These are indeed to be considered as blanks in the
grand lottery of time. We therefore, who are
the registers of that lottery, shall imitate those
sagacious persons who deal in that which is drawn at
Guildhall, and who never trouble the public with the
many blanks they dispose of; but when a great prize
happens to be drawn, the newspapers are presently
filled with it, and the world is sure to be informed
at whose office it was sold: indeed, commonly
two or three different offices lay claim to the honour
of having disposed of it; by which, I suppose, the
adventurers are given to understand that certain brokers
are in the secrets of Fortune, and indeed of her cabinet
council.
My reader then is not to be surprized, if, in the
course of this work, he shall find some chapters very
short, and others altogether as long; some that contain
only the time of a single day, and others that comprise
years; in a word, if my history sometimes seems to
stand still, and sometimes to fly. For all which
I shall not look on myself as accountable to any court
of critical jurisdiction whatever: for as I am,
in reality, the founder of a new province of writing,
so I am at liberty to make what laws I please therein.
And these laws, my readers, whom I consider as my
subjects, are bound to believe in and to obey; with
which that they may readily and cheerfully comply,
I do hereby assure them that I shall principally regard
their ease and advantage in all such institutions:
for I do not, like a jure divino tyrant, imagine
that they are my slaves, or my commodity. I am,
indeed, set over them for their own good only, and
was created for their use, and not they for mine.
Nor do I doubt, while I make their interest the great
rule of my writings, they will unanimously concur
in supporting my dignity, and in rendering me all the
honour I shall deserve or desire.
Chapter ii.
Religious cautions against showing too much favour
to bastards; and a great discovery made by Mrs Deborah
Wilkins.
Eight months after the celebration of the nuptials
between Captain Blifil and Miss Bridget Allworthy,
a young lady of great beauty, merit, and fortune,
was Miss Bridget, by reason of a fright, delivered
of a fine boy. The child was indeed to all appearances
perfect; but the midwife discovered it was born a
month before its full time.
Though the birth of an heir by his beloved sister
was a circumstance of great joy to Mr Allworthy, yet
it did not alienate his affections from the little
foundling, to whom he had been godfather, had given
his own name of Thomas, and whom he had hitherto seldom
failed of visiting, at least once a day, in his nursery.
He told his sister, if she pleased, the new-born infant
should be bred up together with little Tommy; to which
she consented, though with some little reluctance:
for she had truly a great complacence for her brother;
and hence she had always behaved towards the foundling
with rather more kindness than ladies of rigid virtue
can sometimes bring themselves to show to these children,
who, however innocent, may be truly called the living
monuments of incontinence.
