, it can have no foundation but in the falsest of fears, that its
pleasures cannot stand in comparison with those of Vice; but let truth dare to
hold it up in its most alluring light: then mark, how spurious, how low of
taste, how comparatively inferior its joys are to those which Virtue gives
sanction to, and whose sentiments are not above making even a sauce for the
senses, but a sauce of the highest relish; whilst Vices are the harpies that
infect and foul the feast. The paths of Vice are sometimes strew'd with roses,
but then they are for ever infamous for many a thorn, for many a canker-worm:
those of Virtue are strew'd with roses purely, and those eternally unfading
ones.
    If you do me then justice, you will esteem me perfectly consistent in the
incense I burn to Virtue. If I have painted Vice in all its gayest colours, if I
have deck'd it with flowers, it has been solely in order to make the worthier,
the solemner sacrifice of it, to Virtue.
    You know Mr. C*** O***, you know his estate, his worth, and good sense: can
you, will you pronounce it ill meant, at least of him, when anxious for his
son's morals, with a view to form him to virtue, and inspire him with a fix'd, a
rational contempt for vice, he condescended to be his master of the ceremonies,
and led him by the hand thro' the most noted bawdy-houses in town, where he took
care he should be familiarized with all those scenes of debauchery, so fit to
nauseate a good taste? The experiment, you will cry, is dangerous. True, on a
fool: but are fools worth so much attention?
    I shall see you soon, and in the mean time think candidly of me, and believe
me ever,
    
                                     Madam,
                                                         Yours, etc., etc., etc.
 
                                    The End

