in the whole train of heroes, Guilty,Death,-are here made to take the appearance of virtue, by being mixed with fome wild flight of unnatural generofity. Those crying fins, ADULTERY, GAMING, Duels, and SELF-MURDER, are made fo familiar, and the wickedness of them is so disguised by fine words and foft defcriptions, that even innocent girls get to lose their abhorrence, and to talk with complacency, of things which should not be fo much as named by them.

I fhould not have faid fo much on this

mifchief (continued Mr. Worthy), from which, I dare fay, great folks fancy people in our station are safe enough, if I did not know, and lament that this corrupt reading is now got down even among fome of the lowest class. And it is an evil which is spreading every day. Poor industrious girls, who get their bread by the needle or the loom, fpend half the night in liftening to these books. Thus the labour of one girl is loft, and the minds of the rest

are corrupted; for though their hands are employed in honest industry, which might help to preserve them from a life of fin, yet their hearts are at that very time polluted by scenes and defcriptions which are too likely to plunge them into it and when their vain weak heads compare, the foft and delicious lives of the heroines in the book, with their own mean garb and hard labour, the effect is obvious; and I think I do not go too far when I say, that the vain and fhowy manner in which young women, who have to work for their bread, have taken to drefs themselves, added to the poison they draw from these books, contribute together to bring them to destruction, more than almost any other caufe. Now tell me, do not you think thefe wild books will hurt your daughters?

Bragwell. Why I do think they are grown full of schemes, and contrivances, and whispers, that's the truth on't. Every thing is a secret. They always feem to be on the look-out for fomething, and when

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when nothing comes on't, then they are fulky and disappointed. They will not keep company with their equals: they defpife trade and farming; and I own I'm for the stuff. I fhould not like them to marry any but a man of fubftance, if he was ever so smart. Now they will hardly fit down with a substantial country dealer. But if they hear of a recruiting party in our Market Town, on goes the finery-off they are. Some flimfy excufe is patched up. They want fomething at the bookfhop or the milliner's; because I suppose there is a chance that fome Jack-a-napes of an Enfign may be there buying stickingplaifter. In fhort, I do grow a little uneafy; for I fhould not like to see all I have faved thrown away on a knapsack.

So faying, they both rofe and walked out to view the farm. Mr. Bragwell affected greatly to admire the good order of every thing he faw; but never forgot to compare it with fomething larger, and handfomer or better of his own.

It was

eafy to fee that felf was his ftandard of perfection in every thing. All he himself poffeffed gained fome increased value in his eyes from being his; and in furveying the property of his friend, he derived food for his vanity, from things which feemed leaft likely to raise it. Every appearance of comfort, of fuccefs, of merit, in any thing which belonged to Mr. Worthy, led him to fpeak of fome fuperior advantage of his own of the fame kind: and it was clear that the chief part of the fatisfaction he felt in walking over the farm of his friend, was caused by thinking how much larger his own was.

Mr. Worthy, who felt a kindness for him, which all his vanity could not cure, was always on the watch how to turn their talk to some useful point. And whenever people refolve to go into company with this view, it is commonly their own fault if fome opportunity of turning it to account does not offer.

He faw Bragwell was intoxicated with pride, and undone by fuccefs; and that his family was in the high-road to ruin through mere profperity. He thought that if fome means could be found to open his eyes on his own character, to which he was now totally blind, it might be of the utmost service to him. The more Mr. Worthy reflected, the more he wifhed to undertake this kind office. He was not fure that Mr. Bragwell would bear it, but he was very fure it was his duty to attempt it. As Mr. Worthy was very humble himself, he had great patience and forbearance with the faults of others. He felt no pride at having escaped the errors into which they had fallen, for he knew who it was had made him to differ. He remembered that God had given him many advantages; a pious father, and a religious education: this made him humble under a sense of his own fins, and charitable towards the fins of others, who had not had the fame privileges.

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