With this regard, their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action."
"The life and character of Howard, if they are justly considered, may not only annihilate this pernicious prejudice, but tend to establish an opposite and consolatory truth. His example may shew us, that some degrees of bodily weakness and mental depression may be most happily cured by active exertion in the service of mankind. Perhaps there never existed a more striking proof how far a noble impulse, communicated to the mind by a project of extensive Benevolence, may invigorate a frame not equal in health, strength, and stature, to the common standard of men. It is a prudential maxim of the celebrated Raleigh, that 'Whosoever will live altogether out of himself, and study other men's humours, shall never be unfortunate;' a maxim, which the example of Howard might almost teach us to convert into a medical aphorism by saying, 'Whosoever will live altogether out of himself, and consult other men's wants, and calamities, shall never be unhealthy.' It is delightful to those, who detest the debasing tenets of a selfish philosophy, to see the happy influence of opposite ideas; to observe (what Physicians have frequent opportunities of observing), that as a selfish turn of mind often attracts and encreases the malignity of sickness, so an unselfish, a compassionate spirit has a natural tendency to escape or subdue it. What can be more pleasing to those, who assert and esteem the dignity of human-nature, than to see, that the having lost all thoughts of self, and having acted in direct opposition to selfish principles, has promoted even the personal advantage of a generous individual? From such a series of philanthropic labour and peril, as a selfish and timid mind might esteem it frenzy to encounter, Howard derived not only his unrivalled and immortal reputation, but the perfect restoration of enfeebled health; not to mention those high gratifications of the heart and conscience, which are superior to all the enjoyments both of health and glory. With such temperance in diet, that his daily food would appear to most people not sufficient to support the common functions of life, he chearfully sustained the hardships of long travel, through regions where travelling is most difficult and dangerous. With a figure, voice, and deportment, that seemed to preclude him from all personal influence and authority; and with no mental acquisitions, except those which are common to every cultivated mind, he secured to himself not only universal admiration, but, I may venture to say, the just and moral idolatry of the world. So invigorating are projects of extensive Beneficence! so powerful is the energy of Public Virtue!
"Never, indeed, was the astonishing influence of plain and simple goodness more strikingly displayed, than in the deference and respect which this private and meek individual received, not only from foreign and imperious Rulers of the Earth, but from hardened and atrocious wretches, on whom Justice herself could hardly make any mental impression, though armed with all the splendour, and all the violence of power. Two particular examples of the influence I am speaking of, I shall mention here, not only as honourable to the prime object of our regard, but as they may suggest to contemplative minds some useful ideas, by shewing how far the mere weight of an upright and benevolent character alone may give to the most callous nerves a trembling sensibility, and awaken the most ferocious spirit to self-correction.
"When our indefatigable Visitor of prisons was in Russia, he beheld, in public, the punishment of the knoot severely administered by a strong and stern executioner.
"On the following day he waited on this man, to request from him various information. The executioner attended him obsequiously; but this athletic savage, though trained to acts of cruelty, and conscious he had a legal sanction for the barbarous violence he had exerted, could not behold without shuddering the meek and gentle Missionary of Compassion.
"The second and more memorable example of his singular influence occurred in a prison of his own country, and relates to an outrageous female delinquent. A corrupt and ferocious woman is, perhaps, the most intractable fiend that human benevolence can attempt to reform; but even this difficulty the mild and and powerful character of HOWARD accomplished.
"In one of our Western gaols, he found an unhappy female loaded with heavy irons: on his appearance she entreated him to obtain for her the removal of these galling fetters. Upon enquiry, he found that many endeavours had been made to keep this turbulent offender in proper subjection without the severity of chains; but, after repeated promises of amendment on milder treatment, she had obliged the keeper to have recourse to this extreme by relapsing into the most flagrant and insufferable contempt of decency and order. Upon this information, HOWARD said mildly to the unhappy criminal, 'I wish to relieve you, but you put it out of my power; for I should lose all the little credit I have, if I exerted it for offenders so hardened and so turbulent.' 'I know,' replied the intractable delinquent, 'I know that I have a proud and rebellious spirit; but if I give a promise to so good a man as you are, I can and I will command it.' On this firm assurance of reformation, the benevolent HOWARD became a kind of surety for her future peaceable conduct on the removal of her irons; and he had the inexpressible delight to find, on his next visit to the prisoners of this gaol, that the outrageous and ungovernable culprit, for whom he had ventured to answer, was become the most orderly among them.
"I could wish, for the moral interest of mankind, that it were possible to obtain a minute account of the services rendered to the calamitous spirit of many a forsaken individual by the singular charity of HOWARD. What could be more instructive than to observe how his Beneficence encreased by its exertion and success; while his desire of befriending the wretched became, as it were, the vital spirit that gave strength and duration to his own existence!
"If we contemplate with pleasure the singular re-establishment of bodily health, which HOWARD derived from his active philanthropy; it may be still more pleasing to recollect, that it also afforded him an efficacious medicine for an afflicted mind. Perhaps it was to shew the full efficacy of this virtue in all its lustre, that Heaven allotted to this excellent personage a domestic calamity, which appears (to borrow an expression from a great writer) 'of an unconscionable size to human strength.'