80 R I C H A 
merit; “Yet (says Mr. Walpole) such a picture of a good 
mind, serene in conscious innocence, is scarcely to be found. 
It is imposible not to love the author, or not to wish to be as 
sincerely and intentionally virtuous.” Richardson quitted 
business some years before his death, and although he had 
suffered a paralytic stroke in one arm, be was capable of 
enjoying life till his sudden decease in 1745, at the age of 
80. His son, who practised painting occasionally, and was 
also a worthy character, died in 1771. When his drawings 
were sold, there were hundreds of portraits in chalk by the 
father of both himself and his son, and it appeared that after 
his retirement he was accustomed every day to draw his own 
or his son’s portrait, and to write a short poem. Walpole's 
Anecd. of Painting. Newton's Milton. 
RICHARDSON (Samuel), a very distinguished novelist, 
was born in 1689, in Derbyshire, to which county his 
father had retired from the business of a joiner, which he 
had carried on in London. An early gravity and sedateness 
of disposition caused him to be destined by his father for the 
church; but, on account of pecuniary losses, the latter found 
it impossible to give bis son the requisite education ; and the 
learningofacommon school wasall that Samuel everobtained. 
A fondness for such reading as he could command, how¬ 
ever, characterized him from childhood, together with a 
faculty of inventing stories for the entertainment of his com¬ 
panions. He also, when a mere boy, displayed the more 
uncommon quality at that age, of a love for letter-writing, 
which he afterwards brought so much into fashion. To 
those who take pleasure in tracing the early indications of 
atlents and propensities which are the ground-work of future 
celebrity, it will be a precious anecdote that Richardson, at 
the age of 13, was the confidant of three young women in 
their love secrets, and was employed by them to give utter¬ 
ance to their tender sentiments in draughts of letters to their 
lovers; and that such was his fidelity and discretion, that 
not one of them suspected him to be the secretary of the 
others. When it became necessary to chuse for him a calling, 
that of a printer was fixed upon, as congenial with his lite¬ 
rary turn, and in 1706 he was bound apprentice to Mr. 
Wilde, of Stationers'-hall. Here he passed seven years with 
a master who, as he says, “ grudged every hour to him that 
tended not to his profit;” and, as he was extremely con¬ 
scientious in performing all the duties to which he was 
bound, he stole from the hours allowed to rest and recreation 
his times for mental improvement. One exercise that, doubt¬ 
less, proved a valuable preparation for the mode of writing 
which afterwards gave him so much celebrity, was a copious 
correspondence with a gentleman of large fortune and in a 
station much superior to his own, who excelled in the epis. 
tolary style. After the expiration of his apprenticeship, he 
passed five or six years as compositor, corrector, and fore¬ 
man, in a printing-office; and at length set up for himself, 
first in a court in Fleet-street, and then in Salisbury-court. 
His habits of diligence and accuracy, and his honourable 
dealing, soon gained him employers and friends; and the 
superiority of his attainments to those of mere printers 
by trade, caused him to be applied to by booksellers 
for making indexes, and writing prefaces and dedi¬ 
cations. The immediate occasion of his becoming a novel- 
writer was an application made to him by two booksellers, 
his particular friends, to write for them a volume of Letters 
in a common style, on subjects that might serve as models 
for the use of those who had not the talent of inditing for 
themselves. He extended the idea to the conveying of in¬ 
struction in thinking and acting upon important occasions; 
and, in composing some letters for the salutary purpose of 
teaching girls going out to service how to avoid the snares 
that might be laid against their chastity, a story which he 
had heard of a real occurrence, became the parent of 
“ Pamela.” It was probably his old predilection for letter¬ 
writing, and acquired facility in it, that suggested to him the 
novelty of telling the whole story by means of letters; a 
mode which he practised in his two other works of the 
kind, and which has since been frequently imitated. He 
began to write Pamela in the close of 1739, and within two 
R D S O N. 
months, in the midst of other engagements, finished the two 
volumes of which the work first consisted—such was the 
fluency of his pen and his invention ! When published in 
1740, it was received with extraordinary applause by readers 
of all ranks. The novelty of the plan, the simplicity of the 
language, the pathetic incidents of the story, and the senti¬ 
ments of piety and virtue that it was the author’s great object 
to inculcate, rendered it universally interesting, and gave it 
a place among works of edification as -well as of amusement. 
