ease and plenty in a higher sphere of life than what she was born and first brought up in, resolve to return to her primitive poverty, rather than give up her innocence. I say it is surprising, that a young person, so circumstanced, could, in contempt of proffered grandeur on the one side, and in defiance of penury on the other, so happily and prudently conduct herself through such a series of perplexities and troubles; and withstand the alluring baits, and almost irresistible offers of a fine gentleman, so universally admired and esteemed, for the agreeableness of his person and good qualities, among all his acquaintance; defeat all his measures with so much address, and oblige him, at last, to give over his vain pursuit, and sacrifice his pride and ambition to virtue, and become the protector of that innocence which he so long and so indefatigably laboured to supplant: And all this without ever having entertained the least previous design or thought for that purpose: No art used to inflame him, no coquetry practised to tempt or entice him, and no prudery or affectation to tamper with his passions; but, on the contrary, artless and unpractised in the wiles of the world, all her endeavours, and even all her wishes, tended only to render herself as unamiable as she could in his eyes: Though, at the same time, she is so far from having any aversion to his person, that she seems rather prepossessed in his favour, and admires his excellencies, whilst she condemns his passion for her. A glorious instance of self-denial! Thus her very repulses became attractions: The more she resisted, the more she charmed; and the very means she used to guard her virtue, the more she endangered it, by inflaming his passions: Till, at last, by perseverance, and a brave and resolute defence, the besieged not only obtained a glorious victory over the besieger, but took him prisoner too. I am charmed with the beautiful reflections she makes in the course of her distresses ; her soliloquies and little reasonings with herself, are exceeding pretty and entertaining: She pours out all her soul in them before her parents without disguise; so that one may judge of, nay, almost see, the inmost recesses of her mind. A pure clear fountain of truth and innocence; a magazine of virtue, and unblemished thoughts!

I can't conceive why you should hesitate a moment as to the publication of this very natural and uncommon piece. I could wish to see it out in its own native simplicity, which will affect and please the reader beyond all the strokes of oratory in the world; for those will but spoil it; and, should you permit such a murdering hand to be laid upon it, to gloss and tinge it over with superfluous and needless decorations, which, like too much drapery in sculpture and statuary, will but encumber; it may disguise the facts, mar the reflections, and unnaturalize the incidents, so as to be lost in a multiplicity of fine idle words and phrases, and reduce our sterling substance into an empty shadow, or rather Frenchify our English solidity into froth and whip-syllabub. No; let us have Pamela as Pamela wrote it; in her own words, without amputation or addition. Produce her to us in her neat country apparel, such as she appeared in, on her intended departure to her parents; for such becomes her innocence and beautiful simplicity. Such a dress will best edify and entertain. The flowing robes of oratory may indeed amuse and amaze, but will never strike the mind with solid attention.

In short, sir, a piece of this kind is much wanted in the world, which is but too much, as well as too early, debauched by pernicious novels. I know nothing entertaining of that kind that one might venture to recommend to the perusal (much less, the imitation) of the youth of either sex: All that I have hitherto read, tends only to corrupt their principles, mislead their judgments, and initiate them into gallantry and loose pleasures.

Publish, then, this good, this edifying and instructive little piece for their sakes. The honour of Pamela's sex demands Pamela at your hands, to shew the world an heroine, almost beyond example, in an unusual scene of life, whom no temptations, or sufferings, could subdue. It is a fine and glorious original for the fair to copy out and imitate. Our own sex, too, require it of you, to free us, in some measure, from the imputation of being incapable of the impressions of virtue and honour; and to shew the ladies, that we are not inflexible, while they are so.

In short, the cause of virtue calls for the publication of such a piece as this. Oblige then, sir, the concurrent voices of both sexes, and give us Pamela for the benefit of mankind : And as I believe its excellencies cannot be long unknown to the world, and that there will not be a family without it; so I make no doubt but every family that has it, will be much improved and bettered by it. 'Twill form the tender minds of youth for the reception and

practice of virtue and honour; confirm and establish those of maturer years on good and steady principles; reclaim the vicious, and mend the age in general; insomuch that as I doubt not Pamela will become the bright example and imitation of all the fashionable young ladies of Great Britain; so the truly generous benefactor and rewarder of her exemplary virtue, will be no less admired and imitated among the beau monde of our own sex.—I am, Your affectionate Friend, &c.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE kind reception which this piece has met with from the public, deserves not only acknowledgment, but that some notice should be taken of the objections that have hitherto come to hand against a few passages in it, that so the work may be rendered as unexceptionable as possible, and, of consequence, the fitter to answer the general design of it; which is to promote virtue, and cultivate the minds of the youth of both sexes.

