now unable to recollect, and to whom, therefore, I cannot pay the
praises which she deserves for having acted well in opposition to
influence, precept, and example.

The punishment which our laws inflict upon those parents who murder
their infants is well known, nor has its justice ever been
contested; but, if they deserve death who destroy a child in its
birth, what pain can be severe enough for her who forbears to
destroy him only to inflict sharper miseries upon him; who prolongs
his life only to make him miserable; and who exposes him, without
care and without pity, to the malice of oppression, the caprices of
chance, and the temptations of poverty; who rejoices to see him
overwhelmed with calamities; and, when his own industry, or the
charity of others, has enabled him to rise for a short time above
his miseries, plunges him again into his former distress?

The kindness of his friends not affording him any constant supply,
and the prospect of improving his fortune by enlarging his
acquaintance necessarily leading him to places of expense, he found
it necessary to endeavour once more at dramatic poetry; for which he
was now better qualified by a more extensive knowledge and longer
observation. But having been unsuccessful in comedy, though rather
for want of opportunities than genius, he resolved to try whether he
should not be more fortunate in exhibiting a tragedy. The story
which he chose for the subject was that of Sir Thomas Overbury, a
story well adapted to the stage, though perhaps not far enough
removed from the present age to admit properly the fictions
necessary to complete the plan; for the mind, which naturally loves
truth, is always most offended with the violation of those truths of
which we are most certain; and we of course conceive those facts