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diff --git a/29964.txt b/29964.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8290728 --- /dev/null +++ b/29964.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2748 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarissa: Preface, Hints of Prefaces, and +Postscript, by Samuel Richardson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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: ASCII + +*** 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. + + + + + + + + + + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + + + SAMUEL RICHARDSON, + _CLARISSA:_ + Preface, Hints of Prefaces, + and Postscript. + + + _Introduction_ + BY + R. F. BRISSENDEN. + + + PUBLICATION NUMBER 103 + WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY + UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES + 1964 + + + +GENERAL EDITORS + + Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ + Earl R. Miner, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + Lawrence Clark Powell, _Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ + + +ADVISORY EDITORS + + John Butt, _University of Edinburgh_ + James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ + Ralph Cohen, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ + Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ + Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ + Everett T. Moore, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + James Sutherland, _University College, London_ + H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +CORRESPONDING SECRETARY + +Edna C. Davis, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The seven volumes of the first edition of _Clarissa_ 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).[1] 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. + +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. + +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 _Sir Charles Grandison_ +are, by comparison, brief and restricted in their application; while the +introductory material in _Pamela_ is, so far as critical theory is +concerned, slight and incoherent. + +The _Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa_, 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 _Hints of Prefaces_, 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 _Clarissa_ 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',[2] particularly as +exemplified in the novels of Henry Fielding. + +It is impossible to determine how much of _Hints of Prefaces_ 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.[3] 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. + +In preparing the Preface and Postscript Richardson was faced with a +genuine problem. He realised that his achievement in _Clarissa_ 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,'[4] 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;'[5] and it is +not surprising that, both before and after the publication of +_Clarissa_, he should have besieged his friends with requests for their +opinions of the novel. + +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. _Hints of Prefaces_, 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 _critical_ +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 _Hints of Prefaces_.[6] Significantly, +it is the only paragraph in Warburton's essay which has something to say +about the distinctive qualities of _Clarissa_. + +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 _Clarissa_ is morally valuable. The reader who expects it to be +a 'mere _Novel_ or _Romance_'[7] 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 _Vehicle_ to the more necessary +INSTRUCTION'[8]--a dictum that Fielding was to quote with approval.[9] + +The argument, though valid, is excessively laboured. In the Postscript, +especially, Richardson is so preoccupied with demonstrating that +_Clarissa_ is a Christian tragedy that he neglects to develop in any +detail the other claims he makes for it. Yet _Hints of Prefaces_ 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. + +From the beginning Richardson claimed to be a realist: _Pamela_, 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 _Clarissa_ +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 _sudden Conversions_ ... had neither _Art_, nor _Nature_, +nor even _Probability_, in them;'[10] and in the passage in _Hints of +Prefaces_[11] of which this is a condensation, he attempts to make out a +case for the second part of _Pamela_ as a realistic study of married +life. _Clarissa_ 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 _Poetical +Justice_ founded on the _modern rules_'[12] is strictly observed in +_Clarissa_). + +The claim that _Clarissa_ 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,'[13] we +have 'a Work of a new kind among us'.[14] _Clarissa_ is concerned with +'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.'[15] 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.'[16] + +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',[17] an English translation of which had been +printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of June and August, 1749. +Published anonymously, but written by Albrecht von Haller,[18] 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 +_Pamela_, 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;'[19] 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.'[20] + +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 _Pamela_, 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';[21] while in the +Postscript to _Clarissa_ Richardson describes it as a 'History (or +rather Dramatic Narrative)'.[22] The parallels which he draws between +_Clarissa_ 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. + +The basic distinction between drama and epic (or any other form of +narrative) had been drawn by Aristotle: + + 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.[23] + +Le Bossu, in his _Treatise of the Epick Poem_, 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 _Treatise_, and it is possible that +Richardson had also looked at Le Bossu to prepare himself for dealing +with the epic theory of his rival.[24] + +There were also precedents for placing the novel in the dramatic rather +than the epic tradition. Congreve, when he wrote _Incognita_ (1692), +took the drama as his model. 