he had not altogether forgot himself, melted the father's heart; he
raised him, and forcing him to sit down in a chair close by him;
'Well, Natura,' said he, 'you have been disobedient to an excess; I
wish it were possible for your distresses to have given you a remorse
in proportion;--I am still a _father_, if you can be a _son._'--He
would have proceeded, but was not able:--the meagre aspect, dejected
air, and wretched appearance of a son so dear to him, threw him into a
condition which destroyed all the power of maintaining that reserve
which he thought necessary to his character.

Natura, on the other hand, was so overcome with the unhoped-for
gentleness of his behaviour, that he burst into a flood of
tears.--Filial gratitude and love, joined with the thoughts of what he
had done to deserve a far different treatment, so overwhelmed his
heart, that he could express himself no other way than by falling on
his knees a second time, and embracing the legs of his father, with a
transport, I know not whether to say of grief or joy; continued in
that posture for a considerable time, overwhelmed at once with shame,
with gratitude, and love:--at length, gaining the power of
utterance,--'O sir,' cried he, 'how unworthy am I of your
goodness!'--but then recollecting as it were somewhat more; 'yet
sure,' pursued he, 'it is not possible you can forgive me all.--I have
been guilty of worse than, perhaps, you yet have been informed of:--I
am a wretch who have devoted myself to infamy and destruction, and you
cannot, nay ought not to forgive me.'

The father was indeed very much alarmed at this expression, as fearing
it imported his distresses had drove him to be guilty of some crime of
which the law takes cognizance.--'I hope,' said he, 'your having
signed a contract with an abandoned prostitute, is the worst action of