Long may the fair couple be bleft, And enjoy a perpetual spring; And when death calls them hence to the tomb, May they with the righteous arife! Shaftesbury, June 29, 1783. · SIR, To the PRINTER. IN rummaging found a droll epitaph up in the church-yard of Yeovil, Somerfet. If you think it worth inferting, it is at your fervice. J. P. Here lieth the body of JOHN WEBB, The 3d day of May, 1646, aged 3 years. [49] THE WEEKLY ENTERTAINER. For MONDAY, July 21, 1783. On the PROPER CHOICE of COMPANY. HE affertion is general; and no doubt all people fuffer from fuch communication: but, above all, the minds of youth will fuffer, which are yet unformed, unprincipled, unfurnifhed, and ready to receive any impreffion. But before we confider the danger of keeping bad company, let us firft fee the meaning of the phrase. In the phrase of the world, good company means fashionable people. Their ftations in life, not their morals, are confidered; and he who affociates with fuch, though they fet him the example of breaking every commandment of the decalogue, is ftill faid to keep good company. I fhould with you to fix another meaning to the expreffion, and to confider vice in the fame deteftable light, in whatever company it is found; nay, to confider all company in which it is found, be their ftation what it will, as bad company. The three following claffes will perhaps include the greatest part of those who deferve this appellation. In the firft, I fhould rank all who endeavour to destroy the principles of christianity-who jeft upon fcripture-talk blafphemy and treat revelation with contempt. A fecond 'clafs of bad company, are thofe who have a tendency to deftroy in us the principles of common honefty and integrity. VOL. II. 29. G tegrity. Under this head we may rank gamefters of every denomination, and the low and infamous characters of every profeffion. A third class of bad company, and fuch as are commonly most dangerous to youth, includes the long catalogue of men of pleafure. In whatever way they follow the call of appetite, they have equally a tendency to corrupt the purity of the mind. Befides these three claffes, whom we may call bad company, there are others, who come under the denomination of ill-chofen company; trifling, infipid characters of every kind, who fol low no bufinefs-are led by no ideas of improvement-but fpend their time in diffipation and folly-whofe highest praise it is, that they are only not vicious. With none of these a serious man would wish his fon to keep company. It may be asked, what is meant by keeping bad company? The world abounds with characters of this kind: they meet us in every place; and if we keep company at all, it is impoffible to avoid keeping company with fuch perfons. It is true, if we were determined never to have any commerce with bad men, we muft, as the apoftle remarks," altogether go out of the world." By keeping bad company, therefore, is not meant à cafual intercourfe with them, on occafion of bufnefs, or as they accidentally fall in our way; but having an inclination to confort with them-complying with that inclinstion-feeking their company, when we might avoid it-entering into their parties-and making them the companions of our choice. Mixing with them occafionally, cannot be avoided. The danger of keeping bad company, arifes principally from our aptnefs to imitate and catch the manners and fentiments of others from the power of cuftom-from our own bad inclinations-and from the pains taken by the bad to corrupt us. In our carlieft youth, the contagion of manners is obfervable. In the boy, yet incapable of having any thing infilled into him, we easily discover, from his first actions, and rude attempts at language, the kind of perfons with whom he has been brought up: we fee the early fpring of a civilized education, or the art wild fhoots of rufticity. As he enters farther into life, his behaviour, manners, and converfation, all take their caft from the company he keeps. Obferve the peafant, and the man of education; the difference is ftriking and yet God hath beftowed equal talents on each, The only difference is, they have been thrown into different fcenes of life, and have had commerce with perfons of different ftations. Nor are manners and behaviour more eafily caught, than opinions and principles. In childhood and youth, we naturally adopt the fentiments of thofe about us: and as we advance in life, how few of us think for ourselves? How many of us are fatisfied with taking our opinions at second-hand ? The great power and force of custom forms another argument against keeping bad company. However seriously disposed we may be, and however thocked at the first approaches of vice, this fhocking appearance goes off, upon an intimacy with it. Cuftom will foon render the most disgustful thing familiar: and this is indeed a kind provifion of nature, to render labour, and toil, and danger, which are the lot of man, more easy to him. The raw foldier, who trembles at the first encounter, becomes a hardy veteran in a few campaigns. Habit renders danger familiar, and, of course, indifferent to him. But habit, which is intended for our good, may, like other kind appointments of nature, be converted into a mischief.The well-difpofed youth, entering firft into bad company, is fhocked at what he hears, and what he fees. The good prin ciples, which he had imbibed, ring in his ears an alarming leffon against the wickedness of his companions. But, alas! this fenfibility is but of a day's continuance. The next jovial. meeting makes the horrid picture of yesterday more eafily endured. Virtue is foon thought a fevere rule; the gospel, an inconvenient restraint: a few pangs of confcience now and then interrupt his pleasures, and whisper to him that he once had better thoughts: but even thefe, by degrees, die away; and he who at firft was fhocked even at the appearance of vice, is formed, by custom, into a profligate leader of vicious pleasures; perhaps into an abandoned tempter to vice.-So carefully fhould we oppofe the firft approaches of fin! So vigilant fhould we be against fo infidious an enemy y! Our own bad inclinations form another argument against bad company. We have fo many paffions and appetites to govern, fo many bad propenfities of different kinds to watch, that, amidst fuch a variety of enemies within, we ought at least to be on our guard against thofe without. The breaft, even of a good man, is reprefented in fcripture, and experienced in fact, to be in a ftate of warfare. His vicious inclinations are continu ally drawing him one way, while his virtue is making efforts another. And if the fcriptures reprefent this as the cafe, even of a good man, whofe paffions, it may be imagined, are become in fome degree cool and temperate, and who has made fome progrefs in a virtuous life; what may we fuppofe to be the danger of a raw unexperienced youth, whofe paffions and appetites G 2 appetites are violent and feducing, and whofe mind is in a ftill lefs confirmed ftate? It is his part, furely, to keep out of the way of temptation, and to give his bad inclinations as little room as poffible to acquire new strength. C ECILIA, notwithstanding the round of delight in which fhe was for a fhort time inceffantly engaged, was unable entirely to eradicate the invader of her cafe, who whispered the turpitude of the measure the had taken in accents too ftrong for her happiness. She had hitherto fuppofed herself with the relations of her husband, who flattered her with compliments on the honour their family had received from the alliance; but the foon experienced the fallacy of this idea. Dormer began now to think of claiming the fortune to which he apprehended Cecilia was entitled, in confequence of the will of a deceafed uncle on her mother's fide; a circumftance which The had in an unguarded moment difclofed to him, without adding, that it was fubject to the will of her father. On his communicating this intention, the perceived but too plainly the extent of her guilt; and, expreffing a hope that her offended parents would pardon the rafhnefs of her conduct, he received the firft intimation that Mr. Wevil's confent was abfolutely neceffary to be folicited before he could poffibly obtain poffeffion of thofe charms which had originally given birth to his very violent regards. His affection, therefore, being only a fecondary confideration, and the urgency of his affairs rendering fome immedi ate ftep unavoidable, he began to think the flender hope of a re conciliation with a family he had fo materially injured, too weak a fecurity for deluded creditors, who had only waited the event of this laft expedient; and, as the human mind, hoever habituated to difficulties, cannot always be ferene and calm under embarraffments, he determined to develope his true fituation to Cecilia. He approached her with a melancholy afpect, affuring her that he had the entire poffeffion of his heart; and declaring that he would gladly have comprized all his future wishes in a mere competency with her, had not his previous misfortunes excited him to a defperation, the firft progress of which had been directed to rob her of the affection of her foud parents, |