The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and Other TalesMore, Hannah
General
The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and Other Tales
More, Hannah
Christian life -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Short stories
_Fantom._ Sir, my mind is so engrossed with the partition of
Poland, that I can not bring it down to an object of such
insignificance. I despise the man whose benevolence is swallowed up
in the narrow concerns of his own family, or parish, or country.
_Trueman._ Well, now I have a notion that it is as well to do one's
own duty as the duty of another man; and that to do good at home is
as well as to do good abroad. For my part, I had as lieve help Tom
Saunders to freedom as a Pole or a South American, though I should
be very glad to help them too. But one must begin to love somewhere;
and to do good somewhere; and I think it is as natural to love one's
own family, and to do good in one's own neighborhood, as to any body
else. And if every man in every family, parish, and country, did the
same, why then all the schemes would meet, and the end of one
parish, where I was doing good, would be the beginning of another
parish where somebody else was doing good; so my schemes would jut
into my neighbor's; his projects would unite with those of some
other local reformer; and all would fit with a sort of dove-tail
exactness. And what is better, all would join in forming a living
comment on that practical precept; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself."
_Fantom._ Sir, a man of large views will be on the watch for great
occasions to prove his benevolence.
_Trueman._ Yes, sir; but if they are so distant that he can not
reach them, or so vast that he can not grasp them, he may let a
thousand little, snug, kind, good actions slip through his fingers
in the meanwhile; and so between the great things that he can not
do, and the little ones that he will not do, life passes and nothing
will be done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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