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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Clarissa: Preface, Hints of Prefaces, and Postscript + +Author: Samuel Richardson + +Editor: R. F. Brissenden + +Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29964] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARISSA: PREFACE, HINTS, POSTSCRIPT *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Stephanie Eason, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Augustan Reprint Society</span></h4> +<p> </p> +<h2><span class="smcap">Samuel Richardson</span>,</h2> +<h1><i>CLARISSA:</i></h1> +<h2>Preface, Hints of Prefaces,<br /> +and Postscript.</h2> + +<p> </p> +<h4><i>Introduction</i><br /> +BY</h4> +<h3>R. F. BRISSENDEN.</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.png" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p> +<h4>PUBLICATION NUMBER 103</h4> +<h4>WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY</h4> +<h4><span class="smcap">University of California, Los Angeles</span></h4> +<h4>1964</h4> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="editors"> +<tr> +<td align="center"> +<strong>GENERAL EDITORS</strong><br /> +Richard C. Boys, <i>University of Michigan</i><br /> +Earl R. Miner, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +Maximillian E. Novak, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +Lawrence Clark Powell, <i>Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library</i><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<strong>ADVISORY EDITORS</strong><br /> +<br /> +John Butt, <i>University of Edinburgh</i><br /> +James L. Clifford, <i>Columbia University</i><br /> +Ralph Cohen, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +Vinton A. Dearing, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +Arthur Friedman, <i>University of Chicago</i><br /> +Louis A. Landa, <i>Princeton University</i><br /> +Samuel H. Monk, <i>University of Minnesota</i><br /> +Everett T. Moore, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +James Sutherland, <i>University College, London</i><br /> +H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<strong>CORRESPONDING SECRETARY</strong><br /> +<br /> +Edna C. Davis, <i>Clark Memorial Library</i></td></tr></table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[-i-]</a></span></p> +<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> + +<p>The seven volumes of the first edition of <i>Clarissa</i> were published in +three instalments during the twelve months from December 1747 to +December 1748. Richardson wrote a Preface for Volume I and a Postscript +for Volume VII, and William Warburton supplied an additional Preface for +Volume III (or IV).<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> A second edition, consisting merely of a reprint +of Volumes I-IV was brought out in 1749. In 1751 a third edition of +eight volumes in duodecimo and a fourth edition of seven volumes in +octavo were published simultaneously.</p> + +<p>For the third and fourth editions the author revised the text of the +novel, rewrote his own Preface and Postscript, substantially expanding +the latter, and dropped the Preface written by Warburton. The additions +to the Postscript, like the letters and passages 'restored' to the novel +itself, are distinguished in the new editions by points in the margin.</p> + +<p>The revised Preface and Postscript, which in the following pages are +reproduced from the fourth edition, constitute the most extensive and +fully elaborated statement of a theory of fiction ever published by +Richardson. The Preface and concluding Note to <i>Sir Charles Grandison</i> +are, by comparison, brief and restricted in their application; while the +introductory material in <i>Pamela</i> is, so far as critical theory is +concerned, slight and incoherent.</p> + +<p>The <i>Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa</i>, a transcript of which is also +included in this publication, is an equally important and in some ways +an even more interesting document. It appears to have been put together +by Richardson while he was revising the Preface and Postscript to the +first edition. Certain sections of it are preliminary drafts of some of +the new material incorporated in the revised Postscript. Large portions +of <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, however, were not used then and have never +previously appeared in print. Among these are two critical assessments +of the novel by Philip Skelton and Joseph Spence; and a number of +observations—some merely jottings—by Richardson himself on the +structure of the novel and the virtues of the epistolary style. The +statements of Skelton and Spence are unusual amongst contemporary +discussions of <i>Clarissa</i> for their brevity, lucidity, and sustained +critical relevance. Richardson's own comments, though disorganized and +fragmentary, show that he was attempting to develop a theory of the +epistolary novel as essentially dramatic, psychologically realistic, and +inherently superior to 'the dry Narrative',<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[-ii-]</a></span> particularly as +exemplified in the novels of Henry Fielding.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to determine how much of <i>Hints of Prefaces</i> or of the +published Preface and Postscript is Richardson's own work. All were to +some extent the result of collaborative effort, and Richardson did not +always distinguish clearly between what he had written and what had been +supplied by other people.<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> The concluding paragraph of the Postscript, +for example, appears in the first edition to be the work of Richardson +himself, although in the revised version he indicates that it was +composed by someone else. In this instance due acknowledgment may have +been easy; but in many other places it may have been extraordinarily +difficult for the author/editor to disentangle his own words and ideas from those of his friends.</p> + +<p>In preparing the Preface and Postscript Richardson was faced with a +genuine problem. He realised that his achievement in <i>Clarissa</i> was of +sufficient magnitude and novelty to demand some theoretical defence and +explanation. But he realised also that he was himself inadequate to the +task. 'The very great Advantage of an Academical Education, I have +wanted,'<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> he confessed to Mr. D. Graham of King's College. He lacked +that familiarity with literature and with the conventions of literary +criticism which would have made it easy for him to produce the analysis +of his novel which he felt was needed. No wonder he told Graham that 'of +all the Species of Writing, I love not Preface-Writing;'<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small> and it is +not surprising that, both before and after the publication of +<i>Clarissa</i>, he should have besieged his friends with requests for their opinions of the novel.</p> + +<p>In making these requests he was not simply seeking flattery. What he +needed were sympathetic critics who could clothe in acceptable language +statements which he would recognise as expressing the truth about his +masterpiece. <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, especially if read in the context of +the numerous replies Richardson received, reveals very plainly the +extent to which he was aware of what he wanted from his correspondents. +Most, unfortunately, were sadly incapable of producing a <i>critical</i> +account of the novel. In this company Skelton and Spence were brilliant +exceptions; and Richardson's adoption of their statements, apparently to +the exclusion of all others, indicates the soundness of his own critical +intuitions. Equally interesting is his treatment of Warburton's Preface. +Although he did not reprint this in the third and fourth editions, one +paragraph from it is preserved in <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>.<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small> Significantly, +it is the only paragraph in Warburton's essay which has something to say +about the distinctive qualities of <i>Clarissa</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[-iii-]</a></span>In formulating all these critical statements Richardson is concerned +less with developing a theory of fiction for its own sake than with +justifying his action in writing a novel. His main defence, of course, +is that <i>Clarissa</i> is morally valuable. The reader who expects it to be +a 'mere <i>Novel</i> or <i>Romance</i>'<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small> will be disappointed; and, as 'in all +Works of This, and of the Dramatic Kind, STORY, or AMUSEMENT, should be +considered as little more than the <i>Vehicle</i> to the more necessary +INSTRUCTION'<small><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></small>—a dictum that Fielding was +to quote with approval.<small><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">[9]</a></small></p> + +<p>The argument, though valid, is excessively laboured. In the Postscript, +especially, Richardson is so preoccupied with demonstrating that +<i>Clarissa</i> is a Christian tragedy that he neglects to develop in any +detail the other claims he makes for it. Yet <i>Hints of Prefaces</i> shows +that he had given considerable thought to what might be called the +purely fictive qualities of his novel, and that at one stage he intended +to present a much fuller account of them than he finally did. It is also +clear that he realized that his didactic purposes could be achieved only +if the novel succeeded first at the level of imaginative realism.</p> + +<p>From the beginning Richardson claimed to be a realist: <i>Pamela</i>, it is +announced on the title page, is a 'Narrative which has its Foundation in +TRUTH and NATURE;' and the main purpose of the Postscript to <i>Clarissa</i> +is to demonstrate that the story and the manner in which it is told are +consonant both with the high artistic standards set by the Greek +dramatists and with the facts of everyday life. The decision not to +conclude the story with the reformation of Lovelace and his marriage to +the heroine is defended on the grounds that 'the Author ... always +thought, that <i>sudden Conversions</i> ... had neither <i>Art</i>, nor <i>Nature</i>, +nor even <i>Probability</i>, in them;'<small><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">[10]</a></small> and in the passage in <i>Hints of +Prefaces</i><small><a name="f11.1" id="f11.1" href="#f11">[11]</a></small> of which this is a condensation, he attempts to make out a +case for the second part of <i>Pamela</i> as a realistic study of married +life. <i>Clarissa</i> is stated to be superior to pagan tragedies because it +dispenses with the old ideas of poetic justice and takes into account +the continuance of life after death. (Richardson has his cake while +eating it, however, for he points out that 'the notion of <i>Poetical +Justice</i> founded on the <i>modern rules</i>'<small><a name="f12.1" id="f12.1" href="#f12">[12]</a></small> is strictly observed in +<i>Clarissa</i>).</p> + +<p>The claim that <i>Clarissa</i> presents a generally truthful rendering of +life is given its clearest expression by Skelton and Spence. Both +emphasize that it is different from conventional romances and novels: +'it is another kind of Work, or rather a new Species of Novel,'<small><a name="f13.1" id="f13.1" href="#f13">[13]</a></small> we +have 'a Work of a new kind among us'.<small><a name="f14.1" id="f14.1" href="#f14">[14]</a></small> <i>Clarissa</i> is +concerned with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[-iv-]</a></span> +'the Workings of private and domestic Passions', says Skelton, and +'[not] those of Kings, Heroes, Heroines ... it comes home to the Heart, +and to common Life, in every Line.'<small><a name="f15.1" id="f15.1" href="#f15">[15]</a></small> The author, says Spence, has not +followed the example of the writers of romances, but 'has attempted to +give a plain and natural Account of an Affair that happened in a private +Family, just in the manner that it did happen.'<small><a name="f16.1" id="f16.1" href="#f16">[16]</a></small></p> + +<p>Richardson's decision not to include these two essays in the Postscript +was perhaps influenced by the fact that he was able to use a similar +testimonial which had the added virtue of being patently unsolicited. +This is the 'Critique on the History of CLARISSA, written in French, and +published at Amsterdam',<small><a name="f17.1" id="f17.1" href="#f17">[17]</a></small> an English translation of which had been +printed in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> of June and August, 1749. +Published anonymously, but written by Albrecht von Haller,<small><a name="f18.1" id="f18.1" href="#f18">[18]</a></small> this +review must have been particularly attractive also to Richardson because +of the singular praise it accords his Epistolary method'. It had already +been asserted by de Freval, in the first of the introductory letters to +<i>Pamela</i>, that with this way of writing 'the several Passions of the +Mind must ... be more affectingly described, and Nature may be traced in +her undisguised Inclinations with much more Propriety and Exactness, +than can possibly be found in a Detail of Actions long past;'<small><a name="f19.1" id="f19.1" href="#f19">[19]</a></small> and +von Haller carries the charge even further by claiming not only that it +allows the author a greater degree of psychological veracity but also +that the convention itself is inherently more realistic than ordinary +narrative: 'Romances in general ... are wholly improbable; because they +suppose the History to be written after the series of events is closed +by the catastrophe: A circumstance which implies a strength of memory +beyond all example and probability in the persons concerned.'<small><a name="f20.1" id="f20.1" href="#f20">[20]</a></small></p> + +<p>Richardson also believed that the epistolary method was superior to the +narrative because it was essentially dramatic. Aaron Hill, in one of the +introductory letters to <i>Pamela</i>, had maintained that 'one of the +best-judg'd Peculiars of the Plan' was that the moral instruction was +conveyed 'as in a kind of Dramatical Representation';<small><a name="f21.1" id="f21.1" href="#f21">[21]</a></small> while in the +<ins class="correction" title="original reads 'Postcsript'">Postscript</ins> to <i>Clarissa</i> Richardson describes it as a 'History (or +rather Dramatic Narrative)'.<small><a name="f22.1" id="f22.1" href="#f22">[22]</a></small> The parallels which he draws between +<i>Clarissa</i> and Greek tragedy are directed mainly to illuminating the +tragic rather than the specifically dramatic qualities of the novel. But +it is clear that he regarded his work as being closer in every way to +the drama than to the epic.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[-v-]</a></span>The basic distinction between drama and epic (or any other form of +narrative) had been drawn by Aristotle:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The poet, imitating the same object ... may do it either in +narration—and that, again, either by personating other characters, +as Homer does, or in his own person throughout ... —or he may +imitate by representing all his characters as real, and employed in +the action itself.<small><a name="f23.1" id="f23.1" href="#f23">[23]</a></small></p></div> + +<p>Le Bossu, in his <i>Treatise of the Epick Poem</i>, gives his own restatement +of this, and amplifies it by pointing to the particular virtues of the +drama: by presenting characters directly to the spectators drama 'has no +parts exempt from the Action,' and is thus 'entire and perfect'. +Fielding was familiar with the <i>Treatise</i>, and it is possible that +Richardson had also looked at Le Bossu to prepare himself for dealing +with the epic theory of his rival.<small><a name="f24.1" id="f24.1" href="#f24">[24]</a></small></p> + +<p>There were also precedents for placing the novel in the dramatic rather +than the epic tradition. Congreve, when he wrote <i>Incognita</i> (1692), +took the drama as his model. 'Since all Traditions must indisputably +give place to the <i>Drama</i>,' he wrote in the Preface, 'and since there is +no possibility of giving that life to the Writing or Repetition of a +Story which it has in the Action, I resolved ... to imitate <i>Dramatick</i> +Writing ... in the Design, Contexture, and Result of the Plot. I have +not observed it before in a Novel.'<small><a name="f25.1" id="f25.1" href="#f25">[25]</a></small> The analogy with drama had also +been drawn by Henry Gally in his <i>Critical Essay on +Characteristic-Writings</i> (1725), who, after maintaining that 'the +essential Parts of the Characters, in the <i>Drama</i>, and in +<i>Characteristic-Writings</i> are the same,' goes on to praise the <i>Tatler</i> +and the <i>Spectator</i> for the 'excellent Specimens in the +Characteristic-Way' that they offered their readers.