'Since all Traditions must indisputably +give place to the _Drama_,' 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 _Dramatick_ +Writing ... in the Design, Contexture, and Result of the Plot. I have +not observed it before in a Novel.'[25] The analogy with drama had also +been drawn by Henry Gally in his _Critical Essay on +Characteristic-Writings_ (1725), who, after maintaining that 'the +essential Parts of the Characters, in the _Drama_, and in +_Characteristic-Writings_ are the same,' goes on to praise the _Tatler_ +and the _Spectator_ for the 'excellent Specimens in the +Characteristic-Way' that they offered their readers.[26] Such +acknowledgments of the dramatic potentialities in prose fiction were, +however, unusual. The romances were modelled on the epic (Fielding, in +fact, describes _Joseph Andrews_ 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. + +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 +_Clarissa_ was published it had assumed the appearance of 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 _Clarissa_--publicly in the _Jacobite's +Journal_ and privately in a letter to the author--[27] makes full and +honourable amends for his mockery of Richardson in _Shamela_ and _Joseph +Andrews_. If he had not published _Tom Jones_ 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 _Tom Jones_ and +elsewhere. _Hints of Prefaces_ 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. + +_Hints of Prefaces_ bears no date, but there is evidence that it was +assembled after the first edition of _Clarissa_ had appeared and, in +part at least, after the publication of _Tom Jones_. Richardson refers +directly at one point to 'this Second Publication',[28] and several +sections in it are printed (either in full or in a condensed form) only +in the revised Postscript. _Hints of Prefaces_ 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 _Tom +Jones_ was published in the following February. A letter from Skelton, +dated June 10th, 1749,[29] which mentions an 'inclosed Paper' on +_Clarissa_, 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. + +Apart from such evidence it is obvious that one section of _Hints of +Prefaces_ 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 _Joseph Andrews_; +the Prefaces contributed by Fielding to the second edition of _The +Adventures of David Simple_ (1744), by his sister, Sarah, and its +sequel, _Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David +Simple_ (1747); and, of course, the introductory chapters in _Tom +Jones_. Richardson begins this part of _Hints of Prefaces_ with a +discussion of the three kinds of romance: those that offer us +'_Ridicule_; or _Serious Adventure_; or, lastly, a _Mixture of both_'. +He admits 'that there are some Works under the First of these Heads, +which have their Excellencies,' but doubts 'whether _Ridicule_ is a +proper basis ... whereon to build instruction.'[30] The reference here +seems clearly to be to the Preface to _Joseph Andrews_ 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 _Familiar +Letters_, 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.'[31] 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 _Clarissa_ he knew +that the challenge had been answered triumphantly: among other things it +is a complete vindication of the epistolary technique: + + We need not insist on the evident Superiority of this Method to the + dry Narrative; where the _Novelist_ 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...[32] + +_Tom Jones_, 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.'[33] + +After completing _Clarissa_ 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 _Hints of Prefaces for +Clarissa_. + + R. F. Brissenden + Australian National University + Canberra. + + + +FOOTNOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION + +[1] See _Samuel Richardson: a bibliographical Record of his literary +Career_, by William Merritt Sale (New Haven, 1936), pp. 49-50. + +[2] _Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa_, p. [13], 13. + +[3] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 370. + +[4] Forster MSS., XV, f 84, May 3, 1750. + +[5] Ibid., f 85. + +[6] [6], ... Warburton's Preface is reproduced in _Prefaces to Fiction_, +With an Introduction by Benjamin Boyce, Augustan Reprint Society +Publication Number 32 (Los Angeles, 1952). + +[7] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 367. + +[8] Preface (first edition) Vol. I, vi. + +[9] '_Pleasantry_, (as the ingenious Author of Clarissa says of a Story) +_should be made only the Vehicle of Instruction_. _The Covent-Garden +Journal_, 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.' +_Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon_ (London, 1755), The Preface, pp. +xvi-xvii. + +[10] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 349. + +[11] _Hints of Prefaces_, p. [2], 2. + +[12] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 359. + +[13] _Hints of Prefaces_, p. [8], 7. + +[14] Ibid., p. [9], 8. + +[15] Ibid., p. [8], 7. + +[16] Ibid., p. [9], 8. + +[17] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 366, footnote (a). + +[18] See Lawrence Marsden Price, 'On The Reception of Richardson in +Germany', _JEGP_, XXV (1926), 7-33. + +[19] _Pamela_ (London, 1741), Vol. I, vii. See _Samuel Richardson's +Introduction to Pamela_, edited by Sheridan W. Baker, Jr., Augustan +Reprint Society Publication Number 48 (Los Angeles, 1954). + +[20] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 366. + +[21] _Pamela_ (London, 1741), second edition, Vol. I, xviii. + +[22] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 351. + +[23] _The Poetics_, I, iv, in _Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric_ +(Everyman's Library) (London, 1953), p. 8. + +[24] _Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem_ (London, 1695), p. +114. Le Bossu's _Treatise_ was first published in France in 1675. +Compare, for example, Richardson's use of the term 'episodes' (_Hints of +Prefaces_, p. [4], 4) with the _Treatise_, Book II, chapters II-VI. + +[25] Op. cit. The Preface to the Reader (unpaginated). + +[26] _The Moral Characters of Theophrastus ... To which is prefix'd A +Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings_ (London, 1725), pp. 98-99. +Reproduced, with an Introduction by Alexander H. Chorney, as Augustan +Reprint