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Fiction

Notes they have crossed a great deal of countryside they arrive at a house, where a Man and his Wife
offer shelter and refreshments. Mr. Adams tells the story of his confrontation with the “evil
Spirits,” but he is interrupted by a knock at the door. During a tense interval, while the Man
goes to answer the door, Mr. Adams worries that an exorcism might be in order; the Man
returns, however, to inform them that Mr. Adams’s murderous ghosts are actually sheep-
stealers, two of whom the shepherds have apprehended, and the murder victims are sheep.
Everyone then settles down cheerfully before the fire, and the Man begins to probe his guests
regarding their status. Mr. Adams clarifies that Joseph is not his footman but his parishioner,
and the Man puts to Mr. Adams some literary questions designed to verify whether he is a
real clergyman or not. Adams holds forth at length on Aeschylus and Homer, finally concluding,
“The Heavens opened, and the Deities all seated on their Thrones. This is Sublime! This is
Poetry!” The Man is by now more than convinced of Mr. Adams’s authenticity as a clergyman
and even wonders “whether he had not a Bishop in his House.” Soon the women go off to bed,
with the men planning to sit up all night by the fire.

Notes In response to a request by Mr. Wilson, Mr. Adams tells the story of Joseph’s life,
and then asks the Man to tell the story of his own.

Chapter III

The Man, who has introduced himself as Mr. Wilson, was born and educated as a gentleman.
At sixteen, following the death of his father, he took his inheritance and went to London,
“impatient to be in the World” and attain the character of “a fine Gentleman.” He learned how
to dress, dance, ride, fence, and so forth, before embarking on trumped-up “Intrigues” with
several of “the finest Women in Town.” Mr. Adams condemns this “Course of Life” as “below
the Life of an Animal, hardly above Vegetation.” After two years, a confrontation with an
Officer of the Guards led Wilson to retreat to the Temple, where he lived among people who
pursued the frivolous life less convincingly than had his former companions: “the Beaus of the
Temple . . . are the Affectation of Affectation.” Wilson’s base new pleasures eventually brought
him a venereal disease, which in turn brought him a resolution of amendment. His swearing-
off of prostitutes soon compelled him, however, to satisfy his passion for women by keeping
a mistress, from whom however he soon parted upon discovering her inconstancy. After
another round of venereal disease, he debauched the daughter of a military gentleman; the
young lady soon began a moral and psychological decline that ended with her miserable death
in Newgate Prison.
After another disease and a couple more mistresses, Wilson joined a club of Freethinkers but
left in disgust after finding that the members’ conduct belied their own rationalistic ethical
code. He began instead to frequent playhouses, in which context he found the occasion to
remark that “Vanity is the worst of Passions, and more apt to contaminate the Mind than any
other.” He attempted to become a playwright, seeking aristocratic patronage in vain, and his
play was never performed. In need of money to pay his debts, he took a job doing translations
for a bookseller and in this line of work did so much reading and writing that he nearly went
blind and temporarily lost the use of his writing hand. He consequently lost this job and, after
using his earnings to buy a lottery ticket, was arrested by his tailor for debt. The lottery ticket
then returned £3,000, which Wilson however did not receive because he had sold the ticket to
a relative who now refused to share the prize with him. One day, while in prison, he received
a note from a lady named Harriet Hearty, the daughter of the man to whom he had sold the
ticket; Harriet informed him that her father had died, leaving her all his fortune, and that she

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