thinks he is himself. Nor is he more sparing of his pious reproofs to the clergy than to the laity. He consulted a body of divines about the propriety of excommunicating a curate from Bristol, who it was said had some little affair of gallantry upon his hands; but the Reverend accuser being asked, whether he himself never committed fornication after he was in orders, or frequented cock-pits, gaming-tables, taverns, and stews? he dropped his charge against the poor curate, looked guilty, and retired. This was the wisest action he could do; for the curate, who is known to me, is not a man to be accused with impunity, but one who would kick Doctor Little through the streets, and gibbet up a wretch, whose very features look the soul of sin, whose pampered carcase, fatted with mangled innocence, has rioted in foul obscenity, and breathed destruction to the friends of modesty. A wretch, from whose approach virgins have shrunk, and from whose grasp beauty has been dragged by the powerful arm of legal authority. authority. Had such a man pursued the curate with a persevering malignity, dearly would he have paid for it in the end. He would have been stripped of his few ostentatious virtues, and have his name sent down blotted and foul to the latest posterity. But, notoriously bad as this and our other rectors have formerly been, they are so convinced of the natural love which the Bristol people. have to modesty and continence in the church, that, spite of all their corrupt inclinations, the rectors are forced to put on the reserve of decency, to recommend themselves to the public esteem. For, what horror, foulness, and confusion, would not the world be over-run with, were not the rectors in general infinitely more chaste than the citizens naturally can be. But what I shall conclude with, is, that Doctor Little should not be the first to condemn and give a curate up. Because it does not become one who gloried in iniquity, and who was notorious for profligate debaucheries, to arraign another for some small libertinage, or gallantry gallantry so trifling, that church justice dare not call it a cognizable crime. On the whole, then, my dear Henry, you may learn from this long discourse, that I have no disposition to detain you in Bristol, in pursuit of church preferment; and as my ideas of your promotion were always arising from the hopes of your profession enabling you to make a splendid marriage, I will explain to you why Bristol will not answer that expectation, and why I conceive that Bath will, and at the same time answer all your own particular views." On this the conversation closed; but, as its continuance promises to be interesting, I shall pursue it the instant it is renewed. CHAP. V. Henry delights in domestic pleasures-He amuses his sisters with a sketch of his history-His merits cannot be concealed He is courted by society-Sir Harry Claxton becomes his companion, and introduces him to the family of the Millwoods-Mother and four daughters apparently amiable-Mrs. Percy's regret at this intimacy-To deter him, she describes the Millwoods as a disgrace to their sex and reproach to nature-Henry gives them his support, and attributes her opinion to the scandel prevalent on the Change of Bristol-Bristol men have little else to do than to watch and abuse their women-The men more jealous than Turks or Moois. THE most pleasureable period of Henry's leisure elapsed in his father's house, and in the society of his charming sisters, whom he named the Graces, more from their united mental accomplishments than from any presumed pretentions to extraordinary beauty. Under this parental roof glided some of the most most delicious sentimental hours of his life. The father and mother equally possessed his veneration and attachment, and never was love more impartially divided than his between his three sisters, and his younger brother, all of whom were educated at home. How agreeable is it to behold this well regulated family, said Henry in the exultation of his heart; children bred up in the fear of God, their minds early principled with just notions of things, and good affections and worthy habits carefully cherished and improved; my sisters, formed to the influence of religion, to a just and delicate sense of purity and virtue, and to that modesty and gentleness of manners and behaviour, which have always been esteemed the loveliest ornaments of women; and my brother, trained up by a proper institution. and discipline to a rational piety, and the government of his appetites and passions, and to a just and manly sense of what is truly honourable and praise-worthy. Here, my father's house, an example presents in |