hantom will ever be pleased at shadowy Beings of it's own Formation;
yet the Substance that gave those Shadows may be founded on _Truth_;
but thus extended like the Reflections from a declining Summer Evening's
Sun, it may please _Children_ with their seeming _gigantic_ Heights,
while _Men_ acknowledge it but as the last feeble _Efforts_ of his
_Light_.

But notwithstanding all the great Things you promise us at first, of
_Truth_, _Virtue_ and _Religion_, and that your Book is intirely
_divested_ of all those Images which in _too many_ Pieces tend only to
_inflame_ the Mind, yet give me Leave to say, Sir, that I believe you
will find but few of the many Pieces which you so self-assumingly
condemn that abound with more Instances of _inflaming_ Sentiments than
your own, as in the Course of this Epistle, I shall point out to you.

Nor does the Process of your Work fall short of your first setting out;
you there as an _Editor_ arrogate to yourself all the Praise that the
most lavish could bestow on your Desert, had it been real and silent;
_Fame_ founded by a Stranger's Breath, comes tuneful to the Ear, but
self-blown grows harsh and dissonant, and we condemn, the Conceitedness
and Affectation of what we might otherwise esteem.

And here give me Leave to observe, Sir, that tho' your great Modesty for
some particular Reasons, one of which appears to be, that you could not
otherwise be acquitted of intolerable Vanity in applauding yourself as
you have done, has induced you to stile yourself only _Editor_; yet,
Sir, from several Sentences undesignedly dropt, where the Current of
your own agreeable Flattery has carried you beyond your Depth, I can't
help thinking that you are more than barely _Editor_. The Story may have
it's _Foundation_ in _Truth_ and _Nature_; but the Superstructure is
_your own_; the fictitious _Pamela_ may bear the Resemblance of some
happy rural Maid, who for her Virtue and Beauty may have been raised
from the _Plain_ to the _Toilette_, from the _Sheepcote_ to the _Mansion
House_, but the _natural Air_, the _dignified Simplicity_, the _measur'd
Fulness_ in it are properly to be ascribed to you: I shall therefore
henceforward treat you as HALF-EDITOR, HALF-AUTHOR of _Pamela_. I am not
ignorant what Art and Industry have been employed, privately to intimate
that what gave Rise to this _inimitable_ and so much commended Piece,
was an Occurrence of the like Kind that happen'd some time since in the
Family o