Samuel Richardson's Introduction to Pamela Part 3

But what, above All, I am charm'd with, is the amiable _Good-nature_ of the AUTHOR; who, I am convinc'd, has one of the best, and most generous Hearts, of Mankind: because, mis-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. Tho' 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 trans.m.u.te all the Horror conceiv'd for their Baseness, till we are arriv'd, through insensible Stages, at an Inclination to forgive it intirely.

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 Suns.h.i.+ne, of un-austere and compa.s.sionate _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 uncheck'd 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 cou'd stoop to conceal, a Delight he receives from the _Worthy_, wou'd be equally capable of submitting to an Approbation of the _Praise_ of the _Wicked_.

I was thinking, just now, as I return'd 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 Republick.----What superior Distinction ought _our_ Country, to find [_del._ 8th] {(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 shou'd never have done, if I explain'd 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 retain 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 Grat.i.tude. I am,

DEAR SIR, _Your, &c._

Dec. 17, 1740.

_Abstract of a second Letter from the same Gentleman._

---No Sentiments which I have here, or in my last, express'd, of the sweet _Pamela_, being more than the bare Truth, which every Man must feel, who lends his Ear to the inchanting Prattler, why does the Author's Modesty mislead his Judgment, to suspect the Style wants Polis.h.i.+ng?---No, Sir, there is an _Ease_, a _natural Air_, a dignify'd _Simplicity_, and measured Fullness, in it, that, resembling Life, outglows it! He has reconciled the _Pleasing_ to the _Proper_. The _Thought_ is every-where exactly _cloath'd_ by the _Expression_: And becomes its Dress as roundly, and as close, as _Pamela_ her Country-habit. Remember, tho' she put it on with humble Prospect, of descending to the Level of her Purpose, it _adorn'd_ her, with such unpresum'd _Increase_ of Loveliness; sat with such neat 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 _purpos'd Weakness_.

[5th, change 3.]

{_There were formed by an anonymous Gentleman, the following Objections to some Pa.s.sages 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 [7th: "her"]

{his} Diffidence is changed to Ease: And from about the fourth Day after Marriage, it should be equal to the Rank she is rais'd to, [_del._ 4th]

{and charged to fill becomingly}.

2. That to avoid the Idea apt to be join'd 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 t.i.tle 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 over-much_.

4. That the Penance which _Pamela_ suffers from Lady _Davers_ might be shorten'd: That she is too timorous after owning her Marriage to that Lady, and ought to have a little more Spirit, and [_del._ 5th] {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 Pa.s.sage where the Gentleman is said to span the Waist of _Pamela_ with his Hand, 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 Pa.s.sages alter'd, 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 Pa.s.sions of Lady _Davers_, in particular, are carried too high, and above Nature._

_And others have intimated, That _Pamela_ ought, for Example sake, to have discharg'd Mrs. _Jewkes_ from her Service._

_These are the most material Objections that have come to hand, all which are considered in the following [_del._ 5th] {Extracts from some of the most beautiful} Letters [_del._ 5th] {that have been written in any Language}:_

[8th adds change 4]

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 Pa.s.sions 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 confess'd her _Resemblance_; they are _such_ a Resemblance, at least, as our _true Face_ gives our _Face_ in the _Looking-gla.s.s_.

I wonder indeed, what it is, that the Gentlemen, who talk of _Low_ Scenes, wou'd desire should be understood by the Epithet?---Nothing, properly speaking, is _low_, that suits well with the Place it is rais'd to.----The Pa.s.sions of Nature are the same, in the _Lord_, and his _Coach-man_. 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 flatter'd. 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 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_ among the Rest of the Servants, less lovely tho' they are, than a _Pamela_, there is something however, so glowingly painted, in the Lines whereby the Author has mark'd 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 censur'd?

And as for the opposite Extreme they wou'd quarrel with, the high-pa.s.sion'd, and un-tam'd Lady _Davers_,---I cou'd direct 'em to a Dozen or two of _Quality Originals_, from whom (with Exception perhaps of her _Wit_) one wou'd 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-weigh'd 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 _good-natur'd_ Intention fall into _Mistakes_, by Neglect in too hasty Perusals, which their Benevolence wou'd take Pleasure in blus.h.i.+ng at, when they discover their Weakness, in a cooler Revisal.