Society Publication Number 33 (Los Angeles, 1952). + +[27] _The Jacobite's Journal_, 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. _Richardson_ +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., _Yale +Review_ (NS), XXXVIII (1948-49), 300-310. + +[28] _Hints of Prefaces_, p. [12], 11. + +[29] Forster MSS., Vol. XV, f 47. + +[30] _Hints of Prefaces_, p. [12], 11. + +[31] _Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple_ +(London, 1747), Vol. I, ix. + +[32] _Hints of Prefaces_, p. [13], 13. + +[33] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 365. + + + +HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA + + +_APPENDIX: Philip Skelton and Joseph Spence_ + +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. _The Life of Philip Skelton_, +by Samuel Burdy, first published in 1792, still makes entertaining and +interesting reading. Richardson met Skelton when he visited London in +1748 to publish _Ophiomaches, or Deism Revealed_. 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). + +The author of Spence's _Anecdotes_ needs no special introduction, +although some aspects of his relationship with Richardson are of +interest. He apparently first met the novelist late in 1747 or early in +1748. Richardson sought his opinion on _Clarissa_ before the final +volumes of the first edition had appeared: his letter discussing the +novel [_The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson_, 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 _Hints of Prefaces_. Before writing this he had almost certainly read +_Tom Jones_. 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. + +[See Austin Wright, _Joseph Spence: a critical Biography_ (Chicago, +1950), 120-123, 232 n.] + + + +NOTES TO POSTSCRIPT + +p. 368, 1. 31--p. 369, 1. 10: + +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: + + 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 _both_ + delighted in her for those improvements and attainments, which gave + her, _and them in her_, a distinction that caused it to be said, + that when she was out of the family, it was considered but as a + common family. + +[_Samuel Richardson: a bibliographical Record of his Literary Career_ +(New Haven, 1936), 59-61]. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +The Preface to the first edition is reproduced from a copy at the +Huntington Library, the Postscript to the fourth edition of _Clarissa_ +from a copy in the Rare Books Room of the Library of the University of +North Carolina. _Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa_ 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. + + + + + CLARISSA. + OR, THE + HISTORY + OF A + YOUNG LADY: + Comprehending + _The most_ Important Concerns _of_ Private LIFE, + And particularly shewing, + The DISTRESSES that may attend the Misconduct + Both of PARENTS and CHILDREN, + In Relation to MARRIAGE. + + _Published by the_ EDITOR _of_ PAMELA. + + VOL. I. + + _LONDON:_ + Printed for S. Richardson: + And Sold by A. MILLAR, over-against _Catharine-street_ in the _Strand_: + J. and JA. RIVINGTON, in _St. Paul's Church-yard_: + JOHN OSBORN, in _Pater-noster Row_; + And by J. LEAKE, at _Bath_. + + M.DCC.XLVIII. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following History is given in a Series of Letters, written +principally in a double, yet separate, Correspondence; + +Between Two young Ladies of Virtue and Honour, bearing an inviolable +Friendship for each other, and writing upon the most interesting +Subjects: And + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Length will be naturally expected, not only from what has been said, +but from the following Considerations: + +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 _instantaneous_ +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. + +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. + +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 _Length_, 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. + +One Gentleman, in particular, of whose Knowlege, 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. + +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. + +They were of Opinion, That in all Works of This, and of the Dramatic +Kind, STORY, or AMUSEMENT, should be considered as little more than the +_Vehicle_ to the more necessary INSTRUCTION: 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 _mensal_ or _mental_. + +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 _Youth_. +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 +_Amusement_.--And, with Reason; for what, in the _instructive_ Way, can +appear either _new_ or _needful_ 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? + +Others, likewise gave _their_ 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. + +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 necessary +to abstract or omit some of the Letters, in order to reduce the Bulk of +the Whole. + +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, + + To caution Parents against the _undue_ Exertion of their natural + Authority over their Children, in the great Article of Marriage: + + And Children against preferring a Man of Pleasure to a Man of + Probity, upon that dangerous, but too commonly received Notion, + _That a Reformed Rake makes the best Husband_. + + +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 + + + + +_HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA_ + + + +HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA + + +[1] + +Prefatical Hints. Partly taken from Letters to the Warrington Lady, +Letter VI. + +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 _Opportunity_ and _Importunity_, especially when attacked by a +Man she loves; and, That, _when once subdued, she is always subdued_; +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Relations; wounding all of them deeper by +the Generosity of her Forgiveness, than if they were to suffer the most +cruel Deaths. + +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 _Mind_ and not for _Person_; 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. / / + +[2] + +"May my Story," says our Heroine, Vol. ____ p. ____ "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 _rivetted Habits_, and, as I +may say, of _altering Natures_. 