<small><a name="f26.1" id="f26.1" href="#f26">[26]</a></small> Such +acknowledgments of the dramatic potentialities in prose fiction were, +however, unusual. The romances were modelled on the epic (Fielding, in +fact, describes <i>Joseph Andrews</i> in his Preface as a 'comic Romance'); +and the picaresque mode in which Smollett wrote had no obviously +dramatic qualities. Richardson's advocacy of the novel in which action +is presented rather than retailed seems, indeed, curiously modern: it is +something Henry James would certainly have understood and approved.</p> + +<p>In formulating his own theory of fiction Richardson had Fielding very +much in mind. It would be surprising if he had not: the rivalry between +the two novelists was open and recognised, although by the time +<i>Clarissa</i> was published it had assumed the appearance of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[-vi-]</a></span> friendliness. +Sarah Fielding's association with Richardson probably had something to +do with this; but the reconciliation was largely her brother's own work. +His just and generous praise of <i>Clarissa</i>—publicly in the <i>Jacobite's +Journal</i> and privately in a letter to the author—<small><a name="f27.1" id="f27.1" href="#f27">[27]</a></small> makes full and +honourable amends for his mockery of Richardson in <i>Shamela</i> and <i>Joseph +Andrews</i>. If he had not published <i>Tom Jones</i> all might have been well. +But Richardson could not forgive his old enemy for achieving a triumph +in his chosen field so soon after the publication of his own +masterpiece. He abused Fielding covertly in letters to his friends; and +his revisions of the Preface and Postscript were designed in part to +counter the claims for the comic prose epic advanced in <i>Tom Jones</i> and +elsewhere. <i>Hints of Prefaces</i> reveals this more clearly than the +published versions of the Preface and Postscript: Richardson +unfortunately lacked the courage and confidence to press home the +attack.</p> + +<p><i>Hints of Prefaces</i> bears no date, but there is evidence that it was +assembled after the first edition of <i>Clarissa</i> had appeared and, in +part at least, after the publication of <i>Tom Jones</i>. Richardson refers +directly at one point to 'this Second Publication',<small><a name="f28.1" id="f28.1" href="#f28">[28]</a></small> and several +sections in it are printed (either in full or in a condensed form) only +in the revised Postscript. <i>Hints of Prefaces</i> therefore cannot be a +discarded draft of the Preface and Postscript to the first edition. The +final volumes of this first edition came out in December 1748, and <i>Tom +Jones</i> was published in the following February. A letter from Skelton, +dated June 10th, 1749,<small><a name="f29.1" id="f29.1" href="#f29">[29]</a></small> which mentions an 'inclosed Paper' on +<i>Clarissa</i>, indicates that his essay did not reach Richardson until +after this date; and in the letter to Graham, from which I have already +quoted, we find him in the May of 1750 still seeking assistance in the +preparation of his Preface.</p> + +<p>Apart from such evidence it is obvious that one section of <i>Hints of +Prefaces</i> is directed specifically at Fielding. In pages [12] and [13] +of the manuscript Richardson seems to be answering, consciously and in +sequence, arguments brought forward in the Preface to <i>Joseph Andrews</i>; +the Prefaces contributed by Fielding to the second edition of <i>The +Adventures of David Simple</i> (1744), by his sister, Sarah, and its +sequel, <i>Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David +Simple</i> (1747); and, of course, the introductory chapters in <i>Tom +Jones</i>. Richardson begins this part of <i>Hints of Prefaces</i> with a +discussion of the three kinds of romance: those that offer us +'<i>Ridicule</i>; or <i>Serious Adventure</i>; or, lastly, a <i>Mixture of both</i>'. +He admits 'that there are some Works under the First of these Heads, +which have their Excellencies,' but doubts 'whether <i>Ridicule</i> is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[-vii-]</a></span> +proper basis ... whereon to build instruction.'<small><a name="f30.1" id="f30.1" href="#f30">[30]</a></small> The reference here +seems clearly to be to the Preface to <i>Joseph Andrews</i> where Fielding +presents his theory of the comic romance and the ridiculous. Richardson +then proceeds to defend his epistolary method—a convention which +Fielding had singled out for attack in his Preface to <i>Familiar +Letters</i>, remarking that 'no one will contend, that the epistolary Style +is in general the most proper to a Novelist, or that it hath been used +by the best Writers of this Kind.'<small><a name="f31.1" id="f31.1" href="#f31">[31]</a></small> Even if Richardson had not been a +subscriber to Miss Fielding's small volume, he could scarcely have +overlooked a challenge so unequivocal as this. In <i>Clarissa</i> he knew +that the challenge had been answered triumphantly: among other things it +is a complete vindication of the epistolary technique:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We need not insist on the evident Superiority of this Method to the +dry Narrative; where the <i>Novelist</i> moves on, his own dull Pace, to +the End of his Chapter and Book, interweaving impertinent +Digressions, for fear the Reader's Patience should be exhausted...<small><a name="f32.1" id="f32.1" href="#f32">[32]</a></small></p></div> + +<p><i>Tom Jones</i>, with its books, chapters, critical interpolations, and +ironical apologies to the reader, is the target here; and Richardson +clearly longed to inflict a defeat on its author in the realm of theory +as resounding as the one he believed he had achieved over him in +practice. His nerve failed him, however, and his defence of the +epistolary method as it finally appears in the revised Postscript is +cursory and deceptively restrained: 'The author ... perhaps mistrusted +his talents for the narrative kind of writing. He had the good fortune +to succeed in the Epistolary way once before.'<small><a name="f33.1" id="f33.1" href="#f33">[33]</a></small></p> + +<p>After completing <i>Clarissa</i> Richardson had a clear and conscious +apprehension of the scope and unique qualities of his achievement. His +ability to give an account of these things, however, was limited, though +not so limited as he feared: for his theory of the novel to be fully +understood, the final versions of his Preface and Postscript need to be +read in conjunction with the hitherto unpublished <i>Hints of Prefaces for +Clarissa</i>.</p> + +<p class="center">R. F. Brissenden<br /> +Australian National University<br /> +Canberra.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[-viii-]</a></span></p> +<h3>FOOTNOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION</h3> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> See <i>Samuel Richardson: a bibliographical Record of his literary +Career</i>, by William Merritt Sale (New Haven, 1936), pp. 49-50.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> <i>Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa</i>, p. [13], 13.</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 370.</p> + +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> Forster MSS., XV, f 84, May 3, 1750.</p> + +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> Ibid., f 85.</p> + +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> [6], ... Warburton's Preface is reproduced in <i>Prefaces to Fiction</i>, +With an Introduction by Benjamin Boyce, Augustan Reprint Society Publication Number 32 (Los Angeles, 1952).</p> + +<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 367.</p> + +<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> Preface (first edition) Vol. I, vi.</p> + +<p><a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">[9]</a> '<i>Pleasantry</i>, (as the ingenious Author of Clarissa says of a Story) +<i>should be made only the Vehicle of Instruction</i>. <i>The Covent-Garden +Journal</i>, Number 10, 4th February, 1752. 'If entertainment, as Mr. +Richardson observes, be but a secondary consideration in a romance ... +it may well be so considered in a work founded, like this, on truth.' +<i>Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon</i> (London, 1755), The Preface, pp. xvi-xvii.</p> + +<p><a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">[10]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 349.</p> + +<p><a name="f11" id="f11" href="#f11.1">[11]</a> <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, p. [2], 2.</p> + +<p><a name="f12" id="f12" href="#f12.1">[12]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 359.</p> + +<p><a name="f13" id="f13" href="#f13.1">[13]</a> <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, p. [8], 7.</p> + +<p><a name="f14" id="f14" href="#f14.1">[14]</a> Ibid., p. [9], 8.</p> + +<p><a name="f15" id="f15" href="#f15.1">[15]</a> Ibid., p. [8], 7.</p> + +<p><a name="f16" id="f16" href="#f16.1">[16]</a> Ibid., p. [9], 8.</p> + +<p><a name="f17" id="f17" href="#f17.1">[17]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 366, footnote (a).</p> + +<p><a name="f18" id="f18" href="#f18.1">[18]</a> See Lawrence Marsden Price, 'On The Reception of Richardson in +Germany', <i>JEGP</i>, XXV (1926), 7-33.</p> + +<p><a name="f19" id="f19" href="#f19.1">[19]</a> <i>Pamela</i> (London, 1741), Vol. I, vii. See <i>Samuel Richardson's +Introduction to Pamela</i>, edited by Sheridan W. Baker, Jr., Augustan +Reprint Society Publication Number 48 (Los Angeles, 1954).</p> + +<p><a name="f20" id="f20" href="#f20.1">[20]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 366.</p> + +<p><a name="f21" id="f21" href="#f21.1">[21]</a> <i>Pamela</i> (London, 1741), second edition, Vol. I, xviii.</p> + +<p><a name="f22" id="f22" href="#f22.1">[22]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 351.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[-ix-]</a></span> +<a name="f23" id="f23" href="#f23.1">[23]</a> <i>The Poetics</i>, I, iv, in <i>Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric</i> +(Everyman's Library) (London, 1953), p. 8.</p> + +<p><a name="f24" id="f24" href="#f24.1">[24]</a> <i>Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem</i> (London, 1695), p. +114. Le Bossu's <i>Treatise</i> was first published in France in 1675. +Compare, for example, Richardson's use of the term 'episodes' (<i>Hints of +Prefaces</i>, p. [4], 4) with the <i>Treatise</i>, Book II, chapters II-VI.</p> + +<p><a name="f25" id="f25" href="#f25.1">[25]</a> Op. cit. The Preface to the Reader (unpaginated).</p> + +<p><a name="f26" id="f26" href="#f26.1">[26]</a> <i>The Moral Characters of Theophrastus ... To which is prefix'd A +Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings</i> (London, 1725), pp. 98-99. +Reproduced, with an Introduction by Alexander H. Chorney, as Augustan +Reprint Society Publication Number 33 (Los Angeles, 1952).</p> + +<p><a name="f27" id="f27" href="#f27.1">[27]</a> <i>The Jacobite's Journal</i>, January 2, 1747 [in mistake for 1748]. +Number 5. 'Such Simplicity, such Manners, such deep Penetration into +Nature; such Power to raise and alarm the Passions, few Writers, either +ancient or modern, have been possessed of ... Sure this Mr. <i>Richardson</i> +is Master of all that Art which Horace compares to Witchcraft ...' Also, +March 5, 1748, Number 14. The letter, dated October 15, 1748, is +reprinted in 'A New Letter from Fielding', by E. L. McAdam, Jr., <i>Yale +Review</i> (NS), XXXVIII (1948-49), 300-310.</p> + +<p><a name="f28" id="f28" href="#f28.1">[28]</a> <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, p. [12], 11.</p> + +<p><a name="f29" id="f29" href="#f29.1">[29]</a> Forster MSS., Vol. XV, f 47.</p> + +<p><a name="f30" id="f30" href="#f30.1">[30]</a> <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, p. [12], 11.</p> + +<p><a name="f31" id="f31" href="#f31.1">[31]</a> <i>Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple</i> (London, 1747), Vol. I, ix.</p> + +<p><a name="f32" id="f32" href="#f32.1">[32]</a> <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>, p. [13], 13.</p> + +<p><a name="f33" id="f33" href="#f33.1">[33]</a> Postscript (fourth edition), p. 365.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[-x-]</a></span></p> +<h3>HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA</h3> + + +<p><i>APPENDIX: Philip Skelton and Joseph Spence</i></p> + +<p>Philip Skelton (1707-1787) was an Irish divine who could well have +served as a model for Parson Adams, for in his life he exhibited a +vigorous combination of good humour, physical bravery, quixotic +gallantry and practical Christianity. The article in the DNB records +that 'he studied physic and prescribed for the poor, argued successfully +with profligates and sectaries, persuaded lunatics out of their +delusions, fought and trounced a company of profane travelling tinkers, +and chastised a military officer who persisted in swearing.' During +famine he gave liberally to sustain his poor parishioners, on one +occasion selling his library to help them. <i>The Life of Philip Skelton</i>, +by Samuel Burdy, first published in 1792, still makes entertaining and +interesting reading. Richardson met Skelton when he visited London in +1748 to publish <i>Ophiomaches, or Deism Revealed</i>. On David Hume's +recommendation Andrew Millar published the work; and Richardson also +seems to have played some part in getting the book accepted (Forster +MSS, XV, f 34).</p> + +<p>The author of Spence's <i>Anecdotes</i> needs no special introduction, +although some aspects of his relationship with Richardson are of +interest. He apparently first met the novelist late in <ins class="correction" title="original reads '1947'">1747</ins> or early in +1748. Richardson sought his opinion on <i>Clarissa</i> before the final +volumes of the first edition had appeared: his letter discussing the +novel [<i>The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson</i>, edited by Anna +Laetitia Barbauld (London, 1804), Vol. II, 319-327], which emphasizes +Richardson's truth to 'Nature' and lack of 'Art', makes an interesting +contrast with the more considered verdict delivered in his contribution +to <i>Hints of Prefaces</i>. Before writing this he had almost certainly read +<i>Tom Jones</i>. In a letter, dated April 15, 1749, he says: 'Tom Jones is +my old acquaintance, now; for I read it, before it was publisht: & read +it with such rapidity, that I began & ended with in the compass of four +days; tho' I took a Journey to St. Albans, in ye same time. He is to me +extreamly entertaining....' He seems to have contemplated writing a +memoir of Richardson after the novelist's death in 1760.</p> + +<p>[See Austin Wright, <i>Joseph Spence: a critical Biography</i> (Chicago, +1950), 120-123, 232 n.]</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[-xi-]</a></span></p> +<h3>NOTES TO POSTSCRIPT</h3> + + +<p>p. 368, 1. 31—p. 369, 1. 10:</p> + +<p>This passage is part of Richardson's new material for his revised +Postscript. What he wrote in this paragraph, however, was not reproduced +completely or accurately in either the third or the fourth editions, in +each of which it appears in different but equally incorrect versions. +W.M. Sale has offered a convincing explanation of how the mistakes in +printing came about, and suggests that the passage should read as +follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>She was very early happy in the conversation-visits of her learned +and worthy Dr. Lewen, and in her correspondencies, not with him +only, but with other Divines mentioned in her last Will. Her Mother +was, upon the whole, a good woman, who did credit to her birth and +her fortune; and was able to instruct her in her early youth: Her + +Father was not a free-living, or free-principled man; and <i>both</i> +delighted in her for those improvements and attainments, which gave +her, <i>and them in her</i>, a distinction that caused it to be said, +that when she was out of the family, it was considered but as a +common family.</p></div> + +<p>[<i>Samuel Richardson: a bibliographical Record of his Literary Career</i> +(New Haven, 1936), 59-61].</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE</h3> + + +<p>The Preface to the first edition is reproduced from a copy at the +Huntington Library, the Postscript to the fourth edition of <i>Clarissa</i> +from a copy in the Rare Books Room of the Library of the University of +North Carolina. <i>Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa</i> is a transcript of a +manuscript in the Forster Collection (Vol. XV, ff 49-58) in the Victoria +and Albert Museum. (Single underlinings have been rendered in italics, +double underlinings in boldface.) Thanks is extended to these +institutions for their kind permission for the reproduction of this +material.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.png" alt="Clarissa." /></div> +<div class="page"><a href="#title">Text of Title Page</a></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_017.jpg" alt="decorative border" /></div> + +<h3>PREFACE.