But difficulties having arisen from the different opinions of gentlemen, some of whom ap plauded the very things that others found fault with, it was thought proper to submit the whole to the judgment of a gentleman of the most distinguished taste and abilities; the result of which will be seen in the subsequent pages.

We begin with the following letter, at the desire of several gentlemen, to whom, on a very particular occasion, it was communicated, and who wished to see it prefixed to the second edition. It was directed,

DEAR SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF PAMELA.

You have agreeably deceived me into a surprise, which it will be as hard to express as the beauties of PAMELA. Though I opened this powerful little piece with more expectation than from common designs, of like promise, because it came from your hands for my daughters, yet, who could have dreamt, he should find under the modest disguise of a novel, all the soul of religion, good-breeding, discretion, good-nature, wit, fancy, fine thought, and morality!—I have done nothing but read it to others, and hear others again read it to me, ever since it came into my hands, and I find I am likely to do nothing else for I know not how long yet to come; because, if I lay the book down, it comes after me.-When it has dwelt all day long upon the ear, it takes possession all night of the fancy.-It has witchcraft in every page of it; but it is the witchcraft of passion and meaning. Who is there that will not despise the false, empty pomp of the poets, when he observes in this little, unpretending, mild triumph of nature, the whole force of invention and genius, creating new powers of emotion, and transplanting ideas of pleasure into that unweeded low garden the heart, from the dry and sharp summit of Reason?

Yet, I confess, there is one in the world, of whom I think with still greater respect than of Pamela; and that is, of the wonderful AUTHOR of Pamela.-Pray, who is he, dear sir? and where, and how has he been able to hide hitherto such an encircling and all-mastering spirit? He possesses every quality that Art could have charmed by; yet has lent it to, and concealed it in Nature. The comprehensiveness of his imagination must be truly prodigious!-It has stretched out this diminutive mere grain of mustard-seed, (a poor girl's little innocent story,) into a resemblance of that heaven which the best of good books has compared it to.-All the passions are his in their most close and abstracted recesses;

and by selecting the most delicate, and yet, at the same time, most powerful of their springs, thereby to act, wind, and manage the heart, he moves us everywhere with the force of a TRAGEDY.

What is there, throughout the whole, that I do not sincerely admire !-I admire in it the strong distinguished variety and picturesque glowing likeness to life of the characters. I know, hear, see, and live among 'em all; and if I could paint, could return you their faces. I admire in it the noble simplicity, force, aptness, and truth of so many modest, economical, moral, prudential, religious, satirical, and cautionary lessons, which are introduced with such seasonable dexterity, and with so polished and exquisite a delicacy of expression of sentiment, that I am only apprehensive for the interests of virtue, lest some of the finest and most touching of those elegant strokes of good-breeding, generosity, and reflection, should be lost under the too gross discernment of an unfeeling majority of readers, for whose coarseness, however, they were kindly designed, as the most useful and cha

ritable correctives.

One of the best-judged peculiars of the plan is, that these instructions being conveyed as in a kind of dramatical representation by those beautiful scenes, her own letters and journals, who acts the most moving and suffering part, we feel the force in a threefold effect, -from the motive, the act, and the consequence.

But what, above all, I am charmed with, is the amiable good-nature of the author; who, I am convinced, has one of the best and most generous hearts of mankind; because, measuring other minds by his own, he can draw every thing to perfection but wickedness. -I became inextricably in love with this delightful defect of his malice, for I found it owing to an excess in his honesty. Only observe, sir, with what virtuous reluctance he complies with the demands of his story, when he stands in need of some blameable characters. Though his judgment compels him to mark 'em with disagreeable colourings, so that they make an odious appearance at first, he can't forbear, by an unexpected and gradual decline from themselves, to soften and transmute all the horror conceived for their baseness, till we are arrived, through insensible stages, at an inclination to forgive it entirely.

