 Book four, chapter four, of the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the Great. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Dennis Sayers. The late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the Great by Henry Fielding. Book four, chapter four, the dead warrant arrives for heart-free, on which occasion Wilde betrays some human weakness. The dead warrant, as it is called, now came down to Newgate for the execution of heart-free among the rest of the prisoners. And here the reader must excuse us, who profess to draw natural, not perfect, characters, and to record the truths of history, not the extravagances of romance, while we relate a weakness in Wilde of which we are ourselves ashamed, and which we would willingly have concealed could we have preserved at the same time that strict attachment to truth and impartiality which we have professed in recording the annals of this great man. Know then, reader, that this dead warrant did not affect heart-free, who was to suffer a shameful death by it. With half the concern it gave Wilde, who had been the occasion of it. He had been a little struck the day before on seeing the children carried away in tears from their father. This sight brought the remembrance of some slight injuries he had done the father to his mind, which he endeavored as much as possible to obliterate. But when one of the keepers, I should say, lieutenants of the castle, repeated heart-free's name among those of the malefactors who were to suffer within a few days, the blood forsook his countenance, and in a cold still stream moved heavily to his heart, which had scarce strength enough left to return it through his veins. In short, his body so visibly demonstrated the pangs of his mind that to escape observation he retired to his room, where he sullenly gave vent to such bitter agonies that even the injured heart-free had not the apprehension of what his wife had suffered shut every avenue of compassion would have pitied him. When his mind was thoroughly fatigued and worn out with the horrors which the approaching fate of the poor wretch, who lay under a sentence which he had iniquitously brought upon him, had suggested sleep promised him relief. But this promise was, alas, delusive. This certain friend to the tired body is often the severest enemy to the oppressed mind. So at least it proved wild, adding visionary to real horrors and tormenting his imagination with phantoms too dreadful to be described. At length, starting from these visions, he no sooner recovered his waking senses than he cried out, I may yet prevent this catastrophe. It is not too late to discover the whole. He then paused a moment, but greatness, instantly returning to his assistance, checked the base thought as it first offered itself to his mind. He then reasoned thus coolly with himself, Shall I, like a child, or a woman, or one of those mean wretches whom I have always despised, be frightened by dreams and visionary phantoms to sully that honor which I have so difficultly acquired and so gloriously maintained? Shall I, to redeem the worthless life of this silly fellow, suffer my reputation to contract a stain which the blood of millions cannot wipe away? Was it only that the few, the simple part, mankind, should call me a rogue, perhaps I could submit, but to be forever contemptible to the prigs, as a wretch who wanted spirit to execute my undertaking, can never be digested? What is the life of a single man? Have not whole armies and nations been sacrificed to the honor of one great man? Nay, to omit that first class of greatness, the contours of mankind, how often have numbers fallen by a fictitious plot, only to satisfy the spleen, or perhaps exercise the ingenuity of a member of that second order of greatness, the ministerial? What have I done then? Why, I have ruined a family and brought an innocent man to the gallows. I ought rather to weep with Alexander that I have ruined no more than to regret the little I have done. He at length, therefore, bravely resolved to consign over heart-free to his fate. Though it cost him more struggling than may easily be believed utterly to conquer his reluctance and to banish away every degree of humanity from his mind, these little sparks of which composed one of those weaknesses which we lamented in the opening of our history. But in vindication of our hero, we must beg leave to observe that nature is seldom so kind as those writers who draw characters absolutely perfect. She seldom creates any man so completely great or completely low, but that some sparks of humanity will glimmer in the former and some sparks of what the vulgar call evil will dart forth in the latter, utterly to extinguish which will give some pain and uneasiness to both. For I apprehend no mind was ever yet formed entirely free from blemish, unless, per adventure, that of a sanctified hypocrite whose praises some well-fed flatterer hath gratefully thought proper to sing forth. End of Book 4, Chapter 4, read by Dennis Sayers, in Modesto, California, for LibriVox. Book 4, Chapter 5, of the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde, The Great. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Dennis Sayers. The late Mr. Jonathan Wilde, The Great, by Henry Fielding. Book 4, Chapter 5, containing various matters. The day was now come when poor heart-free was to suffer an ignominious death. Friendly had, in the strongest manner, confirmed his assurance of fulfilling his promise of becoming a father to one of his children and a husband to the other. This gave him inexpressible comfort, and he had, the evening before, taken his last leave of the little wretches with a tenderness which drew a tear from one of the keepers, joined to a magnanimity which would have pleased a stoic. When he was informed that the coach which friendly had provided for him was ready, and that the rest of the prisoners were gone, he embraced that faithful friend with great passion, and begged that he would leave him here. But the other desired leave to accompany him to his end, which, at last, he was forced to comply with, and now he was proceeding towards the coach when he found his difficulties were not yet over, for now a friend arrived of whom he was to take a harder and more tender leave than he had yet gone through. His friend, reader, was no other than Mrs. Hartfrey herself, who ran to him with a look all wild, staring, frantic, and having reached his arms, fainted away in them without uttering a single syllable. Hartfrey was, with great difficulty, able to preserve his own senses in such a surprise at such a season. And indeed our good-natured reader will be rather inclined to wish this miserable couple had, by dying in each other's arms, put a final period to their woes, then have survived to taste those bitter moments which were to be their portion, and which the unhappy wife, soon recovering from the short intermission of being, now began to suffer. When she became first mistress of her voice, she burst forth into the following accents. Oh, my husband, is this the condition in which I find you, after our cruel separation, who hath done this cruel heaven? What is the occasion? I know, thou canst deserve no ill. Tell me somebody who can speak, while I have my senses left to understand. What is the matter? At which words several laughed, and one answered, The matter? Why, no great matter. The gentleman is not the first, nor won't be the last. The worst of the matter is that if we are to stay all morning here, I shall lose my dinner. Heart-free, pausing a moment, and recollecting himself, cried out, I will bear all with patience. And then, addressing himself to the commanding officer, begged he might only have a few minutes by himself with his wife, whom he had not seen before since his misfortunes. The great man answered, he had compassion on him, and would do more than he could answer. But he supposed he was too much a gentleman not to know that something was due for such civility. On this hint, friendly, who was himself half-dead, pulled five gennies out of his pocket, which the great man took, and said he would be so generous to give him ten minutes, on which one observed that many a gentleman had bought ten minutes with a woman, dearer, and many other facetious remarks were made, unnecessary to be here related. The tree was now suffered to retire into a room with his wife, the commander informing him at his entrance that he must be expeditious, for that the rest of the good company would be at the tree before him, and he supposed he was a gentleman of too much breeding to make them wait. This tender wretched couple were now retired for these few minutes, which the commander without carefully measured with his watch, and Hartfrey was mustering all his resolution to part with what his soul so ardently doded on, and to conjure her to support his loss for the sake of her poor infants, and to comfort her with the promise of friendly on their account. But all his design was frustrated. Jesus Hartfrey could not support the shock, but again fainted away, and so entirely lost every symptom of life that Hartfrey called vehemently for assistance. Friendly rushed first into the room, and was soon followed by many others, and what was remarkable, one who had unmoved beheld the tender scene between these parting lovers, was touched to the quick by the pale looks of the woman, and ran up and down for water, drops, etc., with the utmost hurry and confusion. The ten minutes were expired, which the commander now hinted, and seeing nothing offered for the renewal of the term, for indeed friendly had unhappily emptied his pockets, he began to grow very importunate, and at