Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 255

We believe that time and experience will enable the leaders of Friendly Societies generally to improve them, and introduce new ameliorations. The best institutions are things of slow growth, and are shaped by experience, which includes failures as well as successes; and finally, they require age to strengthen them and root them in habit. The rudest society established by working men for mutual help in sickness, independent of help from private charity or the poor-rates, is grounded on a right spirit, and is deserving of every encouragement. It furnishes a foundation on which to build up something better. It teaches self-reliance, and thus cultivates amongst the humblest classes habits of provident economy.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 255 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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