With respect to pity, it is a spontaneous, natural emotion, which is
strongly felt by children, but they cannot properly be said to feel
benevolence till they are capable of reasoning. Charity must, in them,
be a very doubtful virtue; they cannot be competent judges as to the
general utility of what they give. Persons of the most enlarged
understanding, find it necessary to be extremely cautious in
charitable donations, lest they should do more harm than good.
Children cannot see beyond the first link in the chain which holds
society together; at the best, then, their charity can be but a
partial virtue. But in fact, children have nothing to give; they think
that they give, when they dispose of property of their parents; they
suffer no privation from this sort of generosity, and they learn
ostentation, instead of practising self-denial. Berquin, in his
excellent story of "The Little Needle Woman," has made the children
give their own work; here the pleasure of employment is immediately
connected with the gratification of benevolent feelings; their pity is
not merely passive, it is active and useful.