last told Hartfrey he should be ashamed not to act more like a man. Hartfrey begged his pardon, and said he would make him wait no longer. Then, with the deepest sigh, cried, Oh, my angel! And embracing his wife with the utmost eagerness, kissed her pale lips with more fervency than ever, bridegroom did the blushing cheeks of his bride. He then cried, The Almighty bless thee, and if it be his pleasure, restore thee to life. If not, I beseech him we may presently meet again in a better world than this. He was breaking from her, when, perceiving her sense returning, he could not forbear renewing his embrace, and again pressing her lips, which now recovered life and warmth so fast that he begged one ten minutes more to tell her what her swooning had prevented her hearing. The worthy commander, being perhaps a little touched at this tender scene, took friendly aside and asked him what he would give if he would suffer his friend to remain half an hour. Friendly answered anything, that he had no more money in his pocket, but he would certainly pay him that afternoon. Well, then, I'll be moderate, said he, twenty guineas. Friendly answered, It is a bargain. The commander, having exacted a firm promise, cried, Then I don't care if they stay a whole hour together, for what signifies hiding good news? The gentleman is reprieved, of which he had just before received notice in a whisper. It would be very impertinent to offer a description of the joy this occasioned to the two friends or to Mrs. Hartfrey, who was now again recovered. A surgeon, who was happily present, was employed to bleed them all. After which the commander, who had his promise of the money again confirmed to him, wished Hartfrey joy, and, shaking him very friendly by the hands, cleared the room of all the company and left the three friends together. Book 4, Chapter 5, read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, for LibriVox. Book 4, Chapter 6, of the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde, the Great. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Dennis Sayers. The late Mr. Jonathan Wilde, the Great, by Henry Fielding. Book 4, Chapter 6, in which the foregoing happy incident is accounted for. But here, though I am convinced my good-natured reader may almost want the surgeon's assistance also, and that there is no passage in this whole story which can afford him equal delight. Yet lest our reprieve should seem to resemble that in the beggar's opera, I shall endeavor to show him that this incident, which is undoubtedly true, is at least as natural as delightful. For we assure him we would rather have suffered half mankind to be hanged than have saved one, contrary to the strictest rules of writing and probability. Be it known, then, a circumstance which I think highly credible, that the great fireblood had been, a few days before, taken in the fact of a robbery, and carried before the same justice of peace, who had, on his evidence, committed heart-free to prison. This magistrate, who did indeed no small honor to the commission he bore, duly considered the weighty charge committed to him by which he was entrusted with decisions affecting the lives, liberties, and properties of his countrymen. He therefore examined always with the utmost diligence and caution into every minute circumstance, and as he had a good deal balanced, even when he committed heart-free on the excellent character given him by friendly and the maid, and as he was much staggered on finding that of the two persons, on whose evidence alone heart-free had been committed, and had been since convicted, one was in Newgate for a felony, and the other was now brought before him for a robbery. He thought proper to put the matter very home to fireblood at this time. The young Achetes was taken, as we have said, in the fact, so that denial he saw was in vain. He therefore honestly confessed what he knew must be proved, and desired, on the merit of the discoveries he made, to be admitted as an evidence against his accomplices. This afforded the happiest opportunity to the justice to satisfy his conscience in relation to heart-free. He told fireblood that if he expected the favor he solicited, it must be on condition that he revealed the whole truth to him concerning the evidence which he had lately given against a bankrupt, and which some circumstances had induced a suspicion of. That he might depend on it, the truth would be discovered by other means, and gave some oblique, hence a deceit entirely justifiable, that Wilde himself had offered such a discovery. The very mention of Wilde's name immediately alarmed fireblood, who did not in the least doubt the readiness of that great man to hang any of the gang when his own interests seemed to require it. He therefore hesitated not a moment. But having obtained a promise from the justice that he should be accepted as an evidence, he discovered the whole falsehood, and declared that he had been seduced by Wilde to depose as he had done. The justice, having thus luckily and timely discovered this scene of villainy, alias greatness, lost not a moment in using his utmost endeavors to get the case of the unhappy convict, represented to the sovereign, who immediately granted him that gracious reprieve, which caused such happiness to the persons concerned, and which we hope we have now accounted for to the satisfaction of the reader. The good magistrate, having obtained this reprieve for heart-free, thought it incumbent on him to visit him in the prison, and to sound, if possible, the depth of this affair, that if he should appear as innocent as now began to conceive him, he might use all imaginable methods to obtain his pardon and enlargement. The next day, therefore, after that, when the miserable scene above described had passed, he went to Newgate, where he found those three persons, namely heart-free, his wife, and friendly, sitting together. The justice informed the prisoner of the confession of fire-blood, with the steps which he had taken upon it. The reader will easily conceive the many outward thanks, as well as inward gratitude, which he received from all three. But those were of very little consequence to him, compared with the secret satisfaction he felt in his mind from reflecting on the preservation of innocence, as he soon after very clearly perceived was the case. When he entered the room, Mrs. Heart-free was speaking with some earnestness. As he perceived, therefore, he had interrupted her, he begged she would continue her discourse, which if he prevented by his presence he desired to depart. But Heart-free would not suffer it. He said she had been relating some adventures which perhaps might entertain him to hear, in which she the rather desired he would hear, as they might serve to illustrate the foundation on which this falsehood had been built, which had brought on her husband all his misfortunes. The justice very gladly consented, and Mrs. Heart-free, at her husband's desire, began the relation from the first renewal of Wilde's acquaintance with him. But though this recapitulation was necessary for the information of our good magistrate, as it would be useless, and perhaps tedious to the reader, we shall only repeat that part of her story to which he is only a stranger, beginning with what happened to her after Wilde had been turned adrift in the boat by the captain of the French privateer. End of Book 4, Chapter 6, read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, for LibriVox. Book 4, Chapter 7 of the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the Great. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Dennis Sayers. The late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the Great by Henry Fielding. Book 4, Chapter 7, Mrs. Heart-free relates her adventures. Mrs. Heart-free proceeded thus. The vengeance which the French captain exacted on that villain, our hero, persuaded me that I was fallen into the hands of a man of honor and justice, nor indeed was it possible for any person to be treated with more respect and civility than I now was. But if this could not mitigate my sorrows when I reflected on the condition in which I had been betrayed, to leave all that was dear to me, much less could it produce such an effect when I discovered, as I soon did, that I owed it chiefly to a passion which threatened me with great uneasiness as it quickly appeared to be very violent, and as I was absolutely in the power of the person who possessed it, or was rather possessed by it. I must, however, do him the justice to say, my fears carried my suspicions farther than I afterwards found I had any reason to carry them. He did indeed very soon acquaint me with his passion, and used all those gentle methods which frequently succeed with our sex to prevail with me to gratify it, but never once threatened, nor had the least recourse to force. He did not even once insinuate to me that I was totally in his power, which I myself sufficiently saw, and, once I drew the most dreadful apprehensions, well knowing that, as there are some dispositions so brutal that cruelty adds a zest and savor to their pleasures, so there are others whose gentler inclinations are better gratified when they win us by softer methods to comply with their desires, yet that even these may be often compelled by an unruly passion to have recourse, at last, to the means of violence when they despair of success from persuasion. But I was happily the captive of a better man. My conqueror was one of those over whom vice had a limited jurisdiction, and though he was too easily prevailed on to sin, he was proof against any temptation to villainy. We had been two days almost totally becalmed, when