_Note_, Reader, several other COMMENDATORY LETTERS and COPIES OF VERSES will be prepared against the NEXT EDITION.
AN APOLOGY For the LIFE of Mrs. SHAMELA ANDREWS.
Herewith I transmit you a Copy of sweet, dear, pretty _Pamela_, a little Book which this Winter hath produced, of which, I make no doubt, you have already heard mention from some of your Neighbouring Clergy; for we have made it our common Business here, not only to cry it up, but to preach it up likewise: The Pulpit, as well as the Coffee-house, hath resounded with its Praise, and it is expected shortly, that his L--p will recommend it in a ---- Letter to our whole Body.
And this Example, I am confident, will be imitated by all our Cloth in the Country: For besides speaking well of a Brother, in the Character of the Reverend Mr. _Williams_, the useful and truly religious Doctrine of _Grace_ is every where inculcated.
This Book is the “SOUL of _Religion_, Good-Breeding, Discretion, Good-Nature, Wit, Fancy, Fine Thought, and Morality. There is an Ease, a natural Air, a dignified Simplicity, and MEASURED FULLNESS in it, that RESEMBLING LIFE, OUT-GLOWS IT. The Author hath reconciled the _pleasing_ to the _proper_; the Thought is every where exactly cloathed by the Expression; and becomes its Dress as _roundly_ and as close as _Pamela_ her Country Habit; or _as she doth her no Habit_, when modest Beauty seeks to hide itself, by casting off the Pride of Ornament, and displays itself without any Covering;” which it frequently doth in this admirable Work, and presents Images to the Reader, which the coldest Zealot cannot read without Emotion.
For my own Part (and, I believe, I may say the same of all the Clergy of my Acquaintance) “I have done nothing but read it to others, and hear others again read it to me, ever since it came into my Hands; and I find I am like to do nothing else, for I know not how long yet to come: because if I lay the Book down _it comes after me_. When it has dwelt all Day long upon the Ear, it takes Possession all Night of the Fancy. It hath Witchcraft in every Page of it.----Oh! I feel an Emotion even while I am relating this: Methinks I see _Pamela_ at this Instant, with all the Pride of Ornament cast off.