The Writer of this Letter is for having the Style _rais'd_, after _Pamela_'s Advance in her Fortune. But surely, This was hasty Advice: because, as the Letters are writ to her Parents, it wou'd have look'd like forgetting, and, in some sort, insulting, the Lowliness of their inferior Condition, to have a.s.sum'd a new Air in her Language, in Place of retaining a steady Humility. But, here, it must not be pa.s.s'd un.o.bserv'd, that in her Reports of Conversations that follow'd 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 enn.o.bled himself, by reforming his Vices, and rewarding the Worth of the _Friendless_) the unnecessary new Toy of a _t.i.tle_. It is all strong in Nature, as it stands in the Letters: and I don't see how Greatness, from t.i.tles, can add Likeness or Power, to the Pa.s.sions. So complete a Resemblance of _Truth_ stands in need of no borrow'd 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_ Contraction: for they are n.o.bly and sincerely pathetic. And I say it only in Fear, lest, if fansied too long, by the fas.h.i.+onably _Averse_ to the Subject, Minds, which most want the _purpos'd Impression_, might hazard the _Loss_ of its _Benefit_, by pa.s.sing over those pious Reflections, which, if shorter, would catch their Attention.

Certainly, the Gentleman's Objection against the Persecution that _Pamela_ suffers from lady _Davers_, in respect to the Relation this Madwoman bears to the _Brother_, is the [4th & 5th, change 5.]

{rashest} of All his Advices! And when he thinks she ought rather to have a.s.sum'd the Protection of her Servants, he seems unaware of the probable _Consequence_; where there was a Puppy, of Quality, in the Case, who had, even without Provocation, drawn his Sword on the poor pa.s.sive PAMELA. Far from bearing a Thought of exciting an abler Resentment, to the Danger of a Quarrel with so worthless a c.o.xcomb, how charmingly natural, apprehensive, and generous, is her Silence (during the Recital she makes of her Sufferings) with regard to this _masculine_ Part of the Insult! as also her Prevention of Mrs.

_Jewkes_'s less delicate Bluntness, when she was beginning to complain of the whelp Lord's Impertinence!

If I were not afraid of a _Pun_, I shou'd tell the anonymous Letter-writer, that he made a too _tight-laced_ Objection, where he quarrels with the spann'd Waist of _Pamela_. What, in the Name of Unshapeliness! cou'd he find, to complain of, in a beautiful Girl of Sixteen, who was born _out of Germany_, and had not, yet, reach'd ungraspable _Roundness_!----These are wonderful Sinkings from Purpose, where a Man is considering such mental, and pa.s.sionate Beauties, as this Gentleman profess'd to be touch'd by!

But, when he goes on, to object against the Word _naughty_, (as apply'd in the Phrase _naughty Master_) [4th, change 6.] {I grow mortified, in Fear for our human Sufficiency, compar'd with our Aptness to blunder! For, here, 'tis plain, this Director of Another's Discernment is quite blind, Himself, to an Elegance,} one wou'd have thought it _impossible_ not to be struck by?---Faulty, wicked, abominable, scandalous, (which are the angry Adjectives, he prefers to that sweet one) wou'd have carried Marks of her Rage, not Affliction--whereas _naughty_ contains, in One single significant Petulance, [5th: "a Variety of"] {twenty thousand} inexpressible Delicacies!---It insinuates, at once, all the beautiful Struggle, between her Contempt of his Purpose, and tender Regard for his Person; her Grat.i.tude to Himself and his Family; her Recollection of his superior Condition.--There is in the elegant Choice of this half-kind, half-peevish, _Word_, a never-enough to be prais'd speaking Picture of the Conflict betwixt her Disdain, and her Reverence! [_del._ 4th] {See, Sir, the Reason I had, for apprehending some Danger that the refin'd Generosity in many of the most charming of the Sentiments wou'd be _lost_, upon the too coa.r.s.e Conception of some, for whose Use the Author intended them.}

