is intention is "rather to kill the _Root_ than
_Transplant_ it," the author of _Pamela Censured_ meticulously provides
his readers with a compendium of the so-called dirty parts of _Pamela_.
Such attention to the morality of literature, moreover, may easily
backfire. The anonymous author of _A Vindication of the Stage_ (1698)
concludes that Collier's "dwelling so long on the Subject of Debauchery,
argues something of Delight and Pleasure in the Case." Likewise, the
author of _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ sees the treatment of sexual
immodesty in _Pamela Censured_ as evidence of "how much of the Goat"
there is in the author's "Constitution."[4]

More importantly, however, _Pamela Censured_--as the first sustained
criticism of what is probably the first English novel--amasses much of
the moral ammunition which was to be fired at realistic novels during
the eighteenth century. Echoes of _Pamela Censured_ may, for instance,
be heard in Clara Reeve's _Progress of Romance_ (1785), where Hortensia
comments that in reading, "The seeds of vice and folly are sown in the
heart,--the passions are awakened,--false expectations are raised.--A
young woman is taught to expect adventures and intrigues." Euphrasia,
who expresses Clara Reeve's attitudes throughout the work, qualifies
this statement, pointing out that these ill effects come from reading
novels, but not romances.[5] Indeed, romances do not mislead readers
precisely because they are so removed from real life. Moreover,
romances morally instruct readers without hazarding the pitfalls
inherent in novels. Dr. John Gregory's _Comparative View_ (1765), for
instance, concludes that:

Notwithstanding the ridiculous extravagance of the old
Romance in many particulars, it seems calculated to produce
more favourable effects on the morals of Mankind, than our
modern Novels.--If the former did not represent men as they
really are, it represented them better; its Heroes were
patterns of courage, generosity, truth, humanity, and the
most exalted virtues. Its Heroines were distinguished for
modesty, delicacy, and the utmost dignity of manners.--The
latter [i.e., novels] represent Mankind too much what they
are, paint such scenes of pleasure and vice as are unworthy
to see the light, and thus in a manner hackney youth in the
ways of wickedness, before they are well entered into the
World; expose the fair sex in the most w