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THE GUARDIAN.

N' 45.

better employed. But when I caſt about all the

inſtances which I have met with in all my read ing, I find not one fo generous, ſo honeſt, and fo noble, as that of Jofeph in Holy Writ. When his maſter had truſted him ſo unreſervedly (to

ſpeak itin the emphatical manner of the Scrip

ture) · He knew not aught he had fave the bread which he did eat,' he was ſo unhappy as to ap

pear irreſiſtibly beautiful to his miſtreſs; but when this ſhameleſs woman proceeds to folicit him, how gallant is his anſwer ! · Behold my maſter wotteth not what is with me in the houſe,

and hath committed all that he hath to my hand , there is none greater in the houſe than 1, neither

hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, becauſe thou art his wife. The ſame argument, which a baſe mind would have made to itſelf for

committing the evil, was to this brave man the greateſt motive for forbearing it, that he could

do it with impunity ; the malice and falfhood of the diſappointed woman naturally aroſe on that occaſion, and there is but a ſhort ſtep from the practice of virtue, to the hatred of it. It would therefore be worth ſerious confideration in both

ſexes, and the matter is of importance enough to

them, to aſk themſelves whether they would change lightneſs of heart, indolence of mind, chearful meals, untroubled flumbers, and gentle

diſpoſitions, for a conſtant pruriency, which ſhuts out all things that are great or indifferent, clouds the imagination with inſenſibility and prejudice to all manner of delight, but that which is com mon to all creatures that extend their ſpecies. A looſe behaviour, and an inattention to every