 any Degree of Love and Tenderness in great and delicate
Minds.
    But so Matters fell out, and so I must relate them; and if any Reader is
shocked at their appearing unnatural, I cannot help it. I must remind such
Persons, that I am not writing a System, but a History, and I am not obliged to
reconcile every Matter to the received Notions concerning Truth and Nature. But
if this was never so easy to do, perhaps it might be more prudent in me to avoid
it. For Instance, as the Fact at present before us now stands, without any
Comment of mine upon it, tho' it may at first Sight offend some Readers, yet
upon more mature Consideration, it must please all; for wise and good Men may
consider what happened to Jones at Upton as a just Punishment for his
Wickedness, with Regard to Women, of which it was indeed the immediate
Consequence; and silly and bad persons may comfort themselves in their Vices, by
flattering their own Hearts that the Characters of Men are rather owing to
Accident than to Virtue. Now perhaps the Reflections which we should be here
inclined to draw, would alike contradict both these Conclusions, and would shew
that these Incidents contribute only to confirm the great, useful and uncommon
Doctrine, which it is the Purpose of this whole Work to inculcate, and which we
must not fill up our Pages by frequently repeating, as an ordinary Parson fills
his Sermon by repeating his Text at the End of every Paragraph.
    We are contented that it must appear, however unhappily Sophia had erred in
her Opinion of Jones, she had sufficient Reason for her Opinion; since, I
believe, every other young Lady would, in her Situation, have erred in the same
Manner. Nay, had she followed her Lover at this very Time, and had entered this
very Alehouse the Moment he was departed from it, she would have found the
Landlord as well acquainted with her Name and Person as the Wench at Upton had
appeared to be. For while Jones was examining his Boy in Whispers in an inner
Room, Partridge, who had no such Delicacy in his Disposition, was in the Kitchin
very openly catechising the other Guide who had attended Mrs. Fitzpatrick; by
which Means the Landlord, whose Ears were open enough on all such Occasions,
became perfectly well acquainted with the Tumble of Sophia from her Horse, etc.
with the Mistake concerning Jenny Cameron, with the many Consequences of the
Punch, and, in short, with almost every thing which had happened at the Inn,
whence we dispatched our Ladies in a Coach
