Pamela Censured, &c.
SIR,
As You have pleased in Your Third Edition of Pamela, or (what you call) Virtue Rewarded, to insert Extracts from several curious recommendatory Letters, to perswade us that nothing could every equal this Performance, I hope as I dissent from those Gentlemens Opinion, you will with Impartiality receive my Reasons for so doing; nor condemn me less for honestly disapproving, than you caress them for fulsomely flattering.
The Pompous Promise of your Title Page, the Manner in which it is introduced, and your undertaking in a Series of familiar Letters, from a beautiful Young Virgin to her Parents to inculcate Virtue, the very Mention of such a Method of Instruction, has, I don't doubt induced Numbers, as it did me, to read your Pamela, and by contributing to the large Sale thereof, made the World (as is generally the Case) judge of the Worth of it.
The Porch erected with cunning Symmetry, and shining with agreeable Colours allures us in; Nature, Truth, Virtue and Religion; Words that are sure to please not only the Innocent Youth, but the more Thinking and experienced Sage, are press'd into the Service of the first Page; and so artfully rank'd that they at once invite us to proceed and assure us that the Production can be nothing less than a Miracle: Nay so much are you convinc'd of it's Worth, so happy in the Consideration of your own Desert, that, tacitly condemning all former Writings of the like Kind, You assume to yourself the Merit of prescribing Virtue, and cultivating both that and Religion (which by the way I never knew were distinct before) in the Minds of the Youth of both Sexes, and that you have the Honour of now First publishing these Things to the World: Was no Romance or Novel ever published with a Design to recommend moral Virtue?—Is Pamela the First of that Kind! No surely; as to your Title, La Paysanne parvenue now translated into English, a little French Novel, is something more modest, and as much calculated for the Encouragement of Virtue. That is a plain Tale, it is recommended and received as such but Pamela is first a Series of Letters from a Girl to her Parents, which it is presumed are offered us as Originals, and then immediately we are told it is a Narrative which has it's Foundation in Truth, and Nature; now what can any Man that would reduce this to the Language of his own Opinion and Judgment call it, but, a Romance form'd in Manner of a literary Correspondence founded on a Tale which the Author had heard, and modell'd into it's present Shape. Allowing this, which is the modestest Construction I can put upon it, and that it was founded upon Truth, yet several Things may and have been added thereto: Art and Invention, have been used; and however true the Foundation may have been, yet a few Removes and Transitions, may make it deviate into a downright Falsehood: In all Additions, and what may by some be called Embellishments to the Story, Fancy must take Place and where that presides, any Gentleman who is too much troubled with it, knows the Consequence: From thence Imaginary Characters will arise, still spreading and increasing, and the busy Phantom will ever be pleased at shadowy Beings of it's own Formation; yet the Substance that gave those Shadows may be founded on Truth; but thus extended like the Reflections from a declining Summer Evening's Sun, it may please Children with their seeming gigantic Heights, while Men acknowledge it but as the last feeble Efforts of his Light.
But notwithstanding all the great Things you promise us at first, of Truth, Virtue and Religion, and that your Book is intirely divested of all those Images which in too many Pieces tend only to inflame the Mind, yet give me Leave to say, Sir, that I believe you will find but few of the many Pieces which you so self-assumingly condemn that abound with more Instances of inflaming Sentiments than your own, as in the Course of this Epistle, I shall point out to you.
Nor does the Process of your Work fall short of your first setting out; you there as an Editor arrogate to yourself all the Praise that the most lavish could bestow on your Desert, had it been real and silent; Fame founded by a Stranger's Breath, comes tuneful to the Ear, but self-blown grows harsh and dissonant, and we condemn, the Conceitedness and Affectation of what we might otherwise esteem.
And here give me Leave to observe, Sir, that tho' your great Modesty for some particular Reasons, one of which appears to be, that you could not otherwise be acquitted of intolerable Vanity in applauding yourself as you have done, has induced you to stile yourself only Editor; yet, Sir, from several Sentences undesignedly dropt, where the Current of your own agreeable Flattery has carried you beyond your Depth, I can't help thinking that you are more than barely Editor. The Story may have it's Foundation in Truth and Nature; but the Superstructure is your own; the fictitious Pamela may bear the Resemblance of some happy rural Maid, who for her Virtue and Beauty may have been raised from the Plain to the Toilette, from the Sheepcote to the Mansion House, but the natural Air, the dignified Simplicity, the measur'd Fulness in it are properly to be ascribed to you: I shall therefore henceforward treat you as Half-Editor, Half-Author of Pamela. I am not ignorant what Art and Industry have been employed, privately to intimate that what gave Rise to this inimitable and so much commended Piece, was an Occurrence of the like Kind that happen'd some time since in the Family of a certain Noble Lord; if this be the Case, I must confess 'tis so highly shadow'd that the Outlines of your Draughts are almost obscured, and suffer us only to guess at the Likeness. Nor can I help joining with one of your complemental Friends, and acknowledge, that your Picture in resembling Life outglows it.