CONTENTS. CHAP. I. The description of the family of Wakefield; in which a CHAP. III. A migration. The fortunate circumstances of our PAGE 71 74 78 84 87 90 93 CHAP. VIII. An amour, which promises little good fortune, yet may be productive of much 97 CHAP. IX. Two ladies of great distinction introduced. Superior finery ever seems to confer superior breeding. 103 CHAP. X. The family endeavour to cope with their betters. The miseries of the poor when they attempt to appear above their circumstances 107 110 CHAP. XI. The family still resolve to hold up their heads 115 CHAP. XIII. Mr. Burchell is found to be an enemy; for he has CHAP. XV. All Mr. Burchell's villany at once detected. folly of being over-wise. The 127 greater. virtue CHAP. XVI. The family use art; which is opposed with CHAP. XVII. Scarce any virtue found to resist the power of long CHAP. XIX. The description of a person discontented with the present government, and apprehensive of the loss of our liberties still 132 137 144 148 CHAP. XX. The history of a philosophic vagabond, pursuing CHAP. XXI. The short continuance of friendship amongst the CHAP. XXIII. None but the guilty can be long and completely miserable PAGE 155 168 175 178 CHAP. XXIV. Fresh calamities. 182 CHAP. XXV. No situation, however wretched it seems, but has some sort of comfort attending it 187 CHAP. XXVI. A reformation in the gaol. To make laws com- 191 195 CHAP. XXVIII. Happiness and misery rather the result of pru- CHAP. XXXII. The Conclusion. 199 208 212 • 219 232 THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMILY OF WAKEFIELD; IN WHICH A KINDRED LIKENESS PREVAILS, AS WELL OF MINDS AS OF PERSONS. I WAS ever of opinion, that the honest man who married, and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population. From this motive, I had scarce taken orders a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife, as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well. To do her justice, she was a good-natured, notable woman; and as for breeding, there were few country ladies who could show more. She could read any English book without much spelling; but for pickling, preserving, and cookery, none could excel her. She prided herself also upon being an excellent contriver in housekeeping; though I could never find that we grew richer with all her contrivances. However, we loved each other tenderly, and our fondness increased as we grew old. There was, in fact, nothing that could make us angry with the world or each other. We had an elegant house, situated in a fine country, and a good neighbourhood. The year was spent in a moral or rural amusement; in visiting our rich neighbours, and relieving such as were poor. We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo; all our adventures were by the fire-side; and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown. As we lived near the road, we often had the traveller or stranger visit us to taste our gooseberry wine, for which we had great reputation; and I profess, with the veracity of an historian, I never knew one of them find fault with it. Our cousins too, even to the fortieth remove, all remembered their affinity, without any help from the herald's office, and came very frequently to see us. Some of them did us no great honour by these claims of kindred; as we had the blind, the maimed, and the halt amongst the number. However, my wife always insisted, that, as they were the same flesh and blood, they should sit with us at the same table. So that, if we had not very rich, we generally had very happy friends about us; for this remark will hold good through life, that the poorer the guest, the better pleased he ever is with being treated; and as some men gaze with admiration at the colours of a tulip, or the wing of a butterfly, so I was by nature an admirer of happy human faces. However, when any one of our relations was found to be a person of very bad character, a.troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house, I ever took care to lend him a ridingcoat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them. By this the house was cleared of such as we did not like: but never was the family of Wakefield known to turn the traveller or the poor dependant out of doors. Thus we lived several years in a state of much happiness; not but that we sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favours. My orchard was often robbed by school-boys, and my wife's custards plundered by the cats or the children. The Squire would sometimes fall asleep in the most pathetic parts of my sermon, or his lady return my wife's civilities at church with a mutilated courtesy. But we soon got over the uneasiness caused by such accidents, and usually, in three or four days, began to wonder how they vexed us. My children, the offspring of temperance, as they were educated without softness, so they were at once well-formed |