the track of their vices and extravagence--some by taverns, others to
the gaming-houses, others to balls and masquerades, plays, harlequins,
and operas, very few by too much religion.

But my inference is still sound, and the more effectually so as to that
part; for if our business and trades are not to be neglected, no, not
for the extraordinary excursions of religion, and religious duties, much
less are they to be neglected for vices and extravagances.

This is an age of gallantry and gaiety, and never was the city
transposed to the court as it is now; the play-houses and balls are now
filled with citizens and young tradesmen, instead of gentlemen and
families of distinction; the shopkeepers wear a differing garb now, and
are seen with their long wigs and swords, rather than with aprons on, as
was formerly the figure they made.

But what is the difference in the consequences? You did not see in those
days acts of grace for the relief of insolvent debtors almost every
session of parliament, and yet the jails filled with insolvents before
the next year, though ten or twelve thousand have been released at a
time by those acts.

Nor did you hear of so many commissions of bankrupt every week in the
Gazette, as is now the case; in a word, whether you take the lower sort
of tradesman, or the higher, where there were twenty that failed in
those days, I believe I speak within compass if I say that five hundred
turn insolvent now; it is, as I said above, an age of pleasure, and as
the wise man said long ago, 'He that loves pleasure shall be a poor
man'--so it is now; it is an age of drunkenness and extravagance, and
thousands ruin themselves by that; it is an age of luxurious and