randison_,
1754, II, 7-8). The _Candid Examination_, in a postscript commenting on
the last volume of _Grandison_, repeats the charge of duplication in a
rather odd way: "The Conduct and Behaviour of Sir _Charles_ and his
Lady, after the Marriage, is an Imitation of that of Mr. B-- and
_Pamela_; but does not equal the Original" (p. 42).

The pamphleteer has more to say about Charlotte than about Harriet, Sir
Charles, or Clementina, the characters with whom later criticism has
been chiefly concerned. Charlotte's "whimsical" or "arch" way evidently
got on his nerves. He catches up a phrase which Harriet applies to her,
"dear flighty creature," and derisively repeats it several times.
Contemporary readers paid her considerable attention. The _Candid
Examination_ names among the fine things in the book "a Profusion of Wit
and Fancy in Lady G--'s Conversation and Letters," and thinks that
Harriet at times treats her levity too severely (pp. 6, 14-16). The
author of _Louisa: Or, Virtue in Distress_ (1760) remarks that Lady G--
is one of the most imitated of Richardson's characters--"I have
observed that most of our modern novels abound with a lady G--" (p. x).
There were objections even among Richardson's admirers, however, as by
Mrs. Delany: "Miss Grandison is sometimes diverting, has wit and humour,
but considering her heart is meant to be a good one, she too often
behaves as if it were stark naught" (_Autobiography and Correspondence_,
London, 1861, 1 Ser., III, 251). The evidence seems to show that early
readers of _Grandison_ did not isolate the principal characters, except
perhaps Clementina, but considered them with due reference to the
secondary characters and to the whole social context in which they
appear.

Finally, this critic is irritated by the conversational and epistolary
style which Richardson evolves in the process of "writing to the
moment"; he is particularly vexed at the coined or adapted words which
are sometimes italicized and dwelt on as characteristic of an
individual. He cites only a few, such as Uncle Selby's _scrupulosities_,
but he has others in mind, both from _Grandison_ and from Lovelace's
letters in _Clarissa_, and wonders whether such words as these will get
into the dictionary. (It happened that Johnson was entering words from
_Clarissa_ in his _Dictionary_ during these years.) He burlesques an
epistle from Charlotte, slipping in a few of Lovelace's locutions as
well (pp. 47-48; cf. _Grand