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BEL. Not at all; not at all; I like them the better: were I only a vifitor, I might, perhaps, with them a little more tractable; but as a fellow-fubject, and a sharer in their free. dom, I applaud their fpirit, though I feel the effect of it in every bone of my fkin.-Well, Mr. Stockwell, for the first time in my life, here am in England; at the fountain-head of pleasure, in the land of beauty, of arts, and elegancies. My happy ftars have given me a good eftate, and the conspiring winds have blown me hither to spend it.

STOCK. To ufe it, not to wafte it, I fhould hope; to treat it, Mr. Belcour, not as a vaffal, over whom you have a wanton defpotic power, but as a subject, which you are bound to govern with a temperate and restrained authority.

BEL. True, Sir; moft truly faid; mine's a commiffion, not a right: I am the offspring of diftrefs, and every child of forrow is my brother. While I have hands to hold, therefore, I will hold them open to mankind: but, Sir, my paffions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and virtue nothing but my wishes and my fighs.

STOCK. Come, come, the man who can accufe, core rects himself.

BEL. Ah! that is an office I am weary of; I wish a friend would take it up: I would to Heaven you had lei» fure for the employ! but, did you drive a trade to the four corners of the world, you would not find the task fo toilfome as to keep me free from faults.

STOCK. Well, I am not difcouraged, this candour tells me I fhould not have the fault of felf-conceit to combat. that, at least, is not amongst the number:

BEL. No; if I knew that man on earth who thought more humbly of me than I do of myself, I would take up his opinion and forego my own.

STOCK. And, were I to choose a pupil, it should be one of your complexion; fo if you will come along with me, we

K. 5

will

will agree upon your admiffion, and enter upon a course of

lectures directly.

BEL. With alk my heart.

WEST INDIAN,

CHAP. VIII.

LORD EUSTACE AND FRAMPTON.

LD. EUST. WELL, my dear Frampton, have you fe

eured the letters ?

FRAM.

Yes, my lord; for their rightful owners.

LD. EUST.

As to the matter of property, Frampton, we will not dispute much about that. Neceffity, you know, may fometimes render a trefpafs excufable..

FRAM. I am not cafuift fufficient to answer you upon that fubject; but this I know, that you have already tref - paffed against the laws of hofpitality and honour, in your conduct towards Sir William Evans and his daughterAnd, as your friend and counsellor both, I would advise you to think feriously of repairing the injuries you have comwitted, and not increase your offence by a farther violation.

LD. EUST. It is actually a pity you were not bred to the bar, Ned; but I have only a moment to stay, and am all impatience to know if there be a letter from Langwood, and what he says.

FRAM. I fhall never be able to afford you the least in formation upon that fubject, my lord.

LD. EUST. Surely I do not understand you. You faid you had fecured the letters-Have you not read them?

FRAM. You have a right, and none but you, to ask me fuch a queftion. My weak compliance with your firft propofal relative to thefe letters, warrants your thinking fo meanly of me. But know, my lord, that though my per fonal affection for you, joined to my unhappy circumstances, may have betrayed me to ations unworthy of myself, I

never can forget, that there is a barrier fixed before the extreme of basenefs, which honour will not let me pass.

LD. EUST. You will give me leave to tell you, Mr. Frampton, that where I lead, I think you need not halt.

FRAM. You will pardon me, my Lord; the conscious nefs of another man's errours can never be a justification for our own; and poor indeed muft that wretch be, who can be fatisfied with the negative merit of not being the worst man he knows.

LD. EUST. If this difcourfe were uttered in a conventicle, it might have its effect, by fetting the congregation to ileep.

FRAM. It is rather meant to roufe than lull your lord ship.

LD. EUST. No matter what it is meant for; give me the letters, Mr. Frampton.

FRAM. Yet, excufe me. I could as foon think of arming a madman's hand against my own life, as fuffer you to be guilty of a crime, that will for ever wound your: honour.

LD. EUST. I fhall not come to you to heal the wound? your medicines are too rough and coarfe for me.

FRAM. The foft poifon of flattery might, perhaps please you better.

LD. EUST. Your confcience may, probably, have as much need of palliatives, as mine, Mr. Frampton, as I am pretty well convinced, that your courfe of life has not been more regular than my own.

FRAM. With true contrition, my lord, I confefs part of your sarcasm to be just. Pleasure was the object of my. pursuit and pleasure I obtained, at the expense both of health and fortune: but yet, my lord, I broke not in upon: the peace of others; the laws of hofpitality I never violated; nor did ever seek to injure or feduce the wife or daughter of my friend.

LD. EUST. I care not what you did; give me the letters. FRAM. I have no right to keep, and therefore fhall furrender them, though with the utmost reluctance: but, by our former friendship, I entreat you not to open them. LD. Eusr. That you have forfeited.

FRAM. Since it is not in my power to prevent your committing an errour, which you ought for ever to repent of, I will not be a witness of it. There are the letters.

LD. EUST. You may, perhaps, have caufe to repent your prefent conduct, Mr. Frampton, as much as I do our past attachment.

FRAM. Rather than hold your Friendship upon fuch terms, I refign it for ever. Farewell, my lord.

Reenter FRAMPTON.

FRAM. Ill-treated as I have been, my lord, I find it impoffible to leave you surrounded by difficulties.

LD. EUST. That fentiment fhould have operated fooner, Mr. Frampton. Recollection is feldom of use to our friends, though it may fometimes be serviceable to ourselves.

FRAM. Take advantage of your own expreffions, my lord, and recollect yourself. Born and educated, as I have been, a gentleman, how have you injured both yourself and me, by admitting and uniting, in the fame confidence, your rafcally fervant!

LD. EUST. The exigency of my fituation is a fufficient excufe to myself, and ought to have been fo to the man who called himself my friend.

FRAM. Have a care, my lord, of uttering the leaft doubt upon that fubject; for could I think you once mean enough to fufpect the fincerity of my attachment to you, it muft vanish at that inftant.

LD. EUST. The proofs of your regard have been rather painful of late, Mr. Frampton.

FRAM. When I fee my friend upon the verge of a precipice, is that a time for compliment? Shall I not rudely

rush

rush forward and drag him from it? Juft in that ftate you are at prefent, and I will strive to fave you. Virtue may languish in a noble heart, and fuffer her rival, vice, to ufurp her power; but baseness must not enter, or the flies for ever. The man who has forfeited his own efteem, thinks all the world has the fame consciousness, and therefore is, what he deferves to be, a wretch,

LD. EUST. Oh, Frampton! you have lodged a dagger in my heart!

FRAM. No, my dear Euftace, I have faved you from one, from your own reproaches, by preventing your being guilty of a meanness, which you could never have forgiven yourself.

LD. EUST. Can you forgive me, and be ftill my friend ?

FRAM. As firmly as I have ever been, my lord.~ But let us, at present, haften to get rid of the mean businefs we are engaged in, and forward the letters we have no right to detain. SCHOOL FOR RAKES.

CHAP. IX.

DUKE. NOW,

DUKE AND LORD.

ow, my comates, and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The season's difference; as the icy fang,
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind;
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I fhrink with cold, I fmile, and fay,
This is no flattery; these are counsellors,
That feelingly perfuade me what I am.
Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears

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