nd
observers in general thought her happier in her marriage than the beloved
wife who bathes her pillow with tears by the side of an angry husband,
whose affection is so excessive that he unkindly upbraids her because she
is--less than perfection.

The dean's wife was not so dispassionately considered by some of his
acquaintance as by himself; for they would now and then hint at her
foibles: but this great liberty she also conceived to be the effect of
most violent love, or most violent admiration: and such would have been
her construction had they commended her follies--had they totally
slighted, or had they beaten her.

Amongst those acquaintances, the aforesaid bishop, by far the most
frequent visitor, did not come merely to lounge an idle hour, but he had
a more powerful motive; the desire of fame, and dread of being thought a
man receiving large emolument for unimportant service.

The dean, if he did not procure him the renown he wished, still preserved
him from the apprehended censure.

The elder William was to his negligent or ignorant superiors in the
church such as an apt boy at school is to the rich dunces--William
performed the prelates' tasks for them, and they rewarded him--not indeed
with toys or money, but with their countenance, their company, their
praise. And scarcely was there a sermon preached from the patrician part
of the bench, in which the dean did not fashion some periods, blot out
some uncouth phrases, render some obscure sentiments intelligible, and
was the certain person, when the work was printed, to correct the press.

This honourable and right reverend bishop delighted in printing and
publishing his works; or rather the entire works of the dean, which
passed for his: and so degradingly did William, the shopkeeper's son,
think of his own homiest extraction, that he was blinded, even to the
loss of honour, by the lustre of this noble acquaintance; for, though in
other respects he was a man of integrity, yet, when the gratification of
his friend was in question, he was a liar; he not only disowned his
giving him aid in any of his publications, but he never published
anything in his own name without declaring to the world "that he had been
obliged for several hints on the subject, for many of the most judicious
corrections, and for those passages in page so and so (naming the most
eloquent parts of the work) to his noble and learned friend the bishop."

The dean's wife being a fine lady