</h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap"><img src="images/ornatet.png" style="margin-top: -2em; margin-bottom: -1em;" alt="T" /></span>he following History is given in a Series of Letters, written +principally in a double, yet separate, Correspondence;</p> + +<p>Between Two young Ladies of Virtue and Honour, bearing an inviolable +Friendship for each other, and writing upon the most interesting +Subjects: And</p> + +<p>Between Two Gentlemen of free Lives; one of them glorying in his Talents +for Stratagem and Invention, and communicating to the other, in +Confidence, all the secret Purposes of an intriguing Head, and resolute +Heart.</p> + +<p>But it is not amiss to premise, for the sake of such as may apprehend +Hurt to the Morals of Youth from the more freely-written<span class='pagenum'>[iv]</span> Letters, That +the Gentlemen, tho' professed Libertines as to the Fair Sex, and making +it one of their wicked Maxims, to keep no Faith with any of the +Individuals of it who throw themselves into their Power, are not, +however, either Infidels or Scoffers: Nor yet such as think themselves +freed from the Observance of those other moral Obligations, which bind +Man to Man.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, it will be found, in the Progress of the Collection, +that they very often make such Reflections upon each other, and each +upon himself, and upon his Actions, as reasonable Beings, who disbelieve +not a future State of Rewards and Punishments (and who one day propose +to reform) must sometimes make:—One of them actually reforming, and +antidoting the Poison which some might otherwise apprehend would be +spread by the gayer Pen, and lighter Heart, of the other.</p> + +<p>And yet that other, [altho' in unbosoming himself to a <i>select Friend</i>, +he discover Wickedness enough to intitle him to general Hatred] +preserves a Decency, as well in his Images, as in his Language, which is +not always to be found in the Works of some of the most celebrated +modern Writers, whose Subjects and Characters have less warranted the +Liberties they have taken.</p> + +<p>Length will be naturally expected, not only<span class='pagenum'>[v]</span> from what has been said, +but from the following Considerations:</p> + +<p>That the Letters on both Sides are written while the Hearts of the +Writers must be supposed to be wholly engaged in their Subjects: The +Events at the Time generally dubious:—So that they abound, not only +with critical Situations; but with what may be called <i>instantaneous</i> +Descriptions and Reflections; which may be brought home to the Breast of +the youthful Reader:—As also, with affecting Conversations; many of +them written in the Dialogue or Dramatic Way.</p> + +<p>To which may be added, that the Collection contains not only the History +of the excellent Person whose Name it bears, but includes The Lives, +Characters, and Catastrophes, of several others, either principally or +incidentally concerned in the Story.</p> + +<p>But yet the Editor [to whom it was referred to publish the Whole in such +a Way as he should think would be most acceptable to the Public] was so +diffident in relation to this Article of <i>Length</i>, that he thought +proper to submit the Letters to the Perusal of several judicious +Friends; whose Opinion he desired of what might be best spared.</p> + +<p>One Gentleman, in particular, of whose Know<span class='pagenum'>[vi]</span>lege, Judgment, and +Experience, as well as Candor, the Editor has the highest Opinion, +advised him to give a Narrative Turn to the Letters; and to publish only +what concerned the principal Heroine;—striking off the collateral +Incidents, and all that related to the Second Characters; tho' he +allowed the Parts which would have been by this means excluded, to be +both instructive and entertaining. But being extremely fond of the +affecting Story, he was desirous to have every-thing parted with, which +he thought retarded its Progress.</p> + +<p>This Advice was not relished by other Gentlemen. They insisted, that the +Story could not be reduced to a Dramatic Unity, nor thrown into the +Narrative Way, without divesting it of its Warmth; and of a great Part +of its Efficacy; as very few of the Reflections and Observations, which +they looked upon as the most useful Part of the Collection, would, then, +find a Place.</p> + +<p>They were of Opinion, That in all Works of This, and of the Dramatic +Kind, <span class="smcap">Story</span>, or <span class="smcap">Amusement</span>, should be considered as little more than the +<i>Vehicle</i> to the more necessary <span class="smcap">Instruction</span>: That many of the Scenes +would be render'd languid, were they to be made less busy: And that the +Whole would be thereby deprived of that Variety, which is deemed the +Soul of a Feast, whether <i>mensal</i> or <i>mental</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[vii]</span>They were also of Opinion, That the Parts and Characters, which must be +omitted, if this Advice were followed, were some of the most natural in +the whole Collection: And no less instructive; especially to <i>Youth</i>. +Which might be a Consideration perhaps overlooked by a Gentleman of the +Adviser's great Knowlege and Experience: For, as they observed, there is +a Period in human Life, in which, youthful Activity ceasing, and Hope +contenting itself to peep out of its own domestic Wicket upon bounded +Prospects, the half-tired Mind aims at little more than +<i>Amusement</i>.—And, with Reason; for what, in the <i>instructive</i> Way, can +appear either <i>new</i> or <i>needful</i> to one who has happily got over those +dangerous Situations which call for Advice and Cautions, and who has +fill'd up his Measures of Knowlege to the Top?</p> + +<p>Others, likewise gave <i>their</i> Opinions. But no Two being of the same +Mind, as to the Parts which could be omitted, it was resolved to present +to the World, the Two First Volumes, by way of Specimen: and to be +determined with regard to the rest by the Reception those should meet +with.</p> + +<p>If that be favourable, Two others may soon follow; the whole Collection +being ready for the Press: That is to say, If it be not found<span class='pagenum'>[viii]</span> necessary +to abstract or omit some of the Letters, in order to reduce the Bulk of +the Whole.</p> + +<p>Thus much in general. But it may not be amiss to add, in particular, +that in the great Variety of Subjects which this Collection contains it +is one of the principal Views of the Publication,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">To caution Parents against the <i>undue</i> Exertion of their natural +Authority over their Children, in the great Article of Marriage:</p> + +<p class="hang">And Children against preferring a Man of Pleasure to a Man of +Probity, upon that dangerous, but too commonly received Notion, +<i>That a Reformed Rake makes the best Husband</i>.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>But as the Characters will not all appear in the Two First Volumes, it +has been thought advisable, in order to give the Reader some further +Idea of Them, and of the Work, to prefix</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><hr style="width: 65%;" /><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_023.png" alt="Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa" /></div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_024.jpg" alt="Manuscript Page" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h3>HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA</h3> + + +<div class="sidenote">[1]</div> + +<p>Prefatical Hints. Partly taken from Letters to the Warrington Lady, +Letter VI.</p> + +<p>As Religion is too often wounded thro' the sides of its Professors, +whether all good Men or not; so is Virtue, where Women are thought too +meanly of, and depretiated. The Author of the following Work, being +convinced of the Truth of this Observation, has endeavoured in it to +exalt the Sex. He has made his Heroine pass thro' many Persecutions from +her Friends, and ardent Trials from her Lover; yet in the first to keep +her Duty in her Eye, and in the latter to be proof against the most +insidious Arts, Devices, and Machinations of a Man, who holds, as Parts +of the Rake's Credenda, these two Libertine Maxims; That no Woman can +resist <i>Opportunity</i> and <i>Importunity</i>, especially when attacked by a +Man she loves; and, That, <i>when once subdued, she is always subdued</i>; +and who sets out with a Presumption, that in the Conquest of such a Lady +he shall triumph over the whole Sex, against which he had vowed Revenge +for having been used ill, as he thought, by one of it.</p> + +<p>The Lady's Sufferings and Distresses are unequalled. Like pure Gold, +tried by the Fire of Affliction, she is found pure. She preserves her +Will inviolate, her Sincerity unimpeachable, her Duty to those who do +not theirs by her, intire—Is patient, serene, resigned; and, from the +best Motives, aspires to a World more worthy of her, than that she longs +to quit.</p> + +<p>The Christian System, in short, is endeavoured in her Conduct to be +recommended and enforced. This Life she looks upon as a Life of +Probation only. She prepares for a better. Her Preparation is +exemplarily set forth, and expatiated upon. She has her perfidious Lover +for her Vindicator. He engages all his own Relations, who adore her +(while hers, influenced by wicked Reports, persecute her) to plead for +him; and that she will accept of him upon her own Terms.</p> + +<p>Here is her Triumph. Yet not glorying in it herself; but, on reasonable +and just Motives, rejecting him; Motives, that every virtuous Heart must +approve of. Yet believing that she shall not long live, in the true +Christian Spirit of Forgiveness, wishes and prays for his Reformation. +She as nobly forgives, and prays for, and endeavours to give posthumous +Comfort to, her persecuting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> Relations; wounding all of them deeper by +the Generosity of her Forgiveness, than if they were to suffer the most +cruel Deaths.</p> + +<p>While it is one of the latent Morals of this Work, that Women, in +chusing Companions for Life, should chuse companiable Men; should chuse +for Men whose Hearts would probably be all their own, rather than to +share with Scores perhaps the volatile mischievous one of a Libertine: +In short, that they should chuse for <i>Mind</i> and not for <i>Person</i>; and +not make a Jest of a good Man, in favour of a bad, who would make a Jest +of them, and of their whole Sex. / /</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[2]</div> + +<p>"May my Story," says our Heroine, Vol.<span class="spacer"> </span>p.<span class="spacer"> </span>"be a Warning to all +my Sex, how they perfer a Libertine to a Man of true Honour; and how +they permit themselves, where they mean the best) [sic] to be misled by +the specious, but foolish Hope of subduing <i>rivetted Habits</i>, and, as I +may say, of <i>altering Natures</i>. The more foolish, as Experience might +convince us, that there is hardly one in ten, of even tolerably happy +Marriages, in which the Wife keeps the Hold in the Husband's Affections, +which she had in the Lover's. What Influence then can she hope to have +upon the Morals of an avowed Libertine, who marries perhaps for +Conveniency; who despises the Tie; and whom it is too probable that +nothing but Age or Sickness, or Disease (the Consequence of ruinous +Riot), can reclaim." There cannot be a more pernicious Notion, than that +which is so commonly received, That a reformed Rake makes the best +Husband. This Notion it was the Intent of the Author of Clarissa to +explode.</p> + +<p>The Authors of Novels and Romances, who always make their Heroes and +Heroines contend with great Distresses (the more romantic, with them, +the better) seem to think they have done every-thing, when they have +joined the Lovers Hands; and this is called a <i>happy Ending</i> of the +Story. But, alas! it is then, too generally, that the Lovers have the +greatest Difficulties to encounter with, as they then see each other in +nearer and truer Lights.</p> + +<p>And I have moreover always thought, that these sudden Conversions have +neither Art, nor Nature, nor Probability in them; and that they are, +besides, of very bad Example. To have a Libertine, for a Series of +Years, glory in his Wickedness, and to think he had nothing to do, but, +as an Act of Grace and Favour, to hold out his Hand to receive that of +the best of Women, whenever he pleased, and that Marriage would be a +sufficient Amends for his Villainies, I could not bear that, nor wished +I, that the World should think it Amends.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>I had given in the Story of Pamela what is called a happy Issue. It was, +however, owing to her implicit Submission to a lordly and imperious +Husband, who hardly deserved her, that she was happy; a Submission which +every Woman could not have shewn. And yet she had a too well grounded +Jealousy to contend with afterwards; which, for the time, tore her Heart +in pieces. Nor was Mr. B's Reformation secured, till religious +Considerations obtained place, on seeing the Precipice he was dancing +upon with the Countess. <i>For we must observe</i>, that Reformation is not +to be secured by a fine Face, by a Passion that has Sense for its +Object; nor by the Goodness of a Wife's Heart, if the Husband have not a +good one of his own; and that properly touched by the divine Finger.</p> + +<p>The Author of this Piece was willing to try to do something in this way, +that never before had been done. The Tragic Poets have seldom made their +Heroes <i>true</i> Objects of Pity; and very seldom have made them in their +Deaths look forward to a better Hope. And thus, when they die, they seem +<i>totally</i> to perish. Death in <i>such</i> Instances must be terrible. It must +be considered as the greatest Evil. But why is Death set in such +shocking Lights, when it is the common Lot? / /</p> + +<p class="center">* * * * * *</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[3]</div> + +<p>The Heroine of this Piece shews, that she has well considered this great +Point, when she says—"What is even the long Life, which in high Health +we wish for? What but, as we go along, a Life of Apprehension, sometimes +for our Friends, oftener for ourselves? And at last, when arrived at the +old Age we covet, one heavy Loss or Deprivation having succeeded +another, we see ourselves stript, as I may say, of every one we loved; +and find ourselves exposed, as uncompaniable poor Creatures, to the +Slights, the Contempts, of jostling Youth, who want to push us off the +Stage, in Hopes to possess what we have. And, superadded to all, our own +Infirmities every Day increasing; of themselves enough to make the Life +we wished for, the greatest Disease of all."</p> + +<p>Such are the Doctrines, such the Lessons, which are endeavoured to be +inculcated in the following Sheets by an Example in natural Life. The +more unfashionable, the more irksome, these Doctrines, these Lessons, +are to the Young, the Gay, and the Healthy, the more necessary are they +to be inculcated. Religion never since the Reformation was at so low an +Ebb as at present: And if there be those, who suppose this Work to be of +the Novel Kind, it may not be amiss, even in the Opinion of such, to +try<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> whether, by an Accommodation to the light Taste of the Age a +Religious Novel will do Good.</p> + +<p>But altho' the Work, according to the Account thus far given of it, may +be thought to wear a solemn Aspect, and is indeed intended to be of the +Tragic Species, it will not be amiss to acquaint our youthful Readers, +that they will find in the Letters of the Gentlemen, and even in many of +those of one of the Ladies, Scenes and Subjects of a diverting Turn; one +of the Men humorously, yet not uninstructively, glorying in his Talents +for Stratagem and Invention, as he communicates to the other, in +Confidence, all the secret Purposes of his Heart.</p> + +<p>Not uninstructively, we repeat; for it is proper to apprise the serious +Reader, and such as may apprehend Hurt to the Morals of Youth from their +Perusal of the more freely written Letters, that the Gentlemen, tho' +professed Libertines as to the Fair Sex, are not, however, Infidels or +Scoffers; nor yet such as think themselves freed from the Observance of +those other moral Obligations which bind Man to Man. / /</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[4]</div> + +<p>The Reader is referred to the Postscript, at the End of the last Volume, +for what may be further necessary to be observed in relation to this +Work.</p> + +<p>Judges will see, that, long as the Work is, there is not one Digression, +not one Episode, not one Reflection, but what arises naturally from the +Subject, and makes for it, and to carry it on.</p> + +<p>Variety of Styles and Circumstances.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +The Two first Volumes chiefly written by the Two Ladies.<br /> +Two next.....................................................by Lovelace.