If cultural activity was one significant element of the Belfast middle classes' world, then charitable activity was another. Both William and Robert Tennent were actively involved – as trustees, committee members and treasurers – in a variety of philanthropic societies, including the Charitable Society, Dispensary and Fever Hospital, Mechanics' Institute and House of Industry. Indeed, by the end of his life Robert Tennent had become renowned for the ‘uncommon zeal’ and ‘incessant assiduity’ with which he strove to ‘promote the interests of his beloved charities’. In a purely biographical sense, then, it is appropriate that this final chapter should address the subject of philanthropic activity in late Georgian Belfast. But this is also an area that merits attention for its own sake, not least as it is one that has been largely overlooked. In addressing this theme, however, the chapter will focus less on detailing the ways in which the philanthropic societies of late Georgian Belfast operated than on examining, with particular reference to the spread of evangelicalism, the intellectual underpinning and societal significance of philanthropic endeavour. Such an approach is not without its problems. To link philanthropy and evangelicalism is to suggest, if only indirectly, that the one was a function of the other. This, it must be stressed at the outset, was far from being the case: not only did organized philanthropic activity pre-date the spread of evangelicalism in Belfast, but even after its spread, evangelicals were by no means the only individuals who participated in philanthropic activity in the town. Why, then, seek to link evangelicalism and philanthropy? The reasons are twofold. Firstly, there is a particular biographical rationale.