 introduction to Tom Jones this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Chris Turtle Tom Jones by Henry Fielding dedication to the Honourable George Littleton Esquire one of the Lord's commissioners of the treasury sir not withstanding your constant refusal when I have asked leave to prefix your name to this dedication I must still insist on my right to desire your protection of this work to you sir it is owing that this history was ever begun it was by your desire that I first thought of such a composition so many years have since passed that you may have perhaps forgotten this circumstance but your desires are to me in the nature of commands and the impression of them is never to be erased from my memory again sir without your assistance this history had never been completed be not startled at the assertion I do not intend to draw on you the suspicion of being a romance writer I mean no more than that I partly owe to you my existence during great part of the time which I have employed in composing it another matter which it may be necessary to remind you of since there are certain actions of which you are apt to be extremely forgetful but of these I hope I shall always have a better memory than yourself lastly it is owing to you that the history appears what it now is if there be in this work as some have been pleased to say a stronger picture of a truly benevolent mindness to be found in any other who knows you under particular acquaintance of yours will doubt whence that benevolence been copied the world will not I believe make me the compliment of thinking I took it from myself I cannot this they shall own that the two persons from whom I have taken it that is to say two of the best and worthiest men in the world are strongly and zealously my friends I might be contented with this and yet my vanity will add a third to the number and him one of the greatest and noblest not only in his rank but in every public and private virtue but here whilst my gratitude for the princely benefactions of the Duke of Bedford bursts from my heart you must forgive my reminding you that it was you who first recommended me to the notice of my benefactor and what are your objections to the allowance of the honor which I have solicited why you have commended the book so warmly that you should be ashamed of reading your name before the dedication indeed sir if the book itself does not make you ashamed of your commendations nothing that I can hear right will or ought I am not to give up my rights to your protection and patronage because you have commended my book for the I acknowledge so many obligations to you I do not have this to the number in which friendship I am convinced that so little share since that can neither bias your judgment nor pervert your integrity an enemy may at any time obtain your commendation by only deserving it on the utmost which the faults of your friends can hope for is your silence or perhaps if too severely accused your gentle palliation in short sir I suspect that your dislike of public praise is your true objection to granting my request I have observed that you have in common with my two other friends an unwillingness to hear the least mention of your own virtues that as a great poet says of one of you he might justly have said it of all three you do good by stealth and blush to find it fame if man of this disposition or as careful to shun applause as others are to escape censure how just must be your apprehension of your character falling into my hands since what would not a man have reason to dread if attacked by an author who had received from him injuries equal to my obligations to you and will not this dread of censure increase in proportion to the matter which a man is conscious of having afforded for it if his whole life for instance should have been one continued subject of satire he may well tremble when an insent satirist takes him in hand now sir if we apply this to your modest aversion to pan gyric how reasonable will your fears of me appear yet surely you might have gratified my ambition from this single confidence that I shall always prefer the indulgence of your inclinations to the satisfaction of my own a very strong instance of which I shall give you in this address in which I am determined to follow the example of all other dedicators and will consider not what my patron really deserves to have written but what he will best be pleased to read without further preface then I here present you the labours of some years of my life what merits these labours have is already known to yourself if from your favourable judgment I've conceived some esteem for them it cannot be imputed to vanity since I should have agreed is implicitly to your opinion had it been given in favour of any other man's production negatively at least I may be allowed to say that had I been sensible of any great demerit in the work you are the last person to whose protection I would have ventured to recommend it from the name of my patron indeed I hope my reader will be convinced at his very entrance on this work that you will find in the whole course of it nothing prejudicial to the cause of religion and virtue nothing inconsistent with the strictest rules of decency nor which can offend even the chastest eye in the perusal on the contrary I declare that to recommend goodness and innocence have been my sincere endeavour in this history this honest purpose you have been pleased to think I have attained and to say the truth it is likely as to be attained in books of this kind for an example is a kind of picture in which virtue becomes as it were an object of sight and strikes us with an idea of that loveliness which Plato asserts there is in her naked charms besides displaying that beauty of virtue which may attract the admiration of mankind I have attempted to engage a stronger motive to human action in her favour by convincing man that their true interest directs them to a pursuit of her for this purpose I have shown that no acquisitions of guilt can compensate the loss of that solid inward competitive mind which is the sure companion of innocence and virtue nor can in the least balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which in their room guilt introduces into our bosoms and again that as these acquisitions are in themselves generally worthless so other means to attain them not only base and infamous but at best in certain and always full of danger lastly I have endeavoured strongly to inculcate that virtue and innocence can scarce ever be injured but by indiscretion and that it is this alone which often betrays them into the snares that deceit and villainy spread for them a moral which I have the more industriously laboured as the teaching it is of all others the likeliest to be attended with success since I believe it is much easier to make good men wise than to make bad men good for these purposes I have employed all the wits and humour of which I am master in the following history wherein I have endeavoured to laugh mankind out of their favourite follies and vices how far I have succeeded in this good attempt I shall submit to the candid reader with only two requests first that he will not expect to find perfection in this work and secondly that he will excuse some parts of it if they fall short of that little merit which I hope may appear in others I will detain you sir no longer indeed I have run into a preface while I profess to write a dedication but how can it be otherwise I dare not praise you and the only means I know of to avoid it when you are in my thoughts are either to be entirely silent or to turn my thoughts to some other subject pardon therefore what I have said in this epistle not only without your consent but absolutely against it and give me at least leave in this public manner to declare that I am with the highest respect and gratitude sir your most obliged obedient humble servant Henry Fielding end of introduction section one of Tom Jones this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Chris Turtle Tom Jones by Henry Fielding book one containing as much of the birth of the founding as is necessary or proper to acquaint the reader with in the beginning of this history chapter one the introduction to the work or bill of fair to the feast an author ought to consider himself not as a gentleman who gives a private or a limo scenery treat but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary at which all persons are welcome for their money in the former case it is well known that the entertainer provides what fair he pleases and though this should be very indifferent and utterly disagreeable to the taste of his company they must not find any fault nay on the contrary good breeding forces them outwardly to approve and to commend whatever is set before them now the contrary of this happens to the master of an ordinary men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their pallets however nice and whimsical these may prove and if everything is not agreeable to their taste will challenge a right to censure to abuse and to dam their dinner without control to prevent therefore giving offense to their customers by any such disappointment it had been usual with the honest and well-meaning host to provide a bill of fair which all persons may peruse at their first entrance into the house and having then sequented themselves with the entertainment which they may expect may either stay and regale with what is provided for them or made a part to some other ordinary better accommodated to their taste as we do not disdain to borrow wit or wisdom from any man who is capable of lending us either we have condescended to take a hint from these honest victuallers and shall prefix not only a general bill of fair to our whole entertainment but shall likewise give the reader particular bills to every course which is to be served up in this and the ensuing volumes the provision then which we have here made is no other than human nature nor do I fear that my sensible reader though most luxurious in his taste will start to reveal or be offended because I have named but one article the tortoise as the alderman of bristol well learned and eating knows by much experience besides the delicious calipash and calipe contains many different kinds of food nor can the learned reader be ignorant that in human nature though here collected under one general name is such prodigious variety that a cook will have sooner gone through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the world than an author will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject an objection may perhaps be apprehended from the more delicate that this dish is too common and vulgar for what else is the subject of all the romances novels plays and poems with which the stalls are bound many exquisite vians might be rejected by the epicure if it was a sufficient cause for his condemning of them as common and vulgar that something was to be found in the most poultry alleys under the same name in reality true nature is as difficult to be met within authors as the bayon ham or bologna sausage is to be found in the shops but the whole to continue the same metaphor consists in the cookery of the author for as Mr. Pope tells us true wit is nature to advantage dressed what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed the same animal which hath the honor to have met some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke may perhaps be degraded in another part and some of his limbs gibbeted as it were in the vilest stall in town where then lies the difference between the food of the nobleman and the porter if both are at dinner on the same ox or calf but in the seasoning the dressing the garnishing and the setting forth hence the one provokes and incites the most languid appetite and the other turns and pauls that which is the sharpest and keenest in like manner the excellence of the mental entertainment consists less in the subject than in the author's scale in well dressing it up how pleased therefore will the reader be to find that we have in the following work adhered closely to one of the highest principles of the best cook which the present age or perhaps that of heliogabalus have produced this great man as is well known to all lovers of polite eating begins at first by setting plain things before his hungry guests rising afterwards by degrees as their stomachs may be supposed to decrease to the very quintessence of sauce and spices in like manner we shall represent human nature at first to the keen appetite of our reader in that more plain and simple manner in which which is found in the country and shall hereafter hash and reguette with all the high french and italian seasoning of affectation and vice which courts and cities afford by these means we doubt not but our reader may be rendered desirous to read on forever as the great person just above mentioned is supposed to have made some persons eat having premised thus much we will now detain those who like our bill of fare no longer from their diet and shall proceed directly to serve up the first course of our history for their entertainment chapter two a short description of squire all worthy and a fuller account of miss bridget all worthy his sister in that part of the western division of this kingdom which is commonly called summercetcher there lately lived and perhaps live still a gentleman whose name was all worthy and who might