actions, as they now appear, with his
views and principles, as he lays them down in his first letters, it may
be not amiss to refer the reader to his letters, Vol. I. No. XXXIV. XXXV.

See also Vol. I. Letter XXX.--and Letter XL. for Clarissa's early opinion
of Mr. Lovelace.--Whence the coldness and indifference to him, which he
so repeatedly accuses her of, will be accounted for, more to her glory,
than to his honour.

O my dear! what a lot have I drawn! pride, this poor man's virtue; and
revenge, his other predominating quality!--This one consolation, however,
remains:--He is not an infidel, and unbeliever: had he been an infidel,
there would have been no room at all for hope of him; (but priding
himself, as he does, in his fertile invention) he would have been utterly
abandoned, irreclaimable, and a savage.

[When she comes to relate those occasions, which Mr. Lovelace in his
narrative acknowledges himself to be affected by, she thus expresses
herself:]

He endeavoured, as once before, to conceal his emotion. But why, my
dear, should these men (for Mr. Lovelace is not singular in this) think
themselves above giving these beautiful proofs of a feeling heart? Were
it in my power again to choose, or to refuse, I would reject the man with
contempt, who sought to suppress, or offered to deny, the power of being
visibly affected upon proper occasions, as either a savage-hearted
creature, or as one who was so ignorant of the principal glory of the
human nature, as to place his pride in a barbarous insensibility.

These lines translated from Juvenal by Mr. Tate, I have been often
pleased with:

Compassion proper to mankind appears:
Which Nature witness'd, when she lent us tears.
Of tender sentiments we only give
These proofs: To weep is our prerogative:
To show by pitying looks, and melting eyes,
How with a suff'ring friend we sympathise.
Who can all sense of other ills escape,
Is but a brute at best, in human shape.

It cannot but yield me some pleasure, hardly as I have sometimes thought
of the people of the house, that such a good man as Captain Tomlinson had
spoken well of them, upon inquiry.

And here I stop a minute, my dear, to receive, in fancy, your kind
congratulation.

My next, I hope, will confirm my present, and open still more agreeable
prospects. Mean time be assured, that there cannot possibly any good
fortune befal me, which I shal