(for that was the name of this lady) very rightly
conceived the charms of person in a woman to be no
better than snares for herself, as well as for others;
and yet so discreet was she in her conduct, that her
prudence was as much on the guard as if she had all
the snares to apprehend which were ever laid for her
whole sex. Indeed, I have observed, though it
may seem unaccountable to the reader, that this guard
of prudence, like the trained bands, is always readiest
to go on duty where there is the least danger.
It often basely and cowardly deserts those paragons
for whom the men are all wishing, sighing, dying,
and spreading, every net in their power; and constantly
attends at the heels of that higher order of women
for whom the other sex have a more distant and awful
respect, and whom (from despair, I suppose, of success)
they never venture to attack.
Reader, I think proper, before we proceed any farther
together, to acquaint thee that I intend to digress,
through this whole history, as often as I see occasion,
of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful
critic whatever; and here I must desire all those critics
to mind their own business, and not to intermeddle
with affairs or works which no ways concern them;
for till they produce the authority by which they
are constituted judges, I shall not plead to their
jurisdiction.
An odd accident which befel Mr Allworthy at his return
home. The decent behaviour of Mrs Deborah Wilkins,
with some proper animadversions on bastards.
I have told my reader, in the preceding chapter, that
Mr Allworthy inherited a large fortune; that he had
a good heart, and no family. Hence, doubtless,
it will be concluded by many that he lived like an
honest man, owed no one a shilling, took nothing but
what was his own, kept a good house, entertained his
neighbours with a hearty welcome at his table, and
was charitable to the poor, i.e. to those who
had rather beg than work, by giving them the offals
from it; that he died immensely rich and built an
hospital.
And true it is that he did many of these things; but
had he done nothing more I should have left him to
have recorded his own merit on some fair freestone
over the door of that hospital. Matters of a much
more extraordinary kind are to be the subject of this
history, or I should grossly mis-spend my time in
writing so voluminous a work; and you, my sagacious
friend, might with equal profit and pleasure travel
through some pages which certain droll authors have
been facetiously pleased to call The History of
England.
