 the Eye, and even worthy some
Admiration, would be false and foolish. Beautiful is an Epithet often used in
Scripture, and always mentioned with Honour. It was my own Fortune to marry a
Woman, whom the World thought handsome, and I can truly say, I liked her the
better on that Account. But, to make this the sole Consideration of Marriage, to
lust after it so violently, as to overlook all Imperfections for its Sake, or to
require it so absolutely as to reject and disdain Religion, Virtue, and Sense,
which are Qualities, in their Nature of much higher Perfection, only because an
Elegance of Person is wanting; this is surely inconsistent either with a wise
Man, or a good Christian. And it is, perhaps, being too charitable to conclude
that such Persons mean any thing more by their Marriage, than to please their
carnal Appetites, for the Satisfaction of which we are taught it was not
ordained.
    In the next Place, with respect to Fortune. Worldly Prudence perhaps exacts
some Consideration on this Head; nor will I absolutely and altogether condemn
it. As the World is constituted, the Demands of a married State, and the Care of
Posterity, require some little Regard to what we call Circumstances. Yet this
Provision is greatly encreased beyond what is really necessary, by Folly and
Vanity, which create abundantly more Wants than Nature. Equipage for the Wife,
and large Fortunes for the Children, are by Custom enrolled in the List of
Necessaries; and, to procure these, every thing truly solid and sweet, and
virtuous, and religious, are neglected and overlooked.
    And this in many Degrees; the last and greatest of which seems scarce
distinguishable from Madness. I mean, where Persons of immense Fortunes contract
themselves to those who are, and must be, disagreeable to them; to Fools and
Knaves, in order to encrease an Estate, already larger even than the Demands of
their Pleasures. Surely such Persons, if they will not be thought mad, must own,
either that they are incapable of tasting the Sweets of the tenderest
Friendship, or that they sacrifice the greatest Happiness of which they are
capable, to the vain, uncertain, and senseless Laws of vulgar Opinion, which owe
as well their Force, as their Foundation, to Folly.«
    Here Allworthy concluded his Sermon, to which Blifil had listened with the
profoundest Attention, tho' it cost him some Pains to prevent now and then a
small Discomposure of his Muscles. He now praised every Period of what he had
heard, with the Warmth of a young Divine who