a brisk gale rising as we were inside of Dunkirk, we saw a vessel making full sail towards us. The captain of the privateer was so strong that he apprehended no danger but from a man of war, which the sailors discerned this not to be. He therefore struck his colors, and furled his sails as much as possible, in order to lie by and expect her, hoping she might be a prize. Here, heart-free smiling, his wife stopped and inquired the cause. He told her it was from her using these sea terms so aptly. She laughed, and answered, he would wonder less at this when he heard the long time she had been on board, and then proceeded. This vessel now came alongside of us, and hailed us, having perceived that on which we were aboard to be of our own country. They begged us not to put into Dunkirk, but to accompany them in their pursuit of a large English merchantman whom we should easily overtake, and both together as easily conquer. Our captain immediately consented to this proposition, and ordered all his sail to be crowded. This was most unwelcome news to me, however he comforted me all he could by assuring me I had nothing to fear, that he would be so far from offering the least rudeness to me himself, that he would, at the hazard of his life, protect me from it. This assurance gave me all the consolation which my present circumstances and the dreadful apprehensions I had on your dear account would admit, at which words the tenderest glances passed on both sides between the husband and wife. We sailed near twelve hours when we came in sight of the ship we were in pursuit of, and which we should probably have soon come up with had not a very thick mist ravished her from our eyes. This mist continued several hours, and when it cleared up we discovered our companion at a great distance from us, but what gave us, I mean the captain and his crew, the greatest uneasiness was the sight of a very large ship within a mile of us which presently saluted us with a gun, and now appeared to be a third rate English man of war. Our captain declared the impossibility of either fighting or escaping, and accordingly struck without waiting for the broadside which was preparing for us, and which perhaps would have prevented me from the happiness I now enjoy. This occasioned heart free to change color, his wife, therefore, passed hastily to circumstances of a more smiling complexion. I greatly rejoiced at this event as I thought it would not only restore me to the safe possession of my jewels, but to what I value beyond all the treasure in the universe. My expectation, however, of both these was somewhat crossed for the present as to the former. I was told they should be carefully preserved, but that I must prove my right to them before I could expect their restoration, which, if I mistake not, the captain did not very eagerly desire I should be able to accomplish, and as to the latter, I was acquainted that I should be put on board the first ship which they met on her way to England, but that they were proceeding to the West Indies. I had not been long on board the man of war before I discovered just reason rather to lament than rejoice at the exchange of my captivity. For such I concluded my present situation to be. I had now another lover in the captain of this Englishman and much rougher and less gallant than the Frenchman had been. He used me with scarce common civility, as indeed he showed very little to any other person treating his officers little better than a man of no great good breeding would exert to his meanest servant, and that too on some very irritating provocation. As for me, he addressed me with the insolence of Abasha to a Circassian slave. He talked to me with the loose license in which the most profligate libertines converse with harlots and which women abandoned only in a moderate degree detest and depour. He often kissed me with very rude familiarity, and one day attempted further brutality. When a gentleman on board, who was in my situation, that is, had been taken by a privateer and was retaken, rescued me from his hands, for which the captain confined him, though he was not under his command, two days in irons. When he was released, for I was not suffered to visit him in his confinement, I went to him and thanked him with the utmost acknowledgement for what he had done and suffered on my account. The gentleman behaved to me in the handsomest manner on this occasion, told me he was ashamed of the high sense I seemed to entertain of so small an obligation of an action to which his duty as a Christian and his honor as a man obliged him. From this time I lived in great familiarity with this man, whom I regarded as my protector, and he professed himself ready to be on all occasions, expressing his utmost abhorrence of the captain's brutality, especially that shown towards me, and the tenderness of a parent, for the preservation of my virtue, for which I was not myself more solicitous than he appeared. He was, indeed, the only man I had hitherto met since my unhappy departure, who did not endeavor by all his looks, words, and actions, to assure me he had a liking to my unfortunate person, the rest seeming desirous of sacrificing the little beauty they complimented to their desires. Without the least consideration of the ruin which I earnestly represented to them they were attempting to bring on me, and on my future repose. I now passed several days pretty free from the captain's molestation till one fatal night. Here perceiving heart-free grew pale. She comforted him by an assurance that heaven had preserved her chastity, and again had restored her unsullied to his arms. She continued thus, Perhaps I give it a wrong epithet in the word fatal, but a wretched night I am sure I may call it, for no woman who came off victorious was, I believe, ever in greater danger. One night I say, having drank his spirit's high with punch, in company with the purser, who was the only man in the ship he admitted to his table, the captain sent for me into his cabin. Wither, though unwilling, I was obliged to go. We were no sooner alone together than he seized me by the hand, and after affronting my ears with discourse which I am unable to repeat, he swore a great oath that his passion was to be dallied with no longer, that I must not expect to treat him in the manner to which a set of blockhead landmen submitted. None of your coquette heirs therefore with me, madam, said he, for I am resolved to have you this night, no struggling nor squalling, for both will be impertinent. The first man who offers to come in here I will have his skin flee'd off at the gangway. He then attempted to pull me violently towards his bed. I threw myself on my knees, and with tears and in treaties besought his compassion, but this was, I found to no purpose. I then had recourse to threats, and endeavored to frighten him with the consequence, but neither had this, though it seemed to stagger him more than the other method, sufficient force, to deliver me. At last a stratagem came into my head, of which my perceiving him real gave me the first hint. I entreated a moment's reprieve only. When collecting all the spirits I could muster, I put on a constrained air of gaiety, and told him, with an effected laugh, he was the roughest lover I had ever met with, and that I believed I was the first woman he had ever paid his addresses to. Addresses, said he, de-blank-blank in your dresses, I want to undress you. I then begged him to let us drink some punch together, for that I loved a can as well as himself, and never would grant the favour to any man till I had drank a hearty glass with him. Oh, said he, if that be all, you shall have punch enough to drown yourself in. At which words he wrung the bell, and ordered in a gallon of that liquor. I was in the meantime obliged to suffer his nauseous kisses, and some rudenesses, which I had great difficulty to restrain within moderate bounds. When the punch came in, he took up the bowl, and drank my health ostentatiously, in such a quantity that it considerably advanced my scheme. I followed him with bumpers as fast as possible, and was myself obliged to drink so much that, at another time, it would have staggered my own reason, and at present it did not affect me. At length, perceiving him very far gone, I watched an opportunity, and ran out of the cabin, resolving to seek protection of the sea, if I could find no other. But heaven was now graciously pleased to relieve me, for in his attempt to pursue me, he reeled backwards, and falling down the cabin stairs, he dislocated his shoulder, and so bruised himself that I was not only preserved that night, from any danger of my intended ravisher, but the accident threw him into a fever, which endangered his life. And whether he ever recovered or no, I am not certain, for during his delirious fits, the eldest lieutenant commanded the ship. This was a virtuous and a brave fellow, who had been twenty-five years in that post, without being able to obtain a ship, and had seen several boys the bastards of noblemen put over his head. One day, while the ship remained under his command, an English vessel bound to Cork passed by, myself and my friend, who had formerly lain two days in irons on my account, went on board the ship, with the leave of the good lieutenant, who made us such presence as he was able of provisions, and congratulating me on my delivery from a danger to which none of the ship's crew had been strangers, he kindly wished us both a safe voyage. CHAPTER VIII In which Mrs. Hartfrey continues the relation of her adventures. The first evening, after we were aboard this vessel, which was a brigantine, we being then, at no very great distance