.
 
When Jenny appeared, Mr. Allworthy took her into his Study, and spoke to her as
follows:
    »You know, Child, it is in my Power, as a Magistrate, to punish you very
rigorously for what you have done; and you will perhaps be the more apt to fear
I should execute that Power, because you have, in a manner, laid your Sins at my
Door.
    But perhaps this is one Reason which hath determined me to act in a milder
Manner with you: For, as no private Resentment should ever influence a
Magistrate, I will be so far from considering your having deposited the Infant
in my House, as an Aggravation of your Offence, that I will suppose, in your
Favour, this to have proceeded from a natural Affection to your Child; since you
might have some Hopes to see it thus better provided for, than was in the Power
of yourself, or its wicked Father, to provide for it. I should indeed have been
highly offended with you, had you exposed the little Wretch in the Manner of
some inhuman Mothers, who seem no less to have abandoned their Humanity, than to
have parted with their Chastity. It is the other Part of your Offence therefore
upon which I intend to admonish you, I mean the Violation of your Chastity. A
Crime, however lightly it may be treated by debauched Persons, very heinous in
itself, and very dreadful in its Consequences.
    The heinous Nature of this Offence must be sufficiently apparent to every
Christian, inasmuch as it is committed in Defiance of the Laws of our Religion,
and of the express Commands of him who founded that Religion.
    And here its Consequences may well be argued to be dreadful; for what can be
more so, than to incur the divine Displeasure, by the Breach of the divine
Commands; and that in an Instance, against which the highest Vengeance is
specifically denounced.
    But these Things, tho' too little, I am afraid, regarded, are so plain, that
Mankind, however they may want to be reminded, can never need Information on
this Head. A Hint therefore to awaken your Sense of this Matter shall suffice;
for I would inspire you with Repentance, and not drive you to Desperation.
    There are other Consequences, not indeed so dreadful or replete with Horror
as this; and yet such, as if attentively considered, must, one would think,
deter all, of your Sex at least, from the Commission of this Crime.
    For by it you are rendered infamous, and driven, like Lepers of old, out of
Society;
