Page:True humanity usefully exerted.pdf/6

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a diſtreſs, of which you appear ſo undeſerving."—While he ſaid this, he took the wine out of his pockets, and giving it to the daughter went directly down ſtairs, without waiting for a reply, and walking backward and forward in the ſtreets for ſome time, enjoyed the ſublimeſt pleaſure the human heart is capable of, in conſidering how he had relieved, and ſhould further relieve the ſufferings of objects ſo worthy of relief.

By the time he thought they might have learned from their daughter the circumſtances of her meeting with him, and taken ſome nouriſhment, he returned to them, when the moment he entered the room, the whole family fell upon their knees to thank him. Such humiliation was more than he could bear. He raiſed them, one by one, as faſt as he could, and taking the father’s hand, "Gracious God! (ſaid he) can a ſenſe of humanity be ſuch an uncommon thing among creatures, who call themſelves human, that ſo poor an exertion of it ſhould be thought deſerving of a return, proper to be made only to heaven? Oppreſs me not, Sir, I conjure you, with the mention, of what it would have been a crime, I could never have forgiven myſelf to have known I had not done. It is too late to think of leaving this place before to-morrow, when I will provide a better, if there