Page:History of the Haverel wives, or, The folly of witless women displayed (1).pdf/20

20 auld daddies: How can they be good who never ſaw a ſample of it; or reverence old age, who practiſed no precepts in their youth? How can they love their parents, who gave them black poiſon inſtead of good principles? Who ſhewed them no good, nor taught them no duties! No marvel ſuch children deſpiſe old age, and reverence their parents as an old horſe does his father.

Fourthly, The laſt prevailing evil which I ſee, all men may hear, but none strive to help, the banishment of that noble holy-day called the Sabbath, which has been blaſted by a whirl-wind from the ſouth; I am yet alive, who ſaw this hurricane coming thro’ the walled city near Solway in the South; it being on a Sunday, and a beautiful ſun-ſhine day amongſt ſome foul weeks in harveſt weather, which cauſed the Lord Mayor of that place work hard, and put in the whole fields of wheat harveſt, and the prieſts of that church commended him therefore: Because the ſeaſon was backward, why ſhould not man be diſobedient! And this infection is come here alſo, ſurely the loſs of this Sabbath-day will be counted a black Saturday to ſome; when I walk in the fields, I know it not but by the ſtopping of the plow, when in the city, only by the cloſſneſs of a few ſhop-doors and the ſound of the bells; degenerate ideas of religion indeed! when the high praiſe is ſounded only by bell-metal, A ſounding braſs and a tinkling cymbal: Is it not come to paſs, the