ilosopher, that a virtuous person struggling with
misfortunes, and rising above them, is an object on which the gods
themselves may look down with delight. I shall therefore set before my
readers a scene of this kind of distress in private life, for the
speculation of this day.

2. An eminent citizen, who had lived in good fashion and credit, was by
a train of accidents, and by an unavoidable perplexity in his affairs,
reduced to a low condition. There is a modesty usually attending
faultless poverty, which made him rather chuse to reduce his manner of
living to his present circumstances, than solicit his friends, in order
to support the shew of an estate, when the substance was gone.

3. His wife, who was a woman of sense and virtue, behaved herself on
this occasion with uncommon decency, and never appeared so amiable in
his eyes as now. Instead of upbraiding him with the ample fortune she
had brought, or the many great offers she had refused for his sake, she
redoubled all the instances of her affection, while her husband was
continually pouring out his heart to her in complaints, that he had
ruined the best woman in the we world.

4. He sometimes came home at a time when she did not expect him, and
surprised her in tears, which she endeavoured to conceal, and always put
on an air of cheerfulness to receive him. To lessen their expense, their
eldest daughter (whom I shall call Amanda) was sent into the country, to
the house of an honest farmer, who had married a servant of the family:
This young woman was apprehensive of the ruin which was approaching, and
had privately engaged a friend in the neighbourhood to give her an
account of what passed from time to time in her father's affairs.

5. Amanda was in the bloom of her youth and beauty, when the lord of the
manor, who often called in at the farmer's house as he followed his
country sports, fell passionately in love with her. He was a man of
great generosity, but from a loose education had contracted a hearty
aversion to marriage. He therefore entertained a design upon Amanda's
virtue, which at present he thought fit to keep private. The innocent
creature, who never suspected his intentions, was pleased with his
person; and, having observed his growing passion for her, hoped by so
advantageous a match she might quickly be in a capacity of supporting
her impoverished relations.

6. One day as he called to see her, he found her in tears over a letter
she had just