the best Husband_.

But as the Characters will not all appear in the Two First Volumes, it
has been thought advisable, in order to give the Reader some further
Idea of Them, and of the Work, to prefix

_HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA_

HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA

[1]

Prefatical Hints. Partly taken from Letters to the Warrington Lady,
Letter VI.

As Religion is too often wounded thro' the sides of its Professors,
whether all good Men or not; so is Virtue, where Women are thought too
meanly of, and depretiated. The Author of the following Work, being
convinced of the Truth of this Observation, has endeavoured in it to
exalt the Sex. He has made his Heroine pass thro' many Persecutions from
her Friends, and ardent Trials from her Lover; yet in the first to keep
her Duty in her Eye, and in the latter to be proof against the most
insidious Arts, Devices, and Machinations of a Man, who holds, as Parts
of the Rake's Credenda, these two Libertine Maxims; That no Woman can
resist _Opportunity_ and _Importunity_, especially when attacked by a
Man she loves; and, That, _when once subdued, she is always subdued_;
and who sets out with a Presumption, that in the Conquest of such a Lady
he shall triumph over the whole Sex, against which he had vowed Revenge
for having been used ill, as he thought, by one of it.

The Lady's Sufferings and Distresses are unequalled. Like pure Gold,
tried by the Fire of Affliction, she is found pure. She preserves her
Will inviolate, her Sincerity unimpeachable, her Duty to those who do
not theirs by her, intire--Is patient, serene, resigned; and, from the
best Motives, aspires to a World more worthy of her, than that she longs
to quit.

The Christian System, in short, is endeavoured in her Conduct to be
recommended and enforced. This Life she looks upon as a Life of
Probation only. She prepares for a better. Her Preparation is
exemplarily set forth, and expatiated upon. She has her perfidious Lover
for her Vindicator. He engages all his own Relations, who adore her
(while hers, influenced by wicked Reports, persecute her) to plead for
him; and that she will accept of him upon her own Terms.

Here is her Triumph. Yet not glorying in it herself; but, on reasonable
and just Motives, rejecting him; Motives, that every virtuous Heart must
approve of. Yet believing that she shall not long live, in the true
Christian Spirit of Forgiveness, wishes and prays for his Reformation.