from the Maderas, the most violent storm arose from the northwest, in which we presently lost both our masts, and indeed death now presented itself as inevitable to us. I need not tell my Tommy what were then my thoughts. Our danger was so great that the captain of the ship, a professed atheist, betook himself to prayers, and the whole crew, abandoning themselves for lost, fell with the utmost eagerness to the emptying a cask of brandy, not one drop of which they swore should be polluted with salt water. I observed here my old friend, displayed less courage than I expected from him. He seemed entirely swallowed up in despair. But heaven be praised, we were all, at last, preserved. The storm, after above eleven hours' continuance, began to abate, and by degrees entirely ceased, but left us still rolling at the mercy of the waves, which carried us, at their own pleasure, to the southeast, a vast number of leagues. Our crew were all dead drunk with the brandy which they had taken such care to preserve from the sea. But indeed, had they been awake, their labor would have been a very little service, as we had lost all our rigging, our brigantine being reduced to a naked hulk only. In this condition we floated above thirty hours, till, in the midst of a very dark night, we spied a light, which seeming to approach us, grew so large that our sailors concluded to be the lantern of a man of war. But when we were sharing ourselves with the hopes of our deliverance from this wrecked situation, on a sudden, to our great concern, the light entirely disappeared, and left us in despair increased by the remembrance of those pleasing imaginations with which we had entertained our minds during its appearance. The rest of the night we passed in melancholy conjectures on the light which had deserted us, which the major part of the sailors concluded to be a meteor. In this distress we had one comfort, which was a plentiful store of provisions. This so supported the spirits of the sailors that they declared, had they but a sufficient quantity of brandy they cared not whether they saw land for a month to come. But indeed we were much nearer it than we imagined, as we perceived at break of day. One of the most knowing of the crew declared we were near the continent of Africa, but when we were within three leagues of it a second violent storm arose from the north so that we again gave over all hopes of safety. This storm was not quite so outrageous as the former, but of much longer continuance, for it lasted near three days, and drove us an immense number of leagues to the south. We were within a league of the shore, expecting every moment our ship to be dashed in pieces when the tempest ceased all on a sudden. But the waves still continued to roll like mountains, and before the sea recovered its calm motion our ship was thrown so near the land that the captain ordered out his boat, declaring he had scarce any hopes of saving her. And indeed we had not quitted her many minutes before we saw the justice of his apprehensions, for she struck against a rock and immediately sunk. The behavior of the sailors on this occasion very much affected me. They beheld their ship perish with the tenderness of a lover, or a parent. They spoke of her as the fondest husband would of his wife, and many of them who seemed to have no tears in their composition shed them plentifully at her sinking. The captain himself cried out, Go thy way, charming Molly! The sea never devoured a lovelier morsel. If I have fifty vessels, I shall never love another like thee. Porous slut, I shall remember thee to my dying day. Well, the boat now conveyed us all safe to shore, where we landed with very little difficulty. It was now about noon, and the rays of the sun, which descended almost perpendicular on our heads, were extremely hot and troublesome. However, we traveled through this extreme heat about five miles over a plain. This brought us to a vast wood, which extended itself as far as we could see both to the right and left, and seemed to me to put an entire end to our progress. Here we decreed to rest and dine on the provision which we had brought from the ship, of which we had sufficient for very few meals. Our boat, being so overloaded with people, that we had very little room for luggage of any kind. Our repest was salt, pork, broiled, which the keenness of hunger made so delicious to my companions that they fed very heartily upon it. As for myself, the fatigue of my body and the vexation of my mind had so thoroughly weakened to me that I was almost entirely deprived of appetite, and the utmost dexterity of the most accomplished French cook would have been ineffectual had he endeavored to tempt me with delicacies. I thought myself very little a gainer by my late escape from the tempest, by which I seemed only to have exchanged the element in which I was presently to die. When our company had sufficiently, and indeed plentifully, feasted themselves, they resolved to enter the wood and endeavor to pass it, in the expectation of finding some inhabitants, at least some provision. We proceeded, therefore, in the following order, one man in the front with a hatchet to clear our way, and two others followed him with guns to protect the rest from wild beasts. Then walked the rest of our company, and last of all the captain himself, being armed, likewise, with a gun, to defend us from any attack behind, in the rear, I think you call it. And thus our whole company, being fourteen in number, traveled on till night overtook us without seeing anything unless a few birds and some very insignificant animals. We rested all night under the cover of some trees, and indeed we very little wanted shelter at that season, the heat in the day being the only inclemency we had to combat with in this climate. I cannot help telling you, my old friend lay still nearest to me on the ground, and declared he would be my protector should any of the sailors offer rudeness. But I can acquit them of any such attempt, nor was I ever affronted by anyone more than with a coarse expression, proceeding rather from the roughness and ignorance of their education than from any abandoned principle or want of humanity. We had now proceeded very little way on our next day's march, when one of the sailors, having skipped nimbly up a hill with the assistance of a speaking trumpet, informed us that he saw a town a very little way off. This news so comforted me, and gave me such strength, as well as spirits, that with the help of my old friend and another who suffered me to lean on them, I with much difficulty attained the summit, but was so absolutely overcome in climbing it that I had no longer sufficient strength to support my tottering limbs, and was obliged to lay myself again on the ground, nor could they prevail on me to undertake descending through a very thick wood into a plain, at the end of which indeed appeared some houses, or rather huts. But at a much greater distance than the sailor assured us. The little way, as he had called it, seemed to me full twenty miles, nor was it, I believe, much less. End of book four, chapter eight, read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, for LibriVox. Book four, chapter nine, of the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde, The Great. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Dennis Sayers. The late Mr. Jonathan Wilde, The Great, by Henry Fielding. Book four, chapter nine, containing incidents, very surprising. The captain declared he would, without delay, proceed to the town before him. In which resolution he was seconded by all the crew, but when I could not be persuaded, nor was I able to travel any farther before I had rested myself, my old friend protested he would not leave me, but would stay behind as my guard. And when I had refreshed myself with a little repose, he would attend me to the town, which the captain promised he would not leave before he had seen us. They were no sooner departed than, having first thanked my protector for his care of me, I resigned myself to sleep, which immediately closed my eyelids, and would probably have detained me very long in his gentle dominions had I not been awaked with the squeeze by the hand by my guard, which I at first thought intended to alarm me with the danger of some wild beast. But I soon perceived it arose from a softer motive, and that a gentle swain was the only wild beast I had to apprehend. He began now to disclose his passion in the strongest manner imaginable, indeed with a warmth rather beyond that of both my former lovers, but as yet without any attempt of absolute force. On my side remonstrances were made in more bitter explanations and re-violings than I had used to any that villain wild accepted. I told him he was the basest and most treacherous wretch alive, that his having cloaked his iniquitous designs under the appearance of virtue and friendship added an ineffable degree of horror to them, that I detested him of all mankind the most, and could I be brought to yield to prostitution he should be the last to enjoy the ruins of my honor. He suffered himself not to be provoked by this language, but only changed his manner of solicitation from flattery to bribery. He unripped the lining of his waistcoat and pulled forth several jewels. Please he said he had preserved from infinite danger to the happiest purpose if I could be won by them. I rejected them often with the utmost indignation, till at last casting my eye, rather by accident than design, on a diamond necklace, a thought like lightning shot through my mind, and in an instant I remembered that this was the very necklace you had sold the cursed Count, the cause of all