ly. I found her not only an agreeable companion,
whose conversation greatly alleviated my chagrin, but also a careful
nurse, who served me with the utmost fidelity and affection. One day,
while I testified my surprise that a woman of her beauty, good sense,
and education (for she had a large portion of each), could be reduced
to such an infamous and miserable way of life, she answered with a sigh,
"These very advantages were the cause of my undoing." This remarkable
reply inflamed my curiosity to such a degree, that I begged she would
favour me with the particulars of her story, and she complied in these
words.

CHAPTER XXII

The History of Miss Williams

'My father was an eminent merchant in the city who having, in the course
of trade, suffered very considerable losses, retired in his old age with
his wife to a small estate in the country, which he had purchased with
the remains of his fortune. At that time, I being but eight years of
age, was left in town for the convenience of education, boarded with an
aunt, who was a rigid presbyterian, and confined me so closely to what
she called the duties of religion, that in time I grew weary of her
doctrines, and by degrees received an aversion for the good books, she
daily recommended to my perusal. As I increased in age, and appeared
with a person not disagreeable, I contracted a good deal of acquaintance
among my own sex; one of whom, after having lamented the restraint I was
under from the narrowness of my aunt's sentiments, told me I must now
throw off the prejudices of opinion imbibed under her influence and
example, and learn to think for myself; for which purpose she advised
me to read Shaftsbury, Tindal, Hobbes, and all the authors that are
remarkable for their deviation from the old way of thinking, and by
comparing one with the other, I should soon be able to form a system
of my own. I followed her advice; and whether it was owing to my
prepossession against what I had formerly read, or the clearness of
argument in these my new instructors, I know not; but I studied them
with pleasure, and in a short time became a professed freethinker.
Proud of my improvement, I argued in all companies, and that with such
success, that I soon acquired the reputation of a philosopher, and
few people durst undertake me in a dispute. I grew vain upon my good
fortune, and at length pretended to make my aunt a proselyte to my
opinion; but she no sooner perceived my drift tha