well be called the favorite of both nature and fortune for both of these seem to have contended which should bless and enrich him most in this contention nature may seem to have come off victorious as she bestowed on him many gifts while fortune had only one gift in her power but in pouring forth this she was so very profuse that others perhaps may think this single endowment to have been more than equivalent to all the various blessings which he enjoyed from nature from the former of these he derived an agreeable person a sound constitution a solid understanding and a benevolent heart by the latter he was decreed to the inheritance of one of the largest estates in the county this gentleman had in his youth married a very worthy and beautiful woman of whom he had been extremely fond by her he had three children all of whom died in their infancy he had likewise had the misfortune of burying this beloved wife herself about five years before the time in which this history chooses to set out this loss however great he bore like a man of sense and constancy though it must be confessed he would often talk a little whimsically on this head for he sometimes said he looked on himself as still married and considered his wife has only gone a little before him a journey which he should most certainly soon or later take after her and that he had not the least doubt of meeting her again in a place where he should never part with her more sentiments for which his sense was arraigned by one part of his neighbors his religion by a second and his sincerity by a third he now lived for the most part retired in the country with one sister for whom he had a very tender affection this lady was now somewhat past the age of 30 an era at which in the opinion of the malicious the title of old maid may with no impropriety be assumed she was of that species of woman whom you commend rather for good qualities and beauty and to a generally called by their own sex very good sort of women as good a sort of woman madam as you would wish to know indeed she was so far from regretting want of beauty that she never mentioned that perfection if it can be called one without contempt and would often thank god she was not as handsome as miss such one whom perhaps beauty had layered into errors which you might have otherwise avoided miss bridget all worthy for that was the name of this lady very rightly conceived the charms of person in a woman to be no better than snares for herself as well as for others and yet so discreet was she in her conduct that her prudence was as much on the guard as if she had all the snares to apprehend which were ever laid for her whole sex indeed I have observed though it may seem unaccountable to the reader that this guard of prudence like the trained bands is always readyist to go on duty whether is the least danger it often basically and cowardly deserts those paragons for whom the men are all wishing sighing dying and spreading every net in their power and constantly attends at the heels of that higher order of women for whom the other sex have a more distant and awful respect and whom from despair I suppose a success they never venture to attack reader I think proper before we proceed any farther together to acquaint the that I intend to digress through this whole history as often as I see occasion of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful critic whatever and here I must desire all those critics to mind their own business and not to intermeddle with affairs or works which in no ways concern them for till they produce the authority by which they are constituted judges I shall not plead to their jurisdiction chapter three an odd accident which befell mr. Allworthy at his return home the decent behavior of mrs. Debra Wilkins with some proper animate versions on bastards I have told my reader in the preceding chapter that mr. Allworthy inherited a large fortune that he had a good heart and no family hence doubtless it will be concluded by many that he lived like an honest man owed no one a shilling took nothing but what was his own kept a good house entertained his neighbors with a hearty welcome at his table and was charitable to the poor i.e. to those who had rather begged than work by giving them the offals from it that he died immensely rich and built a hospital and true it is that he did many of these things but had he done nothing more I should have left him to have recorded his own merit on some fair freestone over the door of that hospital matters of a much more extraordinary kind are to be the subject of this history or I should grossly misspend my time in writing so voluminous of work and you my sagacious friend might with equal profit and pleasure travel through some pages which certain droll authors have been facetiously pleased to call the history of England mr. Allworthy had been absent a full quarter of a year in London on some very particular business though I know not what it was but judge of its importance by its having detained him so long from home whence he had not been absent a month at a time during the space of many years he came to his house very late in the evening and after a short supper with his sister retired much fatigued to his chamber here having spent some minutes on his knees a custom which he never broke through on any account he was preparing to step into bed when upon opening the clothes to his great surprise he beheld an infant wrapped up in some coarse linen in a sweet and profound sleep between his sheets he stood sometime lost an astonishment at this site but as good nature had always the ascendant in his mind he soon began to be touched with sentiments of compassion for the little wretch before him he then rang his bell unordered an elderly woman servant to rise immediately and come to him and in the meantime was so eager in contemplating the beauty of innocence appearing in those lively colours with which infancy and sleep always display it that his thoughts were much too engaged to reflect that he was in his shirt when the matron came in she had indeed given her master sufficient time to dress himself for out of respect to him and regard to decency she had spent many minutes in adjusting her hair at the looking-glass notwithstanding all the hurry in which she had been summoned by the servant and though her master for ought she knew lay expiring in an apoplexy or in some other fit it will not be wondered at that a creature who had so strict a regard to decency in her own person should be shocked at the least deviation from it in another she therefore no sooner opens the door and saw her master standing by the bedside in his shirt with a candle in his hand then she started back in a most terrible fright and might perhaps have swooned away had he not now recollected his being undressed and put an end to her terrors by desiring her to stay without the door till he had thrown some clothes over his back and was become incapable of shocking the pure eyes of mrs. Deborah Wilkins who though in the fifty-second year of her age vowed she had never beheld a man without his coat sneer isn't profane wits may perhaps laugh at her first fright yet my grave a reader when he considers the time of night the summons from her bed and the situation in which she found her master will highly justify and applaud her conduct unless the prudence which must be supposed to attend maidens of that period of life at which mrs. Deborah had arrived should a little lessen his admiration when mrs. Deborah returned into the room and was acquainted by her master with the finding the little infant her consternation was rather greater than his had been nor could she refrain from crying out with great horror of accent as well as look my good sir what's to be done? Mr. Allworthy answered she must take care of the child that evening and in the morning he would give orders to provide it to nurse. Yes, sir, says she, and I hope your worship will send out your warrant to take up the usiest mother for she must be one of the neighborhood and I should be glad to see her committed to Bridwell and whipped at the cart's tail. Indeed such wicked sluts cannot be too severely punished. Ah, warrant is not our first by impudence in laying it to your worship. In laying it to me, Deborah, answered Allworthy, I can't think she hath any such design. I suppose she hath only taken this method to provide for her child and truly I am glad she hath not done any worse. I don't know what is worse, cries Deborah, than for such wicked strumpets to lay their sins on his men's doors, and though your worship knows your own innocence and yet the world is censorious, it hath been many an honest man's app to pass for the father of children he never begot. And if your worship should provide for the child, it may make the people the appter to believe. Besides, why should your worship provide for what the parishes obliged to maintain? For my own part, if it was an honest man's child, indeed, but for my own part, it goes against me to touch these misbegotten wretches, and I don't look upon as my fellow creatures. How it stinks! It does not smell like a Christian. If I might be so bold to give my advice, I would have it put in a basket and sent out and laid at the church warden's door. It is a good night, only a little rainy and windy, and if it was well wrapped up and put in a warm basket, it's two to one, but it lives till it is found in the morning. But if it should not, we have discharged our duty and taken proper care of it, and it is perhaps better for such creatures to die in a state of innocence than to grow up and imitate their mothers, for nothing better can be expected of them. There were some strokes in this speech, which perhaps would have offended Mr. Allworthy had he strictly attended to it, but he had now got one of his fingers into the infant's hand, which, by its gentle pressure, seemed to implore his assistants, had certainly outpleaded the eloquence of Mrs. Deborah had it been ten times greater than it was. He now gave Mrs. Deborah positive orders to take the child to her own bed, and to call up a maid servant to provide it pap, and other things against it waked. He likewise ordered that proper clothes should be procured for it early in the morning, and that it should be brought to himself as soon as he was stirring. Such was the discernment of Mrs. Wilkins, and such the respect she bore her master, under whom she enjoyed a most excellent place, that her scruples gave way to his peremptory commands, and she took the child under her arms without any apparent disgust at the illegality of its birth, and declaring it was a sweet little infant walked off with it to her own chamber. Mr. Allworthy here betook himself to those pleasing slumbers which are hard to the tongue after goodness is apt to enjoy when thoroughly satisfied. As these are possibly sweeter than what are occasioned by any other hearty meal, I should take more pains to display them to the reader if I knew any air to recommend him to for the procuring such an appetite. End of Section 1 Section 2 of Tom Jones This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording by Chris Turtle Tom Jones by Henry Fielding Book 1 Chapter 4 The reader's neck brought into danger by a description, his escape, and the great condescension of Miss Bridget Allworthy. The gothic style of building could produce nothing nobler than Mr. Allworthy's house. There was an air of grandeur in it that struck you with awe and rivaled the beauties of the best Grecian architecture, and it was as commodious within as venerable without. It stood on the southeast side of a hill, but nearer the bottom than the top of it, so as to be sheltered from the northeast by a grove of old oaks which rose above it in a gradual ascent of near half a mile, and yet high enough to enjoy a most charming prospect of the valley beneath. In the midst of the grove was a fine lawn, sloping down towards the house, near the summit of which rose a plentiful spring, gushing out of a rock covered with furs, and forming a constant cascade of about 30 feet, not carried down a regular flight of steps, but tumbling in a natural fall over the broken and mossy stones, till it came to the bottom of the rock, then running off in a pebbly channel, but with many lesser falls winded along till it fell into a lake at the foot of the hill, about a quarter of a mile below the house on the south side, and which was seen from every room in the front. Out of this lake, which filled the center of a beautiful plain, embellished with groups of beaches and elms and fed with sheep, issued a river, that for several miles was seen to meander through an amazing variety of meadows and woods, till it emptied itself into the sea, with a large arm of which, and an island beyond it, the prospect was closed. On the right of this valley opened another of less extent, adorned with several villages, and terminated by one of the towers of an old, ruined abbey, grown over with ivy, and part of the front which remained still entire. The left-hand scene presented the view of a very fine park, composed of very unequal ground, and agreeably varied with all the diversity that hills, lawns, wood, and water laid out with admirable taste, but owing less to art than to nature, could give. Beyond this, the country gradually rose into a ridge of wild mountains, the tops of which were above the clouds. It was now the middle of May, and the morning was remarkably