506

PAMELA; OR, VIRTUE REWARDED.

Lady G, Miss Darnford that was, after a happy marriage of several years, died in childbed of her fourth child; to the inexpressible concern of her affectionate consort, and of her dear friend Mrs B

Lord H- after having suffered great dishonour by the ill courses of his wife, and great devastations in his estate through her former debts, and continued extravagance, (intimidated and dispirited by her perpetual insults, and those of her gaming brother, who with his bullying friends terrified him into all their measures,) threw himself upon the protection of Mr B, who, by his spirit and prudence, saved him from utter ruin, punished his wife's accomplices, and obliged her to accept of a separate maintenance; and then, taking his affairs into his own management, in due course of time entirely re-established them: And after some years, his wife dying, he became wiser by his past sufferings, and married a second, of Lady Davers's recommendation; who, by her prudence and virtue, made him happy for the remainder of his days.

Mr Longman lived to a great age in the worthy family, much esteemed by every one, having trained up a diligent youth, whom he had recommended, to ease him in his business, and who, answering expectation, succeeded him in it, after his death.

He dying rich, out of his great love and gratitude to the family, in whose service he had acquired most of his fortune, and in disgust to his nearest relations, who had perversely disobliged him, he bequeathed to three of them one hundred pounds a-piece, and left all the rest to his honoured principal, Mr B- -; who, as soon as he came to know it, being at that time abroad, directed his lady to call together the relations of the old gentleman; and, after touching them to the heart with a just and effectual reproof, and finding them filled with a due sense of their de merit, which had been the cause of their suffering, then to divide the whole, which had been left him, among them, in greater proportions, as they were more nearly related: An action worthy of so generous and ennobled a spirit; and which procured him the prayers and blessings, not only of the benefited, but all who heard of it. For it is easy to imagine, how cheerfully, and how gracefully, his benevolent lady discharged a command so well suited to her natural generosity.

THE END OF PAMELA.

THE

HISTORY

OF

CLARISSA HARLOWE,

IN

A SERIES OF LETTERS.

NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS.

MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, a young lady of great beauty and merit.
ROBERT LOVELACE, Esq. her admirer.

James Harlowe, Esq. father of Clarissa.

Mrs Harlowe, his lady.

James Harlowe, their only son.

Arabella, their elder daughter.

John Harlowe, Esq. elder brother of James Harlowe, sen.

Antony Harlowe, third brother.

Roger Solmes, Esq. an admirer of Clarissa, favoured by her friends.

Mrs Hervey, half-sister of Mrs Harlowe.

Miss Dolly Hervey, her daughter.

Mrs Judith Norton, a woman of great piety and discretion, who had a principal share in the education of Clarissa.

Col. William Morden, a near relation of the Harlowes.

MISS HOWE, the most intimate friend, companion, and correspondent of Clarissa.

Mrs Howe, her mother.

Charles Hickman, Esq. an admirer of Miss Howe.

Lord M., uncle to Mr Lovelace.

Lady Sarah Sadleir, Lady Betty Lawrence, half-sisters of Lord M.

Miss Charlotte Montague, Miss Patty Montague, nieces of the same nobleman.

Dr Lewen, a worthy divine.

Mr Elias Brand, a pedantic young clergyman.

Dr H. an humane physician.

Mr Goddard, an honest and skilful apothecary.

JOHN BELFORD, Esq. Mr Lovelace's principal intimate and confident.

Richard Mowbray, Thomas Doleman, James Tourville, Thomas Belton, Esqrs. libertine friends

of Mr Lovelace.

Mrs Moore, a widow, keeping a lodging-house at Hampstead.

Miss Rawlins, a notable young gentlewoman there.

Mrs Bevis, a lively young widow of the same place.

Mrs Sinclair, the pretended name of a private brothel-keeper in London.

Captain Tomlinson, the assumed name of a vile pander to the debaucheries of Mr Lovelace.

Sally Martin, Polly Horton, assistants of, and partners with, the infamous Sinclair.

Dorcas Wykes, an artful servant at the vile house.