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. + +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 _happy Ending_ 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. + +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. + +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. _For we must observe_, 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. + +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 _true_ 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 +_totally_ to perish. Death in _such_ 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? / / + + * * * * * +[3] + +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." + +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 whether, by an Accommodation to the light Taste of the Age a +Religious Novel will do Good. + +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. + +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. / / + +[4] + +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. + +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. + +Variety of Styles and Circumstances. + + The Two first Volumes chiefly written by the Two Ladies. + Two next....................................by Lovelace. + Three last.....................by the reforming Belford. + + +Whence different Styles, Manners, &c. that make Episodes useless. + +~_Clarissa an Example to the Reader: The Example not to be taken from the +Reader._~ + +The vicious Characters in this History are more pure, Images more +chaste, than in the most virtuous of the Dramatic Poets. + +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. + +Obj. I. _Clarissa has been thought by some to want Love_--To be +prudish--To be over-delicate. + +Those who blame Clarissa for Over-niceness, would most probably have +been an easy Prey to a Lovelace. + +One Design in her Character is to shew, that Love ought to be overcome, +when it has not Virtue or Reformation for its Object. + +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. + +Clarissa an Example _to_ the Reader: The Example not to be taken _from_ +the Reader. + +Obj. II. _Lovelace could not be so generous, and so wicked._ Common +Experience confutes this Objection. + +Obj. III. _There could not be such a Tyrant of a Father: Such an +insolent and brutal Brother: Such an unrelenting Sister: Such a passive +Mother_--Every-body is not of this Opinion. It were to be wished, that +this Objection were unanswerable. + +Obj. IV. _The History is too minute._ Its Minuteness one of its +Excellencies. + +[5] + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +Obj. V. _Why did she not throw herself into Lady Betty's Protection?_ + +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 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. / / + + * * * * * + +[6] + +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 + each upon himself, and +very often make such Reflections upon each other, 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 spread by the +gayer Pen, and lighter Heart, of the other. + +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. + +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 _Things present_ 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. + + +On the Contents. + +Obj. _Contents will anticipate the Reader's Curiosity._ + +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. + +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 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. / / + +[7] + +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. + +--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. + +So many important Lessons, as to Life and Manners, in the Work, that the +Reader may be intrusted with the Contents. / / + + * * * * * + +[8] + +Rev. Mr. Skelton. + +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 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. / / + + * * * * * + +[9] + +Rev. Mr. Spence. + +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. + +The Writers of _Novels_ and _Romances_ 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 +_only_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The chief Intent of the Work was, to draw off the Ladies, if possible, +from the distinguishing Fondness many of them are 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. + +[10] + +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. + +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,[34] by going scarce sensibly out of the Bounds of her Duty; and +afterwards, by being betrayed into an Action[35], 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? + +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." + +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. + +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. + +[11] + +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. + +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 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. + +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. / / + + * * * * * + +[12] + +All the Objections to the Design and Conduct of the History of =Clarissa=, +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 =Novel=, or =Romance=. + +Now what a Romance usually professes to entertain us with, may be +considered under Three General Heads; _Ridicule_; or, _Serious +Adventures_; or, lastly, a _Mixture of both_. + +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 _Ridicule_ is a proper Basis (without the Help of more solid +Buttresses) whereon to build Instruction, whatever Delight it may +administer to the Reader. + +As to those Authors who have given us the _Serious_; 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, 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. + +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 + which +of Invention ~that~ have yet appeared. + +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 +_extravagant_ 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. + +The Second, That, by containing their Views _within the Bounds_ 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 _Fall_ 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. + +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. / / + +[13] + +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. + +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 +=Clarissa=; This the spirited and friendly Miss =Howe=; This the +supercilious Pedant =Brand=; This the