to read your _Pamela_, and by contributing to the
large Sale thereof, made the World (as is generally the Case) judge of
the Worth of it.

The _Porch_ erected with cunning Symmetry, and shining with agreeable
Colours allures us in; _Nature_, _Truth_, _Virtue_ and _Religion_; Words
that are sure to please not only the Innocent Youth, but the more
Thinking and experienced Sage, are press'd into the Service of the first
Page; and so artfully rank'd that they at once invite us to proceed and
assure us that the Production can be nothing less than a Miracle: Nay so
much are you convinc'd of it's _Worth_, so happy in the Consideration of
your own Desert, that, tacitly condemning all former Writings of the
like Kind, You assume to yourself the Merit of prescribing _Virtue_, and
cultivating both that and _Religion_ (which by the way I never knew were
distinct before) in the Minds of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES, and that you
have the Honour of now _First_ publishing these Things to the World: Was
no Romance or Novel ever published with a Design to recommend moral
Virtue?--Is _Pamela_ the First of that Kind! No surely; as to your
Title, _La Paysanne parvenue_ now translated into _English_, a little
_French_ Novel, is something more modest, and as much calculated for the
Encouragement of Virtue. That is a plain Tale, it is recommended and
received as such but _Pamela_ is first a _Series of Letters_ from a Girl
to her Parents, which it is presumed are offered us as Originals, and
then immediately we are told it is a _Narrative_ which has it's
_Foundation_ in _Truth_, and _Nature_; now what can any Man that would
reduce this to the Language of his own Opinion and Judgment call it,
but, _a Romance form'd in Manner of a literary Correspondence founded on
a Tale which the Author had heard, and modell'd into it's present
Shape_. Allowing this, which is the modestest Construction I can put
upon it, and that it was founded upon Truth, yet several Things may and
have been added thereto: Art and Invention, have been used; and however
_true_ the _Foundation_ may have been, yet a few _Removes_ and
_Transitions_, may make it deviate into a _downright Falsehood_: In all
Additions, and what may by some be called Embellishments to the Story,
_Fancy_ must take Place and where that presides, any Gentleman who is
too much troubled with it, knows the Consequence: From thence _Imaginary
Characters_ will arise, still spreading and increasing, and the busy
P