yours would be to do them the greatest injury you could.
Probably their want of foresight would prove the natural remedy,
speedily reducing them to their former condition--not however
without serious loss.'
'But will not this theory prove at last an an?sthetic rather than an
anodyne? I mean that, although you may adopt it at first for refuge
from the misery the sight of their condition occasions you, there is
surely a danger of its rendering you at last indifferent to it.'
'Am I indifferent? But you do not know me yet. Pardon my egotism.
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