our misfortunes. The confusion of ideas into which this surprise hurried me prevented my reflecting on the villain who then stood before me, but the first recollection presently told me it could be no other. And the Count himself, the wicked tool of wilds, barbarity, good heavens, what was then my condition, how shall I describe the tumult of passions which then labored in my breast? However, as I was happily unknown to him, the least suspicion on his side was altogether impossible. He imputed, therefore, the eagerness with which I gazed on the jewels to a very wrong cause, and endeavored to put as much additional softness into his countenance as he was able. My fears were a little quieted, and I was resolved to be very liberal of promises, and hoped so thoroughly to persuade him of my banality that he might, without any doubt, be drawn in to wait the Captain and crew's return, who would, I was very certain, not only preserve me from his violence, but secure the restoration of what you had been so cruelly robbed of. But alas, I was mistaken. Mrs. Hartfrey, again perceiving symptoms of the utmost disquietude in her husband's countenance, cried out, My dear, don't you apprehend any harm, but to deliver you as soon as possible from your anxiety, when he perceived I declined the warmth of his addresses, he begged me to consider. He changed at once his voice and features, and in a very different tone from what he had hitherto affected, he swore I should not deceive him as I had the Captain, that fortune had kindly thrown an opportunity in his way which he was resolved not foolishly to lose, and concluded with a violent oath that he was determined to enjoy me that moment, and therefore I knew the consequence of resistance. He then caught me in his arms and began such rude attempts that I screamed out with all the force I could, though I had so little hopes of being rescued, when there suddenly rushed forth from a thicket a creature which, at his first appearance, and in the hurry of spirits I then was, I did not take for a man, but indeed had he been the fiercest of wild beasts I should have rejoiced at his devouring us both. I scarce perceived he had a musket in his hand before he struck my ravager such a blow with it that he felled him at my feet. He then advanced with a gentle air towards me, and told me in French he was extremely glad he had been luckily present to my assistance. He was naked except his middle and his feet, if I can call a body so which was covered with air almost equal to any beast, whatever. His appearance was so horrid in my eyes that the friendship he had shown me, as well as his courteous behavior, could not entirely remove the dread I had conceived from his figure. I believe he saw this very visibly, for he begged me not to be frightened, since whatever accident had brought me thither I should have reason to thank heaven for meeting him at whose hands I might assure myself of the utmost civility and protection. In the midst of all this consternation I had spirits enough to take up the casket of jewels which the villain in falling had dropped out of his hands and conveyed it into my pocket. My deliverer, telling me that I seemed extremely weak and faint, desired me to refresh myself at his little hut which he said was hard by. If his demeanor had been less kind and obliging, my desperate situation must have lent me confidence for sure the alternative could not be doubtful, whether I should rather trust this man, who, notwithstanding his savage outside, expressed so much devotion to serve me, which at least I was not certain of the falsehood of, or should abide with one whom I so perfectly well knew to be an accomplished villain. I therefore committed myself to his guidance, though with tears in my eyes, and begged him to have compassion on my innocence, which was absolutely in his power. He said the treatment he had been witness of, which he supposed was from one who had broken his trust towards me, sufficiently justified my suspicion, but begged me to dry my eyes, and he would soon convince me that I was with a man of different sentiments. The kind accents which accompanied these words gave me some comfort, which was assisted by the repossession of our jewels by an accident so strongly savoring of the disposition of providence in my favor. We left the villain weltering in his blood, though beginning to recover a little motion, and walked together to his hut, or rather cave, for it was underground, on the side of a hill. The situation was very pleasant, and from its mouth we overlooked a large plain and the town I had before seen. As soon as I entered it he desired me to sit down on a bench of earth, which served him for chairs, and then laid before me some fruits, the wild product of that country, one or two of which had an excellent flavor. He likewise produced some baked flesh, a little resembling that of venison. He then brought forth a bottle of brandy, which he said had remained with him ever since his settling there, now above thirty years, during all which time he had never opened it, his only liquor being water. He had reserved this bottle as a cordial in sickness, but he thanked heaven, he had never yet had occasion for it. He then acquainted me that he was a hermit, that he had been formally cast away on that shore with his wife, whom he dearly loved, but could not preserve from perishing, on which account he had resolved never to return to France, which was his native country, but to devote himself to prayer and to holy life, placing all his hopes in the blessed expectation of meeting that dear woman again in heaven, where he was convinced she was now a saint and an interceder for him. He said he had exchanged a watch with the king of that country, whom he described to be a very just and good man, for a gun, some powder, shot, and ball, with which he sometimes provided himself food, but more generally used it in defending himself against wild beasts, so that his diet was chiefly of the vegetable kind. He told me many more circumstances which I may relate to you hereafter, but to be as concise as possible at present he at length greatly comforted me by promising to conduct me to a seaport where I might have an opportunity to meet with some vessels trafficking for slaves, and whence I might once more commit myself to that element which, though I had already suffered so much on it, I must again trust to put me in possession of all I loved. The character he gave me of the inhabitants of the town we saw below us and of their king made me desirous of being conducted thither, especially as I very much wished to see the captain and sailors who had behaved very kindly to me, and with whom notwithstanding all the civil behavior of the hermit I was rather easier in my mind than alone with this single man, but he dissuaded me greatly from attempting such a walk till I had recruited my spirits with rest, desiring me to repose myself on his couch or bank, saying that he himself would retire without the cave, where he would remain as my guard. I accepted this kind proposal, but it was long before I could procure any slumber, however at length weariness prevailed over my fears, and I enjoyed several hours sleep. When I awaked I found my faithful sentinel on his post and ready at my summons. This behavior infused some confidence into me, and I now repeated my request that he would go with me to the town below, but he answered it would be better advised to take some repast before I undertook the journey which I should find much longer than it appeared. I consented, and he set forth a greater variety of fruits than before of which I ate very plentifully. My collation being ended I renewed the mention of my walk, but he still persisted in dissuading me, telling me that I was not yet strong enough, that I could repose myself nowhere with greater safety than in his cave, and that for his part he could have no greater happiness than that of attending me, adding, with a sigh, it was a happiness he should envy any other more than all the gifts of fortune. You may imagine I began now to entertain suspicions, but he presently removed all doubt by throwing himself at my feet and expressing the warmest passion for me. I should have now sunk with despair had he not accompanied these professions with the most vehement protestations that he would never offer me any other force but that of entreaty, and that he would rather die the most cruel death by my coldness than gain the highest bliss by becoming the occasion of a tear of sorrow to these bright eyes, which he said were stars under whose benign influence alone he could enjoy or indeed suffer life. She was repeating many more compliments he made her when a horrid uproar which alarmed the whole gate put a stop to her narration at present. It is impossible for me to give the reader a better idea of the noise which now arose than by desiring him to imagine I had the hundred tongues the poet once wished for, and was vociferating from them all at once by hollowing, scolding, crying, swearing, bellowing, and in short by every different articulation which is within the scope of the human organ. The late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the great by Henry Fielding Book 4 Chapter 10 A horrible uproar in the gate But however great an idea the reader may hence conceive of this uproar he will think the occasion more than adequate to it when he is informed that our hero, I blush to name it, had discovered an injury done to his honor and that in the tenderest point. In a word, reader, thou must know it, though it give thee the greatest horror imaginable he had caught fireblood in the arms of his lovely Leticia as the