rcles of ladies, were they present; it is generous, therefore,
nay, it is but just, said she, to take the part of the absent, if not
flagrantly culpable.

But though wisdom was her birthright, as I may say, yet she had not lived
years enow to pretend to so much experience as to exempt her from the
necessity of sometimes altering her opinion both of persons and things;
but, when she found herself obliged to do this, she took care that the
particular instance of mistaken worthiness in the person should not
narrow or contract her almost universal charity into general doubt or
jealousy. An instance of what I mean occurs to my memory.

Being upbraided, by a severe censure, with a person's proving base, whom
she had frequently defended, and by whose baseness my beloved friend was
a sufferer; 'You, Madam,' said she, 'had more penetration than such a
young creature as I can pretend to have. But although human depravity
may, I doubt, oftener justify those who judge harshly, than human
rectitude can those who judge favourably, yet will I not part with my
charity. Nevertheless, for the future, I will endeavour, in cases where
the judgment of my elders is against me, to make mine consistent with
caution and prudence.'

Indeed, when she was convinced of any error or mistake, (however
seemingly derogatory to her judgment and sagacity,) no one was ever so
acknowledging, so ingenuous, as she. 'It was a merit,' she used to say,
'next in degree to that of having avoided error, frankly to own an error.
And that the offering at an excuse in a blameable manner, was the
undoubted mark of a disingenuous, if not of a perverse mind.'

But I ought to add, on this head, [of her great charity where character
was concerned, and where there was room for charity,] that she was always
deservedly severe in her reprehensions of a wilful and studied vileness.
How could she then forgive the wretch by whose premeditated villany she
was entangled?

You must every where insist upon it, that had it not been for the stupid
persecutions of her relations, she never would have been in the power of
that horrid Lovelace. And yet, on several occasions, she acknowledged
frankly, that were person, and address, and alliance, to be allowedly the
principal attractives in the choice of a lover, it would not have been
difficult for her eye to mislead her heart.

When she was last with me, (three happy weeks together!) in every visit
the wretch made her, he left