so much excel, in which you have acquired a pre-eminence so
conspicuous, that all other writers, when you appear, must
hide their diminished heads, like stars before the sun: that
consists in drawing characters the most shockingly vicious,
and giving examples of villainy the most infamous, and by
that means instructing the ignorant and innocent in the
theory of crimes, which, without a thorough knowledge of the
town, they could never have suspected human nature to have
been capable of. Any one who remembers the correspondence
between Lovelace and Belford, and what passes in that
infernal brothel, to which Clarissa was conducted, will at
once perceive what I have in view. Equally admirable and
just is this aphorism of our noble and inimitable poet.

_Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,_
_As to be hated needs but to be seen;_
_But seen too oft, familiar with her face,_
_We first endure, then pity, then embrace._

The truth of this is confirmed, both by experience and the
nature of things. The hearts of men are very corruptible,
especially where there is an incitement from a natural
passion; when they hear an unexampled piece of villainy,
they are at first shocked, but if they dwell much upon it,
they are at last familiarized to it, they are ingenious
at inventing excuses for that to which they find an
inclination, and at last feel less remorse at the actual
commission, than they had conceived horror at the bare
recital. But Mr. Pope is a Poet, and as you entertain no
great affection for the tuneful tribe, perhaps his authority
may have little weight; you are, however, a staunch
believer, and an excellent _Bible-scholar_; I shall
therefore try the efficacy of a scriptural inference.
_Moses_, in his celebrated apologue of the fall, has
introduced a fanciful imaginary scene, which he calls
paradise; he has placed there a human couple, under the name
of _Adam_ and _Eve_; he supposes them created in a state of
innocence and happiness, and prohibited to eat of one tree
in the garden, which he calls the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, under the penalty of being subjected to death
and misery; but that, being tempted by the serpent, they eat
of this tree, and are driven out of Paradise. Many and
various allegorical interpretations have been given of this
fable, but the following, which has been adopted by some of
the most eminent of the primitive fathers, and our modern
divines, pleases me best, and se