<br /> +Three last..................................by the reforming Belford.</div> + +<p> </p> +<p>Whence different Styles, Manners, &c. that make Episodes useless.</p> + +<p class="strike"><i>Clarissa an Example to the Reader: The Example not to be taken from the +Reader.</i></p> + +<p>The vicious Characters in this History are more pure, Images more +chaste, than in the most virtuous of the Dramatic Poets.</p> + +<p>Clarissa is so ready to find fault with herself on every Occasion, that +we cannot consent, that a Character so exemplary in the greater Points +should suffer merely from the Inattention of the hasty Reader. Let us +therefore consider of some of the Objections made against her Story: And +yet we may venture to assert, that there is not an Objection that is +come to Knowlege [sic], but is either answered or anticipated in the +Work.</p> + +<p>Obj. I. <i>Clarissa has been thought by some to want Love</i>—To be +prudish—To be over-delicate.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>Those who blame Clarissa for Over-niceness, would most probably have +been an easy Prey to a Lovelace.</p> + +<p>One Design in her Character is to shew, that Love ought to be overcome, +when it has not Virtue or Reformation for its Object.</p> + +<p>Many Persons readier to find fault with a supposed perfect Character, +than to try to imitate it: To bring it down to their Level, rather than +to rise to it.</p> + +<p>Clarissa an Example <i>to</i> the Reader: The Example not to be taken <i>from</i> +the Reader.</p> + +<p>Obj. II. <i>Lovelace could not be so generous, and so wicked.</i> Common +Experience confutes this Objection.</p> + +<p>Obj. III. <i>There could not be such a Tyrant of a Father: Such an +insolent and brutal Brother: Such an unrelenting Sister: Such a passive +Mother</i>—Every-body is not of this Opinion. It were to be wished, that +this Objection were unanswerable.</p> + +<p>Obj. IV. <i>The History is too minute.</i> Its Minuteness one of its +Excellencies.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[5]</div> + +<p>Attentive Readers have found, and will find, that the Probability of all +Stories told, or of Narrations given, depends upon small Circumstances; +as may be observed, that in all Tryals for Life and Property, the/ +/Merits of the Cause are more determinable by such, than by the greater +Facts; which usually are so laid, and taken care of, as to seem to +authenticate themselves.</p> + +<p>Cannot consent, that the History of Clarissa should be looked upon as a +mere Novel or Amusement—since it is rather a History of Life and +Manners; the principal View of which, by an Accommodation to the present +light Taste of an Age immersed in Diversions, that engage the Eye and +the Ear only, and not the Understanding, aims to investigate the great +Doctrines of Christianity, and to teach the Reader how to die, as well +as how to live.</p> + +<p>Step by Step, Difficulties varied and enumerated, that young Creatures +may know, that tho' they may not have all her Trials, how to comport +gradatim.</p> + +<p>If provoked and induced as she was, yet so loth to leave her Friends, +and go off with her Lover, what Blame must those incur, who take such a +Step, and have not her Provocations and Inducements!</p> + +<p>Obj. V. <i>Why did she not throw herself into Lady Betty's Protection?</i></p> + +<p>For Answer, see Vol. III, p. 152, and before: Also p. 158, 159, that +Lady's writing to her, and not inviting her to her. See<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> also their +Debate, p. 159, 160.—Miss Montague wishes to see her at M. Hall; but it +is after she should be married. See further, her Observations on Miss +Montague's not excusing her self for not meeting her on the Road; yet +Clarissa's Willingness to say something for L. / /</p> + +<p class="center">* * * * * *</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[6]</div> + +<p>On the contrary, it will be found, that they every-where disclaim the +Impiety of such as endeavour to make a Religion to their Practices; and +very often make such Reflections upon each other, and, / <sup>each upon +himself, and</sup> upon his Actions, as reasonable Beings, who +disbelieve not a future State of Rewards and Punishments (and who one +Day propose to reform) must sometimes make—one of them actually +reforming, and antidoting the Poison spread by the gayer Pen, and +lighter Heart, of the other.</p> + +<p>And yet that other (altho', in unbosoming himself to a select Friend, he +discover Wickedness enough to intitle him to general Hatred) preserves a +Decency as well in his Images, as in his Language, which is not always +to be found in the Works of some of the most celebrated modern Writers, +whose Subjects and Characters have less warranted the Liberties they +have taken.</p> + +<p>The Writer chose to tell his Tale in a Series of Letters, supposed to be +written by the Parties concerned, as the Circumstances related passed: +For this Juncture afforded him the only natural Opportunity that could +be had, of representing with any Grace those lively and delicate +Impressions, which <i>Things present</i> are known to make upon the Minds of +those affected by them. And he apprehends, that in the Study of human +Nature the Knowlege [sic] of those Apprehensions leads us farther into +the Recesses of the human Mind, than the colder and more general +Reflections suited to a continued and more contracted Narrative.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">On the Contents.</p> + +<p>Obj. <i>Contents will anticipate the Reader's Curiosity.</i></p> + +<p>The Curiosity not so much the View to excite, as the Attention to the +Instruction. When the Curiosity is partly gratified, there will be the +more room for the Attention. Rather instruct, than divert or amuse.</p> + +<p>The Reader will remember, that the Instructions, Lessons, and Warnings, +both to Parents and Children, for the sake of which the Whole was +published, cannot appear in a Table of Contents, that means only to +point out the principal Facts, the Connexion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> of the Whole, and to set +before the Reader as well the blameable as the laudable Conduct of the +principal Characters, and to teach them what to pursue, and what to +avoid, in a Piece that is not to be considered as an Amusement only, but +rather as a History of Life and Manners. / /</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[7]</div> + +<p>Drawn up with a View to obviate such of the Objections as have been made +to particular Characters and Passages, thro' want of Attention to the +Story.</p> + +<p>—In such as have pursued the Story with too much Rapidity to attend to +the Connexion, and to the Instruction aimed to be given, and to the +Example proposed to be set.</p> + +<p>So many important Lessons, as to Life and Manners, in the Work, that the +Reader may be intrusted with the Contents. / /</p> + +<p class="center">* * * * * *</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[8]</div> + +<p class="center">Rev. Mr. Skelton.</p> + +<p>They who read Romances and Novels, being accustomed to a Variety of +Intrigues and Adventures, thro' which they are hurried to the +Catastrophe; when they take up Clarissa, not considering that it is +another kind of Work, or rather a new Species of Novel, are apt to think +it tedious, towards the Beginning especially, because they have not the +same Palate for natural Incidents, as for imaginary Adventures; for the +Workings of private and domestic Passions, as for those of Kings, +Heroes, Heroines; for a Story English as to its Scenes, Names, Manners, +as for one that is foreign: But a Reader of true Taste and Judgment will +like it infinitely better, because it comes home to the Heart, and to +common Life, in every Line; because it abounds with a surprising Variety +of Strokes and Paintings, that seem to be taken from real Life, and of +Maxims and Reflections too just, and too useful, to be passed over +unnoticed or unremembred [sic] by a Reader of Experience. These, +together with the masterly Management of the Characters, serve better to +entertain, while they instruct, a judicious Reader, than a Croud of mere +imaginary Amours, Duels, and such-like Events, which abound with Leaves +and Flowers, but no Fruits; and therefore cannot be relished but by a +vitiated Taste, by the Taste of a Chameleon, not of a Man. Two or three +Hours furnish Matter for an excellent Play: Why may not Two or Three +Months supply Materials for as many Volumes? Is the History of +Thucydides less entertaining or instructive, because its Subject is +confined to narrow Bounds, than that of Raleigh, which hath the World +for its Subject? Is Clarissa a mere Novel? Whoever considers it as such, +does not understand it. It is a System of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> religious and moral Precepts +and Examples, planned on an entertaining Story, which stands or goes +forward, as the excellent Design of the Author requires; but never +stands without pouring in Incidents, Descriptions, Maxims, that keep +Attention alive, that engage and mend the Heart, that play with the +Imagination, while they inform the Understanding. / /</p> + +<p class="center">* * * * * *</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[9]</div> + +<p class="center">Rev. Mr. Spence.</p> + +<p>It is the more necessary to say something, by way of Preface, of the +following Work; because it is a Work of a new kind among us.</p> + +<p>The Writers of <i>Novels</i> and <i>Romances</i> have generally endeavoured to +pick out the most pleasing Stories; to pass over the dry Parts in them; +and to hurry the Reader on from one striking Event to another. Their +<i>only</i> Aim seems to be that of making a Tissue of Adventures, which by +their Strangeness and Variety are meant only to surprise and please. +Nature they have not much in View; and Morality is often quite out of +the Question with them.</p> + +<p>Instead of following this way of writing, the Author of Clarissa has +attempted to give a plain and natural Account of an Affair that happened +in a private Family, just in the manner that it did happen. He has aimed +solely at following Nature; and giving the Sentiments of the Persons +concerned, just as they flowed warm from their Hearts.</p> + +<p>The best way to do this he thought was to carry on the Story, not in the +narrative way, as usual; but by making them write their own Thoughts to +Friends, soon after each Incident happened; with all that Naturalness +and Warmth, with which they felt them, at that time, in their own Minds.</p> + +<p>This must necessarily lead the Work into a great Length: For as his Aim +was to give a true and full Picture of Nature, the whole Course of the +Affair is represented; frequently, even to the most minute Particulars: +And as they are related by Persons concerned, you have not only the +Particulars, but what they felt in their own Minds at the time, and +their Reflections upon them afterwards: Beside, that Letters always give +a Liberty of little Excursions; and when between Intimate Friends, +require an Opening of the Heart, and consequently a Diffuseness, that +the narrative Style would not admit of.</p> + +<p>The chief Intent of the Work was, to draw off the Ladies, if possible, +from the distinguishing Fondness many of them are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> too apt to entertain +for Rakes; and to shew them, that if they put themselves into the Power +of a Rake, they are sure of being ill used by him.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[10]</div> + +<p>To this End the Author has chosen out a Story, which is as strong a +Proof of it as can well be. A Lady of particular good Sense, Breeding, +and Morals, is so ill used by her Family, in order to oblige her to +marry a Man she cannot like, that they drive her at last into the Hands +of a Rake, who professes the most honourable Passion for her. From the +Moment she is in his Hands, he is plotting how to ruin her: Her +Innocence is above all his Art and Temtations [sic]; so that he is +forced to use other, and yet viler Means. In spite / / of all her +Virtue, her Person is abused. She resents it, as she ought; and escapes +from him: But, worn out with a continued Series of ill Usage (from her +own Family, as well as from the Villain, and his Adherents), she +continues languishing; and at last dies forgiving all her Enemies.</p> + +<p>To give this the greater Strength, the Lady is represented as superior +to all her Sex; and the Rake of a mixt Character, and not so bad as +several of his. She likes the Man; but has no violent Passion for him: +He loves her above all Women; and yet is resolved most steadily to +pursue her Ruin. All her Calamities with him are occasioned, at +first,<small><a name="f34.1" id="f34.1" href="#f34">[34]</a></small> by going scarce sensibly out of the Bounds of her Duty; and +afterwards, by being betrayed into an Action<small><a name="f35.1" id="f35.1" href="#f35">[35]</a></small>, which she did not +intend; and which, had she intended [it] [sic], under her Circumstances, +was scarce to be blamed. When in his Hands, her Virtue is invincible: +She is perpetually alarmed, and her Prudence is ever on the Watch. And +yet she falls a Prey to his Villainy; and from being the Glory of her +Sex, becomes an Object of our Compassion. If a Clarissa thus fell, what +must the rest of Women expect, if they give greater Encouragements to +yet more abandoned Men?</p> + +<p>There are other Side-Morals (and particularly that very instructive one +to Parents, not to insist too rigidly on forcing their Childrens +Inclinations); but this is the direct Moral of the whole Story: "That a +Woman, even of the greatest Abilities, should not enter into any, even +the most guarded, Correspondence with a Rake; and that if she once falls +into his Power, she is undone."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p>To enforce this Moral, it was necessary to Paint out all the Distresses +of the Sufferer; and to make her suffer to the End: In doing which, the +Author, I dare say, has given several Pangs to his own Heart, as well as +to the Hearts of his Readers. But these should be looked upon like the +Incisions made by a kind Surgeon; who feels himself for every Stroke +that he gives; and who gives them only out of Humanity, and to save his +Patients.</p> + +<p>Indeed, as the Patients here are the Ladies, the Suffering must be the +greater; to the Author, as well as to them: But had they not better +suffer, from these generous Tendernesses of their own Hearts, than from +the Villainies of such Enemies, as they are here warned to avoid? Their +Tears look beautifully, when they are shed for a Clarissa; but they +would be a killing Sight to one, were they to be shed for themselves, +upon falling into Distresses like hers.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[11]</div> + +<p>I do not wonder, that in reading this Story, many of them should wish, +that it might have ended less unfortunately. It is agreeable to the +Tenderness and Goodness of their Hearts. The Author, no doubt, wished so +too: But that could not be brought about, without taking away the Moral, +or, at least, very much weakening the Force of it. The Business of this +Work is to shew the Distresses of an almost innocent Sufferer, and the +Villainies of a debauched Man, who wanted chiefly to pride himself in +the Conquest of her. It / / is all but one Story, with one Design; and +the making the Lady fortunate in the End, would have varied the Fact, +and undermined his Design. In a Picture that represents any melancholy +Story, a good Painter will make the Sky all dark and cloudy; and cast a +Gloom on every thing in it: If the Subject be gay, he gives a Brightness +to all his Sky; and an Enlivening to all the Objects: But he will never +confound these Characters; and give you a Picture that shall be sad in +one half of it, and gay in the other. In this Work the Design is as much +one, and the Colouring as much one, as they can be in a Picture; and to +confuse either, would be the most ready way to spoil both.</p> + +<p>Clarissa takes but one false Step in the whole Piece. She is impelled +toward it, in general, by the strange Behaviour of her Family; and +betrayed into it, at the time, by the strange Contrivances of her +Deceiver. But this single Step was of the utmost Consequence. It flings +her into the Power of the most dangerous of Men; and that makes all the +Remainder of her Life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> melancholy and distressed. This is the Lesson: +And if it be a good one, the Force of it ought not to be weakened by her +Recovering from all her Distresses, and growing quite happy again; which +indeed would not only weaken, but intirely take away, all the Force that +was intended to be given to it.