his friendship was highly commendable, and he wished he could see more frequent instances of that virtue.

But Fortune, who seldom greatly relishes such sparks as my friend Tom, perhaps because they do not pay more ardent addresses to her, gave now a very different turn to all his actions, and showed them to Mr. Allworthy in a light far less agreeable than that gentleman's goodness had hitherto seen

them.

CHAPTER VI.

An apology for the insensibility of Mr. Jones to all the charms of the lovely Sophia; in which possibly we may, in a considerable degree, lower his character in the estimation of those men of wit and gallantry, who approve the heroes in most of

our modern comedies.

can escape, a penetration which nothing can deceive, and an integrity which nothing can corrupt.

This active principle may perhaps be said to constitute the most essential barrier between us and our neighbours the brutes; for if there be some in the human shape who are not under any such dominion, I choose rather to consider them as deserters from us to our neighbours; among whom they will have the fate of deserters, and not be placed in the first rank.

Our hero, whether he derived it from Thwackum or Square I will not determine, was very strongly under the guidance of this principle; for though he did not always act rightly, yet he never did otherwise without feeling and suffering for it. It was this which taught him, that to repay the civilities and little friendships of hospitality by robbing the house where you have received THERE are two sorts of people, who, I them, is to be the basest and meanest of am afraid, have already conceived some thieves. He did not think the baseness of contempt for my hero, on account of his be- this offence lessened by the height of the haviour to Sophia. The former of these injury committed; on the contrary, if to will blame his prudence in neglecting an op- steal another's plate deserved death and inportunity to possess himself of Mr. Wes-famy, it seemed to him difficult to assign a tern's fortune; and the latter will no less despise him for his backwardness to so fine a girl, who seemed ready to fly into his arms, if he would open them to receive her.

punishment adequate to the robbing a man of his whole fortune, and of his child into the bargain.

This principle, therefore, prevented him from any thought of making his fortune by Now, though I shall not perhaps be able such means, (for this, as I have said, is an absolutely to acquit him of either of these active principle, and doth not content itself charges, (for want of prudence admits of with knowledge or belief only.) Had he no excuse; and what I shall produce against been greatly enamoured of Sophia, he posthe latter charge will, I apprehend, be scarce sibly might have thought otherwise; but satisfactory ;) yet, as evidence may some-give me leave to say, there is great differtimes be offered in mitigation, I shall set forth the plain matter of fact, and leave the whole to the reader's determination.

Mr. Jones had somewhat about him, which, though I think writers are not thoroughly agreed in its name, doth certainly inhabit some human breasts; whose use is not so properly to distinguish right from wrong, as to prompt and incite them to the former, and to restrain and withhold them from the latter.

ence between running away with a man's daughter from the motive of love, and doing the same thing from the motive of theft.

Now, though this young gentleman was not insensible of the charms of Sophia, though he greatly liked her beauty, and esteemed all her other qualifications, she had made, however, no deep impression on his heart; for which, as it renders him liable to the charge of stupidity, or at least of want of taste, we shall now proceed to account.

This somewhat may be indeed resembled to the famous trunk-maker in the play- The truth then is, his heart was in the house; for, whenever the person who is possession of another woman. Here I quespossessed of it doth what is right, no rav-tion not but the reader will be surprised at ished or friendly spectator is so eager or so loud in his applause: on the contrary, when he doth wrong, no critic is so apt to hiss and explode him.

our long taciturnity as to this matter; and quite at a loss to divine who this woman was, since we have hitherto not dropped a hint of any one likely to be a rival to SoTo give a higher idea of the principle Iphia; for as to Mrs. Blifil, though we have mean, as well as one more familiar to the been obliged to mention some suspicions of present age, it may be considered as sitting her affection for Tom, we have not hitherto on its throne in the mind, like the lord high given the least latitude for imagining that chancellor of this kingdom in his court; he had any for her; and, indeed, I am sorry where it presides, governs, directs, judges, to say it, but the youth of both sexes are acquits, and condemns, according to merit too apt to be deficient in their gratitude for and justice, with a knowledge which nothing that regard with which persons more ad

vanced in years are sometimes so kind as to honour them.

