Some persons are the mere creatures of impulse. When affected by any violently exciting cause, they start into momentary vigour, and by a kind of convulsive effort resist the inwrought habit of their minds, but instantly relapse into greater insensibility. If a necessitous case be presented to their attention under deeply afflicting circumstances, with powerful recommendations, especially from those whom they are solicitous of pleasing, or with whom they expect to be enrolled in the popular and widely circulated list of donations, they may at times he found "_willing_ to communicate," but even then never attain the noble pre-eminence of "_a cheerful_ giver." It would have pleased them, however, to have remained unasked; and if by any petty artifice they could have evaded the application, they would most readily have adopted it, provided they could have saved their reputation as well as their pence. You may sometimes meet with persons who are indeed charitable, but their charity is sectarian. They do good within certain limits, but never take a wider range; and if they do not "forbid" others, who "follow not with them," they afford no encouragement to their exertions. They have chosen a particular spot to cultivate, and beyond the encircling fence which bigotry has marked out, they cannot he persuaded to impart even a drop of refreshing supply. What they do seems, in some measure, an apology for what they omit; but what they omit detracts from the value of what they do. They are not "FULL of good works." Others have certain stated charities; and though they have passed the narrow boundary of party prejudice, have made no provision in their plans for cases of singular and sudden calamity. Their charity walks in particular districts, and cannot go a step out of the beaten track. They have allotted a certain portion of their income to the regular calls of necessity, which cannot be exceeded, and have a specified circle of objects which cannot be changed; and, if one may judge by their comparative callousness to all other claims, it would be natural to infer that they had taken a certain _quantum sufficit_ from their stock of sensibility, which bore an invariable proportion to their calculations. In vain you plead for the most urgent distress, in vain you solicit the smallest contribution; they have no sympathies left; and, beyond u certain sphere, they are relentless, impenetrable, and cruel. In proportion as charity is methodical, it is apt to become cold; and though we cannot plead for that diffusiveness which is bounded by no prescribed limits, regulated by no order, or influenced by no preferences, yet care should be taken lest it suffer by restriction. If this holy fire be too much confined, it will be in danger of extinction.