generous bull who having long de-pastured among a number of cows and thence contracted an opinion that these cows are all his own property if he beholds another bull be stride a cow within his walks he roars aloud and threatens instant vengeance with his horns till the whole perish are alarmed with his bellowing not with less noise nor less dreadful menaces did the fury of wild burst forth and terrify the whole gate long time did rage render his voice in articulate to the hearer as when at a visiting day fifteen or sixteen or perhaps twice as many females of delicate but shrill pipes ejaculate all at once on different subjects all is sound only the harmony entirely melodious indeed but conveys no idea to our ears but at length when reason began to get the better of his passion which latter of being deserted by his breath began a little to retreat the following accents leapt over the hedge of his teeth or rather the ditch of his gums once those hedge stakes had long since by a baton been displaced in battle with an amazon of jewelry footnote the beginning of this speech is lost man of honor doth this become a friend could i have expected such a breach of all the laws of honor from thee whom i had taught to walk in its pads hats thou not any other way to injure my confidence i could have forgiven it but this is a stab in the tenderest part a wound never to be healed an injury never to be repaired for it is not only the loss of an agreeable companion of the affection of a wife dear to my soul than life itself it is not this loss alone i lament this loss is accompanied with disgrace and with dishonor the blood of the wilds which hath run with such uninterrupted purity through so many generations this blood is fouled is contaminated hence flow my tears hence arises my grief this is the injury never to be redressed nor even to be with honor forgiven and blank blank blank in a band box answered fireblood here is a noise about your honor if the mischief done to your blood be all you complain of i am sure you complain of nothing for my blood is as good as yours you have no conception replied wild of the tenderness of honor you know not how nice and delicate it is in both sexes so delicate that the least breath of air which rudely blows on it destroys it i will prove from your own words says fireblood i have not wronged your honor have you not often told me that the honor of a man consisted in receiving no affront from his own sex and that of woman in receiving no kindness from ours now sir if i have given you no affront how have i injured your honor but doth not everything cried wild of the wife belong to the husband a married man hath his wife's honor as well as his own and by injuring hers you injure his how cruelly you have hurt me in this tender part i need not repeat the whole gate knows it and the world shall i will apply to doctor's commons for my redress against her i will shake off as much of my dishonor as i can by parting with her and as for you expect to hear of me in west minster hall the modern method of repairing these breaches and of resenting this affront d blank blank in your eyes christ fireblood i fear you not nor do i believe a word you say nay if you affront me personally says wild another sort of resentment is prescribed at which word advancing to fireblood he presented him with a box on the ear which the youth immediately returned and now our hero and his friend fell to boxing though with some difficulty both being encumbered with the chains which they wore between their legs a few blows passed on both sides before the gentleman who stood by stepped in and parted the combatants and now both parties having whispered each other that if they outlive the ensuing sessions and escape the tree one should give and the other should receive satisfaction in single combat they separated and the gate soon recovered its former tranquility mrs hardfrey was then desired by the justice and her husband both to conclude her story which she did in the words of the next chapter and of book four chapter 10 read by denis sears and medesto california for liberbox book four chapter 11 of the late mr jonathan wild the great this liberbox recording is in the public domain read by denis sears the late mr jonathan wild the great book four chapter 11 the conclusion of mrs heartfree's adventures if i'm a stakeknot i was interrupted just as i was beginning to repeat some of the compliments made me by the hermit just as you had finished them i believe madam said the justice very well sir said she i am sure i have no pleasure in the repetition he concluded then with telling me though i was in his eyes the most charming woman in the world and might tempt a saint to abandon the ways of holiness yet my beauty inspired him with a much tenderer affection towards me than to purchase any satisfaction of his own desires with my misery if therefore i could be so cruel to him to reject his honest and sincere address nor could submit to a solitary life with one who would endeavor by all possible means to make me happy i had no force to dread for that i was as much at my liberty as if i was in france or england or any other free country i repulsed him with the same civility with which he advanced and told him that as he professed great regard to religion i was convinced he would cease from all farther solicitation when i informed him that if i had no other objection my own innocence would not admit of my hearing him on this subject for that i was married he started a little at that word and was for sometimes silent but at length recovering himself he began to urge the uncertainty of my husband's being alive and the probability of the contrary he then spoke of marriage as of a civil policy only on which head he urged many arguments not worth repeating and was growing so very eager and important that i know not wither his passion might have hurried him had not three of the sailors well armed appeared at that instant in sight of the cave i no sooner saw them than exalting with the utmost inward joy i told him my companions were come for me and that i must now take my leave of him assuring him that i would always remember with the most grateful acknowledgement the favors i had received at his hands he fetched a very heavy sigh and squeezing me tenderly by the hand he saluted my lips with a little more eagerness than the european salutations admit of and told me he should likewise remember my arrival at his cave to the last day of his life adding oh that he could there spend the whole in the company of one whose bright eyes had kindled but i know you will think sir that we women love to repeat the compliments made us i will therefore omit them in a word the sailors being now arrived i quitted him with some compassion for the reluctance with which he parted from me and went forward with my companions we had proceeded but a very few paces before one of the sailors said to his comrades d blank blank in me jack who knows whether young fellow hath not some good flip in his cave i innocently answered the poor wretch hath only one bottle of brandy hath he so cries the sailor for george we will taste it and so saying they immediately returned back and myself with them we found the poor man prostrate on the ground expressing all the symptoms of misery and lamentation i told him in french for the sailors could not speak that language what they wanted he pointed to the place where the bottle was deposited saying they were welcome to that and whatever else he had and added he cared not if they took his life also the sailors searched the whole cave where finding nothing more which they deemed worth their taking they walked off with the bottle and immediately emptying it without offering me a drop they proceeded with me towards the town in our way i observed one whisper another while he kept his eye steadfastly fixed on me this gave me some uneasiness but the other answered no d blank blank in me the captain will never forgive us besides we have enough of it among the black women and in my mind one color is as good as another this was enough to give me violent apprehensions but i heard no more of that kind till we came to the town where in about six hours i arrived in safety as soon as i came to the captain he inquired what was become of my friend meaning the villainous count when he was informed by me of what had happened he wished me heartily joy of my delivery and expressing the utmost abhorrence of such baseness swore if ever he met him he would cut his throat but indeed we both concluded that he had died of the blow which the hermit had given him i was now introduced to the chief magistrate of this country who was desirous of seeing me i will give you a short description of him he was chosen as is the custom there for his superior bravery and wisdom his power is entirely absolute during his continuance but on the first deviation from equity and justice he is liable to be deposed and punished by the people the elders of whom once a year assembled to examine into his conduct besides the danger which these examinations which are very strict expose him to his office is of such care and trouble that nothing but that restless love of power so predominant in the mind of man could make it the object of desire for he is indeed the only slave of all the natives of this country he is obliged in time of peace to hear the complaint of every person in his dominions and to render him justice for which purpose everyone may demand an audience of him unless during the hour which he is allowed for dinner when he sits alone at the table and is attended in the most public manner with more than European ceremony this is done to create an