Sometimes, the thought of Alice in her purity and truth passed like a sunbeam over his heart; but its light was soon gone.

She was not for him; and why should he not seek, as others had done, to drown all care?
Then the thought of Cousin Janet, good and holy Cousin Janet, with her Bible in her hand, and its sacred precepts on her lips, would weigh like a mountain on his soul; but he had staked all for pleasure, and he could not lose the race.
It is not pleasant to go down, step after step, to the dark dungeon of vice.

We will not follow Walter to the revel, nor the gaming-table.

We will close our ears to the blasphemous oaths of his companions, to the imprecations on his own lips.

The career of folly and of sin was destined to be closed; and rather would we draw a veil over its every scene.