receded him.

Persons are every day to be found, who having enjoyed the advantages of
early instruction, imbibed in childhood the principles of religion, and
grown up in the practice of virtue under the control of a well regulated
restraint, have not only deviated lamentably from the paths of
rectitude, but been willing to call in sophistry to disarm conscience,
or as doctor Johnson says, to lull their imaginations with ideal
opiates. Can it appear surprising then that a hot-brained giddy youth
like Hodgkinson should find it easy to compound that affair, immoral as
it was, with his conscience, and to let it pass by, without making any
beneficial impression upon his morals. That there was something
belonging to it, which, aided with his sophistry, served to diminish the
guilt of it in his eyes, is pretty certain. Hodgkinson was naturally
benevolent and just, and filled with those sentiments and sympathies
which engender pity for the injured and regret for doing wrong; yet of
the man whom he had thus injured, he many times spoke with bitterness
and reproach. One day this writer questioned him upon the subject in the
warmth of friendship: "How comes it to pass, Hodgkinson, that you never
hear the name of ---- mentioned without treating it with an asperity
foreign to your usual way of speaking, and indeed contrary to your
natural disposition?" "He wronged me, most wickedly wronged me," was the
answer--"He endeavoured to crush me in my youth."--"You were even with
him, then, with a vengeance," replied this writer. "You have heard that
unfortunate affair then," said he. "Yes, I have."--"It was greatly his
own fault, sir--very little mine. I was young, hot-headed, foolish, very
foolish; but never meditated the affair you allude to. The woman was a
wanton--I never suspected that the kindnesses she showed me were to lead
to guilt. His jealousy stimulated her, and his injustice and malice
fired me to revenge, and supplied me with specious arguments of
justification. I am sorry it so happened on many accounts. I forgive
him, but I cannot hear him mentioned without giving vent to my opinion
of him, which is, that he is a very bad fellow, with a very rancorous
heart."

On his arrival at Bath, Hodgkinson became acquainted with some of the
most respectable people, and was elected a member of the Noblemen's
Catch-Club, which was composed of some of the first men in that part of
England for rank and opulence. This was of itself, a very