humane and reclaiming =Belford=; This +the daring, learned, witty, and thence dangerous Libertine =Lovelace=:" +And so of the rest. + +We need not insist on the evident Superiority of this Method to the dry +Narrative; where the _Novelist_ 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. + +As the major Part of such Works as these might be _omitted_, 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 _restored_ 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 _Goddess_, 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 _Entertainment_, in the vulgar sense +of the word. + +An Objection remains to be answered; which is so minute, that it is +therefore condemned to this last and lowest Place. / / + +[14] + +"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 =Clarissa's= virtuous Standard, +than by striving to impeach her Character, effectually debase, if not +violently tear up, the decisive Standard of Right and Wrong. + +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 (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. + +We have a remarkable, and in some Degree a parallel Case in Scripture; +where we find, that the Rape of _Dinah_ was revenged, cruelly revenged, +by the Sons of Jacob. _Dinah_, like =Clarissa=, had Proposals of Marriage +made to her by the Ravisher. But these were not thought sufficient to +expunge the Stain upon a Person of that Family, from which was to +proceed the =Son= 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: _Should he deal +with_ =our Sister=, _as with an_ =Harlot=? + +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 =Morden=; however _new_ 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. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +_Referred to in the Preface._ + +IN WHICH + + Several Objections that have been made, as well to the Catastrophe + as to different Parts of the preceding History, are briefly + considered. + +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. + +Most of those directed to him by the gentler Sex, turned in favour of +what they called a _Fortunate Ending_. 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, _insisted that Poetical Justice_ 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? + +"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 +Sinclair herself. 'I have too much _Feeling_, said he[36]. 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.' + +"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 _sport_ her distresses would give to +the _tender-hearted_ 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. + +"But whatever were the fate of his work, the Author was resolved to take +a different method. He always thought, that _sudden Conversions_, such +especially, as were left to the candour of the Reader to _suppose_ and +_make out_, had neither _Art_, nor _Nature_, nor even _Probability_, in +them; and that they were moreover of very _bad_ 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. + +"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 _Press_: The great doctrines of +the Gospel brought into question: Those of self-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. + +"In this general depravity, when even the Pulpit has lost great part of +its weight, and the Clergy are considered as a body of _interested_ 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 _steal in_, 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: + + "_A verse may find him who a sermon flies, + "And turn delight into a sacrifice._ + +"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 _future Hope_. 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? + +"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. + +"And after all, what is the _poetical justice_ so much 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. + +The author of the History (or rather Dramatic Narrative) of Clarissa, is +therefore well justified by the _Christian System_, in deferring to +extricate suffering Virtue to the time in which it will meet with the +_Completion_ of its Reward. + +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 ARISTOTLE; whose sentiments in this matter we shall beg leave +to deliver in the words of a very amiable writer of our own Country. + +'The English writers of Tragedy, _says Mr. Addison_[37], 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. + +'This _error_ they have been led into by a _ridiculous_ doctrine in +_Modern Criticism_, that they are obliged to an _equal distribution_ of +_rewards_ and _punishments_, and an impartial execution of _poetical +justice_. + +'Who were the first that established this rule, I know not; but I am +sure it has no foundation in NATURE, in REASON, or in the PRACTICE OF +THE ANTIENTS. + +'We find, that good and evil happen alike unto ALL MEN on this side the +grave: And as the 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. + +'Whatever crosses and disappointments a good man suffers in the _Body_ +of the Tragedy, they will make but small impression on our minds, when +we know, that, in the _last Act_, he is to arrive at the end of his +wishes and desires. + +'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. + +'For this reason, the antient Writers of Tragedy treated men in their +_Plays_, as they are dealt with in the _World_, 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. + +'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. + +'Terror and Commiseration leave a _pleasing anguish_ 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. + +'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. + +'The best Plays of this kind are _The Orphan_, _Venice Preserved_, +_Alexander the Great_, _Theodosius_, _All for Love_, _Oedipus_, +_Oroonoko_, _Othello_, &c. + +'King _Lear_ is an admirable Tragedy of the same kind, as Shakespeare +wrote it: But as it is reformed according to the _chimerical notion_ of +POETICAL JUSTICE, in my humble opinion it has lost half its beauty. + +'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 _The +Mourning Bride_, _Tamerlane_[38], _Ulysses_, _Phaedra and Hippolytus_, +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 _only_ method; and by that means would very much cramp the +English Tragedy, and perhaps give a wrong bent to the genius of our +writers.' + +'This subject is further considered in a Letter to the Spectator[39]. + +"I find your opinion, says the author of it, concerning the +_late-invented_ term called _Poetical Justice_, 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.... + +"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 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[40]. 