ndign punishment, as they must
and will be upon bringing him to trial: and this may be a mean to blow up
and root out a whole nest of vipers, and save many innocent creatures.

She added, that if Miss Clarissa Harlowe could be so indifferent about
having this public justice done upon such a wretch for her own sake, she
ought to overcome her scruples out of regard to her family, her
acquaintance, and her sex, which are all highly injured and scandalized
by his villany to her.

For her own part, she declares, that were she your mother, she would
forgive you upon no other terms: and, upon your compliance with these,
she herself will undertake to reconcile all your family to you.

These, my dear, are my mother's sentiments upon your sad story.

I cannot say but there are reason and justice in them: and it is my
opinion, that it would be very right for the law to oblige an injured
woman to prosecute, and to make seduction on the man's part capital,
where his studied baseness, and no fault in her will, appeared.

To this purpose the custom in the Isle of Man is a very good one----

'If a single woman there prosecutes a single man for a rape, the
ecclesiastical judges impannel a jury; and, if this jury find him guilty,
he is returned guilty to the temporal courts: where if he be convicted,
the deemster, or judge, delivers to the woman a rope, a sword, and a
ring; and she has it in her choice to have him hanged, beheaded, or to
marry him.'

One of the two former, I think, should always be her option.

I long for the particulars of your story. You must have too much time
upon your hands for a mind so active as your's, if tolerable health and
spirits be afforded you.

The villany of the worst of men, and the virtue of the most excellent of
women, I expect will be exemplified in it, were it to be written in the
same connected and particular manner in which you used to write to me.

Try for it, my dearest friend; and since you cannot give the example
without the warning, give both, for the sakes of all those who shall hear
of your unhappy fate; beginning from your's of June 5, your prospects
then not disagreeable. I pity you for the task; though I cannot
willingly exempt you from it.

***

My mother will have me add, that she must insist upon your prosecuting
the villain. She repeats, that she makes that a condition on which she
permits our future correspondence. Let me therefore know your thoughts
upon it. I