Monthly Review
for August, 1797, from Addison's "Santon Barsisa" in the
Guardian
(No. 148). The book was severely criticized on the score of immorality. Mathias (
Pursuits of Literature
, Dialogue iv.) attacks Lewis, whom he compares to John Cleland, whose
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
came under the notice of the law courts:
"Another Cleland see in Lewis rise.
Why sleep the ministers of truth and law?"
An injunction was, in fact, moved for against the book; but the proceedings dropped.