The same incomparable Writer has favour’d us with an Objection, that is more material than any we have mention’d; which cannot be better stated nor answer’d, than in his own beautiful Words; viz.
An Objection is come into my Thoughts, which I should be glad the Author would think proper to obviate in the Front of the Second Edition.
There are Mothers, or Grandmothers, in all Families of affluent Fortune, who, tho’ they may have none of Lady Davers’s Insolence, will be apt to feel one of her Fears,---that the Example of a Gentleman so amiable as Mr. B--- may be follow’d, by the Jackies, their Sons, with too blind and unreflecting a Readiness. Nor does the Answer of that Gentleman to his Sister’s Reproach come quite up to the Point they will rest on. For, tho’ indeed it is true, all the World wou’d acquit the best Gentleman in it, if he married such a Waiting-maid as Pamela, yet, there is an ill-discerning Partiality, in Passion, that will overthrow all the Force of that Argument: because every belov’d Maid will be Pamela, in a Judgment obscur’d by her Influence.
And, since the Ground of this Fear will seem solid, I don’t know how to be easy, till it is shewn (nor ought it to be left to the Author’s Modesty) that they who consider his Design in that Light will be found but short-sighted Observers.
Request it of him then to suffer it to be told them, that not a limited, but general, Excitement to Virtue was the first and great End to his Story: And that this Excitement must have been deficient, and very imperfectly offer’d, if he had not look’d quite as low as he cou’d for his Example: because if there had been any Degree or Condition, more remote from the Prospect than that which he had chosen to work on, that Degree might have seem’d out of Reach of the Hope, which it was his generous Purpose to encourage.---And, so, he was under an evident Necessity to find such a Jewel in a Cottage: and expos’d, too, as she was, to the severest Distresses of Fortune, with Parents unable to support their own Lives, but from the daily hard Product of Labour.
Nor wou’d it have been sufficient to have plac’d her thus low and distressful, if he had not also suppos’d her a Servant: and that too in some elegant Family; for if she had always remain’d a Fellow-cottager with her Father, it must have carried an Air of Romantick Improbability to account for her polite Education.
If she had wanted those Improvements, which she found means to acquire in her Service, it wou’d have been very unlikely, that she shou’d have succeeded so well; and had destroy’d one great Use of the Story, to have allow’d such uncommon Felicity to the Effect of mere personal Beauty.---And it had not been judicious to have represented her as educated in a superior Condition of Life with the proper Accomplishments, before she became reduc’d by Misfortunes, and so not a Servant, but rather an Orphan under hopeless Distresses---because Opportunities which had made it no Wonder how she came to be so winningly qualified, wou’d have lessen’d her Merit in being so. And besides, where had then been the purpos’d Excitement of Persons in Pamela’s Condition of Life, by an Emulation of her Sweetness, Humility, Modesty, Patience, and Industry, to attain some faint Hope of arriving, in time, within View of her Happiness?——And what a delightful Reformation shou’d we see, in all Families, where the Vanity of their Maids took no Turn toward Ambition to please, but by such innocent Measures, as Pamela’s!
As it is clear, then, the Author was under a Necessity to suppose her a Servant, he is not to be accountable for mistaken Impressions, which the Charms he has given her may happen to make, on wrong Heads, or weak Hearts, tho’ in Favour of Maids the Reverse of her Likeness.
What is it then (they may say) that the Lowness, and Distance of Pamela’s Condition from the Gentleman’s who married her, proposes to teach the Gay World, and the Fortunate?---It is this---By Comparison with that infinite Remoteness of her Condition from the Reward which her Virtue procur’d her, one great Proof is deriv’d, (which is Part of the Moral of Pamela) that Advantages from Birth, and Distinction of Fortune, have no Power at all, when consider’d against those from Behaviour, and Temper of Mind: because where the Last are not added, all the First will be boasted in vain. Whereas she who possesses the Last finds no Want of the First, in her Influence.
In that Light alone let the Ladies of Rank look at Pamela.---Such an alarming Reflection as that will, at the same time that it raises the Hope and Ambition of the Humble, correct and mortify the Disdain of the Proud. For it will compel them to observe, and acknowledge, that ’tis the Turn of their Mind, not the Claims of their Quality, by which (and which only) Womens Charms can be lasting: And that, while the haughty Expectations, inseparable from an elevated Rank, serve but to multiply its Complaints and Afflictions, the Condescensions of accomplish’d Humility, attracting Pity, Affection, and Reverence, secure an hourly Increase of Felicity.---So that the moral Meaning of Pamela’s Good-fortune, far from tempting young Gentlemen to marry such Maids as are found in their Families, is, by teaching Maids to deserve to be Mistresses, to stir up Mistresses to support their Distinction.