That the reader may be no longer in suspense, he will be pleased to remember, that we have often mentioned the family of George Seagrim, (commonly called Black George, the gamekeeper,) which consisted at present of a wife and five children.

The second of these children was a daughter, whose name was Molly, and who was esteemed one of the handsomest girls in the whole country.

Congreve well says, there is in true beauty something which vulgar souls cannot admire; so can no dirt or rags hide this something from those souls which are not of the vulgar stamp.

The beauty of this girl made, however, no impression on Tom, till she grew towards the age of sixteen, when Tom, who was near three years older, began first to cast the eyes of affection upon her. And this affection he had fixed on the girl long before he could bring himself to attempt the possession of her person; for though his constitution urged him greatly to this, his principles no less forcibly restrained him. To debauch a young woman, however low her condition was, appeared to him a very heinous crime; and the good-will he bore the father, with the compassion he had for his family, very strongly corroborated all such sober reflections; so that he once resolved to get the better of his inclinations, and he actually abstained three whole months without ever going to Seagrim's house, or seeing his daughter.

In the conduct of this matter, I say, Molly so well played her part, that Jones attributed the conquest entirely to himself, and considered the young woman as one who had yielded to the violent attacks of his passion. He likewise imputed her yielding to the ungovernable force of her love towards him; and this the reader will allow to have been a very natural and probable supposition, as we have more than once mentioned the uncommon comeliness of his person: and indeed he was one of the handsomest young fellows in the world.

As there are some minds whose affections, like Master Blifil's, are solely placed on one single person, whose interest and indulgence alone they consider on every occasion, regarding the good and ill of all others as merely indifferent, any farther than as they contribute to the pleasure or advantage of that person; so there is a different temper of mind, which borrows a degree of virtue even from self-love. Such can never receive any kind of satisfaction from another, without loving the creature to whom that satisfaction is owing, and without making its well-being in some sort necessary to their own ease.

Of this latter species was our hero. He considered this poor girl as one whose happiness or misery he had caused to be dependent on himself. Her beauty was still the object of desire, though greater beauty, or a fresher object, might have been more so; but the little abatement which fruition had occasioned to this, was highly overbalanced by the considerations of the affection which she visibly bore him, and of the situation into which he had brought her. The former of these created gratitude, the latter compassion; and both, together with his desire for her person, raised in him a passion, which might, without any great violence to the word, be called love; though, perhaps, it was at first not very judiciously placed.

Now though Molly was, as we have said, generally thought a very fine girl, and in reality she was so, yet her beauty was not of the most amiable kind. It had indeed very Fittle of feminine in it, and would have become a man at least as well as a woman; for, to say the truth, youth and florid health had a very considerable share in the composition. Nor was her mind more effeminate than her person. As this was tall and robust, so was that bold and forward. So little had This, then, was the true reason of that she of modesty, that Jones had more regard insensibility which he had shown to the for her virtue than she herself. And as charms of Sophia, and that behaviour in most probably she liked Tom as well as he her, which might have been reasonably liked her; so when she perceived his back- enough interpreted as an encouragement to wardness, she herself grew proportionably his addresses; for as he could not think of forward; and when she saw he had entirely abandoning his Molly, poor and destitute deserted the house, she found means of as she was, so no more could he entertain throwing herself in his way, and behaved in such a manner, that the youth must have had very much, or very little of the hero, if her endeavours had proved unsuccessful. In a word, she soon triumphed over all the virtuous resolutions of Jones; for though she behaved at last with all decent reluctance, yet I rather choose to attribute the triumph to her, since, in fact, it was her design which succeeded.

a notion of betraying such a creature as Sophia. And surely, had he given the least encouragement to any passion for that young lady, he must have been absolutely guilty of one or other of those crimes; either of which would, in my opinion, have very justly subjected him to that fate, which, at his first introduction into this history, I mentioned to have been generally predicted as his certain destiny.

CHAPTER VII.

Being the shortest chapter in this book.

distance from this church than from his own, he very often came to divine service here; and both he and the charming Sophia happened to be present at this time.