</p> + +<p>Yet if Clarissa be unfortunate, she is not miserable. She preserved her +Innocence thro' all her Trials, after that one false Step: When she had +no Comfort to expect in this World, she turns her Hopes and Confidence +toward Heaven: Her Afflictions are soon ended, for the Course of this +whole Affair (taking it from the very Beginning) is included within the +Bounds of one Year: And she departs with Pleasure from a Life full of +Trouble, to be rewarded without End. So that, tho' we are warned by +Clarissa's Example, we have no Reason to be concerned at her +Dissolution: Much more noble, and more to be admired, in her Steadiness, +and just Conduct, then, than when she was caressed by all her Relations, +in the Bloom of her unviolated Innocence, and busied in all the little +endearing Offices of her good Nature, and good Sense. / /</p> + +<p class="center">* * * * * *</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[12]</div> + +<p>All the Objections to the Design and Conduct of the History of <b>Clarissa</b>, +which have seemed to carry any Weight in them, being, we presume, +obviated in the PS. to this Work, we apprehend it will be only expected +from us, on this Second Publication, that we exhibit some Particulars, +which may help to shew the superiority of its Moral to any of the Morals +of those Works of Invention, which have been offered to the Public under +the Name of <b>Novel</b>, or <b>Romance</b>.</p> + +<p>Now what a Romance usually professes to entertain us with, may be +considered under Three General Heads; <i>Ridicule</i>; or, <i>Serious +Adventures</i>; or, lastly, a <i>Mixture of both</i>.</p> + +<p>It must be owned, that there are some Works under the First of these +Heads, which have their Excellencies; Tho' we may be permitted to doubt, +whether <i>Ridicule</i> is a proper Basis (without the Help of more solid +Buttresses) whereon to build Instruction, whatever Delight it may +administer to the Reader.</p> + +<p>As to those Authors who have given us the <i>Serious</i>; some of them make +use of a Style as horrid as their Matter: We may be excused mentioning +their Names, in this Place, since, without Self-flattery, we may say, we +disdain to appear on the same Page with them. We shall only observe in +general, that they are far from being clear of the strained Metaphors, +and unnatural Rants,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> of the old Romances, whose enormous Volumes would +be enough to terrify a Reader who sought only for Amusement, and not for +Employment of his better to be employed Hours.</p> + +<p>Between these two Extremes that something useful to the Cause of +Religion and Virtue should be struck out, was the Author of Clarissa's +Intent. Such an Intent has Two manifest Advantages over all other Works +of Invention <span class="strike">that</span><sup>which</sup> have yet appeared.</p> + +<p>The First of these is, That, by the Work now presented to our Fair +Readers, they may be instructed to render themselves superior to that +<i>extravagant</i> Taste in Courtship, which was the prevailing Mode in Two +or Three preceding Centuries; and from which the present, we are sorry +to say, is not absolutely free.</p> + +<p>The Second, That, by containing their Views <i>within the Bounds</i> of +Nature and Reason, they may be sweetly, but insensibly, drawn to +preserve a proper Dignity of Behaviour, whereby to awe the Presumption +of the Bold and Forward: So that, while we behold them as Angels of +Light, they would be pleased not to give too convincing Evidence of +their <i>Fall</i> from that to a lower Character; a detestable one too, which +will in a short time sink them as much in the Esteem of their flattering +Admirers, as those very Deceivers had before persuaded them, that they +were elevated above the common Lot of Mortality.</p> + +<p>The Choice the Author has made, in this and a former Performance, of +delivering the Sentiments of his Characters in their own Words, by way +of Letters, has also Two principal Advantages, which we beg leave to +specify. / /</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[13]</div> + +<p>In the First place, By this means every one is enabled to judge at first +Sight, whether the respective Persons represented express themselves in +a Style suitable to their Characters, or not, and may thus become a +rational Critic on the Merit of the Piece.</p> + +<p>Secondly, Those Characters sink deeper into the Mind of the Reader, and +stamp there a perfect Idea of the very Turn of Thought, by which the +Originals were actuated, and diversified from each other. This must +greatly add to the Pleasure of reading, when a Gentleman or Lady can +readily say, upon hearing a single Paragraph, "This is the accomplished +<b>Clarissa</b>; This the spirited and friendly Miss <b>Howe</b>; This the +supercilious Pedant <b>Brand</b>; This the humane and reclaiming <b>Belford</b>; This +the daring, learned, witty, and thence dangerous Libertine <b>Lovelace</b>:" +And so of the rest.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>We need not insist on the evident Superiority of this Method to the dry +Narrative; where the <i>Novelist</i> moves on, his own dull Pace, to the End +of his Chapter and Book, interweaving impertinent Digressions, for fear +the Reader's Patience should be exhausted by his tedious Dwelling on one +Subject, in the same Style: Which may not unfitly be compared to the +dead Tolling of a single Bell, in Opposition to the wonderful Variety of +Sounds, which constitute the Harmony of a Handel.</p> + +<p>As the major Part of such Works as these might be <i>omitted</i>, to the +greater Emolument of the Reader, if not of the Writer; so we have the +Pleasure to acquaint the Public, that the contrary is true of the Work +before us: For the Author has in this Edition <i>restored</i> several +Passages, which, for Brevity, were omitted in the former. Such are the +Instructions in Vol. III. p. ... given by Mr. Lovelace to his Four +Friends on their first Visit to his <i>Goddess</i>, as he justly calls her, +comparing her with the wretches he had so long been accustomed to: Which +instructions are highly humorous and characteristical, and by being laid +open may suggest proper Cautions to all who are likely to be engaged in +justly suspected Company. Several other Inlargements and Alterations +there are, which tend further to illustrate his Design, and to make it +more generally useful. And as these will be presented to the Public +without any additional Price, it is hoped they will come recommended on +that score also, as well as for their evident Importance, when +attentively perused; which it is presumed the whole Work should be, as +containing Documents of Religion and Morality, which will probably lie +hid to a careless or superficial Examiner: And this we speak of those +Parts principally, which have least <i>Entertainment</i>, in the vulgar sense +of the word.</p> + +<p>An Objection remains to be answered; which is so minute, that it is +therefore condemned to this last and lowest Place. / /</p> + +<div class="sidenote">[14]</div> + +<p>"Clarissa is too delicate."—The Author readily acknowleges [sic], that +too delicate she is for the Hearts of such as, by Conformity to the +loose Manners of the present Age, have confounded Purity with Prudery. +But, for all this, it may be hoped, that the latter will rather +endeavour to raise their Affections to <b>Clarissa's</b> virtuous Standard, +than by striving to impeach her Character, effectually debase, if not +violently tear up, the decisive Standard of Right and Wrong.</p> + +<p>The just Detestation that injured Lady had of Lovelace's vile Attempt to +corrupt her Mind as well as Person, was surely a sufficient Argument +against uniting her untainted Purity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> (surely we may say so, since the +Violation reached not her Soul) in Marriage with so gross a Violator; +and must for ever continue in Force, till the eternal Differences of +Vice and Virtue shall coalesce, and make one putrid Mass, a Chaos in the +Moral and Intellectual World.</p> + +<p>We have a remarkable, and in some Degree a parallel Case in Scripture; +where we find, that the Rape of <i>Dinah</i> was revenged, cruelly revenged, +by the Sons of Jacob. <i>Dinah</i>, like <b>Clarissa</b>, had Proposals of Marriage +made to her by the Ravisher. But these <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'were were'">were</ins> not thought sufficient to +expunge the Stain upon a Person of that Family, from which was to +proceed the <b>Son</b> of Him whose eyes are purer than to behold Iniquity. +Therefore a Massacre was made of the King Hamor, and his son Shechem; +and their People were led into Captivity. The Answer of Simeon and Levi +to their Father's Complaint of Cruelty was only this: <i>Should he deal +with</i> <b>our Sister</b>, <i>as with an</i> <b>Harlot</b>?</p> + +<p>The only Use we intend to make of this Passage is, to shew that it is no +new thing, that a Violation of this sort should be desperately resented, +as this was by the resolute <b>Morden</b>; however <i>new</i> it may be, that a +young Lady should disdain the Villain, who had betrayed her Person, and +soon after laid her Hopes, and the Hopes of all her flourishing Family, +in the Dust of the Grave.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_039.png" alt="decorative border" /></div> +<h1>P O S T S C R I P T.</h1> + +<h3><i>Referred to in the Preface.</i></h3> + +<p class="center">IN WHICH</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">Several Objections that have been made, as well to the Catastrophe as to +different Parts of the preceding History, are briefly considered.</p></div> + + +<p>The foregoing Work having been published at three different periods of +time, the Author, in the course of its publication, was favoured with +many anonymous Letters, in which the Writers differently expressed their +wishes with regard to the apprehended catastrophe.</p> + +<p>Most of those directed to him by the gentler Sex, turned in favour of +what they called a <i>Fortunate Ending</i>. Some of the fair writers, +enamoured, as they declared, with the character of the Heroine, were +warmly solicitous to have her made happy: "And others, likewise of their mind, <i>insisted that Poetical +Justice</i> required that it should be so. And when, says one +ingenious Lady, whose undoubted motive was good-nature and +humanity, it must be concluded, that it is in an author's power to +make his piece end as he pleases, why should he not give pleasure +rather than pain to the Reader whom he has interested in favour of +his principal characters?</p> + +<p>"Others, and some Gentlemen, declared against Tragedies in general, +and in favour of Comedies, almost in the words of Lovelace, who was +supported in his taste by all the women at Mrs. Sinclair's, and by +Sin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>clair herself. 'I have too much <i>Feeling</i>, said +he<small><a name="f36.1" id="f36.1" href="#f36">[36]</a></small>. There +is enough in the world to make our hearts sad, without carrying +grief into our diversions, and making the distresses of others our +own.'</p> + +<p>"And how was this happy ending to be brought about? Why by this very +easy and trite expedient; to wit, by reforming Lovelace, and +marrying him to Clarissa—Not, however, abating her one of her +tryals, nor any of her sufferings [for the sake of the <i>sport</i> her +distresses would give to the <i>tender-hearted</i> reader as she went +along] the last outrage excepted: That indeed, partly in compliment +to Lovelace himself, and partly for delicacy-sake, they were +willing to spare her.</p> + +<p>"But whatever were the fate of his work, the Author was resolved to +take a different method. He always thought, that <i>sudden +Conversions</i>, such especially, as were left to the candour of the +Reader to <i>suppose</i> and <i>make out</i>, had neither <i>Art</i>, nor +<i>Nature</i>, nor even <i>Probability</i>, in them; and that they were +moreover of very <i>bad</i> example. To have a Lovelace for a series of +years glory in his wickedness, and think that he had nothing to do, +but as an act of grace and favour to hold out his hand to receive +that of the best of women, whenever he pleased, and to have it +thought, that Marriage would be a sufficient amends for all his +enormities to others, as well as to her; he could not bear that. +Nor is Reformation, as he has shewn in another piece, to be secured +by a fine face; by a passion that has sense for its object; nor by +the goodness of a Wife's heart, or even example, if the heart of +the Husband be not graciously touched by the Divine Finger.</p> + +<p>"It will be seen by this time, that the Author had a great end in +view. He has lived to see Scepticism and Infidelity openly avowed, +and even endeavoured to be propagated from the <i>Press</i>: The great +doctrines of the Gospel brought into question: Those of +self-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>denial and mortification blotted out of the catalogue of +christian virtues: And a taste even to wantonness for out-door +pleasure and luxury, to the general exclusion of domestic as well +as public virtue, industriously promoted among all ranks and +degrees of people.</p> + +<p>"In this general depravity, when even the Pulpit has lost great part +of its weight, and the Clergy are considered as a body of +<i>interested</i> men, the Author thought he should be able to answer it +to his own heart, be the success what it would, if he threw in his +mite towards introducing a Reformation so much wanted: And he +imagined, that if in an age given up to diversion and +entertainment, he could <i>steal in</i>, as may be said, and investigate +the great doctrines of Christianity under the fashionable guise of +an amusement; he should be most likely to serve his purpose; +remembring that of the Poet:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<i>"A verse may find him who a sermon flies,<br /> +"And turn delight into a sacrifice.</i></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>"He was resolved therefore to attempt something that never yet had +been done. He considered, that the Tragic poets have as seldom made +their heroes true objects of pity, as the Comic theirs laudable +ones of imitation: And still more rarely have made them in their +deaths look forward to a <i>future Hope</i>. And thus, when they die, +they seem totally to perish. Death, in such instances, must appear +terrible. It must be considered as the greatest evil. But why is +Death set in shocking lights, when it is the universal lot?</p> + +<p>"He has indeed thought fit to paint the death of the wicked as +terrible as he could paint it. But he has endeavoured to draw that +of the good in such an amiable manner, that the very Balaams of the +world should not forbear to wish that their latter end might be +like that of the Heroine.</p> + +<p>"And after all, what is the <i>poetical justice</i> so much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> contended +for by some, as the generality of writers have managed it," but another sort of dispensation than that with which God, by +Revelation, teaches us, He has thought fit to exercise mankind; whom +placing here only in a state of probation, he hath so intermingled good +and evil, as to necessitate us to look forward for a more equal +dispensation of both.</p> + +<p>The author of the History (or rather Dramatic Narrative) of Clarissa, is +therefore well justified by the <i>Christian System</i>, in deferring to +extricate suffering Virtue to the time in which it will meet with the +<i>Completion</i> of its Reward.</p> + +<p>But not absolutely to shelter the conduct observed in it under the +sanction of Religion [an authority perhaps not of the greatest weight +with some of our modern critics] it must be observed, that the author is +justified in its Catastrophe by the greatest master of reason, and the +best judge of composition, that ever lived. The learned Reader knows we +must mean <span class="smcap">Aristotle</span>; whose sentiments in this matter we shall beg leave +to deliver in the words of a very amiable writer of our own Country.</p> + +<p>'The English writers of Tragedy, <i>says Mr. Addison</i><small><a name="f37.1" id="f37.1" href="#f37">[37]</a></small>, are +possessed with a notion, that when they represent a virtuous or +innocent person in distress, they ought not to leave him till they +have delivered him out of his troubles, or made him triumph over +his enemies.</p> + +<p>'This <i>error</i> they have been led into by a <i>ridiculous</i> doctrine in +<i>Modern Criticism</i>, that they are obliged to an <i>equal +distribution</i> of <i>rewards</i> and <i>punishments</i>, and an impartial +execution of <i>poetical justice</i>.</p> + +<p>'Who were the first that established this rule, I know not; but I +am sure it has no foundation in <span class="smcap">Nature</span>, in <span class="smcap">Reason</span>, or in the +<span class="smcap">Practice of the Antients</span>.</p> + +<p>'We find, that good and evil happen alike unto <span class="smcap">All Men</span> on this side +the grave: And as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> principal design of Tragedy is to raise +commiseration and terror in the minds of the audience, we shall +defeat this great end, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy +and successful.