To this sum he frequently makes other voluntary
additions, insomuch, that in a good year--for such he accounts those
in which he has been able to make greater bounties than ordinary--he
has given above twice that sum to the sickly and indigent. Eugenius
prescribes to himself many particular days of fasting and
abstinence, in order to increase his private bank of charity, and
sets aside what would be the current expenses of those times for the
use of the poor. He often goes afoot where his business calls him,
and at the end of his walk has given a shilling, which in his
ordinary methods of expense would have gone for coach-hire, to the
first necessitous person that has fallen in his way. I have known
him, when he has been going to a play or an opera, divert the money
which was designed for that purpose upon an object of charity whom
he has met with in the street; and afterwards pass his evening in a
coffee-house, or at a friend's fireside, with much greater
satisfaction to himself than he could have received from the most
exquisite entertainments of the theatre. By these means he is
generous without impoverishing himself, and enjoys his estate by
making it the property of others.
There are few men so cramped in their private affairs, who may not
be charitable after this manner, without any disadvantage to
themselves, or prejudice to their families.
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