serene, when Mr. Allworthy walked forth onto the terrace, where the door opened every minute that lovely prospect we have before described to his eye, and now having sent forth streams of light, which ascended the blue firmament before him as harbingers proceeding his pomp, in the full blaze of his majesty rose the sun, than which one object alone in this lower creation could be more glorious, and that, Mr. Allworthy himself presented, a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he might render himself most acceptable to his creator by doing most good to his creatures. Reader, take care. I have unadvisedly led thee to the top of as high a hill as Mr. Allworthy's, and how to get thee down without breaking thy neck, I do not well know. However, let us even venture to slide down together, for Miss Bridget rings her bell, and Mr. Allworthy is summoned to breakfast, where I must attend, and, if you please, shall be glad of your company. The usual compliments having passed between Mr. Allworthy and Miss Bridget, and the tea being poured out, he summoned Mrs. Wilkins, and told his sister he had a present for her, for which she thanked him, imagining, I suppose, it had been a gown or some ornament for her person. Indeed, he very often made her such presents, and she, in complacence to him, spent much time in adorning herself. I say in complacence to him, because she always expressed the greatest contempt for dress, and for those ladies who made it their study. But, if such was her expectation, how was she disappointed when Mrs. Wilkins, according to the order she had received from her master, produced the little infant? Great surprises, as hath been observed, are apt to be silent. And so was Miss Bridget, till her brother began, and told her the whole story, which, as the reader knows it already, we shall not repeat. Miss Bridget had always expressed so great a regard for what the ladies are pleased to call virtue, and had herself maintained such a severity of character that it was expected, especially by Wilkins, that she would have vented much bitterness on this occasion, and would have voted for sending the child as a kind of noxious animal immediately out of the house. But, on the contrary, she rather took the good-natured side of the question, intimated some compassion for the helpless little creature, and commended her brother's charity in what he had done. Perhaps the reader may account for this behaviour from her condescension to Mr. Allworthy, when we have informed him that the good man had entered his narrative with owning a resolution to take care of the child, and to breed him up as his own. For, to acknowledge the truth, she was always ready to oblige her brother, and very seldom, if ever, contradicted his sentiments. She would indeed sometimes make a few observations, as that men were headstrong, and must have their own way, but would she have been blessed with an independent fortune, but these were always vented in a low voice, and at the most amounted only to what is called muttering. However, what she withheld from the infant, she bestowed with the utmost profuseness on the poor unknown mother, whom she called an impudent slut, a wanton hussy, an audacious harlot, a wicked jade, a vile strumpet, with every other appellation with which the tongue of Virtue never fails to lash those who bring a disgrace on the sex. A consultation was now entered into how to proceed in order to discover the mother. A scrutiny was first made into the characters of the female servants of the house, who were all acquitted by Mrs. Wilkins, and with apparent merit, for she had collected them herself, and perhaps it would be difficult to find such another set of scare-crows. The next step was to examine among the inhabitants of the parish, and this was referred to Mrs. Wilkins, who was to inquire with all imaginable diligence and to make her report in the afternoon. Matters being thus settled, Mr. Allworthy withdrew to his study, as was his custom, and left the child to his sister, who, at his desire, had undertaken the care of it. Chapter 5 Containing a few common matters, with a very uncommon observation upon them. When her master was departed, Mrs. Deborah stood silent, expecting her cue from Miss Bridget. For as to what had passed before her master, the prudent housekeeper by no means relied upon it, as she had often known the sentiments of the lady and her brother's absence to differ greatly from those which she had expressed in his presence. Miss Bridget did not, however, suffer her to continue long in this doubtful situation. For having looked some time earnestly at the child, as it lay asleep in the lap of Mrs. Deborah, the good lady could not for bear giving it a hearty kiss, at the same time declaring herself wonderfully pleased with its beauty and innocence. Mrs. Deborah no sooner observed this than she fell to squeezing and kissing, with as great raptures as sometimes inspired the sage-dame of fourteen-five, towards a youthful and vigorous bride-room, crying out in a shrill voice, Oh, the dear little creature, the dear sweet pretty creature, while avow is as fine a boy as ever was seen. These exclamations continued till they were interrupted by the lady, who now proceeded to execute the commission given her by her brother, and gave orders for providing all necessaries for the child, appointing a very good room in the house for his nursery. Her orders were indeed so liberal that, had it been a child of her own, she could not have exceeded them, but lest the virtuous reader may condemn her for showing too greater regards to a base-born infant, to which all charities condemned by law as a religious, we think proper to observe that she concluded the whole with saying, Since it was her brother's whim to adopt the little brat, she supposed little master must be treated with great tenderness. For her part she could not help thinking it was an encouragement device, but that she knew too much of the obstinacy of mankind to oppose any of their ridiculous humours. With reflections of this nature she usually, as has been hinted, accompanied every act of compliance with her brother's inclinations, and surely nothing could more contribute to heighten the merit of this compliance, than the declaration that she knew at the same time the folly and unreasonableness of those inclinations to which she submitted. Tasset obedience implies no force upon the will, and consequently may be easily and without any pains preserved. But when a wife, a child, a relation or a friend performs what we desire with grumbling and reluctance, with expressions of dislike and dissatisfaction, the manifest difficulty which they undergo must greatly enhance the obligation. As this is one of those deep observations which very few readers can be supposed capable of making themselves, I have thought proper to lend them my assistance, but this is a favour rarely to be expected in the course of my work. Indeed, I shall seldom or never so indulge him, unless in such instances as this, where nothing but the inspiration with which we writers are gifted, can possibly enable anyone to make the discovery. Chapter 6 Mrs. Debra is introduced into the parish with a simile. A short account of Jenny Jones, with the difficulties and discouragements which may attend young women in the pursuit of learning. Mrs. Debra, having disposed of the child according to the will of her master, now prepared to visit those habitations which were supposed to conceal its mother. Not otherwise than when a kite's tremendous bird is beheld by the feathered generation soaring aloft and hovering over their heads, the amorous dove and every innocent little bird spread wide the alarm and fly trembling to their hiding places. He proudly beats the air, conscious of his dignity, and meditates intended mischief. So, when the approach of Mrs. Debra was proclaimed through the street, all the inhabitants ran trembling into their houses, each matron dreading lest the visit should fall to her lot. She with stately steps proudly advances over the field, aloft she bears her towering head filled with conceit of her own preeminence and schemes to affect her intended discovery. The sagacious reader will not from this simile imagine these poor people had any apprehension of the design with which Mrs. Wilkins was now coming to ward them. But as the great beauty of the simile may possibly sleep these hundred years till some future commentator shall take this work in hand, I think proper to lend the reader a little assistance in this place. It is my intention therefore to signify that, as it is the nature of a kite to devour little birds, so it is the nature of such persons as Mrs. Wilkins to insult and tyrannize over little people. This being indeed the means which they used to recompense to themselves their extreme servility and condescension to their superiors, for nothing can be more reasonable than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them, which they themselves pay to all above them. Whenever Mrs. Deborah had occasion to exert any extraordinary condescension to Mrs. Bridget, and by that means had a little soured her natural disposition, it was usual with her to walk forth among these people in order to refine her temper by venting and as it were purging off all ill humours, on which account she was by no means a welcome visitant. To say the truth she was universally dreaded and hated by them all. On her arrival in this place she went immediately to the habitation of an elderly matron, to whom, as this matron had the good fortune to resemble herself in the cumbliness of her person as well as in her age, she had generally been more favourable than to any of the rest. To this woman she imparted what had happened and the design upon which she was come thither that morning. These two began presently to scrutinise the characters of the several young girls who lived in any of those houses and at last fixed their strongest suspicion on one Jenny Jones, who they both agreed was the likeliest person to have committed this fact. This Jenny Jones was no very comely girl, either in her face or person, but nature had somewhat compensated the want of beauty with what is generally more esteemed by those ladies whose judgment is arrived at through years of perfect maturity, for she had given her a very uncommon share of understanding. This gift Jenny had a good deal improved by erudition. She had lived several years a servant with a school master who discovering a great quickness of parts in the girl and an extraordinary desire of learning, for every leisure-hour she was always found reading in the books of the scholars, had the good nature or folly, just as the reader pleases to call it, to instruct her so far that she obtained a competent skill in the Latin language and was perhaps as good a scholar as most of the young men of quality of the age. This advantage, however, like most others of an extra ordinary kind, was attended with some small inconveniences, for as it is not to be wondered out that a young woman so well accomplished should have little relish for the society of those whom fortune had made her equals, but whom education had rendered so much her inferior, so is it matter of no greater astonishment that this superiority in Jenny, together with that behaviour which is its certain consequence, should produce among the rest some little envy and ill will towards her, and these had, perhaps, secretly burnt in the bosoms of her neighbours ever since her return from her service. Their envy did not, however, display itself openly, till poor Jenny to the surprise of everybody and to the vexation of all the young women in these parts, had publicly shone forth on a Sunday and a new silk gown with a laced cap and other proper appendages to these. The flame, which had before laid in embryo, now burst forth. Jenny had, by her learning, increased her own pride, which none of her neighbours were kind enough to feed with the honour she seemed to demand, and now, instead of respect and adoration, she gained nothing but hatred and abuse by her finery. The whole parish declared she could not come honestly by such things, and parents, instead of wishing their daughters the same, felicitated themselves that their children had them not. Hence perhaps it was that the good woman first mentioned the name of this poor girl to Mrs. Wilkins. But there was another circumstance that confirmed the latter in her suspicion, for Jenny had lately been often at Mr. Allworthy's house. She had officiated as nurse to Miss Bridget, in a violent fit of illness, and had sat up many nights with that lady, besides which she had been seen there the very day before Mr. Allworthy's return by Mrs. Wilkins herself, though that sagacious person had not at first conceived any suspicion of her in that account. For as she herself said, she had always esteemed Jenny as a very sober girl, though indeed she knew her very little, and had rather suspected some of those wanton trollops who gave themselves heirs because, for a suit, they thought themselves handsome. Jenny was now summoned to appear in person before Mrs. Deborah, which she immediately did. When Mrs. Deborah, putting on the gravity of a judge, with somewhat more than his austerity, began an oration with the words you audacious strumpet in which she proceeded rather to pass sentence on the prisoner than to accuse her. Though Mrs. Deborah was fully satisfied of the guilt