ABSTRACT
Thinking and speaking well of people costs less than any other form of charity but requires a commitment on the part of the donor. Fear of being naive or, among scholars, of being "uncritical," inhibits charity in thought just as fear of being duped inhibits charity in deed. Hawthorne objects to only one marcher: a rich man who has bequeathed his property to a hospital might better, Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests, be represented by his ghost than by his living body. He notes and calls attention to the "shyness" that exists between those who march under the principle of love. Charity is one way of expressing good will for others; service is another. After a cross-continental railway trip Robert Louis Stevenson, provoked by the railway companies' indifference to the comfort and convenience of passengers and the suffering imposed on passengers by the companies' inefficient operations, came to the conclusion that "kindness is the first of the virtues.
