If bad company had nothing else to make us shun and avoid it, this,
methinks, might be sufficient, that it infects and taints a man's
reputation, to as great a degree as if he were thoroughly versed in the
wickedness of the whole gang. What is it to me if the thief who robs me
of my money gives part of it to build a church? Is he ever the less a
thief? Shall a woman's going to prayers twice a day save her reputation,
if she is known to be a malicious lying gossip? No, such mixtures of
religion and sin make the offence but the more flagrant, as they
convince us that it was not committed out of ignorance. Indeed, there is
no living without being guilty of some faults, more or less; which the
world ought to be good-natured enough to overlook, in consideration of
the general frailty of mankind, when they are not too gross and too
abundant: but when we are so abandoned to stupidity, and a neglect of
our reputation, as to keep bad company, however little we may be
criminal in reality, we must expect the same censure and punishment as
is due to the most notorious of our companions.