Trent had been all the while talking aside with the young sparks; and now, addressing himself to Booth, said, 'Here hath been some little mistake; I believe my lord mistook Mrs. Booth for some other lady.'
'It is impossible,' cries my lord, 'to know every one. I am sure, if I had known the lady to be a woman of fashion, and an acquaintance of Captain Trent, I should have said nothing disagreeable to her; but, if I have, I ask her pardon, and the company's.'
'I am in the dark,' cries Booth. 'Pray what is all this matter?'
'Nothing of any consequence,' cries the doctor, 'nor worth your enquiring into. You hear it was a mistake of the person, and I really believe his lordship that all proceeded from his not knowing to whom the lady belonged.'
'Come, come,' says Trent, 'there is nothing in the matter, I assure you. I will tell you the whole another time.'
'Very well; since you say so,' cries Booth, 'I am contented.' So ended the affair, and the two sparks made their congee, and sneaked off.
'Now they are gone,' said the young gentleman, 'I must say I never saw two worse-bred jackanapes, nor fellows that deserved to be kicked more. If I had had them in another place I would have taught them a little more respect to the church.'
'You took rather a better way,' answered the doctor, 'to teach them that respect.'
Booth now desired his friend Trent to sit down with them, and proposed to call for a fresh bottle of wine; but Amelia's spirits were too much disconcerted to give her any prospect of pleasure that evening. She therefore laid hold of the pretence of her children, for whom she said the hour was already too late; with which the doctor agreed. So they paid their reckoning and departed, leaving to the two rakes the triumph of having totally dissipated the mirth of this little innocent company, who were before enjoying complete satisfaction.
Chapter 10
A Curious Conversation Between The Doctor, The Young Clergyman, And The Young Clergyman's Father
The next morning, when the doctor and his two friends were at breakfast, the young clergyman, in whose mind the injurious treatment he had received the evening before was very deeply impressed, renewed the conversation on that subject.
'It is a scandal,' said he, 'to the government, that they do not preserve more respect to the clergy, by punishing all rudeness to them with the utmost severity. It was very justly observed of you, sir,' said he to the doctor,' that the lowest clergyman in England is in real dignity superior to the highest nobleman. What then can be so shocking as to see that gown, which ought to entitle us to the veneration of all we meet, treated with contempt and ridicule? Are we not, in fact, ambassadors from heaven to the world? and do they not, therefore, in denying us our due respect, deny it in reality to Him that sent us?'
'If that be the case,' says the doctor, 'it behoves them to look to themselves; for He who sent us is able to exact most severe vengeance for the ill treatment of His ministers.'
'Very true, sir,' cries the young one; 'and I heartily hope He will; but those punishments are at too great a distance to infuse terror into wicked minds. The government ought to interfere with its immediate censures. Fines and imprisonments and corporal punishments operate more forcibly on the human mind than all the fears of damnation.'
'Do you think so?' cries the doctor; 'then I am afraid men are very little in earnest in those fears.'
'Most justly observed,' says the old gentleman. 'Indeed, I am afraid that is too much the case.'
'In that,' said the son, 'the government is to blame. Are not books of infidelity, treating our holy religion as a mere imposture, nay, sometimes as a mere jest, published daily, and spread abroad amongst