</p> + +<p>'Whatever crosses and disappointments a good man suffers in the +<i>Body</i> of the Tragedy, they will make but small impression on our +minds, when we know, that, in the <i>last Act</i>, he is to arrive at +the end of his wishes and desires.</p> + +<p>'When we see him engaged in the depth of his afflictions, we are +apt to comfort ourselves, because we are sure he will find his way +out of them, and that his grief, how great soever it may be at +present, will soon terminate in gladness.</p> + +<p>'For this reason, the antient Writers of Tragedy treated men in +their <i>Plays</i>, as they are dealt with in the <i>World</i>, by making +Virtue sometimes happy and sometimes miserable, as they found it in +the Fable which they made choice of, or as it might affect their +Audience in the most agreeable manner.</p> + +<p>'Aristotle considers the Tragedies that were written in either of +those kinds; and observes, that those which ended unhappily had +always pleased the people, and carried away the Prize, in the +public disputes of the Stage, from those that ended happily.</p> + +<p>'Terror and Commiseration leave a <i>pleasing anguish</i> in the mind, +and fix the Audience in such a serious composure of thought, as is +much more lasting and delightful, than any little transient Starts +of Joy and Satisfaction.</p> + +<p>'Accordingly we find, that more of our English Tragedies have +succeeded, in which the Favourites of the Audience sink under their +calamities, than those in which they recover themselves out of them.</p> + +<p>'The best Plays of this kind are <i>The Orphan</i>, <i>Venice Preserved</i>, +<i>Alexander the Great</i>, <i>Theodosius</i>, <i>All for Love</i>, <i>Oedipus</i>, +<i>Oroonoko</i>, <i>Othello</i>, &c.</p> + +<p>'King <i>Lear</i> is an admirable Tragedy of the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> kind, as +Shakespeare wrote it: But as it is reformed according to the +<i>chimerical notion</i> of <span class="smcap">Poetical Justice</span>, in my humble opinion it +has lost half its beauty.</p> + +<p>'At the same time I must allow, that there are very noble +Tragedies, which have been framed upon the other Plan, and have +ended happily; as indeed most of the good Tragedies which have been +written since the starting of the above-mentioned Criticism, have +taken this turn: As <i>The Mourning Bride</i>, <i>Tamerlane</i><small><a name="f38.1" id="f38.1" href="#f38">[38]</a></small>, +<i>Ulysses</i>, <i>Phædra and Hippolytus</i>, with most of Mr. Dryden's. I +must also allow, that many of Shakespeare's, and several of the +celebrated Tragedies of Antiquity, are cast in the same form. I do +not therefore dispute against this way of writing Tragedies; but +against the Criticism that would establish This as the <i>only</i> +method; and by that means would very much cramp the English +Tragedy, and perhaps give a wrong bent to the genius of our +writers.'</p> + +<p>'This subject is further considered in a Letter to the Spectator<small><a name="f39.1" id="f39.1" href="#f39">[39]</a></small>.</p> + +<p>"I find your opinion, says the author of it, concerning the +<i>late-invented</i> term called <i>Poetical Justice</i>, is controverted by +some eminent critics. I have drawn up some additional arguments to +strengthen the opinion which you have there delivered; having +endeavoured to go to the bottom of that matter....</p> + +<p>"The most perfect man has vices enough to draw down punishments +upon his head, and to justify Providence in regard to any miseries +that may befal him. For this reason I cannot think but that the +instruction and moral are much finer, where a man who is virtuous +in the main of his character falls into distress, and sinks under +the blows of fortune, at the end of a Tragedy, than when he is +represented as happy and triumphant. Such an example corrects the +insolence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> of human nature, softens the mind of the beholder with +sentiments of pity and compassion, comforts him under his own +private affliction, and teaches him not to judge of mens virtues by +their successes<small><a name="f40.1" id="f40.1" href="#f40">[40]</a></small>. I cannot think of one real hero in all +antiquity so far raised above human infirmities, that he might not +be very naturally represented in a Tragedy as plunged in +misfortunes and calamities. The Poet may still find out some +prevailing passion or indiscretion in his character, and shew it in +such a manner as will sufficiently acquit Providence of any +injustice in his sufferings: For, as Horace observes, the best man +is faulty, tho' not in so great a degree as those whom we generally +call vicious men<small><a name="f41.1" id="f41.1" href="#f41">[41]</a></small>.</p> + +<p>"If such a strict <i>Poetical Justice</i> (<i>proceeds the +Letter-writer</i>), as some gentlemen insist upon, were to be observed +in this art, there is no manner of reason why it should not extend +to heroic Poetry, as well as Tragedy. But we find it so little +observed in Homer, that his Achilles is placed in the greatest +point of glory and success, tho' his Character is morally vicious, +and only <i>poetically</i> good, if I may use the phrase of our modern +Critics. The <i>Æneid</i> is filled with innocent unhappy persons. Nisus +and Euryalus, Lausus and Pallas, come all to unfortunate ends. The +Poet takes notice in particular, that, in the sacking of Troy, +Ripheus fell, who was the most just man among the Trojans:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<i>"——Cadit & Ripheus justissimus unus<br /> +Qui fuit in Teucris, & servantissimus æqui.<br /> +Diis aliter visum est.——</i><br /> +<br /> +"The gods thought fit.—So blameless Ripheus fell,<br /> +Who lov'd fair Justice, and observ'd it well."</div> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>"And that Pantheus could neither be preserved by his transcendent +piety, nor by the holy fillets of Apollo, whose priest he was:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<i>"——Nec te tua plurima, Pantheu,<br /> +Labentem pietas, nec Apollinis infula texit.</i> Æn. II.<br /> +<br /> +"Nor could thy piety thee, Pantheus, save,<br /> +Nor ev'n thy priesthood, from an early grave.</div> + +<p> </p> +<p>"I might here mention the practice of antient Tragic Poets, both +Greek and Latin; but as this particular is touched upon in the +Paper above-mentioned, I shall pass it over in silence. I could +produce passages out of Aristotle in favour of my opinion: And if +in one place he says, that an absolutely virtuous man should not be +represented as unhappy, this does not justify any one who shall +think fit to bring in an absolutely virtuous man upon the stage. +Those who are acquainted with that author's way of writing, know +very well, that to take the whole extent of his subject into his +divisions of it, he often makes use of such cases as are imaginary, +and not reducible to practice....</p> + +<p>"I shall conclude, <i>says this gentleman</i>, with observing, that tho' +the <i>Spectator</i> above-mentioned is so far against the rule of +<i>Poetical Justice</i>, as to affirm, that good men may meet with an +unhappy Catastrophe in Tragedy, it does not say, that ill men may +go off unpunished. The reason for this distinction is very plain; +namely, because the best of men [as is said above] have faults +enough to justify Providence for any misfortunes and afflictions +which may befal them; but there are many men so criminal, that they +can have no claim or pretence to happiness. The <i>best</i> of men may +deserve punishment; but the <i>worst</i> of men cannot deserve +happiness."</p> + +<p>Mr. Addison, as we have seen above, tells us, that Aristotle, in +considering the Tragedies that were written in either of the kinds, +observes, that those which ended unhappily had always pleased the +people, and carried away the prize, in the public disputes of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +Stage, from those that ended happily. And we shall take leave to add, that this preference was given at a time +when the entertainments of the Stage were committed to the care of the +magistrates; when the prizes contended for were given by the State; +when, of consequence, the emulation among writers was ardent; and when +learning was at the highest pitch of glory in that renowned +commonwealth.</p> + +<p>It cannot be supposed, that the Athenians, in this their highest age of +taste and politeness, were less humane, less tender-hearted, than we of +the present. But they were not <i>afraid</i> of being moved, nor <i>ashamed</i> of +shewing themselves to be so, at the distresses they saw well painted and +represented. In short, they were of the opinion, with the wisest of men, +<i>That it was better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of +mirth</i>; and had fortitude enough to trust themselves with their own +generous grief, because they found their hearts mended by it.</p> + +<p>Thus also Horace, and the politest Romans in the Augustan age, wished to be affected:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<i>Ac ne forte putes me, quæ facere ipse recusem,<br /> +Cum recte tractant alii, laudare maligne;<br /> +Ille per extentum funem mihi posse videtur<br /> +Ire poeta, meum qui pectus inaniter angit,<br /> +Irritat, mulcet; falsis terroribus implet,<br /> +Ut magus; & modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis</i>.</div> + +<p>Thus Englished by Mr. Pope:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +Yet, lest you think I railly more than teach,<br /> +Or praise malignly <i>Arts</i> I cannot reach,<br /> +Let me, for once, presume t'instruct the times<br /> +To know the <i>Poet</i> from the <i>Man of Rhymes</i>.<br /> +'Tis He who gives my breast a thousand pains,<br /> +Can make me <i>feel</i> each passion that he feigns;<br /> +Enrage—compose—with more than magic art,<br /> +With <i>pity</i> and with <i>terror</i> tear my heart;<br /> +And snatch me o'er the earth, or thro' the air,<br /> +To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where.</div> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>Our fair readers are also desired to attend to what a celebrated +Critic<small><a name="f42.1" id="f42.1" href="#f42">[42]</a></small> of a neighbouring nation says on the nature and design of +Tragedy, from the rules laid down by the same great Antient.</p> + +<p>'Tragedy, says he, makes man <i>modest</i>, by representing the great +masters of the earth humbled; and it makes him <i>tender</i> and +<i>merciful</i>, by shewing him the <i>strange accidents of life</i>, and the +<i>unforeseen disgraces</i> to which the most important persons are +subject.</p> + +<p>'But because Man is naturally timorous and compassionate, he may +fall into other extremes. Too much fear may shake his constancy of +mind, and too much compassion may enfeeble his equity. 'Tis the +business of Tragedy to regulate these two weaknesses. It prepares +and arms him against <i>disgraces</i>, by shewing them so frequent in +the most considerable persons; and he will cease to fear +extraordinary accidents, when he sees them happen to the <i>highest</i> +part of Mankind. And still more efficacious, we may add, the +example will be, when he sees them happen to the <i>best</i>.</p> + +<p>'But as the end of Tragedy is to teach men not to fear too weakly +<i>common misfortunes</i>, it proposes also to teach them to spare their +compassion for objects that <i>deserve it</i>. For there is an +<i>injustice</i> in being moved at the afflictions of those who <i>deserve +to be miserable</i>. We may see, without pity, Clytemnestra slain by +her son Orestes in Æschylus, because she had murdered Agamemnon her +husband; yet we cannot see Hippolytus die by the plot of his +Stepmother Phædra, in Euripides, without compassion, because he +died not, but for being chaste and virtuous.'</p> + +<p>'These are the great authorities so favourable to the stories that +end unhappily. And we beg leave to reinforce this inference from +them, That if the temporary sufferings of the Virtuous and the Good +can be accounted for and justified on Pagan principles, many more +and infinitely stronger reasons will occur to a Christian Reader in +behalf of what are called unhappy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> Catastrophes from the +consideration of the doctrine of <i>future rewards</i>; which is +every-where strongly inforced in the History of Clarissa.</p> + +<p>'Of this (to give but one instance) an ingenious Modern, +distinguished by his rank, but much more for his excellent defence +of some of the most important doctrines of Christianity, appears +convinced in the conclusion of a pathetic <i>Monody</i>, lately +published; in which, after he had deplored, as a man <i>without +hope</i>, (expressing ourselves in the Scripture phrase) the loss of +an excellent Wife; he thus consoles himself:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>'Yet, O my soul! thy rising murmurs stay,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Nor dare th' All-wise Disposer to arraign,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Or against his supreme decree</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>With impious grief complain.</i></span><br /> +<i>That all thy full-blown joys at once should fade,</i><br /> +<i>Was his most righteous Will: And be that Will obey'd.</i><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>'Would thy fond love his grace to her controul,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>And in these low abodes of sin and pain</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Her pure, exalted soul,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Unjustly, for thy partial good, detain?</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>No—rather strive thy groveling mind to raise</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Up to that unclouded blaze,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>That heav'nly radiance of eternal light,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>In which enthroned she now with pity sees</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>How frail, how insecure, how slight</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Is ev'ry mortal bliss.</i></span></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>'But of infinitely greater weight than all that has been above +produced on this subject, are the words of the Psalmist.</p> + +<p>"As for me, says he<small><a name="f43.1" id="f43.1" href="#f43">[43]</a></small>, my feet were almost gone, my step had +well-nigh slipt: For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the +prosperity of the wicked. For their strength is firm: They are not +in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other +men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>—Their eyes stand out with fatness: They have more than their +heart could wish—Verily I have cleansed mine heart in vain, and +washed my hands in innocence; for all the day long have I been +plagued, and chastened every morning. When I thought to know this, +it was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary of God; +then understood I their end—Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, +and afterward receive me to glory.'</p> + +<p>'This is the Psalmist's comfort and dependence. And shall man, +presuming to alter the common course of nature, and, so far as he +is able, to elude the tenure by which frail mortality indispensibly +holds, imagine, that he can make a better dispensation; and by +calling it <i>Poetical Justice</i>, indirectly reflect on the <i>Divine</i>?'</p> + +<p>The more pains have been taken to obviate the objections arising from +the notion of <i>Poetical Justice</i>, as the doctrine built upon it had +obtained general credit among us; and as it must be confessed to have +the appearance of <i>humanity</i> and <i>good-nature</i> for its supports. And yet +the writer of the History of Clarissa is humbly of opinion, that he +might have been excused referring to them for the vindication of <i>his</i> +Catastrophe, even by those who are advocates for the contrary opinion; +since the notion of <i>Poetical Justice</i>, founded on the <i>modern rules</i>, +has hardly ever been more strictly observed in works of this nature, +than in the present performance.</p> + +<p>For, Is not Mr. Lovelace, who could persevere in his villainous views, +against the strongest and most frequent convictions and remorses that +ever were sent to awaken and reclaim a wicked man—Is not this great, +this <i>wilful</i> transgressor, condignly <i>punished</i>; and his punishment +brought on thro' the intelligence of the very Joseph Leman whom he had +corrupted<small><a name="f44.1" id="f44.1" href="#f44">[44]</a></small>; and by means of the very women whom he had +debauched<small><a name="f45.1" id="f45.1" href="#f45">[45]</a></small>—Is not Mr. Belton, who has an Uncle's <i>hastened</i> death to +answer for<small><a name="f46.1" id="f46.1" href="#f46">[46]</a></small>—Are not the <i>whole</i> Harlowe-family—Is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>not the vile +Tomlinson—Are not the infamous Sinclair, and her <i>wretched +partners</i>—And even the wicked <i>Servants</i>, who, with their eyes open, +contributed their parts to the carrying on of the vile schemes of their +respective principals—<i>Are they not All likewise exemplarily punished?