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SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR. 57
degradation conform them more and more to the
physical debasement of their abode? In the midst
of inevitable domestic filth, who can wonder that
personal cleanliness should be neglected? In an
atmosphere which forbids the breath to be drawn
freely, which maintains habitual ill health, which
depresses all the natural spring and buoyancy of
life, who can wonder that frequent recourse should
be had to stimulants, which, however pernicious in
themselves, still for a moment dispel the malarious
languor of the place, give temporary vigour to the
brain, and cheer the flagging pulses of a poisoned
circulation? Who can wonder that habits of improvidence
and recklessness should arise in a population,
which not only has much ignorance and
prejudice amongst it, but which likewise is often unaccustomed
to consideration and kindness? Who
can wonder that the laws of society should at times
be forgotten by those whom the eye of society
habitually overlooks, and whom the heart of society
often appears to discard ?
I believe that now there is a very growing feeling
abroad, that the poor of a Christian country
can no longer, in their own ignorance and helplessness,
be suffered to encounter all the chances
which accompany destitution, and which link it
often indissolubly to recklessness, profligacy, and
perdition. The task of interfering in behalf of
these classes, however insensible they may be of
their own danger and frequent degradation, begins