 and most perfect Individuals of that Species. This Error, I believe, is
generally committed by those who, from Want of proper Caution in the Choice of
their Friends and Acquaintance, have suffered Injuries from bad and worthless
Men; two or three Instances of which are very unjustly charged on all the Human
Race.«
    »I think I had Experience enough of them,« answered the other. »My first
Mistress, and my first Friend, betrayed me in the basest Manner, and in Matters
which threatened to be of the worst of Consequences, even to bring me to a
shameful Death.«
    »But you will pardon me,« cries Jones, »if I desire you to reflect who this
Mistress, and who that Friend was. What better, my good Sir, could be expected
in Love derived from the Stews, or in Friendship first produced and nourished at
the Gaming-Table! To take the Characters of Women from the former Instance, or
of Men from the latter, would be as unjust as to assert, that Air is a nauseous
and unwholesome Element, because we find it so in a Jakes. I have lived but a
short Time in the World, and yet have known Men worthy of the highest
Friendship, and Women of the highest Love.«
    »It is possible,« answered the Stranger; »but you have lived, you confess, a
very short Time only in the World; I was somewhat older than you when I was of
the same Opinion.«
    »You might have remained so still,« replies Jones, »if you had not been
unfortunate, I will venture to say incautious in the placing your Affections. If
there was indeed much more Wickedness in the World than there is, it would not
prove such general Assertions against human Nature, since much of this arrives
by mere Accident, and many a Man who commits Evil, is not totally bad and
corrupt in his Heart. In Truth, none seem to have any Title to assert Human
Nature to be necessarily and universally evil, but those whose own Minds afford
them one Instance of this natural Depravity; which is not, I am convinced, your
Case.«
    »And such,« said the Stranger, »will be always the most backward to assert
any such thing. Knaves will no more endeavour to persuade us of the Baseness of
Mankind, than a Highwayman will inform you that there are Thieves on the Road.
This would indeed be a Method to put you on your Guard, and to defeat their own
Purposes. For which Reason tho' Knaves, as I