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[41]. + +"If such a strict _Poetical Justice_ (_proceeds the Letter-writer_), 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 _poetically_ good, if I may use the phrase +of our modern Critics. The _AEneid_ 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: + + "----_Cadit & Ripheus justissimus unus + Qui fuit in Teucris, & servantissimus aequi. + Diis aliter visum est.----_ + + "The gods thought fit.--So blameless Ripheus fell, + Who lov'd fair Justice, and observ'd it well. + + +"And that Pantheus could neither be preserved by his transcendent piety, +nor by the holy fillets of Apollo, whose priest he was: + + "----_Nec te tua plurima, Pantheu, + Labentem pietas, nec Apollinis infula texit._ AEn. II. + + "Nor could thy piety thee, Pantheus, save, + Nor ev'n thy priesthood, from an early grave. + + +"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.... + +"I shall conclude, _says this gentleman_, with observing, that tho' the +_Spectator_ above-mentioned is so far against the rule of _Poetical +Justice_, 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 _best_ of men may deserve punishment; but the _worst_ +of men cannot deserve happiness." + +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 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. + +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 _afraid_ of being moved, nor _ashamed_ 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, +_That it was better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of +mirth_; and had fortitude enough to trust themselves with their own +generous grief, because they found their hearts mended by it. + +Thus also Horace, and the politest Romans in the Augustan age, wished to +be affected: + + _Ac ne forte putes me, quae facere ipse recusem, + Cum recte tractant alii, laudare maligne; + Ille per extentum funem mihi posse videtur + Ire poeta, meum qui pectus inaniter angit, + Irritat, mulcet; falsis terroribus implet, + Ut magus; & modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis_. + +Thus Englished by Mr. Pope: + + Yet, lest you think I railly more than teach, + Or praise malignly _Arts_ I cannot reach, + Let me, for once, presume t'instruct the times + To know the _Poet_ from the _Man of Rhymes_. + 'Tis He who gives my breast a thousand pains, + Can make me _feel_ each passion that he feigns; + Enrage--compose--with more than magic art, + With _pity_ and with _terror_ tear my heart; + And snatch me o'er the earth, or thro' the air, + To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where. + + +Our fair readers are also desired to attend to what a celebrated +Critic[42] of a neighbouring nation says on the nature and design of +Tragedy, from the rules laid down by the same great Antient. + +'Tragedy, says he, makes man _modest_, by representing the great masters +of the earth humbled; and it makes him _tender_ and _merciful_, by +shewing him the _strange accidents of life_, and the _unforeseen +disgraces_ to which the most important persons are subject. + +'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 _disgraces_, 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 _highest_ part of Mankind. And still +more efficacious, we may add, the example will be, when he sees them +happen to the _best_. + +'But as the end of Tragedy is to teach men not to fear too weakly +_common misfortunes_, it proposes also to teach them to spare their +compassion for objects that _deserve it_. For there is an _injustice_ in +being moved at the afflictions of those who _deserve to be miserable_. +We may see, without pity, Clytemnestra slain by her son Orestes in +AEschylus, because she had murdered Agamemnon her husband; yet we cannot +see Hippolytus die by the plot of his Stepmother Phaedra, in Euripides, +without compassion, because he died not, but for being chaste and +virtuous.' + +'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 Catastrophes from the consideration of the +doctrine of _future rewards_; which is every-where strongly inforced in +the History of Clarissa. + +'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 _Monody_, lately published; in which, after he had +deplored, as a man _without hope_, (expressing ourselves in the +Scripture phrase) the loss of an excellent Wife; he thus consoles +himself: + + '_Yet, O my soul! thy rising murmurs stay, + Nor dare th' All-wise Disposer to arraign, + Or against his supreme decree + With impious grief complain. + That all thy full-blown joys at once should fade, + Was his most righteous Will: And be that Will obey'd._ + + '_Would thy fond love his grace to her controul, + And in these low abodes of sin and pain + Her pure, exalted soul, + Unjustly, for thy partial good, detain? + No--rather strive thy groveling mind to raise + Up to that unclouded blaze, + That heav'nly radiance of eternal light, + In which enthroned she now with pity sees + How frail, how insecure, how slight + Is ev'ry mortal bliss._ + + +'But of infinitely greater weight than all that has been above produced +on this subject, are the words of the Psalmist. + +"As for me, says he[43], 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--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.' + +'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 _Poetical +Justice_, indirectly reflect on the _Divine_? + +The more pains have been taken to obviate the objections arising from +the notion of _Poetical Justice_, as the doctrine built upon it had +obtained general credit among us; and as it must be confessed to have +the appearance of _humanity_ and _good-nature_ 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 _his_ +Catastrophe, even by those who are advocates for the contrary opinion; +since the notion of _Poetical Justice_, founded on the _modern rules_, +has hardly ever been more strictly observed in works of this nature, +than in the present performance. + +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 _wilful_ transgressor, condignly _punished_; and his punishment +brought on thro' the intelligence of the very Joseph Leman whom he had +corrupted[44]; and by means of the very women whom he had +debauched[45]--Is not Mr. Belton, who has an Uncle's _hastened_ death to +answer for[46]--Are not the _whole_ Harlowe-family--Is not the vile +Tomlinson--Are not the infamous Sinclair, and her _wretched +partners_--And even the wicked _Servants_, who, with their eyes open, +contributed their parts to the carrying on of the vile schemes of their +respective principals--_Are they not All likewise exemplarily punished?