 had bestowed on Allworthy.
    But though he declared no Satisfaction to Mrs. Wilkins at this Discovery, he
enjoyed not a little from it in his own Mind, and resolved to make the best Use
of it he was able.
    He kept this Matter a long Time concealed within his own Breast, in Hopes
that Mr. Allworthy might hear it from some other Person; but Mrs. Wilkins,
whether she resented the Captain's Behaviour, or whether his Cunning was beyond
her, and she feared the Discovery might displease him, never afterwards opened
her Lips about the Matter.
    I have thought it somewhat strange, upon Reflection, that the House-keeper
never acquainted Mrs. Blifil with this News, as Women are more inclined to
communicate all Pieces of Intelligence to their own Sex, than to ours. The only
Way, as it appears to me, of solving this Difficulty, is, by imputing it to that
Distance which was now grown between the Lady and the House-keeper: Whether this
arose from a Jealousy in Mrs. Blifil, that Wilkins shewed too great a Respect to
the Foundling; for while she was endeavouring to ruin the little Infant, in
order to ingratiate herself with the Captain, she was every Day more and more
commending it before Allworthy, as his Fondness for it every Day encreased.
This, notwithstanding all the Care she took at other Times to express the direct
contrary to Mrs. Blifil, perhaps offended that delicate Lady, who certainly now
hated Mrs. Wilkins; and though she did not, or possibly could not, absolutely
remove her, from her Place, she found, however, the Means of making her Life
very uneasy. This Mrs. Wilkins, at length, so resented, that she very openly
shewed all Manner of Respect and Fondness to little Tommy, in Opposition to Mrs.
Blifil.
    The Captain, therefore, finding the Story in Danger of perishing, at last
took an Opportunity to reveal it himself.
    He was one Day engaged with Mr. Allworthy in a Discourse on Charity: In
which the Captain, with great Learning, proved to Mr. Allworthy, that the Word
Charity, in Scripture, no where means Beneficence, or Generosity.
    »The Christian Religion,« he said, »was instituted for much nobler Purposes,
than to enforce a Lesson which many Heathen Philosophers had taught us long
before, and which, though it might, perhaps, be called a moral Virtue, savoured
but little of that sublime Christian-like Disposition, that vast Elevation of
Thought, in Purity approaching to angelic Perfection, to be attained, expressed
