Alehouse; but in the Way a Thought occurred whether he should not detain
this Money likewise. His Conscience, however, immediately started at
this Suggestion, and began to upbraid him with Ingratitude to his
Benefactor. To this his Avarice answered, 'That his conscience should
have considered that Matter before, when he deprived poor _Jones_ of his
500l. That having quietly acquiesced in what was of so much greater
Importance, it was absurd, if not downright Hypocrisy, to affect any
Qualms at this Trifle.'--In return to which, Conscience, like a good
Lawyer, attempted to distinguish between an absolute Breach of Trust, as
here where the Goods were delivered, and a bare Concealment of what was
found, as in the former Case. Avarice presently treated this with
Ridicule, called it a Distinction without a Difference, and absolutely
insisted, that when once all Pretensions of Honour and Virtue were given
up in any one Instance, that there was no Precedent for resorting to
them upon a second Occasion. In short, poor Conscience had certainly
been defeated in the Argument, had not Fear stept in to her Assistance,
and very strenuously urged, that the real Distinction between the two
Actions, did not lie in the different degrees of Honour, but of Safety:
For that the secreting the 500l. was a Matter of very little Hazard;
whereas the detaining the sixteen Guineas was liable to the utmost
Danger of Discovery.

"By this friendly Aid of Fear, Conscience obtained a compleat Victory in
the Mind of _Black George_, and after making him a few Compliments on
his Honesty, forced him to deliver the Money to _Jones_."

When one remembers that this is but one of many such passages, and that
the book, notwithstanding the indulgence claimed by the author in the
Preface, and despite a certain hurry at the close, is singularly even in
its workmanship, it certainly increases our respect for the manly genius