ove_, but _in Liking_ only,
if that expression may be admitted. It is meant to be every-where
inculcated in the Story, for _Example-sake_, that she never would have
married Mr. Lovelace, because of his immoralities, had she been left to
herself; and that her ruin was principally owing to the persecutions of
her friends.

"What is too generally called _Love_, ought (perhaps _as_ generally) to
be called by another name. _Cupidity_, or a _Paphian Stimulus_, as some
women, even of condition, have acted, are not words too harsh to be
substituted on the occasion, however grating they may be to delicate
ears. But take the word _Love_ in the gentlest and most honourable
sense, it would have been thought by some highly improbable, that
Clarissa should have been able to shew such a command of her passions,
as makes so distinguishing a part of her Character, had she been as
violently in Love, as certain warm and fierce spirits would have had her
to be. A few Observations are thrown in by way of Note in the present
Edition, at proper places, to obviate this Objection, or rather to
bespeak the _Attention_ of hasty Readers to what lies obviously before
them. For thus the Heroine anticipates this very Objection,
expostulating with Miss Howe, on her contemptuous treatment of Mr.
Hickman; which [far from being guilty of the same fault herself] she did
on all occasions, and declares she would do, whenever Miss Howe forgot
herself, altho' she had not a day to live:

"'O my dear, says she, that it had been my Lot (as I was not permitted
to live single) to have met with a man, by whom I _could_ have acted
generously and unreservedly!

"'Mr. Lovelace, it is now plain, in order to have a pretence against me,
taxed my behaviour to him with stiffness and distance. You, at one time,
thought me guilty of some degree of Prudery. Difficult situations should
be allowed for; which often make seeming occasions for censure unavoidable.
I deserved not blame from _him_, who made mine difficult. And if I had
had any other man to deal with than Mr. Lovelace, or had he had but half
the merit which Mr Hickman has, you, my Dear, should have found, that my
Doctrine, on this Subject, should have governed my Practice.' See this
whole Letter[48]; See also Mr. Lovelace's Letter No lxxvii. Vol. VII.
p. 310. _& seq._ where, just before his Death, he entirely acquits her
conduct on this head.

"It has been thought by some worthy and ingenious persons, that if
Lo