_ + +On the other hand, Is not Miss HOWE, for her noble friendship to the +exalted Lady in her calamities--Is not Mr. HICKMAN, for his +unexceptionable morals, and integrity of life--Is not the repentant and +not ungenerous BELFORD--Is not the worthy NORTON--_made signally happy_? + +And who that are in earnest in their profession of Christianity, but +will rather envy than regret the triumphant death of CLARISSA; whose +piety, from her _early childhood_; whose diffusive charity; whose steady +virtue; whose Christian humility; whose forgiving spirit; whose +meekness, and resignation, HEAVEN _only_ could reward[47]? + +"We shall now, according to expectation given in the _Preface_ 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 _Life_ and _Manners_, 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 _design of the whole_, and +with _human Nature_.' + +"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. + +"It was not intended that she should be _in Love_, but _in Liking_ only, +if that expression may be admitted. It is meant to be every-where +inculcated in the Story, for _Example-sake_, 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. + +"What is too generally called _Love_, ought (perhaps _as_ generally) to +be called by another name. _Cupidity_, or a _Paphian Stimulus_, 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 _Love_ 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 _Attention_ 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: + +"'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 _could_ have acted +generously and unreservedly! + +"'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 blame from _him_, 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[48]; See also Mr. Lovelace's Letter No lxxvii. Vol. VII. +p. 310. _& seq._ where, just before his Death, he entirely acquits her +conduct on this head. + +"It has been thought by some worthy and ingenious persons, that if +Lovelace had been drawn an _Infidel_ or _Scoffer_, 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 _believe_ and +_tremble_? + +"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 _Practice_; 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 _sentimental_ 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[49].' And it +must be observed, that Scoffers are too witty in their own opinion; in +other words, value themselves too much upon their profligacy, to aim at +concealing it. + +"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 _Meum_ and _Tuum_, as what it +was beneath him to be guilty of. + +"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 _Miss Howe_[50]; and +another time, when he imagined _himself_ treated contemptuously[51]. +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[52]. So does Colonel Morden[53]. And so does Clarissa +on every occasion. And all that Miss Howe herself says of him, tends +more to his reputation than discredit[54], as Clarissa indeed tells +her[55]. + +"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[56], '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[57].' + +"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[58]. 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?-- + +"_Mr. Belford had been a Rake: But was in a way of reformation._ + +"_Mr. Hickman had always been a good man._ + +"_And Lovelace_ confidently says, _That the women love a man whose + regard for them is founded in the knowlege of them_[59]. + +"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, _Goodness of heart_, and _Gentleness of manners_, +_great Assiduity_, and _inviolable_ and _modest_ Love, would not of +themselves have been supposed sufficient recommendations. He would not +have been allowed the least share of _preciseness_ or _formality_, +altho' those defects might have been imputed to his reverence for 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. + +"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.-- + + _Women, born to be controul'd, + Stoop to the Forward and the Bold,_ + +Says Waller--And Lovelace too! + +"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. + +"But besides what has been said above, and in the _Preface_, on this +head, the following opinion of an ingenious and candid Foreigner, on +this manner of writing, may not be improperly inserted here. + +"'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. + +"'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. + +"'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 _once written_, +the author has provided with great judgment, so as to render this +circumstance highly probable[60].' + +"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." + +The Length of the piece has been objected to by some, who perhaps looked +upon it as a mere _Novel_ or _Romance_; and yet of _these_ there are not +wanting works of equal length. + +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. + +But is it not true, that those Altercations are the Foundation 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 _characteristic_. They give occasion likewise to suggest many +interesting _Personalities_, 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. + +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. + +'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 _early childhood_ ought to be considered, as one of her very great +advantages; as, indeed, the foundation of _all_ her excellencies: And it +is hoped, for the sake of the doctrine designed to be inculcated by it, +that it will. + +'She had a pious, a well-read, a not meanly descended woman for her +Nurse, who with her milk, as Mrs. Harlowe says[61], 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; +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 _Mother_ was, upon the whole, a good +woman, who did credit to her birth and her fortune; and _both_ delighted +in her for those improvements and attainments, which gave her, _and them +in her_, a distinction that caused it to be said, that when she was out +of the family, it was considered but as a common family[62]. She was +moreover a Country Lady; and, as we have seen in Miss Howe's character +of her[63], took great delight in rural and houshold employments; tho' +qualified to adorn the brightest circle. + +'It must be confessed, that we are not to look for _Clarissa's_ among +the _constant frequenters_ of Ranelagh and Vaux-hall, nor among those +who may be called _Daughters of the Card-table_. 