oarseness of the century's earlier years to the comparative
refinement of our own times.

There lived in Sussex about the time of the Methodist revival, a
thriving shopkeeper named Thomas Turner. He had received a good
education, and in early life had been a schoolmaster. On reading
"Clarissa" he had exclaimed, what would have gladdened the heart of
Richardson: "Oh, may the Supreme Being give me grace to lead my life in
such a manner as my exit may in some measure be like that divine
creature's!" His literary tastes were so pronounced and varied that in
the space of six weeks he had read Gray's "Poems," Stewart "On the
Supreme Being," the "Whole Duty of Man," "Paradise Lost and Regained,"
"Othello," the "Universal Magazine," Thomson's "Seasons," Young's
"Night Thoughts," Tournefort's "Voyage to the Levant," and "Perigrine
Pickle." This scholarly tradesman kept a diary, in which he recorded
his thoughts, his studies, and his amusements with a frankness which
deserves the thanks of posterity. Some passages of his diary, in their
illustration of the combination of licence, coarseness, and moral
earnestness characteristic of the writer's time may greatly assist us
in appreciating the power and influence of the religious revival.[185]

"I went to the audit and came home drunk. But I think never to exceed
the bounds of moderation more. * * * "Sunday, 28th, went down to Jones',
where we drank one bowl of punch and two muggs of bumboo; and I came
home again in liquor. Oh, with what horrors does it fill my heart, to
think I should be guilty of doing so, and on a Sunday, too! Let me once
more endeavour, never, no never, to be guilty of the same again. * * * I
read part of the fourth volume of the _Tatler_; the oftener I read it,
the better I like it. I think I never found the vice of drinking so well
exploded in my life, as in one of the numbers." In January, 1751,
"Mr. Elless (the schoolmaster), Marchant, myself, and wife sat down to
whist about seven o'clock, and played all night; very pleasant, and I
think I may say innocent mirth, there being no oaths nor imprecations
sounding from side to side, as is too often the case at cards."
February 2, "we supped at Mr. Fuller's, and spent the evening with a
great deal of mirth, till between one and two. Tho, Fuller brought my
wife home on his back, I cannot say I came home sober, though I was far
from being bad company. I think we spent the evening with a great deal
of pleasure." Mar