HER mother first perceived the alteration in the shape of Molly; and, in order to hide it from her neighbours, she foolishly ty of the girl, whom she pitied for her simSophia was much pleased with the beauclothed her in that sack which Sophia had plicity, in having dressed herself in that sent her; though, indeed, that young lady manner, as she saw the envy which it had had little apprehension that the poor wo-occasioned among her equals. She no man would have been weak enough to let sooner came home, than she sent for the any of her daughters wear it in that form. gamekeeper, and ordered him to bring his Molly was charmed with the first op-daughter to her; saying, she would proportunity she ever had of showing her vide for her in the family, and might posbeauty to advantage; for though she could sibly place the girl about her own person, very well bear to contemplate herself in when her own maid, who was now going the glass, even when dressed in rags, and away, had left her. though she had in that dress conquered the heart of Jones, and perhaps of some others; yet she thought the addition of finery would much improve her charms, and extend her conquests.

Molly, therefore, having dressed herself out in this sack, with a new laced cap, and some other ornaments which Tom had given her, repairs to church with her fan in her hand the very next Sunday. The great are deceived, if they imagine they have appropriated ambition and vanity to themselves. These noble qualities flourish as notably in a country church, and churchvard, as in the drawing-room, or in the closet. Schemes have indeed been laid in the vestry, which would hardly disgrace the conclave. Here is a ministry, and here is an opposition. Here are plots and circumventions, parties and factions, equal to those which are to be found in courts.

Nor are the women here less practised in the highest feminine arts, than their fair superiors in quality and fortune. Here are prudes and coquettes, here are dressing and ogling, falsehood, envy, malice, scandal; in short, every thing that is common to the most splendid assembly or politest circle. Let those of high life, therefore, no longer despise the ignorance of their inferiors; nor the vulgar any longer rail at the vices of their betters.

6

for he was no stranger to the fault in the Poor Seagrim was thunderstruck at this; shape of his daughter. He answered, in a stammering voice, That he was afraid Molly would be too awkward to wait on her ladyship, as she had never been at service.-No matter for that,' says Sophia: 'she will soon improve. I am pleas ed with the girl, and am resolved to try

her.'

on whose prudent counsel he depended to Black George now repaired to his wife, extricate him out of this dilemma; but when he came thither, he found his house in some confusion. So great envy had this sack occasioned, that when Mr. Allworthy and the other gentry were gone from church, the rage, which had hitherto been confined, burst into an uproar; and, having vented itself at first in opprobrious words, at last to certain missile weapons; which laughs, hisses, and gestures, betook itself though, from their plastic nature, they threatened neither the loss of life or of limb, were, however, sufficiently dreadful to a well-dressed lady. Molly had too much spirit to bear this treatment tamely. Having, therefore-but hold, as we are diffident of our own abilities, let us here invite a superior power to our assistance.

Ye muses, then, whoever ye are, who who whilom didst recount the slaughter in love to sing battles, and principally thou those fields where Hudibras and Trulla fought, if thou wert not starved with thy friend Butler, assist me on this great occa sion, All things are not in the power of

Molly had seated herself some time before she was known by her neighbours. And then a whisper ran through the whole congregation, Who is she?" But when she was discovered, such sneering, gig gling, tittering, and laughing, ensued among the women, that Mr. Allworthy As a vast herd of cows in a rich farmer's was obliged to exert his authority to pre-yard, if, while they are milked, they hear serve any decency among them.

CHAPTER VIII.

A battle sung by the muse in the Homerican style, and which none but the classical reader can taste. MR. Western had an estate in this parish; and as his house stood at little greater

all.

their calves at a distance, lamenting the robbery which is then committing, roar and bellow, so roared forth the Somersetshire mob an halloo, made up of almost as many squalls, screams, and other different sounds, as there were persons, or indeed passions, among them; some were inspired by rage, others alarmed by fear, and others had nothing in their heads but the love of fun;

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but chiefly Envy, the sister of Satan, and | manship. Had he been at that time singhis constant companion, rushed among the ing psalms in the church, he would have crowd, and blew up the fury of the women, avoided a broken head. Miss Crow, the who no sooner came up to Molly, than daughter of a farmer; John Giddish, himthey pelted her with dirt and rubbish. self a farmer; Nan Slouch, Esther Codling, Will Spray, Tom Bennet; the three Misses Potter, whose father keeps the sign of the Red Lion; Betty Chambermaid, Jack Ostler, and many others of inferior note, lay rolling among the graves.