awe and respect towards him in the eye of the vulgar but lest it should elevate him too much in his own opinion in order to his humiliation he receives every evening in private from a kind of beetle a gentle kick on his posteriors besides which he wears a ring in his nose somewhat resembling that we ring our pigs with and a chain round his neck not unlike that worn by our alderman both which I suppose to be emblematical but heard not the reasons of either assigned there are many more particularities among these people which when I have an opportunity I may relate to you the second day after my return from court one of his officers whom they call shach pimpach waited upon me and by a french interpreter who lives here informed me that the chief magistrate liked my person and offered me an immense present if I would suffer him to enjoy it this is it seems their common form of making love I rejected the present and never heard any further solicitations for as it is no shame for women here to consent at the first proposal so they never receive a second I had resided in this town a week when the captain informed me that a number of slaves who had been taken captives in war were to be guarded to the seaside where they were to be sold to the merchants who traded in them to America that if I would embrace this opportunity I might assure myself of finding a passage to America and thence to England acquainting me at the same time that he himself intended to go with them I readily agreed to accompany him the chief being advertised of our designs sent for us both to court and without mentioning a word of love to me having presented me with a very rich jewel of less value he said than my chastity took a very civil leave recommending me to the care of heaven and ordering us a large supply of provisions for our journey we were provided with mules for ourselves and what we carried with us and in nine days reached the seashore where we found an English vessel ready to receive both us and the slaves we went to board it and sailed the next day with a fair wind for New England where I hoped to get an immediate passage to the old but Providence was kinder than my expectation for the third day after we were at sea we met an English man of war homeward bound the captain of it was a very good natured man and agreed to take me on board I accordingly took my leave of my old friend the master of the shipwrecked vessel who went on to New England once he intended to pass to Jamaica where his owners lived I was now treated with great civility had a little cabin assigned me and dined every day at the captain's table who was indeed a very gallant man and at first made me a tender of his affections but when he found me resolutely bent to preserve myself pure and entire for the best of husbands he grew cooler in his addresses and soon behaved in a manner very pleasing to me regarding my sex only so far as to pay me a deference which is very agreeable to us all to conclude my story I met with no adventure in this passage at all worth relating till my landing at Graves End whence the captain brought me in his own boat to the tower in a short hour after my arrival we had that meeting which however dreadful at first will I now hope by the good offices of the best of men whom heaven forever bless end in our perfect happiness and be a strong instance of what I am persuaded is the surest truth that providence will sooner or later procure the felicity of the virtuous and innocent mrs. Hartfrey thus ended her speech having before delivered to her husband the jewels which the account had robbed him of and that presented her by the African chief which last was of immense value the good magistrate was sensibly touched at her narrative as well on the consideration of the sufferings she had herself undergone as for those of her husband which he had himself been innocently the instrument of bringing upon him that worthy man however much rejoiced in what he had already done for his preservation and promised to labor with his utmost interest and industry to procure the absolute pardon rather of his sentence than of his guilt which he now plainly discovered was a barbarous and false imputation end of book four chapter 11 read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto California for LibriVox book four chapter 12 of the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the great this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Dennis Sayers the late Mr. Jonathan Wilde the great by Henry Fielding book four chapter 12 the history returns to the contemplation of greatness but we have already perhaps detained our reader too long in this relation from the consideration of our hero who daily gave the most exalted proofs of greatness in cajoling the prigs and in exactions on the debtors which latter now grew so great that is corrupted in their morals that they spoke with the utmost contempt of what the vulgar call honesty the greatest character among them was that of a pickpocket or in truer language a file and the only censure was want of dexterity as to virtue goodness and such like they were the objects of mirth and derision and all new gate was a complete collection of prigs every man being desirous to pick his neighbor's pocket and everyone was as sensible that his neighbor was as ready to pick his so that which is almost incredible as great roguery was daily committed within the walls of new gate as without the glory resulting from these actions of wild probably animated the envy of his enemies against him the day of his trial now approached for which as socrates did he prepared himself but not weekly and foolishly like that philosopher with patience and resignation but with a good number of false witnesses however as success is not always proportioned to the wisdom of him who endeavors to attain it so are we more sorry than ashamed to relate that our hero was notwithstanding his utmost caution and prudence convicted and sentenced to a death which when we consider not only the great men who have suffered it but the much larger number of those whose highest honor it hath been to merit it we cannot call otherwise than honorable indeed those who have unluckily missed it seem all their days to have labored in vain to attain an end which fortune for reasons only known to herself hath thought proper to deny them without any farther preface then our hero was sentenced to be hanged by the neck but whatever was to be now his fate he might console himself that he had perpetrated what neck judicus era neck igneous neck potorite pharum neck edex abalera vestustas for my part i confess i look on this death of hanging to be as proper for a hero as any other and i solemnly declare that had alexander the great been hanged it would not in the least have diminished my respect to his memory provided a hero in his life doth but execute a sufficient quantity of mischief provided he be well and heartily cursed by the widow the orphan the poor and the oppressed the soul rewards as many authors have bitterly lamented both in prose and verse of greatness that is prigism i think it avails little of what nature his death be whether it be by the axe the halter or the sword such names will be always sure of living to posterity and have enjoined that fame which they so gloriously and eagerly coveted for according to a great dramatic poet fame not more survives from good than evil deeds the aspiring youth that fired the aphesian dome outlives in fame the pious fool who raised it our hero now suspected that the malice of his enemies would overpower him he therefore betook himself to that true support of greatness in affliction a bottle by means of which he was enabled to curse swear and bully and brave his fate other comfort indeed he had not much for not a single friend ever came near him his wife whose trial was deferred to the next sessions visited him but once when she plagued tormented and up braided him so cruelly that he forbade the keeper ever to admit her again the ordinary of newgate had frequent conference with him and greatly would embellish our history could we record all which that good man delivered on these occasions but unhappily we could procure only the substance of a single conference which was taken down in shorthand by one who overheard it we shall transcribe it therefore exactly in the same form and words we received it nor can we help regarding it as one of the most curious pieces which either ancient or modern history had recorded in the book four chapter 12 read by denis sears and modesto california for liberal arts book four chapter 13 of the late mr. jonathan wild the great this liberal box recording is in the public domain read by denis sears the late mr. jonathan wild the great by henry fielding book four chapter 13 a dialogue between the ordinary of newgate and mr. jonathan wild the great in which the subjects of death immortality and other grave matters are very learnedly handled by the former ordinary good morrow to you sir i hope you rested well last night jonathan d blank blank and ill sir i dreamt so confundedly of hanging that it disturbed my sleep ordinary fire upon it you should be more resigned i wish you would make a little better use of those instructions which i have endeavored to inculcate into you and particularly last sunday and from these words those who do evil shall go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels i undertook to show you first what is meant by everlasting fire and secondly who were the devil and his angels i then proceeded to draw some inferences from the whole footnote he pronounced this word h-u-l-l and perhaps would have spelt it so in which i am mightily deceived