e not,
which they ought to be to the most common reader. It may,
indeed, be said, that no certain judgment can be formed of
it, in that respect, till the whole is compleated. But it is
no difficult matter to make probable conjectures about the
contents of the volume still in embrio. We shall probably be
entertained with a description of the nuptials between Lady
Clementina and the Count de Belvedere; that happy couple,
with Signor Jeronymo, and the rest of the Porretta family,
will certainly pay a visit to Grandison and his admired
Harriet; Beauchamp will be married to _that rogue_ Emily, in
whom he already _meditates his future wife_; _the good
doctor_ Bartlet may possibly pick up the dowager Lady
Beauchamp; but if the dowager Lady should chuse a younger
bedfellow, a match may be made up between him and _old aunt_
Nell; or if _old aunt_ Nell should continue obstinately
determined against matrimony, the _good doctor_ and
_grandmama_ Shirley may go to church together. And now, Sir,
though all these desirable events should be happily
accomplished, I should still be of the same opinion; nor can
I see any moral that could be drawn from them, unless it be
this, that men and women, old and young, after a certain
ceremony is performed, may go to bed together, without shame
or scandal, or any fear of being called to account for so
doing by the churchwardens. The plot and fable of your
Pamela may indeed be easily enough discovered. They consist
in Mr. B.'s attempts to debauch his beautiful waiting-maid;
in her resistance, and their happy nuptials. If we look for
a moral, we shall find the only one that can be extracted
out of it to be very ridiculous, useless, and impertinent;
it appears to be this, that when a young gentleman of
fortune cannot obtain his ends of a handsome servant girl,
he ought to marry her; and that the said girl ought to
resist him, in expectation of that event. Thus it is
manifest, that these two compositions are equally below
criticism, in this article, and, to do you justice, it must
be confessed, that your Clarissa is as much above it. When
considered in this light, it seems to be entirely Homerical.
That divine poet, in his Iliad, has inculcated by one fable,
and in the continuation of one action, two great and noble
morals. The first is, that discord among chiefs or allies
engaged in a confederacy, ruins their common designs, and
renders them unsuccessful; and the second, that concord and
agreeme