DIALOGUE XXXIV. MR. LOVEGOOD, MR. MERRYMAN, AND THE FAMILY OF THE WORTHYS. BENEVOLENCE AND HUMANITY DISPLAYED IN THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF MR. LOVELY, WITH THE CHARACTER OF DOCTOR NESCIENCE. THE horse-dealing business having been settled, the family returned, and the Dialogue recommenced. Wor. I suppose the old miserly uncle left the Lovelys a fine penny. Loveg. Sir, they say he has hoarded up for him nearly five thousand pounds a year. Wor. Is it possible? Loveg. Yes, Sir; and his original fortune was but three thousand pounds, which he had when he first came of age; and an old aunt, (a Mrs. Pincher, it seems) soon afterwards left him another thousand pounds, all the rest he has been accumulating by hoarding interest upon interest, by his profession, by procuring for himself legacies, where he thought they would answer his end better than his fees, and a hundred dirty tricks besides. He was the most complete money-jobber in the kingdom. Miss Wor. Poor honest Thomas Newman is a much richer man than old lawyer Greedy ever was. Mer. And I really think he keeps a better house. Loveg. I am sure he keeps a cleaner house: it is a good old proverb, "Cleanliness is next to godliness." How that filthy old creature could live so long, in so much dirt and poverty, is a matter of surprise to me: for he was turned eighty-one before he died. Wor. Well, I can suppose he might have died worth all that property, when one considers what a length of time he had to make his hoard; for it seems he was always getting and saving, and never spending. But I had much rather hear how Mr. Lovely is like to spend it, than how that wretched miser contrived to get it. Loveg. Sir, the old man left a very correct schedule of his possessions behind him, which Mr. Quirk artfully wanted to secrete. I immediately advised him to send for one honest lawyer, who lives a few miles out of that town, Mr. Justice; for I am sure the Grediton lawyers are such a set as I never heard of before; they were mostly tutored under old Greedy; and I believe Mr. Justice, will prove a very upright agent, to that excellent young man. Wor. Well, well, there are good and bad of all professions. But that amiable youth must feel this an astonishing reverse of fortune. Loveg. Yes, Sir; and by the grace of God, I have a good hope, he will be enabled to carry this full cup of worldly prosperity with an even, and a cautious hand. Before he opened his uncle's will, he begged I would go to prayer. The will contained nothing but that his nephew was to possess all, with no other legacy than a pitiful five pounds a year, to the old woman (one Betty Farthing) who occasionally waited upon him; allowing but fifteen pounds for his funeral; which he thought might be sufficient, as he had preserved two large oaken planks from a carpenter, by way of fees, out of which he directed his coffin should be made, and that his old morning-gown, should save the expence of a shroud: so that his covetous purposes followed him to the very grave. Mer. How could Mr. Lovely follow his directions, as it respected the abominably mean way of his interment? Loveg. O Sir! he ordered the oaken boards to be nailed together, and made into a decent coffin, sent for an undertaker, told him that though only fifteen pounds were allowed for the funeral, yet that he should make him a present of fifteen more, if it was necessary, for his own trouble, provided he would see to a plain, decent, but not mean interment of his uncle; as he must directly go to his father's at Fairfield, and should not himself attend the funeral. Thus matters were understood, and settled between the undertaker and Mr. Lovely, and the old miser was decently interred, if you can call it a decent business, when there was such an horrid uproar made, while the bearers carried him to the grave. Mer. Astonishing! Did they insult the corpse of the old man while they carried it to the church-yard, and among a set of people so much like himself? Loveg. Several insulting speeches were actually thrown out, as the funeral went along, even by the miserable inhabitants of that place. One cried, "The Devil has been grinding him before now, for grinding the face of the poor." Another exclaimed, "The Devil had sent for his beloved son old Greedy, and that he had got him at last:" and many more such speeches were made. Mer. It must have been a rather painful circumstance to Mr. Lovely, to possess a fortune procured by such abominable means. Loveg. Though I believe the old lawyer's plan was to get money by all means, whether fair or foul; yet what was obtained by oppression and wrong, was but an inconsiderable part, when compared to what he had accumulated by the mere art of hoarding. But directly as he had run over the schedule of his uncle's affairs, he cried, "Blessed be God, I find I shall have quite enough to make a restitution where needed, to assist the poor, to shew some tokens of respect to my relations, and to enjoy all the comforts and conveniences of life, that I can wish for my dearest Ann and myself: and O may I spend the rest to the glory of God!" Mer. Restitution it seems was the first thing he thought of. Loveg. Yes; and the first thing he practised. He is a youth of a most admirable mind; for the first action was to restore the fifty pounds procured by the will of the poor man, fraudulently made by his uncle; and though he found the surviving family had risen since then, which was full twelve years ago, into very decent circumstances, yet nothing would content Mr. Lovely, till he had made restitution, by sending them a hundred pounds, that principal and compound interest might be discharged as he said he never could be happy to retain that sum in his possession which he had no right to call his own. Wor. This was a noble beginning. Loveg. But the next action was more noble still, for he could not rest till he had found out the family of the Needys, which the uncle had so cruelly ruined, about four years before his death; and he found that they were removed from the parish of Grediton, into their own parish, by one of the overseers, whose name was Pinchpoor; lest they should become chargeable to them, after the vile old miser had stripped them of their all. Mr. Lovely went, and inquired of Mr. Pinchpoor about them, and found that he had sent them into the neighbouring parish of Starvington. The family consisted of the widowed mother, her married daughter, her husband, and five small children, harboured in a miserable cottage, though in as good a plight as could be expected, their great poverty being taken into consideration. Almost all their subsistence arose from the earnings of her husband, who though he formerly assisted in the farm was now |