uilt.

'"Ha! what noise is that--that noise of fighting?--Run, I say.--Whither
are you going?--What, are you mad?--Will you leave me alone?--Can't you
stir?--What, you can't take your message with you!--Whatever 'tis, I
suppose you are not in the plot, not you--nor that now they're breaking
open my house for Charlotte--Not you.--Go see what's the matter, I say;
I have nobody I can trust.--One minute I think this wench honest, and
the next false.--Whither shall I turn me?"

'This is a picture of the confused, the miserable mind of a close,
malicious, cruel, designing woman, as Lady Brumpton was, and as Lady
Harriet very properly calls her.

'Honesty and faithfulness shine forth in all their lustre, in the
good old Trusty. We follow him throughout with anxious wishes for his
success, and tears of joy for his tenderness. And when he finds that he
is likely to come at the whole truth, and to save his lord from being
deceived and betrayed into unjustly ruining his noble son, you may
remember that he makes this pious reflection:

All that is ours, is to be justly bent; And Heaven in its own time will
bless th' event.

'This is the natural thought that proceeds from innocence and goodness;
and surely this state of mind is happiness.

'I have only pointed out a few passages, to show you, that though it is
the nature of comedy to end happily, and therefore the good characters
must be successful in the last act; yet the moral lies deeper, and is
to be deduced from a proof throughout this play, that the natural
consequence of vice is misery within, even in the midst of an apparent
triumph; and the natural consequence of goodness is a calm peace of
mind, even in the midst of oppression and distress.

'I have endeavoured, my little dears, to show you, as clearly as I can,
not only what moral is to be drawn from this play, but what is to be
sought for in all others; and where that moral is not to be found, the
writer will have it to answer for, that he has been guilty of one of
the worst of evils; namely, that he has clothed vice in so beautiful
a dress, that, instead of deterring, it will allure and draw into its
snares the young and tender mind. And I am sorry to say, that too many
of our dramatic performances are of this latter cast; which is
the reason, that wise and prudent parents and governors in general
discourage in very young people the reading of plays. And though by what
I have said (if it makes a proper impressio