If such a Wretch on Earth ye Gods there be,
I'll die if our Sir ——— be not he.
Nor let another flagrant Example of married Lewdness trouble himself, or express his Concern, least he should be omitted in this Work for fear of our offending the chast Ears of our Readers With his vile Story.
A City Sinner, nameless as his Crime.
Let him not doubt but he may find himself suitably reproved, seeing he is so fond of it; and since he desires the Fame of being superlatively Wicked, he may hear of it in a manner that shall make others blush for him, though he can't blush for himself.
But to pass these and some more, for in this Age of preposterous Crime we should never find our Way out, should we enter into the Labyrinth of Characters, and bring on Regiments of Examples. Our present Business is with the Offence not with the Offenders, with the Crimes not the Criminals; if a just Satyr on the wicked Part will not reclaim us, I doubt the List of the Guilty of both Sexes, though it would indeed be as numerous as our City train'd Bands; would be as useless a Muster as that at the Artillery Ground, and find as little Reformation among them.
As it is in ordinary Crimes, that Men Sin on because they scorn and are ashamed to Repent, so in the Case before me, when they are launched into the most flagrant of all Crimes, things so odious that 'tis offensive to modest Ears so much as to hear of them, and difficultto
