Clarissa Harlowe, Volume 9 (of 9) by Samuel Richardson

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This, and to see a succession of humble servants buzzing about a mother,
who took too much pride in addresses of that kind, what a beginning, what
an example, to a constitution of tinder, so prepared to receive the spark
struck, from the steely forehead and flinty heart of such a libertine as
at last it was their fortune to be encountered by!

In short, as Miss grew up under the influences of such a directress, and
of books so light and frothy, with the inflaming additions of music,
concerts, operas, plays, assemblies, balls, and the rest of the rabble of
amusements of modern life, it is no wonder that, like early fruit, she
was soon ripened to the hand of the insidious gatherer.

At fifteen, she owned she was ready to fancy herself the heroine of every
novel and of every comedy she read, so well did she enter into the spirit
of her subject; she glowed to become the object of some hero's flame; and
perfectly longed to begin an intrigue, and even to be run away with by
some enterprising lover: yet had neither confinement nor check to
apprehend from her indiscreet mother, which she thought absolutely
necessary to constitute a Parthenissa!

Nevertheless, with all these fine modern qualities, did she complete her
nineteenth year, before she met with any address of consequence; one half
of her admirers being afraid, because of her gay turn, and but middling
fortune, to make serious applications for her favour; while others were
kept at a distance, by the superior airs she assumed; and a third sort,
not sufficiently penetrating the foibles either of mother or daughter,
were kept off by the supposed watchful care of the former.

But when the man of intrepidity and intrigue was found, never was heroine
so soon subdued, never goddess so easily stript of her celestials! For,
at the opera, a diversion at which neither she nor her mother ever missed
to be present, she beheld the specious Lovelace--beheld him invested with
all the airs of heroic insult, resenting a slight affront offered to his
Sally Martin by two gentlemen who had known her in her more hopeful
state, one of whom Mr. Lovelace obliged to sneak away with a broken head,
given with the pummel of his sword, the other with a bloody nose; neither
of them well supporting that readiness of offence, which, it seems, was a
part of their known character to be guilty of.

The gallantry of this action drawing every by-stander on the side of the
hero, O the brave man! cried Polly Horton, aloud, to her mother, in a
kind of rapture, How needful the protection of the brave to the fair!
with a softness in her voice, which she had taught herself, to suit her
fancied high condition of life.

A speech so much in his favour, could not but take the notice of a man
who was but too sensible of the advantages which his fine person, and
noble air, gave him over the gentler hearts, who was always watching
every female eye, and who had his ear continually turned to every
affected voice; for that was one of his indications of a proper subject
to be attempted--Affectation of every sort, he used to say, is a certain
sign of a wrong turned head; of a faulty judgment; and upon such a basis
I seldom build in vain.

He instantly resolved to be acquainted with a young creature, who seemed
so strongly prejudiced in his favour. Never man had a readier invention
for all sorts of mischief. He gave his Sally her cue. He called her
sister in their hearing; and Sally, whisperingly, gave the young lady and
her mother, in her own way, the particulars of the affront she had
received; making herself an angel of light, to cast the brighter ray upon
the character of her heroic brother. She particularly praised his known
and approved courage; and mingled with her praises of him such
circumstances relating to his birth, his fortune, and endowments, as left
him nothing to do but to fall in love with the enamoured Polly.

Mr. Lovelace presently saw what turn to give his professions. So brave a
man, yet of manners so gentle! hit the young lady's taste: nor could she
suspect the heart that such an aspect covered. This was the man! the
very man! she whispered to her mother. And, when the opera was over, his
servant procuring a coach, he undertook, with his specious sister, to set
them down at their own lodgings, though situated a quite different way
from his: and there were they prevailed upon to alight, and partake of a
slight repast.

Sally pressed them to return the favour to her at her aunt Forbes's, and
hoped it would be before her brother went to his own seat.

They promised her, and named their evening.

A splendid entertainment was provided. The guests came, having in the
interim found all that was said of his name, and family, and fortune to
be true. Persons of so little strictness in their own morals, took it
not into their heads to be very inquisitive after his.

