o receive that of
the best of Women, whenever he pleased, and that Marriage would be a
sufficient Amends for his Villainies, I could not bear that, nor wished
I, that the World should think it Amends.

I had given in the Story of Pamela what is called a happy Issue. It was,
however, owing to her implicit Submission to a lordly and imperious
Husband, who hardly deserved her, that she was happy; a Submission which
every Woman could not have shewn. And yet she had a too well grounded
Jealousy to contend with afterwards; which, for the time, tore her Heart
in pieces. Nor was Mr. B's Reformation secured, till religious
Considerations obtained place, on seeing the Precipice he was dancing
upon with the Countess. _For we must observe_, that Reformation is not
to be secured by a fine Face, by a Passion that has Sense for its
Object; nor by the Goodness of a Wife's Heart, if the Husband have not a
good one of his own; and that properly touched by the divine Finger.

The Author of this Piece was willing to try to do something in this way,
that never before had been done. The Tragic Poets have seldom made their
Heroes _true_ Objects of Pity; and very seldom have made them in their
Deaths look forward to a better Hope. And thus, when they die, they seem
_totally_ to perish. Death in _such_ Instances must be terrible. It must
be considered as the greatest Evil. But why is Death set in such
shocking Lights, when it is the common Lot? / /

* * * * *
[3]

The Heroine of this Piece shews, that she has well considered this great
Point, when she says--"What is even the long Life, which in high Health
we wish for? What but, as we go along, a Life of Apprehension, sometimes
for our Friends, oftener for ourselves? And at last, when arrived at the
old Age we covet, one heavy Loss or Deprivation having succeeded
another, we see ourselves stript, as I may say, of every one we loved;
and find ourselves exposed, as uncompaniable poor Creatures, to the
Slights, the Contempts, of jostling Youth, who want to push us off the
Stage, in Hopes to possess what we have. And, superadded to all, our own
Infirmities every Day increasing; of themselves enough to make the Life
we wished for, the greatest Disease of all."

Such are the Doctrines, such the Lessons, which are endeavoured to be
inculcated in the following Sheets by an Example in natural Life. The
more unfashionable, the more irksome, these Doctrines, these Lesso