Lockit; and remembering the captain's roaring life, great appearance, vast
success, and strong advantages, I feel assured that nobody having a bent that
way will take any warning from him, or will see anything in the play but a
flowery and pleasant road, conducting an honourable ambition - in course of time
- to Tyburn Tree.
    In fact, Gay's witty satire on society had a general object, which made him
quite regardless of example in this respect, and gave him other and wider aims.
The same may be said of Sir Edward Bulwer's admirable and powerful novel of Paul
Clifford, which cannot be fairly considered as having, or as being intended to
have, any bearing on this part of the subject, one way or other.
    What manner of life is that which is described in these pages, as the
everyday existence of a Thief? What charms has it for the young and
ill-disposed, what allurements for the most jolter-headed of juveniles? Here are
no canterings on moonlit heaths, no merry-makings in the snuggest of all
possible caverns, none of the attractions of dress, no embroidery, no lace, no
jack-boots, no crimson coats and ruffles, none of the dash and freedom with
which the road has been time out of mind invested. The cold wet shelterless
midnight streets of London; the foul and frowsy dens, where vice is closely
packed and lacks the room to turn; the haunts of hunger and disease; the shabby
rags that scarcely hold together; where are the attractions of these things?
    There are people, however, of so refined and delicate a nature, that they
cannot bear the contemplation of such horrors. Not that they turn instinctively
from crime; but that criminal characters, to suit them, must be, like their
meat, in delicate disguise. A Massaroni in green velvet is an enchanting
creature; but a Sikes in fustian is insupportable. A Mrs. Massaroni, being a
lady in short petticoats and a fancy dress, is a thing to imitate in tableaux
and have in lithograph on pretty songs; but a Nancy, being a creature in a
cotton gown and cheap shawl, is not to be thought of. It is wonderful how Virtue
turns from dirty stockings; and how Vice, married to ribbons and a little gay
attire, changes her name, as wedded ladies do, and becomes Romance.
    But as the stern truth, even in the dress of this (in novels) much exalted
race, was a part of the purpose of this book, I did not, for these readers