made against her Story: And
yet we may venture to assert, that there is not an Objection that is
come to Knowlege [sic], but is either answered or anticipated in the
Work.

Obj. I. _Clarissa has been thought by some to want Love_--To be
prudish--To be over-delicate.

Those who blame Clarissa for Over-niceness, would most probably have
been an easy Prey to a Lovelace.

One Design in her Character is to shew, that Love ought to be overcome,
when it has not Virtue or Reformation for its Object.

Many Persons readier to find fault with a supposed perfect Character,
than to try to imitate it: To bring it down to their Level, rather than
to rise to it.

Clarissa an Example _to_ the Reader: The Example not to be taken _from_
the Reader.

Obj. II. _Lovelace could not be so generous, and so wicked._ Common
Experience confutes this Objection.

Obj. III. _There could not be such a Tyrant of a Father: Such an
insolent and brutal Brother: Such an unrelenting Sister: Such a passive
Mother_--Every-body is not of this Opinion. It were to be wished, that
this Objection were unanswerable.

Obj. IV. _The History is too minute._ Its Minuteness one of its
Excellencies.

[5]

Attentive Readers have found, and will find, that the Probability of all
Stories told, or of Narrations given, depends upon small Circumstances;
as may be observed, that in all Tryals for Life and Property, the/ /Merits
of the Cause are more determinable by such, than by the greater Facts;
which usually are so laid, and taken care of, as to seem to authenticate
themselves.

Cannot consent, that the History of Clarissa should be looked upon as a
mere Novel or Amusement--since it is rather a History of Life and
Manners; the principal View of which, by an Accommodation to the present
light Taste of an Age immersed in Diversions, that engage the Eye and
the Ear only, and not the Understanding, aims to investigate the great
Doctrines of Christianity, and to teach the Reader how to die, as well
as how to live.

Step by Step, Difficulties varied and enumerated, that young Creatures
may know, that tho' they may not have all her Trials, how to comport
gradatim.

If provoked and induced as she was, yet so loth to leave her Friends,
and go off with her Lover, what Blame must those incur, who take such a
Step, and have not her Provocations and Inducements!

Obj. V. _Why did she not throw herself into Lady Betty's Protection?_

For Answer, see Vol. III, p. 152,