Page:Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749, vol. 2).pdf/258

 sometimes strew'd with roses, but then they are for ever infamous for many a thorn; for many a canker-worm: those of Virtue are strew'd with roses purely, and those eternally unfading ones.

If you do me then justice, you will esteem me perfectly consistent in the incense I burn to virtue: if I have painted vice all in its gayest colours, if I have deck'd it with flowers, it has been solely in order to make the worthier, the solemner sacrifice of it, to virtue.

You know Mr. C O, you know his estate, his worth, and good sense: can you? will you pronounce it ill meant, at least of him when anxious for his son's morals, with a view to form him to Virtue, and inspire him with a fixt, a rational contempt for vice, he condescended to be his master of the ceremonies, and led him by the hand thro' the most noted bawdy-houses in town, where he took care that he should be familiariz'd with all those scenes of debauchery, so fit to nauseate a good taste. The