Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/20

( 20 ) the ſame favour. It is impoſſible for me to deſcribe, or for you to conceive, the rapture of joy and gladneſs that fluſhed in the countenances of the former, or the ardour of hope and expectation that glowed in the faces of tche latter: and had I been a good painter, I think I could have ſent you one of the fineſt repreſentations of what they call, a Fool's Paradiſe, that was ever ſeen; for every ingle perſon, in this groupe, was either happy, or expecting to be happy, without ever reflecting upon what a ſandy foundation their happineſs was placed: and, I muſt own, I am greatly ſurpriſed that neither Hogarth, nor any other of our comic genius's, have ever thought of ſuch a curious ſubject.

I could overhear one young lady telling her companion, that ſhe was reſolved to break off the intended match; "For ſays ſhe, this here Philoſopher affures me that my brother (who is Captain of a privateer) will ſoon take ſuch a rich French prize, as will enable him to give me a very large fortune; and then, adds ſhe, I ſhall have a title to a much better gentleman than Mr. G." A married lady told her huſband (who by the bye ſeemed to have been drawn to this place much againſt his will) that ſhe was determined to breed the child, with which ſhe was then pregnant, to the law; for that the Wiſeacre had informed her it would be a boy, and