</i></p> + +<p>On the other hand, Is not Miss <span class="smcap">Howe</span>, for her noble friendship to the +exalted Lady in her calamities—Is not Mr. <span class="smcap">Hickman</span>, for his +unexceptionable morals, and integrity of life—Is not the repentant and +not ungenerous <span class="smcap">Belford</span>—Is not the worthy <span class="smcap">Norton</span>—<i>made signally happy</i>?</p> + +<p>And who that are in earnest in their profession of Christianity, but +will rather envy than regret the triumphant death of <span class="smcap">Clarissa</span>; whose +piety, from her <i>early childhood</i>; whose diffusive charity; whose steady +virtue; whose Christian humility; whose forgiving spirit; whose +meekness, and resignation, HEAVEN <i>only</i> could reward<small><a name="f47.1" id="f47.1" href="#f47">[47]</a></small>?</p> + +<p>"We shall now, according to expectation given in the <i>Preface</i> to +this Edition, proceed to take brief notice of such other objections +as have come to our knowlege: For as is there said, 'This Work +being addressed to the Public as an History of <i>Life</i> and +<i>Manners</i>, those parts of it which are proposed to carry with them +the force of Example, ought to be as unobjectible as is consistent +with the <i>design of the whole</i>, and with <i>human Nature</i>.'</p> + +<p>"Several persons have censured the Heroine as too cold in her love, +too haughty, and even sometimes provoking. But we may presume to +say, that this objection has arisen from want of attention to the +Story, to the Character of Clarissa, and to her particular situation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>"It was not intended that she should be <i>in Love</i>, but <i>in Liking</i> +only, if that expression may be admitted. It is meant to be +every-where inculcated in the Story, for <i>Example-sake</i>, that she +never would have married Mr. Lovelace, because of his immoralities, +had she been left to herself; and that her ruin was principally +owing to the persecutions of her friends.</p> + +<p>"What is too generally called <i>Love</i>, ought (perhaps <i>as</i> generally) +to be called by another name. <i>Cupidity</i>, or a <i>Paphian Stimulus</i>, +as some women, even of condition, have acted, are not words too +harsh to be substituted on the occasion, however grating they may +be to delicate ears. But take the word <i>Love</i> in the gentlest and +most honourable sense, it would have been thought by some highly +improbable, that Clarissa should have been able to shew such a +command of her passions, as makes so distinguishing a part of her +Character, had she been as violently in Love, as certain warm and +fierce spirits would have had her to be. A few Observations are +thrown in by way of Note in the present Edition, at proper places, +to obviate this Objection, or rather to bespeak the <i>Attention</i> of +hasty Readers to what lies obviously before them. For thus the +Heroine anticipates this very Objection, expostulating with Miss +Howe, on her contemptuous treatment of Mr. Hickman; which [far from +being guilty of the same fault herself] she did on all occasions, +and declares she would do, whenever Miss Howe forgot herself, +altho' she had not a day to live:</p> + +<p>"'O my dear, says she, that it had been my Lot (as I was not +permitted to live single) to have met with a man, by whom I <i>could</i> +have acted generously and unreservedly!</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Lovelace, it is now plain, in order to have a pretence against +me, taxed my behaviour to him with stiffness and distance. You, at +one time, thought me guilty of some degree of Prudery. Difficult +situations should be allowed for; which often make seeming +occasions for censure unavoidable. I deserved not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> blame from +<i>him</i>, who made mine difficult. And if I had had any other man to +deal with than Mr. Lovelace, or had he had but half the merit which +Mr Hickman has, you, my Dear, should have found, that my Doctrine, +on this Subject, should have governed my Practice.' See this whole +Letter<small><a name="f48.1" id="f48.1" href="#f48">[48]</a></small>; See also Mr. Lovelace's Letter Nº lxxvii. Vol. VII. p. +310. <i>& seq.</i> where, just before his Death, he entirely acquits her +conduct on this head.</p> + +<p>"It has been thought by some worthy and ingenious persons, that if +Lovelace had been drawn an <i>Infidel</i> or <i>Scoffer</i>, his Character, +according to the Taste of the present worse than Sceptical Age, +would have been more natural. It is, however, too well known, that +there are very many persons, of his Cast, whose actions discredit +their belief. And are not the very Devils, in Scripture, said to +<i>believe</i> and <i>tremble</i>?</p> + +<p>"But the Reader must have observed, that great, and, it is hoped, +good Use, has been made throughout the Work, by drawing Lovelace an +Infidel only in <i>Practice</i>; and this as well in the arguments of +his friend Belford, as in his own frequent Remorses, when touched +with temporary Compunction, and in his last Scenes; which could not +have been made, had either of them been painted as <i>sentimental</i> +Unbelievers. Not to say, that Clarissa, whose great Objection to +Mr. Wyerly was, that he was a Scoffer, must have been inexcusable +had she known Lovelace to be so, and had given the least attention +to his Addresses. On the contrary, thus she comforts herself, when +she thinks she must be his—'This one consolation, however, +remains: He is not an Infidel, an Unbeliever. Had he been an +Infidel, there would have been no room at all for hope of him; but +(priding himself as he does in his fertile invention) he would have +been utterly abandoned, irreclaimable, and a Savage<small><a name="f49.1" id="f49.1" href="#f49">[49]</a></small>.' And it +must be observed, that Scoffers are too witty in their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +opinion; in other words, value themselves too much upon their +profligacy, to aim at concealing it.</p> + +<p>"Besides, had Lovelace added ribbald jests upon Religion, to his +other liberties, the freedoms which would then have passed between +him and his friend, must have been of a nature truly infernal. And +this farther hint was meant to be given, by way of inference, that +the man who allowed himself in those liberties either of speech or +action, which Lovelace thought shameful, was so far a worse man +than Lovelace. For this reason is he every-where made to treat +jests on sacred things and subjects, even down to the Mythology of +the Pagans, among Pagans, as undoubted marks of the ill-breeding of +the jesters; obscene images and talk, as liberties too shameful for +even Rakes to allow themselves in; and injustice to creditors, and +in matters of <i>Meum</i> and <i>Tuum</i>, as what it was beneath him to be +guilty of.</p> + +<p>"Some have objected to the meekness, to the tameness, as they will +have it to be, of the character of Mr. Hickman. And yet Lovelace +owns, that he rose upon him with great spirit in the interview +between them; once, when he thought a reflection was but implied on +<i>Miss Howe</i><small><a name="f50.1" id="f50.1" href="#f50">[50]</a></small>; and another time, when he imagined <i>himself</i> +treated contemptuously<small><a name="f51.1" id="f51.1" href="#f51">[51]</a></small>. Miss Howe, it must be owned (tho' not +to the credit of her own character) treats him ludicrously on +several occasions. But so she does her Mother. And perhaps a Lady +of her lively turn would have treated as whimsically any man but a +Lovelace. Mr. Belford speaks of him with honour and respect<small><a name="f52.1" id="f52.1" href="#f52">[52]</a></small>. So +does Colonel Morden<small><a name="f53.1" id="f53.1" href="#f53">[53]</a></small>. And so does Clarissa on every occasion. +And all that Miss Howe herself says of him, tends more to his +reputation than discredit<small><a name="f54.1" id="f54.1" href="#f54">[54]</a></small>, as Clarissa indeed tells her<small><a name="f55.1" id="f55.1" href="#f55">[55]</a></small>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>"And as to Lovelace's treatment of him, the Reader must have +observed, that it was his way to treat every man with contempt, +partly by way of self exaltation, and partly to gratify the natural +gaiety of his disposition. He says himself to Belford<small><a name="f56.1" id="f56.1" href="#f56">[56]</a></small>, 'Thou +knowest I love him not, Jack; and whom we love not, we cannot allow +a merit to; perhaps not the merit they should be granted.' 'Modest +and diffident men,' writes Belford, to Lovelace, in praise of Mr. +Hickman, 'wear not soon off those little precisenesses, which the +confident, if ever they had them, presently get over<small><a name="f57.1" id="f57.1" href="#f57">[57]</a></small>.'</p> + +<p>"But, as Miss Howe treats her Mother as freely as she does her +Lover; so does Mr. Lovelace take still greater liberties with Mr. +Belford, than he does with Mr. Hickman, with respect to his person, +air, and address, as Mr. Belford himself hints to Mr. Hickman<small><a name="f58.1" id="f58.1" href="#f58">[58]</a></small>. +And yet he is not so readily believed to the discredit of Mr. +Belford, by the Ladies in general, as he is when he disparages Mr. +Hickman. Whence can this partiality arise?—</p> + +<p>"<i>Mr. Belford had been a Rake: But was in a way of reformation.</i></p> + +<p>"<i>Mr. Hickman had always been a good man.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">"<i>And Lovelace</i> confidently says, <i>That the women love a +man whose regard for them is founded in the knowlege of them</i><small><a name="f59.1" id="f59.1" href="#f59">[59]</a></small>.</p> + + +<p>"Nevertheless, it must be owned, that it was not proposed to draw +Mr. Hickman, as the man of whom the Ladies in general were likely +to be very fond. Had it been so, <i>Goodness of heart</i>, and +<i>Gentleness of manners</i>, <i>great Assiduity</i>, and <i>inviolable</i> and +<i>modest</i> Love, would not of themselves have been supposed +sufficient recommendations. He would not have been allowed the +least share of <i>preciseness</i> or <i>formality</i>, altho' those defects +might have been imputed to his reverence for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> the object of his +passion: But in his character it was designed to shew, that the +same man could not be every-thing; and to intimate to Ladies, that +in chusing companions for life, they should rather prefer the +honest heart of a Hickman, which would be all their own, than to +risque the chance of sharing, perhaps with scores, (and some of +those probably the most profligate of the Sex) the volatile +mischievous one of a Lovelace: In short, that they should chuse, if +they wished for durable happiness, for rectitude of mind, and not +for speciousness of person or address: Nor make a jest of a good +man in favour of a bad one, who would make a jest of them and of +their whole Sex.</p> + +<p>"Two Letters, however, by way of accommodation, are inserted in this +edition, which perhaps will give Mr. Hickman's character some +heightening with such Ladies, as love spirit in a man; and had +rather suffer by it, than not meet with it.—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<i>Women, born to be controul'd,<br /> +Stoop to the Forward and the Bold,</i></div> + +<p>Says Waller—And Lovelace too!</p> + +<p>"Some have wished that the Story had been told in the usual +narrative way of telling Stories designed to amuse and divert, and +not in Letters written by the respective persons whose history is +given in them. The author thinks he ought not to prescribe to the +taste of others; but imagined himself at liberty to follow his own. +He perhaps mistrusted his talents for the narrative kind of +writing. He had the good fortune to succeed in the Epistolary way +once before. A Story in which so many persons were concerned either +principally or collaterally, and of characters and dispositions so +various, carried on with tolerable connexion and perspicuity, in a +series of Letters from different persons, without the aid of +digressions and episodes foreign to the principal end and design, +he thought had novelty to be pleaded for it: And that, in the +present age, he supposed would not be a slight recommendation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>"But besides what has been said above, and in the <i>Preface</i>, on this +head, the following opinion of an ingenious and candid Foreigner, +on this manner of writing, may not be improperly inserted here.</p> + +<p>"'The method which the Author has pursued in the History of +Clarissa, is the same as in the Life of Pamela: Both are related in +familiar Letters by the parties themselves, at the very time in +which the events happened: And this method has given the author +great advantages, which he could not have drawn from any other +species of narration. The minute particulars of events, the +sentiments and conversation of the parties, are, upon this plan, +exhibited with all the warmth and spirit, that the passion supposed +to be predominant at the very time, could produce, and with all the +distinguishing characteristics which memory can supply in a History +of recent transactions.</p> + +<p>"'Romances in general, and Marivaux's amongst others, are wholly +improbable; because they suppose the History to be written after +the series of events is closed by the catastrophe: A circumstance +which implies a strength of memory beyond all example and +probability in the persons concerned, enabling them, at the +distance of several years, to relate all the particulars of a +transient conversation: Or rather, it implies a yet more improbable +confidence and familiarity between all these persons and the +author.</p> + +<p>"'There is, however, one difficulty attending the Epistolary method; +for it is necessary, that all the characters should have an +uncommon taste for this kind of conversation, and that they should +suffer no event, nor even a remarkable conversation, to pass, +without immediately committing it to writing. But for the +preservation of the Letters <i>once written</i>, the author has provided +with great judgment, so as to render this circumstance highly +probable<small><a name="f60.1" id="f60.1" href="#f60">[60]</a></small>.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>"It is presumed that what this gentleman says of the difficulties +attending a Story thus given in the Epistolary manner of writing, +will not be found to reach the History before us. It is very well +accounted for in it, how the two principal Female characters come +to take so great a delight in writing. Their subjects are not +merely subjects of amusement; but greatly interesting to both: Yet +many Ladies there are who now laudably correspond, when at distance +from each other, on occasions that far less affect their mutual +welfare and friendships, than those treated of by these Ladies. The +two principal gentlemen had motives of gaiety and vain-glory for +their inducements. It will generally be found, that persons who +have talents for familiar writeing, as these correspondents are +presumed to have, will not forbear amusing themselves with their +pens, on less arduous occasions than what offer to these. These +Four (whose Stories have a connexion with each other) out of a +great number of characters which are introduced in this History, +are only eminent in the Epistolary way: The rest appear but as +occasional writers, and as drawn in rather by necessity than +choice, from the different relations in which they stand with the +four principal persons."</p> + +<p>The Length of the piece has been objected to by some, who perhaps looked +upon it as a mere <i>Novel</i> or <i>Romance</i>; and yet of <i>these</i> there are not +wanting works of equal length.</p> + +<p>They were of opinion, that the Story moved too slowly, particularly in +the first and second Volumes, which are chiefly taken up with the +Altercations between Clarissa and the several persons of her Family.</p> + +<p>But is it not true, that those Altercations are the Foun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>dation of the +whole, and therefore a necessary part of the work? The Letters and +Conversations, where the Story makes the slowest progress, are presumed +to be <i>characteristic</i>. They give occasion likewise to suggest many +interesting <i>Personalities</i>, in which a good deal of the instruction +essential to a work of this nature is conveyed. And it will, moreover, +be remembered, that the Author, at his first setting out, apprised the +Reader, that the Story (interesting as it is generally allowed to be) +was to be principally looked upon as the Vehicle to the Instruction.