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 _repeated_, that we _know_ there are _some_, and we _hope_ +there are _many_, in the British dominions [or they are hardly any-where +in the European world] who, as far as _occasion_ has called upon them to +exert the like _humble_ and _modest_, yet _steady_ and _useful_, +virtues, have reached the perfections of a Clarissa. + + * * * * * + +'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 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. + +'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, _If_, in the History +before us, it shall be found, that the Spirit is _duly diffused +throughout_; that the Characters are _various and natural_; _well +distinguished_ and _uniformly supported_ and _maintained_: _If_ there be +a _variety of incidents_ 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.' + + + + +Footnotes: + +[34] Writing on to him. + +[35] Her Flight. + +[36] See Vol. III. p. 358. + +[37] Spectator, Vol I. No XL. + +[38] Yet in Tamerlane, two of the most amiable characters, Moneses and +Arpasia, suffer death. + +[39] See Spect. Vol. VII. No 548. + +[40] 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. + +[41] + _Vitiis nemo sine nascitur: optimus ille + Qui minimis urgetur----._ + +[42] Rapin, on Aristotle's Poetics. + +[43] Psalm lxxiii. + +[44] See Vol. VII. p. 301, 302. + +[45] Ibid. p. 315. + +[46] See Vol. VI. p. 268. + +[47] 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!" + +She had her wish. It was happy. + +[48] Vol. VII. p. 64, 65, of the First Edition; and Vol. VI. p. 305 of +this. + +[49] Vol. IV. p. 122. + +[50] Vol. VI. p. 10. + +[51] Vol. VI. p. 14. + +[52] Vol. VI. p. 71. + +[53] Vol. VII. p. 244. + +[54] See Vol. I. p. 314-319, and Vol. III. p. 44, 45. + +[55] Vol. I. p. 363. + +[56] Vol. VI. p. 1. + +[57] Vol. VI. p. 71. + +[58] Vol. VII. p. 197. + +[59] Vol. IV. p. 302. + +[60] This quotation is translated from a Critique on the History of +CLARISSA, 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. + +[61] See Vol. III. p 287, 288. + +[62] See Vol. VI. p. 274. See also her Mother's praises of her to Mrs. +Norton, Vol. I. p. 251. + +[63] See Vol. VII. p. 278-280. + + + + + + + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +_Publications in Print_ + +1948-1949 + +16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). + +17. Nicholas Rowe's _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William +Shakespeare_ (1709). + +18. "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719); and +Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). + +1949-1950 + +22. Samuel Johnson's _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749) and Two Rambler +papers (1750). + +23. John Dryden's _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). + +1950-1951 + +26. Charles Macklin's _The Man of the World_ (1792). + +1951-1952 + +31. Thomas Gray's _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard_ (1751); and +_The Eton College Manuscript_. + +1952-1953 + +41. Bernard Mandeville's _A Letter to Dion_ (1732). + +1953-1954 + +45. John Robert Scott's _Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine +Arts_. + +1954-1955 + +49. Two St. Cecilia's Day Sermons (1696-1697). + +51. Lewis Maidwell's _An Essay upon the Necessity and Excellency of +Education_ (1705). + +52. Pappity Stampoy's _A Collection of Scotch Proverbs_ (1663). + +1958-1959 + +75. John Joyne, _A Journal_ (1679). + +76. Andre Dacier, _Preface to Aristotle's Art of Poetry_ (1705). + +1959-1960 + +80. [P. Whalley's] _An Essay on the Manner of Writing History_ (1746). + +83. _Sawney and Colley (1742) and other Pope Pamphlets._ + +84. Richard Savage's _An Author to be lett_ (1729). + +1960-1961 + +85-6. _Essays on the Theatre from Eighteenth-Century Periodicals._ + +87. Daniel Defoe, _Of Captain Mission and his Crew_ (1728). + +90. Henry Needler, _Works_ (1728). + +1961-1962 + +93. John Norris, _Cursory Reflections Upon a Book Call'd. An Essay +Concerning Human Understanding_ (1690). + +94. An Collins, _Divine Songs and Meditacions_ (1653). + +95. _An Essay on the New Species of Writing Founded by Mr. Fielding_ +(1751). + +96. _Hanoverian Ballads._ + +1962-1963 + +97. Myles Davies, _Athenae Britannicae_ (1716-1719). + +98. _Select Hymns Taken Out of Mr. Herbert's Temple_ (1697). + +99. Thomas Augustine Arne, _Artaxerxes_ (1761). + +100. Simon Patrick, _A Brief Account of the New Sect of Latitude-Men_ +(1662). + +101-2. Richard Hurd, _Letters on Chivalry and Romance_ (1762). + +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California, Los +Angeles + + + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +GENERAL EDITORS + R. C. BOYS + University of Michigan + + EARL MINER + University of California, Los Angeles + + MAXIMILLIAN E. NOVAK + University of California, Los Angeles + + LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL + Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library + + _Corresponding Secretary:_ Mrs. Edna C. Davis, Wm. Andrews Clark + Memorial Library + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Publications for 1963-1964 + +SAMUEL RICHARDSON, _Clarissa_: Preface, Hints of Prefaces, and +Postscript. Introduction by R. F. Brissenden. + +THOMAS D'URFEY, _Wonders in the Sun, or the Kingdom of the Birds_ +(1706). Introduction by William W. Appleton. + +DANIEL DEFOE, _A Brief History of the Poor Palatine Refugees_ (1709). +Introduction by John Robert Moore. + +BERNARD MANDEVILLE, _An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent +Executions at Tyburn_ (1725). Introduction by Malvin R. Zirker, Jr. + +JOHN OLDMIXON, _An Essay on Criticism_ (1728). Introduction by R. 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