of Jenny, from the reasons above shown, it is possible Mr. Allworthy might have required some stronger evidence to have convicted her, but she saved her accusers any such trouble by freely confessing the whole fact with which she was charged. This confession, though delivered rather in terms of contrition, as it appeared, did not at all modify Mrs. Deborah, who now pronounced a second judgment against her in more appropriate language than before, nor had it any better success with the bystanders who were now grown very numerous. Many of them cried out, they thought what Madam Silt Gown would end in. Others spoke sarcastically of her learning. Not a single female was present, but found some means of expressing her abhorrence of poor Jenny, who bore all very patiently, except the malice of one woman who reflected upon her person, and tossing up her nose said, the man must have a good stomach who would give Silt Gowns for such a sort of trumpery. Jenny replied to this with a bitterness which might have surprised a judicious person who had observed the tranquility with which she bore all the affronts to her chastity, but her patience was perhaps tied out, for this is a virtue which is very apt to be fatigued by exercise. Mrs. Deborah, having succeeded beyond her hopes in her inquiry, returned with much triumph, and at the appointed hour made a faithful report to Mr. Allworthy, who was much surprised at the relation, for he had heard of the extraordinary parts and improvements of this girl, whom he intended to have given in marriage, together with a small living, to a neighbouring curate. His concern, therefore, on this occasion, was at least equal to the satisfaction which appeared in Mrs. Deborah, and to many readers may seem much more reasonable. Miss Bridget blessed herself and said, for her part she should never hear after entertain a good opinion of any woman. For Jenny, before this, had the happiness of being much in her good-graces also. The prudent housekeeper was again dispatched to bring the unhappy culprit before Mr. Allworthy, in order, not as it was hoped by Simon expected by all to be sent to the House of Correction, but to receive wholesome admonition and reproof, which those who relish that kind of instructive writing may peruse in the next chapter. End of Section 2 Section 3 of Tom Jones This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Chris Turtle Tom Jones by Henry Fielding Book 1 Chapter 7 Containing such grave matter that the reader cannot laugh once through the whole chapter, unless, per adventure, he should laugh at the author. When Jenny appeared, Mr. Allworthy took her into his study and spoke to her as follows, You know, child, it is in my power as a magistrate to punish you very rigorously for what you have done, and you will perhaps be the more apt to fear I should execute that power because you haven't a manner laid your sins at my door. But perhaps this is one reason which hath determined me to act in a milder manner with you, for, as no private resentment should ever influence a magistrate, I will be so far from considering your having deposited the infant in my house as an aggravation of your offence that I will suppose in your favour this to have proceeded from a natural affection to your child, since you might have some hopes to see it thus better provided for, than was in the power of yourself for its wicked father to provide for it. I should indeed have been highly offended with you, had you exposed the little wretch in the manner of some and human mothers who seem no less to have abandoned their humanity than to have parted with their chastity. It is the other part of your offence therefore, upon which I intend to admonish you. I mean the violation of your chastity. A crime, however lightly it may be treated by debauched persons, very heinous in itself, and very dreadful in its consequences. The heinous nature of this offence must be sufficiently apparent to every Christian, inasmuch as it is committed in defiance of the laws of our religion, and of the express commands of him who founded that religion. And here its consequences may well be argued to be dreadful. For what can be more so than to incur the divine displeasure by the breach of the divine commands, and that in an instance against which the highest vengeance is specifically denounced? But these things, though too little I am afraid regarded, are so plain that mankind, however they may want to be reminded, can never need information on this head. A hint, therefore, to awaken your sense of this matter shall suffice, for I would inspire you with repentance and not drive you to desperation. There are other consequences, not indeed so dreadful or replete with horror as this, and yet such as, if attentively considered, must one would think deter all of your sex, at least, from the commission of this crime. For by it you are rendered infamous and driven like lepers of old out of society, at least from the society of all but wicked and reprobate persons, for no others will associate with you. If you have fortunes, you are hereby rendered incapable of enjoying them. If you have none, you are disabled from acquiring any. Nay, almost of procuring your sustenance, for no persons of character will receive you into their houses. Thus you are often driven by necessity itself into a state of shame and misery, which unavoidably ends in the destruction of both body and soul. Can any pleasure compensate these evils? Can any temptation have sophistry and delusion strong enough to persuade you to so simple a bargain? Or can any carnal appetite so overpower your reason or so totally lay it asleep as to prevent your flying with a frightened terror from a crime which carries such punishment always with it? How base and mean must that woman be, how void of that dignity of mind and decent pride, without which we are not worthy the name of human creatures, who can bear to level herself with the lowest animal and to sacrifice all that is great and noble in her, all her heavenly part, to an appetite which she hath in common with the vilest branch of the creation? For no woman sure will plead the passion of love for an excuse. This would be to own herself the mere tool and bubble of the man. Love, however barbarously we may corrupt and pervert its meaning, as it is a laudable, is a rational passion and can never be violent but when reciprocal, for though the scripture bids us love our enemies, it means not with that fervent love which we should naturally bear towards our friends, much less that we should sacrifice to them our lives, and what ought to be dearer to us, our innocence? Now in what light but that of an enemy can a reasonable woman regard the man who solicits her to entail on herself all the misery I have above described, and who would purchase to himself a short, trivial, contemptible pleasure so greatly at her expense? For by the laws of custom the whole shame with all its dreadful consequences falls entirely upon her. Can love, which always seeks the good of its object, attempt to betray a woman into a bargain where she is so greatly to be the loser? If such a corrupter, therefore, should have the impudence to pretend a real affection for her, ought not the woman to regard him not only as an enemy, but as the worst of all enemies, a false, designing, treacherous, pretended friend who intends not only to debauch her body, but her understanding at the same time? Here, Jenny expressing great concern, all worthy paused a moment, and then proceeded, I have talked thus to you, child, not to insult you for what is past and irrevocable, but to caution and strengthen you for the future. Nor should I have taken this trouble, but from some opinion of your good sense, not withstanding the dreadful slip you have made, and from some hopes of your hearty repentance, which are founded on the openness and sincerity of your confession. If these do not deceive me, I will take care to convey you from this scene of your shame, where you shall, by being unknown, avoid the punishment which, as I have said, is allotted to your crime in this world, and I hope by repentance you will avoid the much heavier sentence denounced against it in the other. Be a good girl the rest of your days, and once shall be no motive to your going astray, and believe me, there is more pleasure, even in this world, in an innocent and virtuous life than in one debauched and vicious. As to your child, let no thoughts concerning it molest you. I will provide for it in a better manner than you can ever hope. And now nothing remains but that you inform me who was the wicked man that seduced you, for my anger against him will be much greater than you have experienced on this occasion. Jenny now first lifted her eyes from the ground, and with a modest look and decent voice, thus began. To know you, sir, and not love your goodness would be an argument of total want of sense or goodness in any one. In me it would amount to the highest in gratitude, not to feel in the most sensible manner the great degree of goodness you have been pleased to exert on this occasion. As to my concern for what is past, I know you will spare my blush as the repetition. My future conduct will much better declare my sentiments than any professions I can now make. I beg leave to assure you, sir, that I take your advice much kinder than your generous offer with which you concluded it. For, as you are pleased to say, sir, it is an instance of your opinion of my understanding. Here her tears flowing apace she stopped a few moments, and then proceeded thus. Indeed, sir, your kindness overcomes me, but I will endeavour to deserve this good opinion, for if I have the understanding you are so kindly pleased to allow me, such advice cannot be thrown away upon me. I thank you, sir, artily, for your intended kindness to my poor, helpless child. He is innocent, and I hope we'll live to be grateful for all the favours you shall show him. But now, sir, I muster my knees and treat you not to persist in asking me to declare the father of my infant. I promise you faithfully you shall one day know, but I am under the most solemn ties and engagements of honour, as well as the most religious vows and protestations to conceal his name at this time. And I know you too well to think you would desire I should sacrifice either my honour or my religion. Mr. Allworthy, whom the least mention of these sacred words was sufficient to stagger, hesitated a moment before he replied, and then told her she had done wrong to enter into such engagements to a villain, but since she had he could not insist on her breaking them. He said it was not from a motive of a vain curiosity he had inquired, but in order to punish the fellow, at least that he might not ignorantly confer favours on the undeserving. As to these points, Jenny satisfied him by the most solemn assurances that the man was entirely out of his reach and was neither subject to his power, nor in any probability of becoming an object of his goodness. The ingenuity of this behaviour had gained Jenny so much credit with this worthy man that he easily believed what she told him, for as she had disdained to excuse herself by a lie, and had hazarded his father's displeasure in her present situation rather than she would forfeit her honour or integrity by betraying another, he had but little apprehension that she would be guilty of falsehood towards himself. He therefore dismissed her with assurances that he would very soon remove her out of the reach of that obliquy she had incurred, concluding with some additional documents in which he recommends repentance, saying, consider, child, there is one still to reconcile yourself to, whose favour is of much greater importance to you than mine. Chapter 8 A Dialogue between Madame's Bridget and Deborah containing more amusement but less instruction than the former When Mr. Allworthy had retired to his study with Jenny Jones as hath been seen, Miss Bridget with the Good Housekeeper had but taken themselves to a post next to joining to the said study, whence, through the conveyance of a keyhole, they sucked in at their ears the instructive lecture delivered by Mr. Allworthy together with the answers of Jenny and indeed every other particular which passed in the last chapter. This hole in her brother's study-door was indeed as well known to Miss Bridget and had been as frequently applied to by her as the famous hole in the wall was by Thisby of Old. This served to many good purposes, for by such means Miss Bridget became often acquainted with her brother's inclinations without giving him the trouble of repeating them to her. It is true some inconveniences attended this intercourse, and she had sometimes reason to cry out with Thisby and Shakespeare, oh, wicked, wicked wall! For as Mr. Allworthy was a justice of peace, certain things occurred in examinations concerning bastards and such like, which are apt to give great offence to the chaste ears of virgins, especially when they approached the age of forty, as was the case of Miss Bridget. However, she had on such occasions the advantage of concealing her blushes from the eyes of men and de non apparentibus et non existentibus i adum est ratio, in English, when a woman is not seen to blush, she doth not blush at all. Both the good women kept strict silence during the whole scene between Mr. Allworthy and the girl, but as soon as it was ended and that gentleman was out of hearing, Mrs. Deborah