ENGLISHMAN.
Yes, Sir; did you know him?
CHARLES.
I certainly knew him, and am very sorry to find you are his unworthy brother. So it was you who lived on your poor mother, when she was a widow and in great distress; it was you who used to borrow money of your brother to buy liquor with; and when you left your drunken companions, you went home and abused your aged unfortunate parent.
ENGLISHMAN.
Oh, Sir! pray hear me out; I have done all I could to get work here; and have severely smarted for my folly.
CHARLES.
And dare you hope for compassion; you who had no compassion on your own mother, for whom you ought to have worked as your brother did. He is, in my esteem, no better than a monster in nature, who forgets to honour and love his parents. Of what do you complain? Do you not know that the Supreme Being sends down his judgments upon such children as you are? Did your mother nourish you in your youth, and preserve you from all harm, to be abused by you when she was grown old, and to see you give yourself up entirely to idleness, and from idleness to vice? You are fallen into beggary, take care or something worse may follow.
EDWARD.
Go your way, all faults may be forgiven but those of an ungrateful son. He who could treat his parents with cruelty, must have a very depraved heart, and deserves nothing but cruelty from others.