_Parson_ OLIVER _to Parson_ TICKLETEXT.
_Rev. SIR_,
I Received the Favour of yours with the inclosed Book, and really
must own myself sorry, to see the Report I have heard of an
epidemical Phrenzy now raging in Town, confirmed in the Person of my
Friend.
If I had not known your Hand, I should, from the Sentiments and Stile
of the Letter, have imagined it to have come from the Author of the
famous Apology, which was sent me last Summer; and on my reading the
remarkable Paragraph of _measured Fulness, that resembling Life
out-glows it_, to a young Baronet, he cry'd out, _C----ly C----b--r_
by G----. But I have since observed, that this, as well as many other
Expressions in your Letter, was borrowed from those remarkable
Epistles, which the Author, or the Editor hath prefix'd to the second
Edition which you send me of his Book.
Is it possible that you or any of your Function can be in earnest, or
think the Cause of Religion, or Morality, can want such slender
Support? God forbid they should. As for Honour to the Clergy, I am
sorry to see them so solicitous about it; for if worldly Honour be
meant, it is what their Predecessors in the pure and primitive Age,
never had or sought. Indeed the secure Satisfaction of a good
Conscience, the Approbation of the Wise and Good, (which, never were
or will be the Generality of Mankind) and the extatick Pleasure of
contemplating, that their Ways are acceptable to the Great Creator of
the Universe, will always attend those, who really deserve these
Blessings: But for worldly Honours, they are often the Purchase of
Force and Fraud, we sometimes see them in an eminent Degree possessed
by Men, who are notorious for Luxury, Pride, Cruelty, Treachery, and
the most abandoned Prostitution; Wretches who are ready to invent and
maintain Schemes repugnant to the Interest, the Liberty, and the
Happiness of Mankind, not to supply their Necessities, or even
Conveniencies, but to pamper their Avarice and Ambition. And if this
be the Road to worldly Honours, God forbid the Clergy should be even
suspected of walking in it.
The History of _Pamela_ I was acquainted with long before I received
it from you, from my Neighbourhood to the Scene of Action. Indeed I
was in hopes that young Woman would have contented herself with the
Good-fortune she hath attained; and rather suffered her little Arts
to have been forgotten than have revived their Remembrance, and
endeavoured by perverting and misrepresenting Facts to be thought to
deserve what she now enjoys: for though we do not imagine her the
Author of the Narrative itself, yet we must suppose the Instructions
were given by her, as well as the Reward, to the Composer. Who that
is, though you so earnestly require of me, I shall leave you to guess
from that _Ciceronian_ Eloquence, with which the Work abounds; and
that excellent Knack of making every Character amiable, which he lays
his hands on.
But before I send you some Papers relating to this Matter, which will
set _Pamela_ and some others in a very different Light, than that in
which they appear in the printed Book, I must beg leave to make some
few Remarks on the Book itself, and its Tendency, (admitting it to be
a true Relation,) towards improving Morality, or doing any good,
either to the present Age, or Posterity: which when I have done, I
shall, I flatter myself, stand excused from delivering it, either
into the hands of my Daughter, or my Servant-Maid.
The Instruction which it conveys to Servant-Maids, is, I think, very
plainly this, To look out for their Masters as sharp as they can. The
Consequences of which will be, besides Neglect of their Business, and
the using all manner of Means to come at Ornaments of their Persons,
that if the Master is not a Fool, they will be debauched by him; and
if he is a Fool, they will marry him. Neither of which, I apprehend,
my good Friend, we desire should be the Case of our Sons.
And notwithstanding our Author's Professions of Modesty, which in my
Youth I have heard at the Beginning of an Epilogue, I cannot agree
that my Daughter should entertain herself with some of his Pictures;
which I do not expect to be contemplated without Emotion, unless by
one of my Age and Temper, who can see the Girl lie on her Back, with
one Arm round Mrs. _Jewkes_ and the other round the Squire, naked in
Bed, with his Hand on her Breasts, _&c._ with as much Indifference as
I read any other Page in the whole Novel. But surely this, and some
other Descriptions, will not be put into the hands of his Daughter by
any wise Man, though I believe it will be difficult for him to keep
them from her; especially if the Clergy in Town have cried and
preached it up as you say.
But, my Friend, the whole Narrative is such a Misrepresentation of
Facts, such a Perversion of Truth, as you will, I am perswaded,
agree, as soon as you have perused the Papers I now inclose to you,
that I hope you or some other well-disposed Person, will communicate
these Papers to the Publick, that this little Jade may not impose on
the World, as she hath on her Master.
The true name of this Wench was SHAMELA, and not _Pamela_, as she
stiles herself. Her Father had in his Youth the Misfortune to appear
in no good Light at the _Old-Bailey_; he afterwards served in the
Capacity of a Drummer in one of the _Scotch_ Regiments in the _Dutch_
Service; where being drummed out, he came over to _England_, and
turned Informer against several Persons on the late Gin-Act; and
becoming acquainted with an Hostler at an Inn, where a _Scotch_
Gentleman's Horses stood, he hath at last by his Interest obtain'd a
pretty snug Place in the _Custom-house_. Her Mother sold Oranges in
the Play-House; and whether she was married to her Father or no, I
never could learn.
* * * * *
After this short Introduction, the rest of her History will appear in
the following Letters, which I assure you are authentick.
[Illustration]