could not help exclaiming against the clemency of her master, and especially against his suffering her to conceal the father of the child, which she swore she would have out of her before the sunset. At these words Miss Bridget discomposed her features with a smile, a thing very unusual to her. Not that I would have my reader imagine that this was one of those wanton smiles which Homer would have you conceive came from Venus when he calls her the laughter loving goddess, nor was it one of those smiles which Lady Seraphina shoots from the stage box and which Venus would quit her immortality to be able to equal. No, this was rather one of those smiles which might be supposed to have come from the dimpled cheeks of the August to Siphony, all from one of the Mrs. her sisters. With such a smile then, and with a voice sweet as the evening breeze of Boreus, in the pleasant month of November, Miss Bridget gently reproved the curiosity of Mrs. Deborah, a vice with which it seems the latter was too much tainted, and which the former invaded against with great bitterness, adding that among all her faults she thanked heaven her enemies could not accuse her of prying into the affairs of other people. She then proceeded to commend the honor and spirit with which Jenny had acted. She said she could not help agreeing with her brother that there was some merit in the sincerity of her confession and in her integrity to her lover, that she had always thought her a very good girl, and doubted not, but she had been seduced by some rascal who had been infinitely more to blame than herself and very probably had prevailed with her by a promise of marriage or some other treacherous proceeding. This behavior of Miss Bridget greatly surprised Mrs. Deborah, for this well-bred woman seldom opened her lips either to her master or his sister till she had first sounded their inclinations with which her sentiments were always strictly consonant. Here, however, she thought she might have launched forth with safety, and the sagacious reader will not perhaps accuse her of want of sufficient forecast in so doing, but will rather admire with what wonderful celerity she tacked about when she found herself steering a wrong course. Nae, madame, said this able woman, and truly great politician, I must own, I cannot help admiring the girl's spirit as well as your ladyship, and as your ladyship says, if she was deceived by some wicked man the poor wretches to be peed, and to be sure as your ladyship says, the girl with always appeared like a good honest plain girl and not vain of her face for a suit to some wanton ussees in the neighborhood are. You say true, Deborah, said Miss Bridget. If the girl had been one of those vain trollops of which we have too many in the parish I should have condemned my brother for his lenity towards her. I saw two farmers' daughters at church the other day with bare necks. I protest they shocked me. If wenches will hang out lures for fellows it is no matter what they suffer. I detest such creatures, and it would be much better for them and their faces had been seen with the smallpox. But I must confess I never saw any of this wanton behavior in poor Jenny. Some artful villain I am convinced hath betrayed nay perhaps forced her and I pity the poor wretch with all my heart. Mrs. Deborah approved all these sentiments, and the dialogue concluded with a general and bitter invective against beauty and with many compassionate considerations for all honest plain girls who are deluded by the wicked arts of deceitful men. Chapter 9 Containing Matters which will surprise the reader. Jenny returned home well pleased with the reception she had met with from Mr. Allworthy whose indulgence to her she industriously made public, partly perhaps as a sacrifice to her own pride and partly from the more prudent motive of reconciling her neighbors to her and silencing their clamours. But though this latter view if she indeed had it may appear reasonable enough, yet the event did not answer her expectation for when she was convened before the justice and it was universally apprehended that the house of correction would have been her fate though some of the young women cried out it was good enough for her and diverted themselves with the thoughts of her beating hemp in a silk gown, yet there were many others who began to pity her condition. But when it was known in what manner Mr. Allworthy had behaved the tide turned against her. One said, I'll assure you madam, have good luck. A second cried, see what it is to be a favourite. A third. This comes over learning. Every person made some malicious comment rather on the occasion and reflected on the partiality of the justice. The behaviour of these people may appear in politic and ungrateful to the reader who considers the power and the benevolence of Mr. Allworthy. But as to his power he never used it and as to his benevolence he exerted so much that he had thereby disablied all his neighbours for it is a secret well known to great men that by conferring an obligation they do not always procure a friend but are certain of creating many enemies. Jenny was however by the care and goodness of Mr. Allworthy soon removed out of the reach of reproach when Malice being no longer able to vent its rage on her began to seek another object of its bitterness and this was no less than Mr. Allworthy himself for a whisper soon went abroad that he himself was the father of the foundling child. This supposition so well reconciled his conduct to the general opinion that it met with universal assent and the outcry against his lenity soon began to take another turn and was changed into an invective against his cruelty to the poor girl. Very grave and good women exclaimed against men who begot children and then disowned them. Nor were there wanting some who after the departure of Jenny insinuated that she was spirited away with a design too black to be mentioned and who gave frequent hints that a legal inquiry ought to be made into the whole matter and that some people should be forced to produce the girl. These calamities might have probably produced ill consequences at the least might have occasioned some trouble to a person of a more doubtful and suspicious character than Mr. Allworthy was blessed with but in his case they had no such effect and being heartily despised by him they served only to afford an innocent amusement to the good gossips of the neighborhood. But as we cannot possibly divine what's complexion our reader may be of and as it will be some time before he will hear any more of Jenny we think proper to give him a very early intimation that Mr. Allworthy was and will hereafter appear to be absolutely innocent of any criminal intention whatever. He had committed no other than an error in politics by tempering justice with mercy and by refusing to gratify the good natured disposition of the mob. Whenever this word occurs in our writings it intends persons without virtue or sense in all stations and many of the highest rank are often meant by it. With an object for their compassion to work on the person of poor Jenny whom in order to pity they desires to have seen sacrifice to ruin an infamy by a shameful correction in Bridwell. So far from complying with this their inclination by which all hopes of reformation would have been abolished and even the gates shut against her if her own inclination should ever hereafter lead her to choose the road of virtue Mr. Allworthy rather chose to encourage the girl to return thither by the only possible means. For too true I am afraid it is that many women have become abandoned and have sunk to the last degree of vice by being unable to retrieve the first slip. This will be, I am afraid, always the case while they remain among their former acquaintance. It was therefore wisely done by Mr. Allworthy to remove Jenny to a place where she might enjoy the pleasure of reputation after having tasted the ill consequences of losing it. To this place therefore wherever it was we will wish her a good journey and for the present take leave of her and of the little foundling her child having matters of much higher importance to communicate to the reader. Chapter 10 The hospitality of Allworthy with a short sketch of the characters of two brothers are doctor and a captain who were entertained by that gentleman. Neither Mr. Allworthy's house nor his heart were shut against any part of mankind but they were both more particularly open to man of merit. To say the truth this was the only house and the kingdom where you were sure to gain a dinner by deserving it. Above all others man of genius and learning shared the principal place in his favour and in these he had much discernment. For though he had missed the advantage of a learned education yet being blessed with vast natural abilities he had so well profited by a vigorous though late application to letters and by much conversation with men of eminence in this way that he was himself a very competent judge in most kinds of literature. It is no wonder that in an age when this kind of merit is so little in fashion and so slenderly provided for persons possessed of it should very eagerly flock to a place where they were sure of being received with great complacence. Indeed where they might enjoy almost the same advantages of a liberal fortune as if they were entitled to it in their own right. For Mr. Allworthy was not one of those generous persons who are ready most bountifully to bestow meat, drink and lodging on men of wooden learning for which they expect no other return but entertainment, instruction, flattery and subserviency in a word that such persons should be enrolled in the number of domestics without wearing their master's clothes or receiving wages. On the contrary every person in this house was perfect master of his own time and as he might at his pleasure satisfy all his appetites within the restrictions only of law, virtue and religion so he might if his health required or his inclination prompted him to temperance or even to abstinence have sent himself from any meals or retire from them whenever he was so disposed even without solicitation to the contrary for indeed such solicitations from superiors always savor very strongly of commands. But all here were free from such impertinence not only those whose company is in all other places esteemed a favour from their equality of fortune but even those whose indigent circumstances make such an a lemasonry abode convenient to them and who are therefore less welcome to a great man's table because they stand in need of it Among others of this kind was Dr. Bliffle a gentleman who had the misfortune of losing the advantage of great talents by the obstinacy of a father who would breed him to a profession he disliked in obedience to this obstinacy the doctor had in his youth been obliged to study physics or rather to say he studied it for in reality books of this kind were almost the only ones with which he was unacquainted and unfortunately for him the doctor was master of almost every other science but that by which he was to get his bread the consequence of which was that the doctor at the age of 40 had no bread to eat such a person as this was certain to find a welcome at Mr. Allworthy's table to whom misfortunes were ever a recommendation when they were derived from the folly or villainy of others but not of the unfortunate person himself Besides this negative merit the doctor had one positive recommendation this was a great appearance of religion whether his religion was real or consisted only in appearance I shall not presume to say as I am not possessed of any touchstone which could distinguish the true from the false if this part of his character please Mr. Allworthy it's delighted Miss Bridget she engaged him in many religious controversies on which occasion she constantly expressed great satisfaction in the doctor's knowledge and not much less than the compliments which he frequently bestowed on her own to save the truth she had read much English divinity and had puzzled more than one of the neighbouring curates indeed her conversation was so pure her looks so sage and her whole deportment so grave and solemn that she seemed to deserve the name of saint equally with her namesake or with any other female in the roman calendar as sympathies of all kinds are apt to beget love so experience teaches us that none have a more direct tendency this way than those of a religious kind between persons of different sexes the doctor found himself so agreeable to Miss Bridget that he now began to lament an unfortunate accident which had happened to him about ten years before namely his marriage with another woman who was not only still alive but what was worse known to be so by Mr. Allworthy this was a fatal bar to that happiness which he otherwise saw sufficient probability of obtaining with this young lady for as to criminal indulgences he certainly never thought of them this was owing either to his religion as is most probable or to the purity of his passion which was fixed on those things which matrimony only and not criminal correspondence could put him in possession of or could give him any title to he had not long ruminated on these matters before it occurred to his memory that he had a brother who was under no such unhappy in capacity this brother he made no doubt would succeed for he discerned as he thought an inclination to marriage in the lady and the reader perhaps