I must venture to add, without mincing the matter, what I really believe of this book. -It will live on through posterity with such unbounded extent of good consequences, that twenty ages to come may be the better and wiser for its influence. It will steal first imperceptibly into the hearts of the young and the tender, where it will afterwards guide and moderate their reflections and resolves when grown older. And so a gradual moral sunshine of unaustere and compassionate virtue shall break out upon the world from this Trifle, (for such, I dare answer for the author, his modesty misguides him to think it) -No applause therefore can be too high for such merit. And, let me abominate the contemptible reserves of mean-spirited men, who, while they but hesitate their esteem with restraint, can be fluent and unchecked in their envy. In an age so deficient in goodness, every such virtue as that of this author, is a salutary angel in Sodom. And one who could stoop to conceal a delight he receives from the worthy, would be equally capable of submitting to an approbation of the praise of the wicked.

I was thinking just now, as I returned from a walk in the snow, on that old Roman policy of exemptions in favour of men who had given a few bodily children to the republic. What superior distinction ought our country to find (but that policy and we are at variance) for reward of this father of millions of MINDS, which are to owe new formation to the future effect of his influence!

Upon the whole, as I never met with so pleasing, so honest, and so truly deserving a book, I should never have done if I explained all my reasons for admiring its author.-If it is not a secret, oblige me so far as to tell me his name; for since I feel him the friend ..of my soul, it would be a kind of violation to pretend him a stranger. I am not able to thank you enough for this highly acceptable present; and, as for my daughters, they have taken into their own hands the acknowledgment due from their gratitude.—I am,

Dear Sir,

Dec. 17, 1740.

Yours, &c.

Abstract of a second Letter from the same Gentleman.

"No sentiments which I have here, or in my last expressed, of the sweet Pamela, being more than the bare truth, which every man must feel who lends his ear to the enchanting prattler, why does the author's modesty mislead his judgment to suspect the style wants polishing? No, sir, there is an ease, a natural air, a dignified simplicity, and measured fulness in it, that, resembling life, outglows it! He has reconciled the pleasing to the proper. The thought is every where exactly clothed by the expression; and becomes its dress as roundly and as close, as Pamela her country-habit. Remember, though she put it on with humble prospect of descending to the level of her purpose, it adorned her with such unpresumed increase of loveliness, sat with such propriety of elegant neglect about her, that it threw out all her charms with tenfold and resistless influence.-And so, dear sir, it will be always found. When modest beauty seeks to hide itself by casting off the pride of ornament, it but displays itself without a covering; and so becoming more distinguished by its want of drapery, grows stronger from its purposed weakness."

There were formed by an anonymous Gentleman the following Objections to some Passages in the Work:

1. That the style ought to be a little raised, at least so soon as Pamela knows the gentleman's love is honourable, and when her diffidence is changed to ease; and from about the fourth day after marriage, it should be equal to the rank she is raised to.

2. That to avoid the idea apt to be joined with the word 'Squire, the gentleman should be styled Sir James or Sir John, &c., and Lady Davers, in a new edition, might procure for him the title of a Baronet.

3. That if the sacred name were seldomer repeated it would be better; for that the wise man's advice is, Be not righteous overmuch.

4. That the penance which Pamela suffers from Lady Davers might be shortened; that she is too timorous after owning her marriage to that lady, and ought to have a little more spirit, and get away sooner out at the window, or call her own servants to protect and carry her to her husband's appointment.

5. That females are too apt to be struck with images of beauty; and that the passage where the gentleman is said to span the waist of Pamela with his hands, is enough to ruin a nation of women by tight-lacing.

6. That the word naughty had better be changed to some other, as bad, faulty, wicked, vile, abominable, scandalous, which in most places would give an emphasis, for which recourse must otherwise be had to the innocent simplicity of the writer; an idea not necessary to the moral of the story, nor of advantage to the character of the heroine.

7. That the words, p. 305, foolish thing that I am, had better be foolish that I am. The same gentleman observes by way of postscript, that jokes are often more severe, and do more mischief, than more solid objections, and would have one or two passages altered to avoid giving occasion for the supposition of a double entendre, particularly in two places which he mentions, viz. p. 175 and 181.

