 or any
of his Representatives on Earth, to have contrived much greater Torments for
poor Jones, than those in which we left him in the last Chapter; and as for
Sophia, a good-natured Woman would hardly wish more Uneasiness to a Rival, than
what she must at present be supposed to feel. What then remains to complete the
Tragedy but a Murder or two, and a few moral Sentences.
    But to bring our Favourites out of their present Anguish and Distress, and
to land them at last on the Shore of Happiness, seems a much harder Task; a Task
indeed so hard that we do not undertake to execute it. In Regard to Sophia it is
more than probable, that we shall somewhere or other provide a good Husband for
her in the End, either Blifil, or my Lord, or Somebody else; but as to poor
Jones, such are the Calamities in which he is at present involved, owing to his
Imprudence, by which if a Man doth not become a Felon to the World, he is at
least a Felo de se; so destitute is he now of Friends, and so persecuted by
Enemies, that we almost despair of bringing him to any good; and if our Reader
delights in seeing Executions, I think he ought not to lose any Time in taking a
first Row at Tyburn.
    This I faithfully promise, that notwithstanding any Affection which we may
be supposed to have for this Rogue, whom we have unfortunately made our Heroe,
we will lend him none of that supernatural Assistance with which we are
entrusted, upon Condition that we use it only on very important Occasions. If he
doth not therefore find some natural Means of fairly extricating himself from
all his Distresses, we will do no Violence to the Truth and Dignity of History
for his Sake; for we had rather relate that he was hanged at Tyburn (which may
very probably be the Case) than forfeit our Integrity, or shock the Faith of our
Reader.
    In this the Antients had a great Advantage over the Moderns. Their
Mythology, which was at that Time more firmly believed by the Vulgar than any
Religion is at present, gave them always an Opportunity of delivering a
favourite Heroe. Their Deities were always ready at the Writer's Elbow, to
execute any of his Purposes; and the more extraordinary the Intervention was,
the greater was the Surprize and Delight of the credulous Reader. Those Writers
could with greater Ease have conveyed a Friend from one Country to another, nay
from one World to another, and have brought him back again, than a poor
circumscribed Modern can deliver
