cardinal virtues?⸺Seven mortal sins?⸺Seven golden candlesticks?⸺Seven heavens?—’Tis more than I know, replied my uncle Toby .⸻Are there not seven wonders of the world?⸺Seven days of the creation?⸺Seven planets?⸺Seven plagues?⸺That there are, quoth my father with a most affected gravity. But prithee, continued he, go on with the rest of thy characters, Trim .] > > “Another is sordid, unmerciful,” (here Trim waved his right hand) “a strait-hearted, selfish wretch, incapable either of private friendship or public spirit. Take notice how he passes by the widow and orphan in their distress, and sees all the miseries incident to human life without a sigh or a prayer.” [An’ please your honours, cried Trim , I think this a viler man than the other.] > > “Shall not conscience rise up and sting him on such occasions?⸺No; thank God there is no occasion, I pay every man his own;—I have no fornication to answer to my conscience;—no faithless vows or promises to make up;—I have debauched no man’s wife or child; thank God, I am not as other men, adulterers, unjust, or even as this libertine, who stands before me. > > “A third is crafty and designing in his nature. View his whole life;—’tis nothing but a cunning contexture of dark arts and unequitable subterfuges, basely to defeat the true intent of all laws,⸺plain-dealing and the safe enjoyment of our several properties.⸺You will see such a one working out a frame of little designs upon the ignorance and perplexities of the poor and needy man;—shall raise a fortune upon the inexperience of a youth, or the unsuspecting temper of
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