when he hears the brother's qualifications will not blame the confidence which he entertained of his success this gentleman was about 35 years of age he was of middle size and what is called well built he had a scar on his forehead which did not much injure his beauty as it denoted his valor for he was a half-pay officer he had good teeth and something affable when he pleased in his smile though naturally his countenance as well as his air and voice had much of roughness in it yet he could at any time deposit this and appear all gentleness and good humor he was not ungentile nor entirely void of wit and in his youth that abounded in sprightliness which though he had lately put on a more serious character he could when he pleased resume he had as well as the doctor and academic education for his father had with the same paternal authority we have mentioned before to creed him for holy orders but as the old gentleman died before he was ordained he chose the church militant and preferred the king's commission to the bishops he had purchased the post of lieutenant of dragoons and afterwards came to be a captain but having crawled with his colonel was by his interest obliged to sell from which time he had entirely rusticated himself had taken himself to studying the scriptures and was not a little suspected of an inclination to methodism it seemed therefore not unlikely that such a person should succeed with the lady of so saint like a disposition and whose inclinations were no otherwise engaged than to the married state and general but why the doctor who certainly had no great friendship for his brother should for his sake think of making so ill a return to the hospitality of all worthy is a matter not so easy to be accounted for is it that some natures delight in evil as others are thought to delight in virtue or is there a pleasure in being accessory to a theft when we cannot commit it ourselves or lastly which experience seems to make probable have we a satisfaction in aggrandizing our families even though we have not the least love or respect for them whether any of these motives operated on the doctor we will not determine but so the fact was he sent for his brother and easily found means to introduce him at all worthy as a person who intended only a short visit to himself the captain had not been in the house a week before the doctor had reason to felicitate himself on his discernment the captain was indeed as great a master of the art of love as Ovid was formally he had besides received proper hints from his brother which he failed not to improve to the best advantage end of section three section four of Tom Jones this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Chris Turtle Tom Jones by Henry Fielding book one chapter 11 containing many rules and some examples concerning falling in love descriptions of beauty and other more prudential inducements to matrimony it has been observed by wise men or women I forget which that all persons are doomed to be in love once in their lives no particular season is as I remember assigned for this but the age at which Miss Bridget was arrived seemed to me as proper a period as any to be fixed on for this purpose it often indeed happens much earlier but when it doth not I have observed its seldom or never fails about this time moreover we may remark that at this season love is of a more serious and steady nature than what sometimes shows itself in the younger parts of life the love of girls is uncertain capricious and so foolish that we cannot always discover what the young lady would be at nay it may almost be doubted whether she always knows this herself now we are never at a loss to discern this in women about 40 for as such grave serious and experienced ladies well know their own meaning so it is always very easy for a man of the least sagacity to discover it with the utmost certainty Miss Bridget is an example of all these observations she had not been many times in the captain's company before she was seized with this passion nor did she go pining and moping about the house like a puny foolish girl ignorant of her distemper she felt she knew and she enjoyed the pleasing sensation of which as she was certain it was not only innocent but laudable she was neither afraid nor ashamed and to say the truth there is in all points great difference between the reasonable passion which men at this age conceived towards men and the idle and childish liking of a girl to a boy which is often fixed on the outside only and on things of little value and no duration as on cherry cheeks small lily-white hands slow black eyes flowing locks downy chins dapper shapes nay sometimes on charms more worthless than these and less the party's own such are the outward ornaments of the person for which men are beholden to the tailor the laceman the periwig maker the hatter and the milliner and not to nature such a passion girls may well be ashamed as they generally are to own either to themselves or others the love of Miss Bridget was of another kind the captain owed nothing to any of these fob makers in his dress nor was this person much more beholden to nature both his dress and person were such as had they appeared in an assembly or a drawing room would have been the contempt and ridicule of all the fine ladies there the former of these was indeed neat but plain coarse ill fancied and out of fashion as for the latter we have expressly described it above so far was the skin of his cheeks from being cherry coloured that you could not discern what the natural colour of his cheeks was they being totally overgrown by a black beard which ascended to his eyes his shape and limbs were indeed exactly proportioned but so large that they denoted the strength rather of a ploughman than any other his shoulders were broad beyond all size and the calves of his legs larger than those of a common chairman in short his whole person wanted all that elegance and beauty which is the very reverse of clumsy strength and which so agreeably sets off most of our fine gentlemen being partly owing to the high blood of their ancestors this blood made of rich sources and generous wines and partly to an early town education though Miss Bridget was a woman of the greatest delicacy of taste yet such were the charms of the captain's conversation that she totally overlooked the defects of his person she imagined and perhaps very wisely that she should enjoy more agreeable minutes with the captain than with a much prettier fellow and forwent the consideration of pleasing her eyes in order to procure herself much more solid satisfaction the captain though sooner perceived the passion of Miss Bridget in which discovery he was very quick-sighted then he faithfully returned it the lady no more than her lover was remarkable for beauty I would attempt to draw her picture but that is done already by a more able master Mr. Hogarth himself to whom she sat many years ago and have been lately exhibited by that gentleman in his print of a winter's morning of which she was no improper emblem and may be seen walking for walks she doth in the print to Covent Garden Church with a starved foot boy behind carrying her prayer book the captain likewise very wisely preferred the more solid enjoyments he expected with this lady to the fleeting charms of person he was one of those wise men who regard beauty in the other sex as a very worthless and superficial qualification or to speak more truly who rather choose to possess every convenience of life with an ugly woman than a handsome one without any of those conveniences and having a very good appetite but little nicety he fancied he should play his part very well at the matrimonial banquet without the source of beauty to deal plainly with the reader the captain ever since his arrival at least from the moment his brother had proposed the match to him long before he had discovered any flattering symptoms in Miss Bridget had been greatly enamored that is to say of Mr. Allworthy's house and gardens and of his lands, tenements and hereditments of all which the captain was so passionately fond that he would most probably have contracted marriage with them had he been obliged to have taken the witch of Endor into the bargain as Mr. Allworthy therefore had declared to the doctor that he never intended to take a second wife as his sister was his nearest relation and as the doctor had fished out of his intentions were to make any child of hers his heir which indeed the law without his interposition would have done for him the doctor and his brother thought it an act of benevolence to give being to a human creature who would be so plentifully provided with the most essential means of happiness the whole thoughts therefore of both the brothers were how to engage the affections of this amiable lady but Fortune who was a tender parent and often doth more for her favorite offspring than either they deserve or wish had been so industrious for the captain that whilst he was laying schemes to execute his purpose the lady conceived the same desires with himself and was on her side contriving how to give the captain proper encouragement without appearing too forward for she was a strict observer of all rules of decorum in this however she easily succeeded for as the captain was always on the lookout no glance gesture or word escaped him the satisfaction which the captain received from the kind behavior of Miss Bridget was not a little abated by his apprehensions of Mr. Allworthy for notwithstanding his disinterested professions the captain imagined he would when he came to act follow the example of the rest of the world and refuse his consent to a match so disadvantageous in point of interest to his sister from what oracle he received this opinion I shall leave the reader to determine but however he came by it it strangely perplexed him how to regulate his conduct so as at once to convey his affection to the lady and to conceal it from her brother he at length resolved to take all private opportunities of making his addresses but in the presence of Mr. Allworthy to be as reserved and as much upon his guard as was possible and this conduct was highly approved by the brother he soon found means to make his addresses in express terms to his mistress from whom he received an answer in the proper form vis the answer which was first made some thousands of years ago and which had been handed down by tradition from mother to daughter ever since if I was to translate this into Latin I should render it by these two words Nolo Episcoparei a phrase likewise of immemorial use on another occasion the captain however he came by his knowledge perfectly well understood the lady and very soon after repeated his application with more warmth and earnestness than before and was again according to due form rejected but as he had increased in the eagerness of his desires so the lady with the same propriety decreased in the violence of her refusal not to tie the reader by leading him through every scene of this courtship which though in the opinion of a certain great author it is the pleasantest scene of life to the actor is perhaps as dull and tiresome as any whatever to the audience the captain made his advances in form the citadel was defended in form and at length in proper form surrendered at discretion during this whole time which filled the space of near a month the captain preserved great distance of behavior to his lady in the presence of the brother and the more he succeeded with her in private the more reserved was he in public and as for the lady she had no sooner secured her lover than she behaved to him before company with the highest degree of indifference so that Mr. Alworthy must have had the insight of the devil or perhaps some of his worst qualities to have entertained the least suspicion of what was going forward Chapter 12 containing what the reader may perhaps expect to find in it in all bargains whether to fight or to marry or concerning any other such business little previous ceremony is required to bring the matter to an issue when both parties are really in earnest this was the case at present and in less than a month the captain and his lady were man and wife the great concern now was how to break the matter to Mr. Alworthy and this was undertaken by the doctor one day then as Alworthy was walking in his garden the doctor came to him and with great gravity of aspect and all the concern which he could possibly affect in his countenance said I am come sir to impart an affair to you of the utmost consequence but how shall I mention to you what it almost distracts me to think of he then launched forth into the most bitter invectives both against men and women accusing the former of having no attachment but to their interest and the latter of being so addicted to vicious inclinations that they could never be safely trusted with one of the other sex could I said he sir have suspected that a lady of such prudence such judgment such learning should indulge so indiscreet a passion or could I have imagined that my brother why do I call him so he is no longer a brother of mine indeed but he is said Alworthy and a brother of mine too bless me sir said the doctor do you know the shocking affair looky mr. Bliffle answered the good man it had been my constant maximum life to make the best of all matters which happen my sister though many years younger than I is at least old enough to be at the age of discretion as