Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 1 Read online

  Produced by Julie C. Sparks

  CLARISSA HARLOWE

  or the

  HISTORY OF A YOUNG LADY

  Nine Volumes

  Volume I.

  Comprehending The most Important Concerns of Private Life. And particularly shewing, The Distresses that may attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage.

  PREFACE

  The following History is given in a series of letters, writtenPrincipally in a double yet separate correspondence;

  Between two young ladies of virtue and honor, bearing an inviolablefriendship for each other, and writing not merely for amusement, butupon the most interesting subjects; in which every private family, moreor less, may find itself concerned; and,

  Between two gentlemen of free lives; one of them glorying in histalents for stratagem and invention, and communicating to the other, inconfidence, all the secret purposes of an intriguing head and resoluteheart.

  But here it will be proper to observe, for the sake of such as mayapprehend hurt to the morals of youth, from the more freely-writtenletters, that the gentlemen, though professed libertines as to thefemale sex, and making it one of their wicked maxims, to keep no faithwith any of the individuals of it, who are thrown into their power,are not, however, either infidels or scoffers; nor yet such as thinkthemselves freed from the observance of those other moral duties whichbind man to man.

  On the contrary, it will be found, in the progress of the work, thatthey very often make such reflections upon each other, and each uponhimself and his own actions, as reasonable beings must make, whodisbelieve not a future state of rewards and punishments, and who oneday propose to reform--one of them actually reforming, and by that meansgiving an opportunity to censure the freedoms which fall from the gayerpen and lighter heart of the other.

  And yet that other, although in unbosoming himself to a select friend,he discovers wickedness enough to entitle him to general detestation,preserves a decency, as well in his images as in his language, whichis not always to be found in the works of some of the most celebratedmodern writers, whose subjects and characters have less warranted theliberties they have taken.

  In the letters of the two young ladies, it is presumed, will befound not only the highest exercise of a reasonable and practicablefriendship, between minds endowed with the noblest principles ofvirtue and religion, but occasionally interspersed, such delicacy ofsentiments, particularly with regard to the other sex; such instancesof impartiality, each freely, as a fundamental principle of theirfriendship, blaming, praising, and setting right the other, as arestrongly to be recommended to the observation of the younger part (morespecially) of female readers.

  The principle of these two young ladies is proposed as an exemplar toher sex. Nor is it any objection to her being so, that she is not inall respects a perfect character. It was not only natural, but it wasnecessary, that she should have some faults, were it only to show thereader how laudably she could mistrust and blame herself, and carry toher own heart, divested of self-partiality, the censure which arose fromher own convictions, and that even to the acquittal of those, becauserevered characters, whom no one else would acquit, and to whose muchgreater faults her errors were owing, and not to a weak or reproachableheart. As far as it is consistent with human frailty, and as far as shecould be perfect, considering the people she had to deal with, and thosewith whom she was inseparably connected, she is perfect. To have beenimpeccable, must have left nothing for the Divine Grace and a purifiedstate to do, and carried our idea of her from woman to angel. As such isshe often esteemed by the man whose heart was so corrupt that he couldhardly believe human nature capable of the purity, which, on every trialor temptation, shone out in her's [sic].

  Besides the four principal person, several others are introduced, whoseletters are characteristic: and it is presumed that there will be foundin some of them, but more especially in those of the chief characteramong the men, and the second character among the women, such strokes ofgayety, fancy, and humour, as will entertain and divert, and at the sametime both warn and instruct.

  All the letters are written while the hearts of the writers must besupposed to be wholly engaged in their subjects (the events at the timegenerally dubious): so that they abound not only in critical situations,but with what may be called instantaneous descriptions and reflections(proper to be brought home to the breast of the youthful reader;) asalso with affecting conversations; many of them written in the dialogueor dramatic way.

  'Much more lively and affecting,' says one of the principal character,'must be the style of those who write in the height of a presentdistress; the mind tortured by the pangs of uncertainty (the events thenhidden in the womb of fate;) than the dry, narrative, unanimated styleof a person relating difficulties and danger surmounted, can be; therelater perfectly at ease; and if himself unmoved by his own story, notlikely greatly to affect the reader.'

  What will be found to be more particularly aimed at in the followingwork is--to warn the inconsiderate and thoughtless of the one sex,against the base arts and designs of specious contrivers of theother--to caution parents against the undue exercise of their naturalauthority over their children in the great article of marriage--to warnchildren against preferring a man of pleasure to a man of probity uponthat dangerous but too-commonly-received notion, that a reformed rakemakes the best husband--but above all, to investigate the highest andmost important doctrines not only of morality, but of Christianity, byshowing them thrown into action in the conduct of the worthy characters;while the unworthy, who set those doctrines at defiance, are condignly,and, as may be said, consequentially punished.

  From what has been said, considerate readers will not enter upon theperusal of the piece before them as if it were designed only to divertand amuse. It will probably be thought tedious to all such as dip intoit, expecting a light novel, or transitory romance; and look upon storyin it (interesting as that is generally allowed to be) as its sole end,rather than as a vehicle to the instruction.

  Different persons, as might be expected, have been of differentopinions, in relation to the conduct of the Heroine in particularsituations; and several worthy persons have objected to the generalcatastrophe, and other parts of the history. Whatever is thoughtmaterial of these shall be taken notice of by way of Postscript, at theconclusion of the History; for this work being addressed to the publicas a history of life and manners, those parts of it which areproposed to carry with them the force of an example, ought to be asunobjectionable as is consistent with the design of the whole, and withhuman nature.