It is the same Case again, in _foolish Thing that I am!_ which this nice, [_del._ 4th] {un-nice,} Gentleman wou'd advise you to change, into _foolish that I am!_ He does not seem to have tasted the pretty Contempt of Herself, the submissive _Diminutive_, so distant from Vanity, yet allayed by the gentle Reluctance in Self-condemnation [_del._ 4th] {;---and the other fine Touches of Nature: which wou'd All have been lost, in the grave, sober Sound of his _Dutch Emendation_.}

[_del._ 4th]

{As to his Paragraph in _Postscript_, I shall say the less of it, because the Gentleman's own good Sense seems to confess, by the Place he has chosen to rank it in, that it ought to be turn'd out of Doors, as too _dirty_ for the rest of his Letter.----} [4th, change 7.] In the Occasions {he} is pleas'd to discover for _Jokes_, I either find not, that he has any Signification at all, or {such vulgar,} coa.r.s.e-tasted Allusions to loose low-life Idioms, [_ins._]

that _not_ to understand what {he means,} is both the cleanliest, and prudentest Way of confuting {him}.

And now, Sir, you will easily gather how far I am from thinking it needful to change any thing in _Pamela_. I would not scratch such a beautiful Face, for the _Indies_!

[_del._ 8th]

{You can hardly imagine how it charms me to hear of a Second Edition already! but the News of still new upon new ones, will be found no Subject of Wonder. As 'tis sure, that no Family is without Sisters, or Brothers, or Daughters, or Sons, who can _read_; or wants Fathers, or Mothers, or Friends, who can _think_; so equally certain it is, that the Train to a Parcel of Powder does not run on with more natural Tendency, till it sets the whole Heap in a Blaze, than that _Pamela_, inchanting from Family to Family, will overspread all the Hearts of the Kingdom.}

As to the Objection of those warm Friends to _Honesty_, who are for having _Pamela_ dismiss Mrs. _Jewkes_; there is not One, among All these benevolent Complainers, who wou'd not discern himself to have been, _laudably_, in the _wrong_, were he only to be ask'd this plain Question---Whether a Step, both ill-judg'd, and undutiful, had not been the Reverse of a PAMELA's Character?---Two or three times over, Mr. _B----_ had inform'd her, that Mrs. _Jewkes_ and Himself having been equally involv'd in _One Guilt_, she must forgive, or condemn, _Both together_. After this, it grew manifest _Duty_ not to treat her with Marks of Resentment.---And, as here was a visible Necessity to appear not desirous of turning her away, so, in point of mere _Moral_ Regard to the bad Woman Herself, it was n.o.bler, to retain her, with a Prospect of correcting, in Time, her loose Habit of thinking, than, by casting her off, to the licentious Results of her Temper, abandon her to Temptations and Danger, which a Virtue like PAMELA's cou'd not wish her expos'd to.

[_del._ 5th]

{_The Manner in which this admirable Gentleman gives his Opinion of the Piece, and runs thro' the princ.i.p.al Characters, is so masterly, that the Readers of _Pamela_ will be charm'd by it, tho' they should suppose, that his inimitable Benevolence has over-valu'd the Piece itself._}

Inspir'd, without doubt, by some Skill, more than human, and comprehending in an humble, and seemingly artless, Narration, a Force that can tear up the Heart-strings, this Author has prepar'd an enamouring _Philtre_ for the Mind, which will excite such a _Pa.s.sion_ for Virtue, as scarce to leave it in the Power of the _Will_ to neglect her.

_Longinus_, I remember, distinguis.h.i.+ng by what Marks we may know the _Sublime_, says, it is chiefly from an Effect that will follow the Reading it: a delightfully-adhering Idea, that clings fast to the Memory; and from which it is difficult for a Man to disengage his Attention.---If _this_ is a Proof of the _Sublime_, there was never _Sublimity_ so lastingly felt, as in PAMELA!

Not the Charmer's own prattling Idea stuck so close to the Heart of her Master, as the Incidents of her Story to the Thoughts of a Reader.---The Author transports, and transforms, with a Power more extensive than _Horace_ requires, in his POET!---

Mr. _B----_, and the Turns of his Pa.s.sions---and the Softness, yet Strength, of their amiable Object---after having given us the most masterly Image of Nature, that ever was painted! take Possession of, and _dwell in_, the Memory.