he imposed on a child I should have been more averse to have forgiven him but a woman upwards of 30 must certainly be supposed to know what will make her most happy she had married a gentleman though perhaps not quite her equal infortune and if he had any perfections in her eye which can make up that deficiency I see no reason why I should object to her choice of her own happiness which I know more than herself imagine to consist only in immense wealth I might perhaps from the many declarations I have made of complying with almost any proposal I've expected to have been consulted on this occasion but these matters are of a very delicate nature and the scruples of modesty perhaps are not to be overcome as to your brother I have really no anger against him at all he has no obligations to me nor do I think he was under any necessity of asking my consent since the woman is as I have said sui juris and of a proper age to be entirely answerable only to herself for her conduct the doctor accused mr. Allworthy of too great lenity repeated his accusations against his brother and declared that he should never more be brought either to see or to own him for his relation he then launched forth into a pan gyric on all worthy's goodness into the highest ecomiums on his friendship and concluded by saying he should never forgive his brother for having put the place which he bore in that friendship to a hazard Allworthy thus answered had I conceived any displeasure against your brother I should never have carried that resentment to the innocent but I assure you I have no such displeasure your brother appears to me to be a man of sense and honor I do not disapprove the taste of my sister nor will I doubt but that she is equally the object of his inclinations I have always thought love the only foundation of happiness in a married state as it can only produce that high and tender friendship which would always be the cement of this union and in my opinion all those marriages which are contracted from other motives are greatly criminal they are a profanation of a most holy ceremony and generally end in disquiet and misery for surely we may call it a profanation to convert this most sacred institution into a wicked sacrifice to lust or avarice and what better can be said of those matches to which men are induced merely by the consideration of a beautiful person or a great fortune to deny that beauty is an agreeable object to the eye and even worthy some admiration would be false and foolish beautiful is an epithet often used in scripture and always mentioned with honor it was my own fortune to marry a woman whom the world thought handsome and I can truly say I like to the better on that account but to make this the sole consideration of marriage to lust after it so violently is to overlook all imperfections for its sake or to require it so absolutely as to reject and disdain religion virtue and sense which are qualities in their nature of much higher perfection only because an elegance of person is wanting this is surely inconsistent either with a wise man or a good christian and it is perhaps being too charitable to conclude that such persons mean anything more by their marriage than to please their carnal appetites for the satisfaction of which we are taught it was not ordained in the next place with respect to fortune worldly prudence perhaps exact some consideration on this head nor will I absolutely and altogether condemn it as the world is constituted the demands of a married state and the care of posterity require some little regard to what we call circumstances yet this provision is greatly increased beyond what is really necessary by folly and vanity which create abundantly more once the nature echipage for the wife and large fortunes for the children are by custom enrolled in the list of necessaries and to procure these everything truly solid and sweet and virtuous and religious are neglected and overlooked and this in many degrees the last and greatest of which seems scarce distinguishable from madness I mean where persons of immense fortunes contract themselves to those who are and must be disagreeable to them to fools and knaves in order to increase an estate already larger than even the demands of their pleasures surely such persons if they will not be thought mad must own either that they are incapable of tasting the sweets of the tenderest friendship or that they sacrifice the greatest happiness of which they are capable to the vain uncertain and senseless laws of vulgar opinion which owes well their force as their foundation to folly here all worthy concluded his sermon to which bliffle had listened with the profoundest attention though it cost him some pains to prevent now and then a small discomposure of his muscles he now praised every period of what he had heard with the warmth of a young divine who hath the honor to dine with a bishop the same day in which his lordship have mounted the pulpit chapter 13 which concludes the first book with an instance of ingratitude which we hope will appear unnatural the reader from what hath been said may imagine that the reconciliation if indeed it could so be called was only matter of form we shall therefore pass it over and hasten to what must surely be thought matter of substance the doctor had acquainted his brother with what had passed between mr. Allworthy and him and added with a smile I promise you I paid you off nay I absolutely desired the good gentleman not to forgive you for you know after he had made a declaration in your favor I might with safety venture on such a request with a person of his temper and I was willing as well as for your sake as for my own to prevent the least possibility of a suspicion captain bliffle took not the least notice of this at that time but he afterwards made a very notable use of it one of the maxims which the devil in a late visit upon earth left to his disciples is when once you are got up to kick the stool from under you in plain English when you have made your fortune by the good officers of a friend you were advised to discard him as soon as you can whether the captain acted by this maxim I will not positively determine so far as we may confidently say that his actions may be fairly derived from this diabolical principle and indeed it is difficult to assign any other motive to them for no sooner was he possessed of miss Bridget and reconciled to Allworthy than he began to show a coldness to his brother which increased daily till at length it grew into rudeness I became very visible to everyone the doctor remonstrated to him privately concerning this behavior but could obtain no other satisfaction than the following plain declaration if you dislike anything in my brother's house sir you know you are at liberty to quit it this strange cruel and almost unaccountable ingratitude in the captain absolutely broke the poor doctor's heart for ingratitude never so thoroughly pierces the human breast as when it proceeds from those in whose behalf we have been guilty of transgressions reflections on great and good actions however they are received or returned by those in whose favor they are performed always administer some comfort to us but what consolation shall we receive under so biting a calamity as the ungrateful behavior of our friend when our wounded conscience at the same time flies in our face and upbraids us with having spotted it in the service of one so worthless mr. Allworthy himself spoke to the captain in his brother's behalf and desired to know what offense the doctor had committed when the hard-hearted villain had the baseness to say that he should never forgive him for the injury which he had endeavored to do him in his favor which he said he had pumped out of him and was such a cruelty that it ought not to be forgiven Allworthy spoke in very high terms upon this declaration which he said became not a human creature he expressed indeed so much resentment against an unforgiving temper that the captain at last pretended to be convinced by his arguments and outwardly professed to be reconciled as for the bride she was now in her honeymoon and so passionately fond of her new husband that he never appeared to her to be in the wrong and his displeasure against any person was a sufficient reason for her dislike to the same the captain at mr. Allworthy's instance was outwardly as we have said reconciled to his brother yet the same ranker remained in his heart and he found so many opportunities of giving him private hints of this that the house at last grew insupportable to the poor doctor and he chose rather to submit to any inconveniences which he might encounter in the world than longer to bear those cruel and ungrateful insults from a brother for whom he had done so much he once intended to acquaint Allworthy with the whole but he could not bring himself to submit to the confession by which he must take to his share so great a portion of guilt besides by how much the worst man he represented his brother to be so much the greater would his own offense appear to Allworthy and so much the greater he had reason to imagine would be his resentment he feigned therefore some excuse of business for his departure and promised to return soon again and took leave of his brother with so well-dissembled content that as the captain played his parts to the same perfection Allworthy remained well satisfied with the truth of the reconciliation the doctor went directly to London where he died soon after of a broken heart a distemper which kills many more than is generally imagined and would have a fair title to a place in the bill of mortality did it not differ in one instance from all other diseases viz that no physician can cure it now upon the most diligent inquire into the former lives of these two brothers i find besides the cursed and hellish maxim of policy above mentioned another reason for the captain's conduct the captain besides what we have before said of him was a man of great pride and fierceness and had always treated his brother who was of a different complexion and greatly deficient in both these qualities with the utmost air of superiority the doctor however had much the larger share of learning and was by many reputed to have the better understanding this the captain knew and could not bear for though envy is at best a very malignant passion yet is its bitterness greatly heightened by mixing with contempt towards the same object and very much afraid i am that whenever an obligation is joined to these two indignation and not gratitude will be the product of all three end of book one and section four section five being book two chapters one two and three of tom jones this is a livery vox recording all livery vox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit livery vox dot org tom jones by henry fielding book two chapters one two and three book two containing scenes of matrimonial felicity in different degrees of life and various other transactions during the first two years after the marriage between captain bliffville and miss bridget all worthy chapter one showing what kind of history this is what it is like and what it is not like though we have properly enough entitled this our work a history and not a life nor an apology for a life as is more in fashion yet we intend in it rather to pursue the method of those writers who profess to disclose the revolutions of countries than to imitate the painful and voluminous historian who to preserve the regularity of his series thinks himself obliged to fill up as much paper with the detail of months and years in which nothing remarkable happened as he employs upon those notable eras when the greatest scenes have been transacted on the human stage such histories as these do in reality very much resemble a newspaper which consists of just the same number of words whether there be any news in it or not they may likewise be compared to a stagecoach which performs constantly the same course empty as well as full the writer indeed seems to think himself obliged to keep even pace with time whose immanuances he is and like his master travels as slowly through the centuries of monkish dullness when the world seems to have been asleep as through that bright and busy age so nobly distinguished by the excellent latin poet of which we wish we could give our reader a more adequate translation than that by Mr Creech when dreadful carthage frighted Rome with arms and all the world was shook with fierce alarms whilst undecided yet which part should fall which nation rise the glorious lord of all now it is our purpose in ensuing pages to pursue a contrary method when any extraordinary scene presents itself as we trust will often be the case we shall spare no pains nor paper to open it at large to our reader but if whole years should pass without producing anything worthy his notice we shall not be afraid of a chasm in our history but shall hasten on to matters of consequence and leave such periods of time totally unobserved these are indeed to be considered as blanks in the grand lottery of time we therefore who are the registers of that lottery shall imitate those sagacious persons who deal in that which is drawn at guild hall and who never trouble the public with the many blanks they dispose of but when a great prize happens to be drawn the newspapers are presently filled with it and the world is sure to be informed at whose office it was sold indeed commonly two or three different