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 not merely for amusement, but upon most interesting subjects; in which every private family, more or less, may find itself concerned: 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 here it will be proper to observe, for the sake of such as may apprehend hurt to the morals of youth, from the more freely-written letters, that the gentlemen, though professed libertines as to the female sex, and making it one of their wicked maxims, to keep no faith with any of the individuals of it, who are thrown into their power, are not, however, either infidels or scoffers; nor yet such as think themselves freed from the observance of those other moral duties which bind man to man.

On the contrary, it will be found, in the progress of the work, that they very often make such reflections upon each other, and each upon himself and his own actions, as reasonable beings must make, who disbelieve not a future state of rewards and punishments, and who one day propose to reform-one of them actually reforming, and by that means giving an opportunity to censure the freedoms which fall from the gayer pen and lighter heart of the other.

And yet that other, although, in unbosoming himself to a select friend, he discover wickedness enough to entitle him to general detestation, 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.

In the letters of the two young ladies, it is presumed, will be found not only the highest exercise of a reasonable and practicable friendship, between minds endowed with the noblest principles of virtue and religion, but occasionally interspersed, such delicacy of sentiments, particularly with regard to the other sex; such instances of impartiality, each freely, as a fundamental principle of their friendship, blaming, praising, and setting right the other, as are strongly to be recommended to the observation of the younger part (more specially) of female readers.

The principal of these two young ladies is proposed as an exemplar to her sex. Nor is it any objection to her being so, that she is not in all respects a perfect character. It was not only natural, but it was necessary, that she should have some faults, were it only to shew the reader how laudably she could mistrust and blame herself, and carry to her own heart, divested of self-partiality, the censure which arose from her own convictions, and that even to the acquittal of those, because revered characters, whom no one else would acquit, and to whose much greater faults her errors were owing, and not to a weak reproachable heart. As far as is consistent with human frailty, and as far as she could be perfect, considering the people she had to deal with, and those with whom she was inseparably connected, she is perfect. To have been impeccable, must have left nothing for the Divine Grace and a purified state to do, and carried our idea of her from woman to angel. As such is she often esteemed by the man whose heart was so corrupt that he could hardly believe human nature capable of the purity, which, on every trial or temptation, shone out in

hers.

Besides the four principal persons, several others are introduced, whose letters are characteristic: and it is presumed that there will be found in some of them, but more especially in those of the chief character among the men, and the second character among the women, such strokes of gaiety, fancy, and humour, as will entertain and divert, and at the same time both warn and instruct.

All the letters 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 (proper to 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.

"Much more lively and affecting," says one of the principal characters, " must be the style of those who write in the height of a present distress; the mind tortured by the pangs of uncertainty (the events then hidden in the womb of fate;) than the dry, narrative, unanimated style of a person relating difficulties and danger surmounted, can be; the relater perfectly at ease; and if himself unmoved by his own story, not likely greatly to affect the reader."

What will be found to be more particularly aimed at in the following work, is—to warn the inconsiderate and thoughtless of the one sex, against the base arts and designs of specious contrivers of the other-to caution parents against the undue exercise of their natural authority over their children in the great article of marriage-to warn 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 above all, to investigate the highest and most important doctrines, not only of morality, but of Christianity, by showing them thrown into action in the conduct of the worthy characters; while the unworthy, who set those doctrines at defiance, are condignly, and, as may be said, consequently punished.

From what has been said, considerate readers will not enter upon the perusal of the piece before them, as if it were designed only to divert and amuse. It will probably be thought tedious to all such as dip into it, expecting a light novel, or transitory romance; and look upon story in it (interesting as that is generally allowed to be) as its sole end, rather than as a vehicle to the instruction.

Different persons, as might be expected, have been of different opinions, in relation to the conduct of the Heroine in particular situations; and several worthy persons have objected to the general catastrophe, and other parts of the history. Whatever is thought material of these shall be taken notice of by way of POSTSCRIPT, at the conclusion of the History; for this work being addressed to the public as a history of life and manners, those parts of it which are proposed to carry with them the force of an example, ought to be as unobjectionable as is consistent with the design of the whole, and with human nature.