To return therefore: the reader will not, I think,
wonder that the different behaviour of the two lads
above commemorated, produced the different effects
of which he hath already seen some instance; and besides
this, there was another reason for the conduct of the
philosopher and the pedagogue; but this being matter
of great importance, we shall reveal it in the next
chapter.
Containing a better reason still for the before-mentioned
opinions.
It is to be known then, that those two learned personages,
who have lately made a considerable figure on the
theatre of this history, had, from their first arrival
at Mr Allworthy’s house, taken so great an affection,
the one to his virtue, the other to his religion, that
they had meditated the closest alliance with him.
For this purpose they had cast their eyes on that
fair widow, whom, though we have not for some time
made any mention of her, the reader, we trust, hath
not forgot. Mrs Blifil was indeed the object to
which they both aspired.
It may seem remarkable, that, of four persons whom
we have commemorated at Mr Allworthy’s house,
three of them should fix their inclinations on a lady
who was never greatly celebrated for her beauty, and
who was, moreover, now a little descended into the
vale of years; but in reality bosom friends, and intimate
acquaintance, have a kind of natural propensity to
particular females at the house of a friend—viz.,
to his grandmother, mother, sister, daughter, aunt,
niece, or cousin, when they are rich; and to his wife,
sister, daughter, niece, cousin, mistress, or servant-maid,
if they should be handsome.
We would not, however, have our reader imagine, that
persons of such characters as were supported by Thwackum
and Square, would undertake a matter of this kind,
which hath been a little censured by some rigid moralists,
before they had thoroughly examined it, and considered
whether it was (as Shakespear phrases it) “Stuff
o’ th’ conscience,” or no.
Thwackum was encouraged to the undertaking by reflecting
that to covet your neighbour’s sister is nowhere
forbidden: and he knew it was a rule in the construction
of all laws, that “Expressum facit cessare
tacitum.” The sense of which is, “When
a lawgiver sets down plainly his whole meaning, we
are prevented from making him mean what we please
ourselves.” As some instances of women,
therefore, are mentioned in the divine law, which
forbids us to covet our neighbour’s goods, and
that of a sister omitted, he concluded it to be lawful.
And as to Square, who was in his person what is called
a jolly fellow, or a widow’s man, he easily
reconciled his choice to the eternal fitness of things.
