poor's-boxes

Updated: May 13, 2025

One of the risks of benevolence is its tendency to lower the recipient to the condition of an alms-taker. Doles from poor's-boxes have this enfeebling effect; but a poor neighbour giving a destitute widow a help in her time of need is felt to be a friendly act, and is alike elevating to the character of both.

Samuel Smiles - The Life of Thomas Telford; civil engineer with an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain