Dorothea Beale seems never to have taken kindly to charitable work. She had a great horror of the demoralisation caused by the giving of “doles”. Many of her friends thought that she realised little of the suffering and demoralisation caused by extreme poverty. After a time she became much more interested in the Guild settlement, realising what a valuable centre it formed for training young workers. It was this aspect of the work rather than its charitable purpose that appealed to her most strongly. All through her life she touched with a very doubtful hand enterprises connected with giving to individuals. She felt very strongly that the effect was in almost every case demoralising. When free meals for necessitous school children were introduced, she was very much concerned about them, dreading the weakening of parental responsibility. She knew little of the poor, however, and of the evil effects of poverty itself, and was in consequence less harassed by doubts than those of us who see these social problems following one another in an endless vicious circle. In this connection one might mention that she never cared much for scholarships, though as time went on she accepted one or two for the College, and she herself founded one at Casterton School. She preferred to lend money to those who wished for training which they could not afford. During her time at Cheltenham she lent money to many students: it had to be returned when the student began to earn money, and in hardly any cases did the student fail to do so. She felt very strongly that people value much more highly that for which they have to struggle, and had an almost morbid dread of the demoralising effect of charity on character. CHAPTER IX. INTERESTS, HONOURS, AND A JOURNEY. “Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle to right the wrong. Nay, but she aimed not at glory, no lover of glory she: Give her the glory of going on and still to be.” --TENNYSON. Those who are called to a great work often pass through times of darkness, during which they lose for a time their vision of the eternal realities which have meant everything to them. Dorothea Beale about the middle of her work at Cheltenham passed through such an experience. With weak health and clouded faith she strove, however, to live in the spirit of Matthew Arnold’s lines-- Tasks in hours of insight willed May be through hours of gloom fulfilled, and only a few intimate friends knew what she suffered at this time. A few extracts from her journal at this time show something of the ups and downs of her illness, and the courage with which she fought what at first she did not realise to be illness. Her diary of 1878 contains many such entries as:-- _February 26._--I have idled away precious time, neglected individual work. Because my own will is weak I could not strengthen [another].