what
is worst of all, there is none to whose Poison and Infatuation the best of Minds
are so liable. Ambition scarce ever produces any Evil, but when it reigns in
cruel and savage Bosoms; and Avarice seldom flourishes at all but in the basest
and poorest Soil. Love, on the contrary, sprouts usually up in the richest and
noblest Minds; but there unless nicely watched, pruned, and cultivated, and
carefully kept clear of those vicious Weeds which are too apt to surround it, it
branches forth into Wildness and Disorder, produces nothing desirable, but
choaks up and kills whatever is good and noble in the Mind where it so abounds.
In short, to drop the Allegory, not only Tenderness and Good-nature, but
Bravery, Generosity, and every Virtue are often made the Instruments of
effecting the most atrocious Purposes of this all-subduing Tyrant.
 

                                   Chapter II

      Which will not appear, we presume, unnatural to all married Readers.

If the Table of poor Booth afforded but an indifferent Repast to the Colonel's
Hunger, here was most excellent Entertainment of a much higher kind. The Colonel
began now to wonder within himself at his not having before discovered such
incomparable Beauty and Excellence. This Wonder was indeed so natural, that lest
it should arise likewise in the Reader, we thought proper to give the Solution
of it in the preceding Chapter.
    During the first two Hours, the Colonel scarce ever had his Eyes off from
Amelia; for he was taken by Surprize, and his Heart was gone before he suspected
himself to be in any Danger. His Mind however no sooner suggested a certain
Secret to him, than it suggested some Degree of Prudence to him at the same
time; and the Knowledge that he had Thoughts to conceal, and the Care of
concealing them, had Birth at one and the same Instant. During the Residue of
the Day therefore, he grew more circumspect, and contented himself with now and
then stealing a Look by chance, especially as the more than ordinary Gravity of
Booth made him fear that his former Behaviour had betrayed to Booth's
Observation the great and sudden Liking he had conceived for his Wife, even
before he had observed it in himself.
    Amelia continued the whole Day in the highest Spirits, and highest good
Humour imaginable; never once remarking that Appearance of Discontent in her
Husband, of which the Colonel had taken Notice; so much more quick-sighted, as
we have somewhere else hinted, is Guilt than Innocence. Whether Booth had in
reality made any such Observations on the Colonel's Behaviour as he had
suspected, we