, she lifted her apron to her face again. She showed
me how.

Poor Dorcas!--Again wiping her own charming eyes.

All love, all compassion, is this dear creature to every one in
affliction but me.

And would not an aunt protect her kinswoman?--Abominable wretch!

I can't--I can't--I can't--say, my aunt was privy to it. She gave me
good advice. She knew not for a great while that I was--that I was--that
I was--ugh!--ugh!--ugh!--

No more, no more, good Dorcas--What a world do we live in!--What a house
am I in!--But come, don't weep, (though she herself could not forbear:)
my being betrayed into it, though to my own ruin, may be a happy event
for thee: and, if I live, it shall.

I thank you, my good lady, blubbering. I am sorry, very sorry, you have
had so hard a lot. But it may be the saving of my soul, if I can get to
your ladyship's house. Had I but known that your ladyship was not
married, I would have eat my own flesh, before----before----before----

Dorcas sobbed and wept. The lady sighed and wept also.

But now, Jack, for a serious reflection upon the premises.

How will the good folks account for it, that Satan has such faithful
instruments, and that the bond of wickedness is a stronger bond than the
ties of virtue; as if it were the nature of the human mind to be villanous?
For here, had Dorcas been good, and been tempted as she was tempted to any
thing evil, I make no doubt but she would have yielded to the temptation.

And cannot our fraternity in an hundred instances give proof of the like
predominance of vice over virtue? And that we have risked more to serve
and promote the interests of the former, than ever a good man did to
serve a good man or a good cause? For have we not been prodigal of life
and fortune? have we not defied the civil magistrate upon occasion? and
have we not attempted rescues, and dared all things, only to extricate a
pounded profligate?

Whence, Jack, can this be?

O! I have it, I believe. The vicious are as bad as they can be; and do
the Devil's work without looking after; while he is continually spreading
snares for the others; and, like a skilful angler, suiting his baits to
the fish he angles for.

Nor let even honest people, so called, blame poor Dorcas for her fidelity
in a bad cause. For does not the general, who implicitly serves an
ambitious prince in his unjust designs upon his neighbours, or upon his
own oppressed subjects; and even the lawyer, who, f