</p> + +<p>To all which we may add, that there was frequently a necessity to be +very circumstantial and minute, in order to preserve and maintain that +Air of Probability, which is necessary to be maintained in a Story +designed to represent real Life; and which is rendered extremely busy +and active by the plots and contrivances formed and carried on by one of +the principal Characters.</p> + +<p>'Some there are, and Ladies too! who have supposed that the +excellencies of the Heroine are carried to an improbable, and even +to an impracticable height, in this History. But the education of +Clarissa from <i>early childhood</i> ought to be considered, as one of +her very great advantages; as, indeed, the foundation of <i>all</i> her +excellencies: And it is hoped, for the sake of the doctrine +designed to be inculcated by it, that it will.</p> + +<p>'She had a pious, a well-read, a not meanly descended woman for her +Nurse, who with her milk, as Mrs. Harlowe says<small><a name="f61.1" id="f61.1" href="#f61">[61]</a></small>, gave her that +nurture which no other Nurse could give her. She was very early +happy in the conversation-visits of her learned and worthy Dr. +Lewen, and in her correspondencies, not with him only, but with +other Divines mentioned in her last Will. Her Mother was, upon the +whole, a good woman; who did credit to her birth and her fortune, +and was able to instruct her in her early youth: Her Father was not +a free-living, or free-principled man;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> in the conversation-visits +of her learned and worthy Dr. Lewen, and in her correspondencies, +not with him only, but with other Divines mentioned in her lat +Will. Her <i>Mother</i> was, upon the whole, a good woman, who did +credit to her birth and her fortune; and <i>both</i> delighted in her +for those improvements and attainments, which gave her, <i>and them +in her</i>, a distinction that caused it to be said, that when she was +out of the family, it was considered but as a common family<small><a name="f62.1" id="f62.1" href="#f62">[62]</a></small>. +She was moreover a Country Lady; and, as we have seen in Miss +Howe's character of her<small><a name="f63.1" id="f63.1" href="#f63">[63]</a></small>, took great delight in rural and +houshold employments; tho' qualified to adorn the brightest circle.</p> + +<p>'It must be confessed, that we are not to look for <i>Clarissa's</i> +among the <i>constant frequenters</i> of Ranelagh and Vaux-hall, nor +among those who may be called <i>Daughters of the Card-table</i>. If we +do, the character of our Heroine may then indeed be justly thought +not only improbable, but unattainable. But we have neither room in +this place, nor inclination, to pursue a subject so invidious. We +quit it therefore, after we have <i>repeated</i>, that we <i>know</i> there +are <i>some</i>, and we <i>hope</i> there are <i>many</i>, in the British +dominions [or they are hardly any-where in the European world] who, +as far as <i>occasion</i> has called upon them to exert the like +<i>humble</i> and <i>modest</i>, yet <i>steady</i> and <i>useful</i>, virtues, have +reached the perfections of a Clarissa.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>'Having thus briefly taken notice of the most material objections +that have been made to different parts of this History, it is hoped +we may be allowed to add, That had we thought ourselves at liberty +to give copies of some of the many Letters that have been written +on the other side of the question, that is to say, in approbation +of the Catastrophe, and of the general Conduct and Execution of the +work, by some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> of the most eminent judges of composition in every +branch of Literature; most of what has been written in this +Postscript might have been spared.</p> + +<p>'But as the principal objection with many has lain against the +length of the piece, we shall add to what we have said above on +that subject, in the words of one of those eminent writers: 'That, +<i>If</i>, in the History before us, it shall be found, that the Spirit +is <i>duly diffused throughout</i>; that the Characters are <i>various and +natural</i>; <i>well distinguished</i> and <i>uniformly supported</i> and +<i>maintained</i>: <i>If</i> there be a <i>variety of incidents</i> sufficient to +excite Attention, and those so conducted, as to keep the Reader +always awake; the Length then must add proportionably to the +pleasure that every Person of Taste receives from a well-drawn +Picture of Nature. But where the contrary of all these qualities +shock the understanding, the extravagant performance will be judged +tedious, tho' no longer than a Fairy-Tale.'</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_061.png" alt="decorative emblem" /></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="u">Footnotes:</span></p> + +<p><a name="f34" id="f34" href="#f34.1">[34]</a> Writing on to him.</p> + +<p><a name="f35" id="f35" href="#f35.1">[35]</a> Her Flight.</p> + +<p><a name="f36" id="f36" href="#f36.1">[36]</a> See Vol. III. p. 358.</p> + +<p><a name="f37" id="f37" href="#f37.1">[37]</a> Spectator, Vol I. Nº XL.</p> + +<p><a name="f38" id="f38" href="#f38.1">[38]</a> Yet in Tamerlane, two of the most amiable characters, Moneses and +Arpasia, suffer death.</p> + +<p><a name="f39" id="f39" href="#f39.1">[39]</a> See Spect. Vol. VII. Nº 548.</p> + +<p><a name="f40" id="f40" href="#f40.1">[40]</a> A caution that our Blessed Saviour himself gives in the case of the +Eighteen persons killed by the fall of the tower of Siloam, Luke xiii. 4.</p> + +<p><a name="f41" id="f41" href="#f41.1">[41]</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Vitiis nemo sine nascitur: optimus ille</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Qui minimis urgetur——.</i></span></p> + +<p><a name="f42" id="f42" href="#f42.1">[42]</a> Rapin, on Aristotle's Poetics.</p> + +<p><a name="f43" id="f43" href="#f43.1">[43]</a> Psalm lxxiii.</p> + +<p><a name="f44" id="f44" href="#f44.1">[44]</a> See Vol. VII. p. 301, 302.</p> + +<p><a name="f45" id="f45" href="#f45.1">[45]</a> Ibid. p. 315.</p> + +<p><a name="f46" id="f46" href="#f46.1">[46]</a> See Vol. VI. p. 268.</p> + +<p><a name="f47" id="f47" href="#f47.1">[47]</a> And here it may not be amiss to remind the Reader, that so early in +the Work as Vol. II. p. 159, 160, the dispensations of Providence are +justified by herself. And thus she ends her Reflections—"I shall not +live always—May my Closing Scene be happy!"</p> + +<p>She had her wish. It was happy.</p> + +<p><a name="f48" id="f48" href="#f48.1">[48]</a> Vol. VII. p. 64, 65, of the First Edition; and Vol. VI. p. 305 of this.</p> + +<p><a name="f49" id="f49" href="#f49.1">[49]</a> Vol. IV. p. 122.</p> + +<p><a name="f50" id="f50" href="#f50.1">[50]</a> Vol. VI. p. 10.</p> + +<p><a name="f51" id="f51" href="#f51.1">[51]</a> Vol. VI. p. 14.</p> + +<p><a name="f52" id="f52" href="#f52.1">[52]</a> Vol. VI. p. 71.</p> + +<p><a name="f53" id="f53" href="#f53.1">[53]</a> Vol. VII. p. 244.</p> + +<p><a name="f54" id="f54" href="#f54.1">[54]</a> See Vol. I. p. 314-319, and Vol. III. p. 44, 45.</p> + +<p><a name="f55" id="f55" href="#f55.1">[55]</a> Vol. I. p. 363.</p> + +<p><a name="f56" id="f56" href="#f56.1">[56]</a> Vol. VI. p. 1.</p> + +<p><a name="f57" id="f57" href="#f57.1">[57]</a> Vol. VI. p. 71.</p> + +<p><a name="f58" id="f58" href="#f58.1">[58]</a> Vol. VII. p. 197.</p> + +<p><a name="f59" id="f59" href="#f59.1">[59]</a> Vol. IV. p. 302.</p> + +<p><a name="f60" id="f60" href="#f60.1">[60]</a> This quotation is translated from a Critique on the History of +<span class="smcap">Clarissa</span>, written in French, and published at Amsterdam. The whole +Critique is rendered into English, and inserted in the Gentleman's +Magazine of June and August 1749. The author has done great honour in it +to the History of Clarissa; and as there are Remarks published with it, +answering several objections made to different passages by that candid +Foreigner, the Reader is referred to the aforesaid Magazines, for both.</p> + +<p><a name="f61" id="f61" href="#f61.1">[61]</a> See Vol. III. p 287, 288.</p> + +<p><a name="f62" id="f62" href="#f62.1">[62]</a> See Vol. VI. p. 274. See also her Mother's praises of her to Mrs. Norton, Vol. I. p. 251.</p> + +<p><a name="f63" id="f63" href="#f63.1">[63]</a> See Vol. VII. p. 278-280.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY</h3> + +<h4><i>Publications in Print</i></h4> + +<h4>1948-1949</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>16. Nevil Payne's <i>Fatal Jealousy</i> (1673).</p> + +<p>17. Nicholas Rowe's <i>Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespeare</i> (1709).</p> + +<p>18. "Of Genius," in <i>The Occasional Paper</i>, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719); and Aaron Hill's Preface to <i>The Creation</i> (1720).</p></div> + +<h4>1949-1950</h4> +<div class="ads"><p>22. Samuel Johnson's <i>The Vanity of Human Wishes</i> (1749) and Two Rambler papers (1750).</p> + +<p>23. John Dryden's <i>His Majesties Declaration Defended</i> (1681).</p></div> + +<h4>1950-1951</h4> +<div class="ads"><p>26. Charles Macklin's <i>The Man of the World</i> (1792).</p></div> + +<h4>1951-1952</h4> +<div class="ads"><p>31. Thomas Gray's <i>An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard</i> (1751); and <i>The Eton College Manuscript</i>.</p></div> + +<h4>1952-1953</h4> +<div class="ads"><p>41. Bernard Mandeville's <i>A Letter to Dion</i> (1732).</p></div> + +<h4>1953-1954</h4> +<div class="ads"><p>45. John Robert Scott's <i>Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine Arts</i>.</p></div> + +<h4>1954-1955</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>49. Two St. Cecilia's Day Sermons (1696-1697).</p> + +<p>51. Lewis Maidwell's <i>An Essay upon the Necessity and Excellency of Education</i> (1705).</p> + +<p>52. Pappity Stampoy's <i>A Collection of Scotch Proverbs</i> (1663).</p></div> + +<h4>1958-1959</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>75. John Joyne, <i>A Journal</i> (1679).</p> + +<p>76. André Dacier, <i>Preface to Aristotle's Art of Poetry</i> (1705).</p></div> + +<h4>1959-1960</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>80. [P. Whalley's] <i>An Essay on the Manner of Writing History</i> (1746).</p> + +<p>83. <i>Sawney and Colley (1742) and other Pope Pamphlets.</i></p> + +<p>84. Richard Savage's <i>An Author to be lett</i> (1729).</p></div> + +<h4>1960-1961</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>85-6. <i>Essays on the Theatre from Eighteenth-Century Periodicals.</i></p> + +<p>87. Daniel Defoe, <i>Of Captain Mission and his Crew</i> (1728).</p> + +<p>90. Henry Needler, <i>Works</i> (1728).</p></div> + +<h4>1961-1962</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>93. John Norris, <i>Cursory Reflections Upon a Book Call'd. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding</i> (1690).</p> + +<p>94. An Collins, <i>Divine Songs and Meditacions</i> (1653).</p> + +<p>95. <i>An Essay on the New Species of Writing Founded by Mr. Fielding</i> (1751).</p> + +<p>96. <i>Hanoverian Ballads.</i></p></div> + +<h4>1962-1963</h4> +<div class="ads"> +<p>97. Myles Davies, <i>Athenae Britannicae</i> (1716-1719).</p> + +<p>98. <i>Select Hymns Taken Out of Mr. Herbert's Temple</i> (1697).</p> + +<p>99. Thomas Augustine Arne, <i>Artaxerxes</i> (1761).</p> + +<p>100. Simon Patrick, <i>A Brief Account of the New Sect of Latitude-Men</i> (1662).</p> + +<p>101-2. Richard Hurd, <i>Letters on Chivalry and Romance</i> (1762).</p></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California, Los Angeles</h4> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Augustan Reprint Society</span></h3> +<p> </p> +<table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Editors"> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">GENERAL EDITORS</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">R. C. Boys</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">University of Michigan</span></td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Maximillian E. Novak</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">University of California, Los Angeles</span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Earl Miner</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">University of California, Los Angeles</span></td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Lawrence Clark Powell</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library</span></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><i>Corresponding Secretary</i>: Mrs. Edna C. Davis, Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library</td></tr></table> +<p> </p> + +<p>The Society's purpose is to publish reprints (usually facsimile +reproductions) of rare seventeenth and eighteenth century works. All +income of the Society is devoted to defraying costs of publication and mailing.</p> + +<p>Correspondence concerning subscriptions in the United States and Canada +should be addressed to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 2205 +West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. Correspondence concerning +editorial matters may be addressed to any of the general editors. The +membership fee is $5.00 a year for subscribers in the United States and +Canada and 30/- for subscribers in Great Britain and Europe. British and +European subscribers should address B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, +Oxford, England. Copies of back issues in print may be obtained from the Corresponding Secretary.</p> + +<p>The publications for 1963-1964 are in part subsidized by funds +generously given to the Society in memory of the late Professor Edward +N. Hooker, one of its co-founders.</p> + +<p class="center">Publications for 1963-1964</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Samuel Richardson</span>, <i>Clarissa</i>: Preface, Hints of Prefaces, and Postscript. Introduction by R. F. Brissenden.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Thomas D'Urfey</span>, <i>Wonders in the Sun, or the Kingdom of the Birds</i> (1706). Introduction by William W. Appleton.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Daniel Defoe</span>, <i>A Brief History of the Poor Palatine Refugees</i> (1709). Introduction by John Robert Moore.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Bernard Mandeville</span>, <i>An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn</i> (1725). Introduction by Malvin R. Zirker, Jr.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">John Oldmixon</span>, <i>An Essay on Criticism</i> (1728). Introduction by R. J. Madden, C.S.B.</p> +<p> </p> + +<h3>THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY</h3> + +<h4>William Andrews Clark Memorial Library</h4> + +<h5>2205 WEST ADAMS BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90018</h5> + +<h5>Make check or money order payable to <span class="smcap">The Regents of the University of California</span>.</h5> + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h5><a name="title" id="title"></a>Text of Title Page</h5> +<p class="center"> +CLARISSA.<br /> +OR, THE<br /> +HISTORY<br /> +OF A<br /> +YOUNG LADY:<br /> +Comprehending<br /> +<i>The most</i> Important Concerns <i>of</i> Private <span class="smcap">Life</span>,<br /> +And particularly shewing,<br /> +The <span class="smcap">Distresses</span> that may attend the Misconduct<br /> +Both of <span class="smcap">Parents</span> and <span class="smcap">Children</span>,<br /> +In Relation to <span class="smcap">Marriage</span>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Published by the</i> <span class="smcap">Editor</span> <i>of</i> PAMELA.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +VOL. I.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>LONDON:</i><br /> +Printed for S. Richardson:<br /> +And Sold by <span class="smcap">A. Millar</span>, over-against <i>Catharine-street</i> in the <i>Strand</i>:<br /> +J. and <span class="smcap">Ja. Rivington</span>, in <i>St. Paul's Church-yard</i>:<br /> +<span class="smcap">John Osborn</span>, in <i>Pater-noster Row</i>;<br /> +And by <span class="smcap">J. Leake</span>, at <i>Bath</i>.<br /> +<br /> +M.DCC.XLVIII.</p> + + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="u">Transcriber's Notes:</span></p> +<p>Long "s" has been modernized.</p> + +<p>Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate +both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as +presented in the original text.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarissa: Preface, Hints of Prefaces, +and Postscript, by Samuel Richardson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARISSA: PREFACE, HINTS, POSTSCRIPT *** + +***** This file should be named 29964-h.htm or 29964-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/9/6/29964/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Stephanie Eason, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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