 as a small Compensation for having robbed him of so very valuable a Treasure. To this Mr.
Cornish
had the Candour to reply that he scorned to take an ungenerous Advantage of his Lordship's Liberality. That he was not sensible of any Injury his Lordship had done him. That, on the contrary, he looked upon his Lordship, as the one, under Heaven, to whom he was most obliged; to whom he considered himself as singularly indebted; and whom he should ever remember in his Prayers, for having eased him of the capital Incumbrance of his Life.
What surprises me most in this Adventure, said Mr.
Faddle,
is the Conscientiousness of Lord
Freelove
in a Matter of which nobody else makes a Scruple There is Sir
Frederic Feeble,
a Man of threescore, and of so crazy a Constitution that the very first Disorder, with a little Help from the Doctor, must carry him off. And yet, within these seven Months, he has added to his Seraglio five
Lancashire
Virgins, beside three married Ladies whom he has taken into keeping, and who eloped to him from young and good looking Husbands.
Mr.
Faddle
's Remark on the Conscientiousness of Libertines, said Mr.
Fenton,
reminds me of
Jack Wilding,
a quondam Acquaintance of mine. I had the Story from himself; it is an Adventure of which he boasted; and the Recital, in his Opinion, did by no Means detract from his Character, as a Gentleman.
Mr.
Wilding
was of a neighbouring Country, and was educated by pious Parents, in a scrupulous Observance of his Duties to God and Man. When they thought him confirmed in his civil and religious Principles, they sent him here to study our Laws in the Middle Temple; where he speedily learned that Pleasure was the only Good, and that the Laws of Nature were irreversible by any subsequent Appointments. However, he piqued himself extremely on what is called the Punctilio of Honour, and would run any Man through the Body who should intimate that he had been guilty of an unjust or ungenerous Action.
Wilding
was a young Fellow of Parts and Pleasantry, and still preserved a very specious Appearance of Virtue. A considerable
London
Merchant conceived a Friendship for him; and, when he was taken under Arrest, on Account of some Debts and a Failure of Remittances, his new Friend advanced two hundred Pounds in his Favour, and made him a general Invitation to his Table.
The Merchant had lately married a lovely young Woman, who lost nothing of her Lustre in the Eyes of Mr.
Wilding.
For the sake of the Wife,
