danger of being swallowed up in an unprofitable admiration; and, on
the other hand, if it appears so monstrously hideous as to take away
all apprehensions of ever resembling it, we might be too apt to
indulge ourselves in errors which would seem small in comparison with
those presented to us.--There never yet was any one man, in whom all
the _virtues_, or all the _vices_, were summed up; for, though reason
and education may go a great way toward curbing the passions, yet I
believe experience will inform, even the _best_ of men, that they will
sometimes launch out beyond their due bounds, in spite of all the care
can be taken to restrain them; nor do I think the very _worst_, and
most wicked, does not feel in himself, at some moments, a propensity
to good, though it may be possible he never brings it into practice;
at least, this was the opinion of the antients, as witness the poet's
words:

All men are born with seeds of _good_ and _ill_;
And each shoot forth, in more or less degree:
_One_ you may cultivate with care and skill,
But from the _other_ ne'er be wholly free.

The human mind may, I think, be compared to a chequer-work, where
light and shade appear by turns; and in proportion as either of these
is most conspicuous, the man is alone worthy of praise or censure; for
none there are can boast of being wholly bright.

I believe by this the reader will be convinced he must not expect to
see a faultless figure in the hero of the following pages; but to
remove all possibility of a disappointment on that score, I shall
farther declare, that I am an enemy to all _romances_, _novels_, and
whatever carries the air of them, tho' disguised under different