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To place every thing that is important in a wrong point of 

 - view ; to corrupt the taste, and undermine the morals, is 

 the business of- these enchanters, in which, under pretence of 

 doing the reverse, they have been, unhappily, most success- 

 ful. At first sight indeed, it is not easy to discover, that false 

 views of life and manners are presented, when the professed 

 object is to paint them with accuracy ; that the taste can be 

 corrupted by writers versed in polite literature, and who all 

 aim at expressing their thoughts in language the most pa- 

 thetic or sublime ; or that the morals can be undermined by 

 not only cherishing the tender and sentimental affections, 

 but working them up to a degree of the most exquisite sen- 

 sibility. — Paradoxical as all this may appear to some, it i& 

 nevertheless true, nor can any solitary instance which may be 

 adduced to prove the contrary, weaken the evidence of 

 countless multitudes. Even Richardson himself, who was 

 more anxious to inculcate principles of morality than most 

 of his imitators, might plead guilty to this indictment; for 

 in Clarissa, and Pamela, he has not only placed his prin- 

 cipal characters in situations the most improbable, and un- 

 natural, but in doing so, has unfolded scenes, totally inconsis- 

 tent with morality, or even with common decency ; and has 

 given such a degree of importance to vice, by making it the 

 whole aim and occupation of his male characters — the busi- 

 ness in which ingenuity, talents, and money are all employed 

 and consumed as can hardly fail to make an impression 

 upon youthful fancies, unfavourable to virtue. In the love of 



