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 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 nobly and sincerely pathetic. And I say it only in Fear, lest, if fansied too long, by the fashionably Averse to the Subject, Minds, which most want the purpos’d Impression, might hazard the Loss of its Benefit, by passing 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 rashest of All his Advices! And when he thinks she ought rather
to have assum’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 passive Pamela. Far from bearing a Thought of exciting an abler Resentment, to the Danger of a Quarrel with so worthless a Coxcomb, 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 passionate 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) 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, 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 Gratitude 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! 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 coarse 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, 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 ;---and the other fine Touches of Nature: which wou’d All have been lost, in the grave, sober Sound of his Dutch Emendation.
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.—— 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, coarse-tasted Allusions to loose low-life Idioms, 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!
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 nobler, 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.
То, как этот замечательный джентльмен высказывает свое мнение о произведении и проходит через главных персонажей, настолько мастерски, что читатели «Памелы» будут очарованы им, даже если они предположат, что его неподражаемая доброжелательность переоценила само произведение.
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 Passion for Virtue, as scarce to leave it in the Power of the Will to neglect her.
Longinus, I remember, distinguishing 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 Passions---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.
And there, too, broods the kind and the credulous Parson Williams’s Dove, (without serpentine Mixture) hatching Pity and Affection, for an Honesty so sincere, and so silly!
There too, take their Places All the lower Supports of this beautiful Fabrick.---
I am sometimes transform’d into plain Goodman Andrews, and sometimes the good Woman, his Wife.
As for old Mr. Longman, and Jonathan, the Butler, they are sure of me both, in their Turns.
Now and-then, I am Colbrand the Swiss: but, as broad as I stride, in that Character, I can never escape Mrs. Jewkes: who often keeps me awake in the Night---
Till the Ghost of Lady Davers, drawing open the Curtains, scares the Scarer, of me, and of Pamela!---
And, then, I take Shelter with poor penitent John, and the rest of the Men and the Maids, of all whom I may say, with compassionate Marcia,
————The YouthsDIVIDE their Reader.
И этот прекрасный писатель добавляет:
I am glad I made War, in my last, upon the Notion of altering the Style: for, having read it twice over since then, (and to Audiences, where the Tears were applausively eloquent) I could hardly, here and there, find a Place, where one Word can be chang’d for a better. There are some indeed, where ’twere possible to leave out, a few, without making a Breach in the Building. But,
in short, the Author has put so bewitching a Mixture together, of the Rais’d with the Natural, and the Soft with the Strong and the Eloquent---thatnever Sentiments were finer, and fuller of Life! never any were utter’d so sweetly!---Even in what relates to the pious and frequent Addresses to God, I now retract (on these two last Revisals) the Consent I half gave, on a former, to the anonymous Writer’s Proposal, who advis’d the Author to shorten those Beauties.——Whoever considers his Pamela with a View to find Matter for Censure, is in the Condition of a passionate Lover, who breaks in upon his Mistress, without Fear or Wit, with Intent to accuse her, and quarrel---He came to her with Pique in his Purpose; but his Heart is too hard for his Malice---and he goes away more enslav’d, for complaining.
Следующая восхитительная история, так замечательно рассказанная, доставит большое удовольствие читателю; и мы берем на себя смелость вставить ее именно по этой причине.
What a never-to-be satisfied Length has this Subject always the Power of attracting me into! And yet, before I have done, I must by your means tell the Author a Story, which a Judge not so skilful in Nature as he is, might be in Danger perhaps of mistaking, for a trifling and silly one. I expect it shou’d give him the clearest Conviction, in a Case he is subject to question.
We have a lively little Boy in the Family, about seven Years old---but, alas for him, poor Child! quite unfriended; and born to no Prospect. He is the Son of an honest, poor Soldier, by a Wife, grave, unmeaning, and innocent. Yet the Boy, (see the Power of connubial Simplicity)
is so pretty, so genteel, and gay-spirited, that we have made him, and design’d him, our own, ever since he could totter, and waddle. The wanton Rogue is half Air: and every Motion he acts by has a Spring, like Pamela’s when she threw down the Card-table. All this Quickness, however, is temper’d by a good-natur’d Modesty: so that the wildest of his Flights are thought rather diverting than troublesome. He is an hourly Foundation for Laughter, from the Top of the House to the Parlours: and, to borrow an Attribute from the Reverend Mr. Peters, (tho’ without any Note of his Musick) plays a very good Fiddle in the Family. I have told you the History of this Tom-tit of a Prater, because, ever since my first reading of Pamela, he puts in for a Right to be one of her Hearers; and, having got half her Sayings by heart, talks in no other Language but hers: and, what really surprises, and has charm’d me into a certain Fore-taste of her Influence, he is, at once, become fond of his Book; which (before) he cou’d never be brought to attend to---that he may read Pamela, he says, without stopping. The first Discovery we made of this Power over so unripe and unfix’d an Attention, was, one Evening, when I was reading her Reflections at the Pond to some Company. The little rampant Intruder, being kept out by the Extent of the Circle, had crept under my Chair, and was sitting before me, on the Carpet, with his Head almost touching the Book, and his Face bowing down toward the Fire.---He had sat for some time in this Posture, with a Stillness, that made us conclude him asleep: when, on a sudden, we heard a Succession of heart-heaving Sobs; which while he strove to
conceal from our Notice, his little Sides swell’d, as if they wou’d burst, with the throbbing Restraint of his Sorrow. I turn’d his innocent Face, to look toward me; but his Eyes were quite lost, in his Tears: which running down from his Cheeks in free Currents, had form’d two sincere little Fountains, on that Part of the Carpet he hung over. All the Ladies in Company were ready to devour him with Kisses: and he has, since, become doubly a Favourite---and is perhaps the youngest of Pamela’s Converts.
Тот же несравненный писатель оказал нам любезность возражением, которое более существенно, чем любое, которое мы упомянули; которое не может быть лучше изложено или на которое не может быть лучше отвечено, чем его собственными прекрасными словами, а именно:
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.