It was at the same time recommended from the pulpit, and 
made a topic of conversation at polite assemblies. 
Pamela brought Richardson into notice ; but “ Clarissa,” 
of which the first two volumes appeared in 1748, placed him 
in the first rank of novellists. “ A tale so varied by character, 
so minutely developing the movements of the human heart, 
so pathetic in its circumstances, and presenting so sublime 
and perfect an image of female purity, had never before been 
given to the public. The interest it excited during its pro¬ 
gressive appearance, especially among female readers, was 
incredible : the fate of no real personage could have agitated 
more bosoms than that of the fictitious heroine. Its pro¬ 
tracted length of eight full volumes, whilst it undoubtedly is 
apt to become wearisome, yet affords such scope for an inti¬ 
mate acquaintance with all the characters, and so realizes 
them and their concerns to the reader, that the sense of 
tediousness is lost in sympathetic emotion. The admirers 
of this work were not confined to the author’s countrymen. 
When made known on the continent by translations, it was 
regarded as a first-rate production of genius, and raised the 
name of Richardson to the level of the most applauded 
writers of the age." Perhaps, indeed, its most enthusiastic 
admirers have been found in countries where the delicacies 
of moral painting and the refinements of sentiment have 
borne their highest value. Rousseau, whose great excellence 
lay in a similar walk, speaking, in a letter to D’Alem¬ 
bert, of this work, asserts that “ nothing was ever written 
equal or approaching to it in any language.” 
The “ History of Sir Charles Grandison,” his concluding 
performance, appeared in 1753. As in Clarissa, he had 
represented the female character in its perfection, he. now 
aimed to give the world an example of a perfect man, 
uniting the fine gentleman and the Christian. This arduous 
task he undertook in seven volumes, more copious in cha¬ 
racter and incident than Clarissa, but written in the same 
minute circumstantial manner. It was a proof of the au¬ 
thor’s popularity and high reputation, that the reading world 
was immediately divided into parties respecting the com¬ 
parative merit of Clarissa and Grandison ; it seems, however, 
that the interest excited by the latter was not equal ■ to that 
by the former ; which may be accounted for partly from the 
less pathetic nature of the tale, and partly from a kind 
of satiety with the writer’s mode of composition. Yet 
Grandison is a work of more compass, invention, and enter¬ 
tainment ; and the part of Clementina has, perhaps, no 
equal in delicate delineation. This was likewise translated 
into foreign languages, and received with great applause. 
With respect to all Richardson’s works, it may be remarked 
that the matter receives no advantage from the style, which 
is of a low order, inelegant, gossiping, and verbose. It was, 
indeed, hardly possible that one who wrote so much and so 
rapidly should be choice in his expressions, nor had his 
education qualified him for the rank of a fine writer. 
Whilst he was thus advancing in the career of literary 
fame, he was by no means inattentive to that improvement 
of his fortune which his assiduity and integrity in his pro¬ 
fession so well merited. He had been for some time a printer 
of newspapers, but his first great public employment was 
that of printing the Journals of the House of Commons, in 
26 volume's folio, which he obtained through the friendship 
of the Speaker Onslow. In 1754, he rose to be master of 
the Stationers’ Company, and, in 1760, he purchased a 
moiety of the patent of law-printer to his Majesty. As he 
grew rich, he indulged himself with a country residence, 
first at North-End, Hammersmith, and then at Parson’s- 
Green. No man ever enjoyed prosperity more rationally or 
honourably 
