 swath to the wind,
I went foremost, and the rest followed in due succession. I could not avoid,
however, observing the assiduity of Mr. Burchell in assisting my daughter Sophia
in her part of the task. When he had finished his own, he would join in her's,
and enter into a close conversation: but I had too good an opinion of Sophia's
understanding, and was too well convinced of her ambition, to be under any
uneasiness from a man of broken fortune. When we were finished for the day, Mr.
Burchell was invited as on the night before; but he refused, as he was to lie
that night at a neighbour's, to whose child he was carrying a whistle. When
gone, our conversation at supper turned upon our late unfortunate guest. »What a
strong instance,« said I, »is that poor man of the miseries attending a youth of
levity and extravagance. He by no means wants sense, which only serves to
aggravate his former folly. Poor forlorn creature, where are now the revellers,
the flatterers, that he could once inspire and command! Gone, perhaps, to attend
the bagnio pander, grown rich by his extravagance. They once praised him, and
now they applaud the pander: their former raptures at his wit, are now converted
into sarcasms at his folly: he is poor, and perhaps deserves poverty; for he has
neither the ambition to be independent, nor the skill to be useful.« Prompted,
perhaps, by some secret reasons, I delivered this observation with too much
acrimony, which my Sophia gently reproved. »Whatsoever his former conduct may
be, pappa, his circumstances should exempt him from censure now. His present
indigence is a sufficient punishment for former folly; and I have heard my pappa
himself say, that we should never strike our unnecessary blow at a victim over
whom providence holds the scourge of its resentment.« - »You are right, Sophy,«
cried my son Moses, »and one of the ancients finely represents so malicious a
conduct, by the attempts of a rustic to flay Marsyas, whose skin, the fable
tells us, had been wholly stript off by another. Besides, I don't know if this
poor man's situation be so bad as my father would represent it. We are not to
judge of the feelings of others by what we might feel if in their place. However
dark the habitation of the mole to our eyes, yet the animal itself finds the
apartment sufficiently lightsome. And to confess a truth