if i did not convince you that you yourself was one of those angels and consequently must expect everlasting fire to be your portion in the other world jonathan faith doctor i remember very little of your inferences for i fell asleep soon after your naming your text but did you preach this doctrine then or do you repeat it now in order to comfort me ordinary i do it in order to bring you to a true sense of your manifold sins and by that means to induce you to repentance indeed had i the eloquence of cicero or of tully it would not be sufficient to describe the pains of hell or the joys of heaven the utmost that we are taught is that ear hath not heard nor can heart conceive who then would for the pitiful consideration of the riches and pleasures of this world forfeit such in estimable happiness such joys such pleasures such delights or who would run the venture of such misery which but to think on shocks the human understanding who in his senses then would prefer the latter to the former jonathan i who indeed i assure you doctor i had much rather be happy than miserable but footnote this part was so blotted that it was illegible ordinary nothing could be plainer saint jonathan if once convinced no man lives of whereas sure the clergy knowledgeable opportunity knowledgeable better informed knowledgeable all manner of vice ordinary knowledgeable are knowledgeable atheist knowledgeable deist era knowledgeable sinian knowledgeable hanged knowledgeable burnt knowledgeable oiled knowledgeable hosted knowledgeable dev knowledgeable his aim knowledgeable el fire knowledgeable eternal death knowledgeable shun jonathan you knowledgeable to frighten me out of my wits but the good is i doubt not more merciful than his wicked if i should believe all you say i am sure i should die in inexpressible horror ordinary despair is sinful you should place your hopes in repentance and grace and though it is most true that you are in danger of the judgment yet there is still room for mercy and no man unless excommunicated is absolutely without hopes of a reprieve jonathan i am not without hopes of a reprieve from the cheat yet i have pretty good interest but if i cannot obtain it you shall not frighten me out of my courage i will not die like a pimp d blank blank in me what is death it is nothing but to be with plateaus and with caesars as the poet says and all the other great heroes of antiquity palatable ordinary i all this is very true but life is sweet for all that and i had rather lived to eternity than go into the company of any such heathens who are i doubt not in hell with the devil and his angels and as little as you seem to apprehend it you may find yourself there before you expect it where then will be your tauntings and your vantings your boastings and your braggings you will then be ready to give more for a drop of water than you ever gave for a bottle of wine jonathan faith doctor well-minded what say you to a bottle of wine ordinary i will drink no wine with an atheist i should expect the devil to make a third in such company for since he knows you are his he may be impatient to have his due jonathan it is your business to drink with the wicked in order to amend them ordinary i despair of it and so i can sign you over to the devil who is ready to receive you jonathan you are more unmerciful to me than the judge doctor he recommended my soul to heaven and it is your office to show me the way dither ordinary no the gates are barred against all revilers of the clergy jonathan i revile only the wicked ones if any such are which cannot affect you who if men were preferred in the church by merit only would have long since been a bishop indeed it might raise any good man's indignation to observe one of your vast learning and abilities obliged to exert them in so low a sphere when so many of your inferiors wallow in wealth and preferment ordinary why it must be confessed that there are bad men in all orders but you should not censure too generally i must own i might have expected higher promotion but i have learned patience and resignation and i would advise you to the same temper of mind which if you can attain i know you will find mercy nay i do now promise you you will it is true you are a sinner but your crimes are not of the blackest die you are no murderer nor guilty of sacrilege and if you are guilty of theft you make some atonement by suffering for it which many others do not happy is it indeed for those few who are detected in their sins and brought to exemplary punishment for them in this world so far therefore from pining at your fate when you come to the tree you should exalt and rejoice in it and to say the truth i question whether to a wise man the catastrophe of many of those who die by a halter is not more to be envied than pitied nothing is so sinful as sin and murder is the greatest of all sins it follows that whoever commits murder is happy in suffering for it if therefore a man who commits murder is so happy in dying for it how much better must it be for you who have committed a less crime jonathan all this is very true but let us take a bottle of wine to cheer our spirits ordinary why wine let me tell you mr. wild there is nothing so deceitful as the spirits given us by wine if you must drink let us have a bowl of punch a liquor i the rather prefer as it is nowhere spoken against in scripture and as it is more wholesome for the gravel a distemper with which i am grievously afflicted jonathan having called for a bowl i ask you pardon doctor i should have remembered that punch was your favorite liquor i think you never taste wine while there is any punch remaining on the table ordinary i confess i look on punch to be the more eligible liquor as well for the reasons i before mentioned as likewise for one other cause viz it is the properest for a draft i own i took it a little unkind of you to mention wine thinking you knew my palate jonathan you are in the right and i will take a swinging cup to your being made a bishop ordinary and i will wish you a reprieve in as large a draft come don't despair it is yet time enough to think of dying you have good friends who very probably may prevail for you i have known many a man reprieved who had less reason to expect it jonathan but if i should flatter myself with such hopes and be deceived what then would become of my soul ordinary never mind your soul leave that to me i will render a good account of it i warrant you i have a sermon in my pocket which may be of some use to you to hear i do not value myself on the talent of preaching since no man ought to value himself for any gift in this world but perhaps there are not many such sermons uh but to proceed since we have nothing else to do till the punch comes my text is the latter part of a verse only to the greeks foolishness the occasion of these words was principally that philosophy of the greeks which at that time had overrun great part of the heathen world had poisoned and as it were puffed up their minds with pride so that they disregarded all kinds of doctrine in comparison of their own and however safe and however sound the learning of the others might be yet if it anyways contradicted their own laws customs and received opinions away with it it is not for us it was to the greeks foolishness in the former part therefore of my discourse of these words i shall principally confine myself to the lane open and demonstrating the great emptiness and vanity of this philosophy with which these idle and absurd sophists were so proudly blown up and elevated and here i shall do two things first i shall expose the matter and secondly the manner of this absurd philosophy and first for the first of these namely the matter now here we may retort the unmennerly word which our adversaries have audaciously thrown in our faces for what was all this mighty matter of philosophy this heap of knowledge which was to bring such large harvests of honor to those who sowed it and so greatly and nobly to enrich the ground on which it fell what was it but foolishness an inconsistent heap of nonsense of absurdities and contradictions bringing no ornament to the mind in its theory nor exhibiting any usefulness to the body in its practice what were all the sermons and the sayings the fables and the morals of all these wise men but to use the word mentioned in my text once more foolishness what was their great master plato or that other great light Aristotle both fools mere quibblers and sophists idly and vainly attached to certain ridiculous notions of their own founded neither on truth nor on reason their whole works are a strange medley of the greatest falsehoods scarce covered over with a color of truth their precepts are neither borrowed from nature nor guided by reason mere fictions serving only to events the dreadful height of human pride in one word foolishness it may be perhaps expected of me that i should give some instances from their works to prove this charge but as to transcribe every passage to my purpose would be to transcribe their whole works and as in such a plentiful crop it is difficult to choose instead of trespassing on your patients i shall conclude this first head with discerning what i have so fully proved and what may indeed be inferred from the text that the philosophy of the Greeks was foolishness proceed we now in the second place to consider the manner in which this inane and simple doctrine was propagated and here but here the punch by entering wait mr wild who was fast asleep and put an end to the sermon nor could we obtain any further account of the conversation which passed at this interview and a book for chapter 13 read by denis sears in modesto california for labor box