But because it is idle to propose remedies before we are assured of the disease, or to be in pain,[2] till we are convinced of the danger; I shall first shew in general, that the nation is extremely corrupted in religion and morals; and then I will offer a short scheme for the reformation of both.

[Footnote 2:  Scott follows Faulkner in using the word “fear.”  The reading in the text is that of the first edition, the “Miscellanies” (1711), and of Hawkesworth. [T.S.]]

As to the first; I know it is reckoned but a form of speech, when divines complain of the wickedness of the age:  However, I believe, upon a fair comparison with other times and countries, it would be found an undoubted truth.

For, first; to deliver nothing but plain matter of fact without exaggeration or satire; I suppose it will be granted, that hardly one in a hundred among our people of quality or gentry, appears to act by any principle of religion; that great numbers of them do entirely discard it, and are ready to own their disbelief of all revelation in ordinary discourse.  Nor is the case much better among the vulgar, especially in great towns where the profaneness and ignorance of handicraftsmen, small traders, servants, and the like, are to a degree very hard to be imagined greater.  Then, it is observed abroad, that no race of mortals hath so little sense of religion, as the English soldiers; to confirm which, I have been often told by great officers in the army, that in the whole compass of their acquaintance, they could not recollect three of their profession, who seemed to regard or believe one syllable of the Gospel:  And the same, at least, may be affirmed of the fleet.  The consequences of all which upon the actions of men are equally manifest.  They never go about, as in former time, to hide or palliate their vices, but expose them freely to view, like any other common occurrences of life, without the least reproach from the world, or themselves.  For instance; any man will tell you he intends to be drunk this evening, or was so last night, with as little ceremony or scruple, as he would tell you the time of the day.  He will let you know he is going to a whore, or that he has got a clap, with as much indifferency, as he would a piece of public news.  He will swear, curse, or blaspheme, without the least passion or provocation.  And, though all regard for reputation is not quite laid aside in the other sex, ’tis, however, at so low an ebb, that very few among them seem to think virtue and conduct of absolute necessity for preserving it.  If this be not so, how comes it to pass, that women of tainted reputations find the same countenance and reception in all public places, with those of the nicest virtue, who pay, and receive visits from them without any manner of scruple? which proceeding, as it is not very old among us, so I take it to be of most pernicious consequence:  It looks like a sort of compounding between virtue and vice, as if a woman were allowed to be vicious, provided she be not a profligate; as if there were a certain point, where gallantry ends, and infamy begins, or that a hundred criminal amours were not as pardonable as half a score.