Not that the strenuous arm of Molly reached all these; for many of them in their flight overthrew each other.

Molly, having endeavoured in vain to make a handsome retreat, faced about; and laying hold of ragged Bess, who advanced in the front of the enemy, she at one blow felled her to the ground. The whole army of the enemy, (though near a hundred in number,) seeing the fate of their general, gave back many paces, and retired behind a new-dug grave; for the But now Fortune, fearing she had acted church-yard was the field of battle, where out of character, and had inclined too there was to be a funeral that very eve-long to the same side, especially as it was ning. Molly pursued her victory, and, catching up a skull which lay on the side of the grave, discharged it with such fury, that, having hit a tailor on the head, the two skulls sent equally forth a hollow sound at their meeting, and the tailor took presently measure of his length on the ground, where the skulls lay side by side, and it was doubtful which was the more valuable of the two. Molly then, taking a thighbone in her hand, fell in among the flying ranks, and dealing her blows with great liberality on either side, overthrew the carcass of many a mighty hero and heroine.

the right side, hastily turned about: for now Goody Brown,-whom Zekiel Brown caressed in his arms; nor he alone, but half the parish besides; so famous was she in the field of Venus, nor indeed less in those of Mars: the trophies of both these her husband always bore about on his head and face; for if ever human head did by its horns display the amorous glories of a wife, Zekiel's did; nor did his well-scratched face less denote her talents (or rather talons) of a different kind.

No longer bore this Amazon the shameful flight of her party. She stopped short, and, calling aloud to all who fled, spoke Recount, O muse, the names of those as follows: 'Ye Somersetshire men, or who fell on this fatal day. First, Jemmy rather, ye Somersetshire women, are ye Tweedle felt on his hinder head the dire- not ashamed thus to fly from a single woful bone. Him the pleasant banks of man? But if no other will oppose her, I sweetly-winding Stour had nourished, myself and Joan Top here will have the where he first learned the vocal art, with honour of the victory. Having thus said, which, wandering up and down at wakes she flew at Molly Seagrim, and easily and fairs, he cheered the rural nymphs and wrenched the thigh-bone from her hand, swains, when upon the green they inter-at the same time clawing off her cap from weaved the sprightly dance; while he her head. Then, laying hold of the hair himself stood fiddling and jumping to his of Molly with her left hand, she attacked own music. How little now avails his her so furiously in the face with the right, fiddle! He thumps the verdant floor with that the blood soon began to trickle from his carcass. Next old Echepole, the sow-her nose. Molly was not idle this while. gelder, received a blow in his forehead She soon removed the clout from the head from our Amazonian heroine, and imme- of Goody Brown, and then fastening on diately fell to the ground. He was a swingeing fat fellow, and fell with almost as much noise as a house. His tobaccobox dropped at the same time from his pocket, which Molly took up as lawful spoils. Then Kate of the Mill tumbled unfortunately over a tombstone, which, catching hold of her ungartered stocking, inverted the order of nature, and gave her heels the superiority to her head. Betty Pippin, with young Roger her lover, fell It is lucky for the women, that the seat both to the ground; where, O perverse of fistycuff war is not the same with them fate! she salutes the earth, and he the as among men; but though they may seem sky. Tom Freckle, the smith's son, was a little to deviate from their sex, when they the next victim to her rage. He was an go forth to battle, yet I have observed they ingenious workman, and made excellent never so far forget it, as to assail the bopattens; nay, the very patten with which soms of each other; where a few blows he was knocked down was his own work-would be fatal to most of them. This, I

her hair with one hand, with the other she caused another bloody stream to issue forth from the nostrils of the enemy.