He is pleased to take notice of several other things of less moment, some of which are merely typographical; and very kindly expresses, on the whole, a high opinion of the performance, and thinks it may do a great deal of good; for all which, as well as for his objections, the Editor gives him very sincere thanks.

Others are of opinion, that the scenes in many places, in the beginning especially, are too low; and that the passions of Lady Davers in particular are carried too high, and above

nature.

And others have intimated, that Pamela ought, for example sake, to have discharged Mrs Jewkes from her service.

These are the most material objections that have come to hand, all which are considered in the following extracts from some of the most beautiful letters that have been written in any language:

"The gentleman's advice, not to alter Pamela at all, was both friendly and solidly just. I run in with full sail to his anchorage, that the low scenes are no more out of nature than the high passions of proud Lady Davers. Out of nature, do they say? 'Tis my astonishment how men of letters can read with such absent attention! They are so far from out of nature, they are absolute nature herself! or, if they must be confessed her resemblance, they are such a resemblance at least, as our true face gives our face in the looking-glass. "I wonder indeed what it is that the gentlemen who talk of low scenes would desire should be understood by the epithet!-Nothing, properly speaking, is low, that suits well with the place it is raised to. The passions of nature are the same in the lord and his coachman. All that makes them seem different consists in the degrees, in the means, and the air, whereto or wherewith they indulge 'em. If, in painting distinctions like these, (which arise but from the forms of men's manners, drawn from birth, education, and custom), a writer falls short of his characters, there his scene is a low one indeed, whatever high fortune it flattered. But to imagine that persons of rank are above a concern for what is thought, felt, or acted, by others of their species, between whom and themselves there is no difference, except such as was owing to accident, is to reduce human nature to a lowness,-too low for the truth of her frailty.

"In Pamela in particular we owe all to her lowness. It is to the docile effects of this lowness of that amiable girl, in her birth, her condition, her hopes, and her vanities, in every thing, in short, but her virtue, that her readers are indebted for the moral reward of that virtue. And if we are to look for the low amongst the rest of the servants, less lovely though they are than a Pamela, there is something, however, so glowingly painted in the lines whereby the author has marked their distinctions; something so movingly forceful in the grief at their parting, and joy at the happy return; something so finely at once, and so strongly and feelingly varied, even in the smallest and least promising little family incidents, that I need only appeal from the heads to the hearts of the objectors themselves, whether these are low scenes to be censured?

"And as for the opposite extreme, they would quarrel with the high-passioned and untamed Lady Davers, I could direct them to a dozen or two of quality originals, from whom (with exception perhaps of her wit) one would swear the author had taken her copy. What a sum might these objectors ensure, to be paid by the husbands and sons of such termagant hermaphrodite minds, upon their making due proof that they were no longer to be found in the kingdom!

"I know you are too just to imagine me capable of giving any other opinion than my best-weighed and true one. But because it is fit you should have reasons in support of a judgment, that can neither deserve nor expect an implicit reception, I will run over the anonymous letter I herewith return you, and note with what lightness even men of goodnatured intention fall into mistakes, by neglect in too hasty perusals, which their benevolence would take pleasure in blushing at, when they discover their weakness in a cooler revisal.

"The writer of this letter is for having the style raised after Pamela's advance in her fortune. But surely this was hasty advice; because as the letters are writ to her parents, it would have looked like forgetting, and in some sort insulting the lowliness of their inferior condition, to have assumed a new air in her language, in place of retaining a steady humility. But here it must not be passed unobserved, that in her reports of conversation that followed her marriage, she does aptly and beautifully heighten her style and her phrases; still returning, however, to her decent simplicity in her addresses to her father and mother.

"I am against giving a gentleman (who has ennobled himself by reforming his vices, and rewarding the worth of the friendless) the unnecessary new toy of a title. It is all strong in nature as it stands in the letters and I don't see how greatness from titles can add likeness or power to the passions. So complete a resemblance of truth stands in need of no borrowed pretensions.

"The only of this writer's objections which I think carries weight, is that which advises some little contraction of the prayers and appeals to the Deity. I say little contractions; for they are nobly and sincerely pathetic. And I say it only in fear, lest, if fancied too long by the fashionably averse to the subject, minds, which most want the purposed