guilt is premeditated, wilful, and complicated!

To say I once respected you with a preference, is what I ought to blush
to own, since, at the very time, I was far from thinking you even a
mortal man; though I little thought that you, or indeed any man
breathing, could be--what you have proved yourself to be. But, indeed,
Sir, I have long been greatly above you; for from my heart I have
despised you, and all your ways, ever since I saw what manner of man you
were.

Nor is it to be wondered that I should be able so to do, when that
preference was not grounded on ignoble motives. For I was weak enough,
and presumptuous enough, to hope to be a mean, in the hand of Providence,
to reclaim a man whom I thought worthy of the attempt.

Nor have I yet, as you will see by the pains I take, on this solemn
occasion, to awaken you out of your sensual dream, given over all hopes
of this nature.

Hear me, therefore, O Lovelace! as one speaking from the dead.--Lose no
time--set about your repentance instantly--be no longer the instrument of
Satan, to draw poor souls into those subtile snares, which at last shall
entangle your own feet. Seek not to multiply your offences till they
become beyond the power, as I may say, of the Divine mercy to forgive;
since justice, no less than mercy, is an attribute of the Almighty.

Tremble and reform, when you read what is the portion of the wicked man
from God. Thus it is written:

'The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but
for a moment. He is cast into a net by his own feet--he walketh upon a
snare. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him
to his feet. His strength shall be hunger-bitten, and destruction shall
be ready at his side. The first born of death shall devour his strength.
His remembrance shall perish from the earth; and he shall have no name in
the streets. He shall be chaced [sic] out of the world. He shall have
neither son nor nephew among his people. They that have seen him shall
say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream: He shall be chased away
as a vision of the night. His meat is the gall of asps within him. He
shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him
through. A fire not blown shall consume him. The heaven shall reveal
his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him. The worm shall
feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered.--This is the fate
of him that