eal names and persons, lest what
cannot be yet entirely forgot in that part of the town should be
remembered, and the facts traced back too plainly by the many people
yet living, who would know the persons by the particulars.

It is not always necessary that the names of persons should be
discovered, though the history may be many ways useful; and if we should
be always obliged to name the persons, or not to relate the story, the
consequence might be only this--that many a pleasant and delightful
history would be buried in the dark, and the world deprived both of the
pleasure and the profit of it.

The writer says he was particularly acquainted with this lady's first
husband, the brewer, and with his father, and also with his bad
circumstances, and knows that first part of the story to be truth.

This may, he hopes, be a pledge for the credit of the rest, though the
latter part of her history lay abroad, and could not be so well vouched
as the first; yet, as she has told it herself, we have the less reason
to question the truth of that part also.

In the manner she has told the story, it is evident she does not insist
upon her justification in any one part of it; much less does she
recommend her conduct, or, indeed, any part of it, except her
repentance, to our imitation. On the contrary, she makes frequent
excursions, in a just censuring and condemning her own practice. How
often does she reproach herself in the most passionate manner, and guide
us to just reflections in the like cases!

It is true she met with unexpected success in all her wicked courses;
but even in the highest elevations of her prosperity she makes frequent
acknowledgments that the pleasure of her wickedness was not worth the
repentance; and that all the satisfaction she had, all the joy in the
view of her prosperity--no, nor all the wealth she rolled in, the gaiety
of her appearance, the equipages and the honours she was attended with,
could quiet her mind, abate the reproaches of her conscience, or procure
her an hour's sleep when just reflection kept her waking.

The noble inferences that are drawn from this one part are worth all the
rest of the story, and abundantly justify, as they are the professed
design of, the publication.

If there are any parts in her story which, being obliged to relate a
wicked action, seem to describe it too plainly, the writer says all
imaginable care has been taken to keep clear of indecencies and immodest
e