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express, nor modest Ears, without blushing, hear mentioned.
As no sober Mind can receive the Ideas of them, without entertaining the utmost Aversion to the Facts; so none that ever I met with, that had any common share of Breeding and Manners, could bear the mention of them, especially in the common Dialect of those I call the Criminals.
None but a Set of People with Faces of Steel, who can triumph in their Victory over Religion, Conscience, and the Thoughts of Eternity, that have got the Better both of Education, and of all Manner of Principles. These may Glory indeed in their Shame; and these are the People our Satyr desires to expose.
As to their Persons, nothing but universal Contempt of them can have any Effect; nothing can assist them to Blush but a general Hiss from Mankind, and being thrust off the Stage by the very worst of Men. I have heard it was the Foundation of a very scandalous vicious Person's Reformation, when another more notorious Fellow than himself, reprov'd him in this Manner: Fie, Jack, why thou art worse than I am.
There are so many Lives of Crime, which yet come short of these lawful Sinners, that a Thief, a Drunkard, a Swearer, a Profligate, may come to a Man talking ——— as I have mentioned, and say, Fie, Mr. G———, Fie, Mr. H———, Fie, Mr. L———, Why, you are worse than I am.
Why may we not hope to see the Time, when the worst of common Offenders shall stoptheir