offices lay claim to the honor of having disposed of it by which I suppose the adventurers are given to understand that certain brokers are in the secrets of fortune and indeed of her cabinet council my reader then is not to be surprised if in the course of this work he shall find some chapters very short and others altogether as long some that contain only the time of a single day and others that comprise years in a word if my history sometimes seems to stand still and sometimes to fly for all which I shall not look on myself as accountable to any court of critical jurisdiction whatever for as I am in reality the founder of a new province of writing so I am at liberty to make what laws I please therein and these laws my readers whom I consider as my subjects are bound to believe in and obey with which that they may readily and cheerfully comply I do hereby assure them that I shall principally regard their ease and advantage in all such institutions for I do not like a ure divino tyrant imagine that they are my slaves or my commodity I am indeed set over them for their own good only and was created for their use and not they for mine nor do I doubt while I make their interest the great rule of my writings they will unanimously concur in supporting my dignity and in rendering me all the honor I shall deserve or desire chapter two religious cautions against showing too much favor to bastards and a great discovery made by mrs. Deborah Wilkins eight months after the celebration of the nuptials between captain bliffville and miss bridget all worthy a young lady of great beauty merit and fortune was miss bridget by reason of a fright delivered of a fine boy the child was indeed to all appearance perfect but the midwife discovered it was born a month before its full time though the birth of an heir of his beloved sister was a circumstance of great joy to mr all worthy yet it did not alienate his affections from the little foundling to whom he had been godfather had given his own name of thomas and whom he had hitherto sailed and failed a visiting at least once a day in his nursery he told his sister if she pleased the newborn infant should be bred up together with little tommy to which she consented though with some little reluctance for she had truly a great complacence for her brother and hence she had always behaved towards the foundling with rather more kindness than ladies of rigid virtue can sometimes bring themselves to show to these children who however innocent may be truly called the living monuments of incontinence the captain could not so easily bring himself to bear what he condemned as a fault in mr all worthy he gave him frequent hints that to adopt the fruits of sin was to give countenance to it he quoted several texts for he was well read in scripture such as he visits the sins of the fathers upon the children and the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge etc whence he argued the legality of punishing the crime of the parent on the bastard he said though the law did not positively allow the destroying such baseborn children yet it held them to be the children of nobody that the church considered them as the children of nobody and that at the best they ought to be brought up to the lowest and vilest offices of the commonwealth mr all worthy answered to all this and much more which the captain had urged on this subject that however guilty the parents might be the children were certainly innocent that as to the texts he had quoted the former of them was a particular denunciation against the jews for the sin of idolatry of relinquishing and hating their heavenly king and the latter was parabolically spoken and rather intended to denote the certain and necessary consequences of sin than any express judgment against it but to represent the almighty as avenging the sins of the guilty on the innocent was indecent if not blasphemous as it was to represent him acting against the first principles of natural justice and against the original notions of right and wrong which he himself had implanted in our minds by which we were to judge not only in all matters which were not revealed but even of the truth of revelation itself he said he knew many held the same principles with the captain on this head but he was himself firmly convinced to the contrary and would provide in the same manner for this poor infant as if a legitimate child had had the fortune to have been found in the same place while the captain was taking all opportunities to press these and such like arguments to remove the little foundling from mr allworthy's of whose fondness for him he began to be jealous mrs deborah had made a discovery which in its event threatened at least to prove more fatal to poor tommy than all the reasonings of the captain whether the insatiable curiosity of this good woman had carried her on to that business or whether she did it to confirm herself in the good graces of mrs bliffill who notwithstanding her outward behavior to the foundling frequently abused the infant in private and her brother too for his fondness to it i will not determine but she had now as she conceived fully detected the father of the founding now as this was a discovery of great consequence it may be necessary to trace it from the founding head we shall therefore very minutely lay open those previous matters by which it was produced and for that purpose we shall be obliged to reveal all the secrets of a little family with which my reader is at present entirely unacquainted and of which the economy was so rare and extraordinary that i fear it will shock the utmost credulity of many married persons Chapter three the description of a domestic government founded upon rules directly contrary to those of Aristotle my reader may please to remember he had been informed that jenny jones had lived some years with a certain schoolmaster who had at her earnest desire instructed her in latin in which to do justice to her genius she had so improved herself that she was become a better scholar than her master indeed though this poor man had undertaken a profession to which learning must be allowed necessary this was the least of his commendations he was one of the best natured fellows in the world and was at the same time master of so much pleasantry and humor that he was reputed the wit of the country and all the neighboring gentlemen were so desirous of his company that as denying was not his talent he spent much time at their houses which he might with more emoliment have spent in his school it may be imagined that a gentleman so qualified and so disposed was in no danger of becoming formidable to the learned seminaries of eaten or west minster to speak plainly his scholars were divided into two classes in the upper of which was a young gentleman the son of a neighboring squire who at the age of 17 was just entered into his syntaxes and in the lower was a second boy of the same gentleman who together with seven parish boys was learning to read and write the stipend arising hence would hardly have indulged the schoolmaster in the luxuries of life had he not added to this office those of clark and barba and had not mr allworthy added to the whole an annuity of 10 pound which the poor man received every christmas and with which he was enabled to cheer his heart during that sacred festival among his other treasures the pedagogue had a wife whom he had married out of mr allworthy's kitchen for her fortune vis 20 pound which she had there amassed this woman was not very amiable in her person whether she sat to my friend hogarth or no i will not determine but she exactly resembled the young woman who is pouring out her mistresses tea in the third picture of the harlot's progress she was besides a professed follower of that notable sect founded by zan tippy of old by means of which she became more formidable in the school than her husband for to confess the truth he was never master there or anywhere else in her presence though her countenance did not denote much natural sweetness of temper yet this was perhaps somewhat soured by a circumstance which generally poisons matrimonial felicity for children are rightly called the pledges of love and her husband though they had been married nine years had given her no such pledges a default for which he had no excuse either from age or health being not yet 30 years old and what they call a jolly brisk young man hence arose another evil which produced no little uneasiness to the poor pedagogue of whom she maintained so constant a jealousy that he durst hardly speak to one woman in the parish for the least degree of civility or even correspondence with any female was sure to bring his wife upon her back and his own in order to guard himself against matrimonial injuries in her own house as she kept one maid servant she always took care to choose her out of that order of females whose faces are taken as a kind of security for their virtue of which number jenny jones as the reader hath been before informed was one as the face of this young woman might be called pretty good security of the before mentioned kind and as her behavior had been always extremely modest which is the certain consequence of understanding in women she had passed above four years at mr partridges for that was the schoolmaster's name without creating the least suspicion in her mistress nay she had been treated with uncommon kindness and her mistress had permitted mr partridge to give her those instructions which have been before commemorated but it is with jealousy as with gout when such distempers are in the blood there is never any security against their breaking out and that often on the slightest occasion and when least suspected thus it happened to mrs partridge who had submitted four years to her husband's teaching this young woman and had suffered her often to neglect her work in order to pursue her learning for passing by one day as the girl was reading and her master leaning over her the girl i know not for what reason suddenly started up from her chair and this was the first time that suspicion ever entered into the head of her mistress this did not however at that time discover itself but lay lurking in her mind like a concealed enemy who waits for a reinforcement of additional strength before he openly declares himself and proceeds upon hostile operations and such additional strength soon arrived to corroborate her suspicion for not long after the husband and wife being at dinner the master said to his maid darmihi aliquid potum upon which the poor girl smiled perhaps at the badness of the latin and when her mistress cast her eyes on her blushed possibly with a consciousness of having laughed at her master mrs partridge upon this immediately fell into a fury and discharged the trencher on which she was eating at the head of poor jenny crying out you impudent whore do you play tricks with my husband before my face and at the same instant rose from her chair with a knife in her hand with which most probably she would have executed very tragical vengeance had not the girl taken the advantage of being nearer the door than her mistress and avoided her fury by running away for as to the poor husband where the surprise had rendered him motionless or fear which is full as probable had restrained him from venturing at any opposition he sat staring and trembling in his chair nor did he once offer to move or speak till his wife returning from the pursuit of jenny made some defensive measures necessary for his own preservation and he likewise was obliged to retreat after the example of the maid this good woman was no more than a fellow of a disposition to make a life of jealousy and follow still the changes of the moon with fresh suspicions with her as well as him to be once in doubt was once to be resolved she therefore ordered jenny immediately to pack up her alls and be gone for that she was determined she should not sleep that night within her walls mr. partridge had profited too much by experience to interpose in a matter of this nature he therefore had recourse to his usual recipe of patience for though he was not a great adept in latin he remembered and well understood the advice contained in these words in english a burden becomes lightest when it is well-born which he had always in his mouth and of which to say the truth he had often occasioned to experience the truth jenny offered to make protestation of her innocence but the tempest was too strong for her to be heard she then betook herself to the business of packing for which a small quantity of brown paper sufficed and having received her small pittance of wages she returned home the schoolmaster and his consort passed their time unpleasantly enough that evening but something or other happened before the next day which a little abated the fury of mrs. partridge and she at length admitted her husband to make his excuses to which she gave the ready a belief as he had instead of desiring her to recall jenny professed a satisfaction in her being dismissed saying she was grown of little use as a servant spending all her time in reading and was become moreover very pert and obstinate for indeed she and her master had lately had frequent disputes in literature in which as hath been said she was become greatly his superior this however he would by no means allow and as he called her persisting in the right obstinacy he began to hate her with no small inveteracy end of chapter three