adding an
honourable name to a list, which it seems he kept, of the
credulous fools he had already ruined, and the tricks which
he put in practice, to bring about that diabolical end, are
all uniformly of a piece with the motives and passions which
inspired them; nor is the matter in the least mended by the
catastrophe which ensues; for it is not the necessary and
unavoidable consequence of his committed crimes, you are at
the greatest pains to let us know so much out of his own
mouth: _Who could have thought it_, says he to his friend
Belford, _I have said it a thousand times, surely there
never can be such another woman_; thus, you must be sensible
you have entirely destroyed the moral, and any good effect
that could be expected from the example; for, if there never
can be such another woman as Clarissa, and such a
catastrophe is not again to be dreaded, there is nothing to
deter another Rake from putting in practice the same
infamous schemes, upon any other woman he may happen to have
in his power.

Thus far, Sir, have I carried the parallel between Homer and
you, with respect to the moral tendency of your works,
a parallel in any other view, you yourself must be sensible
would be ridiculous. Were I to extend it farther, it would
still conclude more to your disadvantage, but I think enough
is said to convince any impartial person, that if the one,
with the smallest appearance of justice, was denied an
admission into the Platonic commonwealth, the other would
have been kick'd out of it with shame and disgrace; yet, you
have very pleasantly contrived to find a place there for
yourself, in Homer's room. You have adopted and inserted in
your Clarissa the four following verses, of a poetical
encomium which was made upon it.

_Even Plato in Lyceum's awful shade,_
_Th' instructive page, with transport had survey'd,_
_And own'd its author, to have well supplied,_
_The place, his laws, to Homer's self denied._

Under these lines we have this note. By the laws of Plato's
commonwealth, Homer was denied a place there, on account of
the bad tendency of the morals he ascribes to his Gods and
his Heroes; but from the short parallel I have drawn, let
the impartial determine whose writings have the worst
tendency. I know nothing of your poet Laureate, therefore
shall say as little of him, but I cannot tell which most to
wonder at, your own ignorance or vanity, the last is
conspicuous in numberless other places as w