Pamela had certainly known what he
would be at. But by his offering to bribe her to silence, he
betrayed all his designs, and informed her she had a secret
to keep, which unless she had been constitutionally vicious,
it was imposible for her not to disclose. Mr. Booby shews
likewise the utmost ignorance of human nature, in thinking
to gain his ends with a young and innocent girl by the force
of money. All young girls are taught to put a value on their
virginity, and unless debauched by their own sex, they never
will part with it, but to those they like. None but
well-disciplin'd ladies of the town are to be gained upon by
meer money; and Mr. Booby, by the whole of his conduct,
appears to be nothing but a downright Covent-garden rake. He
was resolved to have Pamela, and marriage was indeed the
only way left for him. This your first performance concludes
with that happy event, and having sold well, I imagine you
was induced to continue the story. But had I undertaken that
task, without violating the probability or the consistency
of the characters, I should have introduced Parson Williams
very fairly making a cuckold of Booby, and providing him
with an heir to his estate, which is the way all such
Boobies ought to be treated, and a proper catastrophe for
all such preposterous matches.

Your three Heroines are, Pamela, Harriet, and Clarissa,
ladies all renowned for chastity and _Bible-scholarship_.
The chastity of the first was from beginning to end never
well attackt, and the defence she made is so far from being
extraordinary, that had she surrendered at discretion, it
ought to have been reckoned miraculous. There is nothing
very characteristic about Harriet, yet is she a good sort of
a girl enough, especially as times go. _The men are sunk,
and the women barely swim_, faith the lively Charlotte
Grandison. But the character of Clarissa is, indeed,
admirable throughout the whole. Nature and propriety are not
only strictly observed, but we see the greatest nobleness of
soul, generosity of sentiments, filial affection, delicacy,
modesty, and every female virtue, finely maintained and
consistently conspicuous all along. The circumstances which
induced her noble and generous spirit to contract a liking
for Lovelace, are finely imagin'd; her delicacy and reserve,
her disgust at his teazing ways, after she was in his power,
are naturally to be expected from a woman of her superior
accomplimments. There is something excess