,
and ashamed to look any one in the Face, so resolved to leave Oxford the next
Morning, before the Daylight discovered me to the Eyes of any Beholders.
    When I had got clear of the City, it first entered into my Head to return
Home to my Father, and endeavour to obtain his Forgiveness; but as I had no
Reason to doubt his Knowledge of all which had past, and as I was well assured
of his great Aversion to all Acts of Dishonesty, I could entertain no Hopes of
being received by him, especially since I was too certain of all the good
Offices in the Power of my Mother: Nay, had my Father's Pardon been as sure, as
I conceived his Resentment to be, I yet question whether I could have had the
Assurance to behold him, or whether I could, upon any Terms, have submitted to
live and converse with those, who, I was convinced, knew me to have been guilty
of so base an Action.
    I hastened therefore back to London, the best Retirement of either Grief or
Shame, unless for Persons of a very public Character; for here you have the
Advantage of Solitude without its Disadvantage, since you may be alone and in
Company at the same Time; and while you walk or sit unobserved, Noise, Hurry,
and a constant Succession of Objects, entertain the Mind, and prevent the
Spirits from preying on themselves, or rather on Grief or Shame, which are the
most unwholesome Diet in the World; and on which (though there are many who
never taste either but in public) there are some who can feed very plentifully,
and very fatally when alone.
    But as there is scarce any human Good without its concomitant Evil, so there
are People who find an Inconvenience in this unobserving Temper of Mankind; I
mean Persons who have no Money; for as you are not put out of Countenance, so
neither are you cloathed or fed by those who do not know you. And a Man may be
as easily starved in Leadenhall Market as in the Desarts of Arabia.
    It was at present my Fortune to be destitute of that great Evil, as it is
apprehended to be by several Writers, who I suppose were overburthened with it,
namely, Money.« »With Submission, Sir,« said Partridge, »I do not remember any
Writers who have called it Malorum; but Irritamenta Malorum. Essodiuntur opes
irritamenta Malorum.« »Well, Sir,« continued the Stranger, »whether it be an
Evil, or only the Cause of Evil, I was entirely void of