When each of the combatants had borne off sufficient spoils of her hair from the head of her antagonist, the next rage was against the garments. In this attack they exerted so much violence, that, in a very few minutes, they were both naked to the middle.

know, some derive from their being of a more bloody inclination than the males. On which account they apply to the nose, as to the part whence blood may most easily be drawn; but this seems a farfetched, as well as ill-natured supposition. Goody Brown had great advantage of Molly in this particular; for the former had indeed no breasts, her bosom, (if it may be so called,) as well in colour as in many other properties, exactly resembling an ancient piece of parchment, upon which any one might have drummed a considerable while without doing her any great damage. Molly, beside her present unhappy condition, was differently formed in those parts, and might, perhaps, have tempted the envy of Brown to give her a fatal blow, had not the lucky arrival of Tom Jones at this instant put an immediate end to the bloody scene.

enemy, as well as any of Homer's heroes ever did, or as Don Quixote, or any knight-errant in the world, could have done, he returned to Molly, whom he found in a condition which must give both me and my reader pain, was it to be described here. Tom raved like a madman, beat his breast, tore his hair, stamped on the ground, and vowed the utmost vengeance on all who had been concerned. He then pulled off his coat, and buttoned it round her; put his hat upon her head, wiped the blood from her face as well as he could with his handkerchief, and called out to the servant to ride as fast as possible for a side-saddle, or a pillion, that he might carry her safe home.

Master Blifil objected to the sending away the servant, as they had only one with them; but, as Square seconded the order of Jones, he was obliged to comply.

This accident was luckily owing to Mr. The servant returned in a very short Square; for he, Master Blifil, and Jones, time with a pillion, and Molly, having colhad mounted their horses, after church, to lected her rags as well as she could, was take the air, and had ridden about a quar-placed behind him: in which manner she ter of a mile, when Square, changing his was carried home, Square, Blifil, and mind, (not idly, but for a reason which we Jones, attending. shall unfold as soon as we have leisure,) desired the young gentlemen to ride with him another way than they had at first purposed. This motion being complied with, brought them of necessity back again to the church-yard.

Here Jones, having received his coat, given her a sly kiss, and whispered her, that he would return in the evening, quitted his Molly, and rode on after his companions.

CHAPTER IX.

Containing matter of no very peaceable colour.

Master Blifil, who rode first, seeing such a mob assembled, and two women in the posture in which we left the combatants, stopped his horse to inquire what was the matter. A country fellow, scratching his head, answered him: 'I don't know, meas- MOLLY had no sooner apparelled herself ter, un't I; an't please your honour, here in her accustomed rags, than her sisters hath been a vight, I think, between Goody began to fall violently upon her, particuBrown and Moll Seagrim.'-' Who, who? larly her eldest sister, who told her she eries Tom; but, without waiting for an was well enough served. 'How had she answer, having discovered the features of the assurance to wear a gown which young his Molly through all the discomposure in Madam Western had given to mother! If which they now were, he hastily alighted, one of us was to wear it, I think,' says she, turned his horse loose, and, leaping over 'I myself have the best right; but I warthe wall, ran to her. She now, first burst-rant you think it belongs to your beauty. ing into tears, told him how barbarously I suppose you think yourself more handshe had been treated. Upon which, for- somer than any of us.' -Hand her down getting the sex of Goody Brown, or, per- the bit of glass from over the cupboard,' haps, not knowing it in his rage-for, in cries another; I'd wash the blood from reality, she had no feminine appearance my face before I talked of my beauty.' but a petticoat, which he might not observe he gave her a lash or two with his horsewhip; and then flying at the mob, who were all accused by Moll, he dealt his blows so profusely on all sides, that, unless I would again invoke the muse, (which the good-natured reader may think a little too hard upon her, as she hath so lately been violently sweated,) it would be impossible for me to recount the horse-whipping of that day.

Having scoured the whole coast of the

You'd better have minded what the parson says,' cries the eldest, and not a hearkened after men voke.'—' Indeed, child, and so she had,' says the mother, sobbing: she hath brought a disgrace upon us all. She's the vurst of the vamily that ever was a whore.'-You need not upbraid me with that, mother,' cries Molly; 'you yourself was brought to-bed of sister there within a week after you was married.'' Yes, hussy,' answered the enraged mother, 'so I was, and what was