Music and dancing had their share in the entertainment. These opened
their hearts, already half opened by love: The aunt Forbes, and the
lover's sister, kept them open by their own example. The hero sung,
vowed, promised. Their gratitude was moved, their delights were
augmented, their hopes increased, their confidence was engaged, all their
appetites up in arms; the rich wines co-operating, beat quite off their
guard, and not thought enough remaining for so much as suspicion--Miss,
detached from her mother by Sally, soon fell a sacrifice to the
successful intriguer.

The widow herself, half intoxicated, and raised as she was with artful
mixtures, and inflamed by love, unexpectedly tendered by one of the
libertines, his constant companions, (to whom an opportunity was
contrived to be given to be alone with her, and that closely followed by
importunity, fell into her daughter's error. The consequences of which,
in length of time, becoming apparent, grief, shame, remorse, seized her
heart, (her own indiscretion not allowing her to arraign her daughter's,)
and she survived not her delivery, leaving Polly with child likewise;
who, when delivered, being too fond of the gay deluder to renounce his
company, even when she found herself deluded, fell into a course of
extravagance and dissoluteness; ran through her fortune in a very little
time, and, as an high preferment, at last, with Sally, was admitted a
quarter partner with the detestable Sinclair.

All that is necessary to add to the history of these unhappy women, will
be comprised in a very little compass.

After the death of the profligate Sinclair, they kept on the infamous
trade with too much success; till an accident happened in the house--a
gentleman of family killed in it in a fray, contending with another for
a new-vamped face. Sally was accused of holding the gentleman's arm,
while his more-favoured adversary ran him through the heart, and then
made off. And she being tried for her life narrowly escaped.

This accident obliged them to break up house-keeping; and not having been
frugal enough of their ill-gotten gains, (lavishing upon one what they
got by another,) they were compelled, for subsistence sake, to enter
themselves as under-managers at such another house as their own had been.
In which service, soon after, Sally died of a fever and surfeit got by a
debauch; and the other, about a month after, by a violent cold,
occasioned through carelessness in a salivation.

Happier scenes open for the remaining characters; for it might be
descending too low to mention the untimely ends of Dorcas, and of
William, Mr. Lovelace's wicked servant; and the pining and consumptive
one's of Betty Barnes and Joseph Leman, unmarried both, and in less than
a year after the happy death of their excellent young lady.

The good Mrs. NORTON passed the small remainder of her life, as happily
as she wished, in her beloved foster-daughter's dairy-house, as it used
to be called: as she wished, we repeat; for she had too strong
aspirations after another life, to be greatly attached to this.

She laid out the greatest part of her time in doing good by her advice,
and by the prudent management of the fund committed to her direction.
Having lived an exemplary life from her youth upwards; and seen her son
happily settled in the world; she departed with ease and calmness,
without pang or agony, like a tired traveller, falling into a sweet
slumber: her last words expressing her hope of being restored to the
child of her bosom; and to her own excellent father and mother, to whose
care and pains she owed that good education to which she was indebted for
all her other blessings.

The poor's fund, which was committed to her care, she resigned a week
before her death, into the hands of Mrs. Hickman, according the direction
of the will, and all the accounts and disbursements with it; which she
had kept with such an exactness, that the lady declares, that she will
follow her method, and only wishes to discharge the trust as well.

Miss HOWE was not to be persuaded to quit her mourning for her dear
friend, until six months were fully expired: and then she made Mr.
HICKMAN one of the happiest men in the world. A woman of her fine sense
and understanding, married to a man of virtue and good-nature, (who had
no past capital errors to reflect upon, and to abate his joys, and whose
behaviour to Mrs. Hickman is as affectionate as it was respectful to Miss
Howe,) could not do otherwise. They are already blessed with two fine
children; a daughter, to whom, by joint consent, they have given the name
of her beloved friend; an a son, who bears that of his father.

She has allotted to Mr. Hickman, who takes delight in doing good, (and
that as much for its own sake, as to oblige her,) his part of the
management of the poor's fund; to be accountable for it, as she
pleasantly says, to her. She has appropriated every Thursday morning for
her part of that management; and takes so much delight in the task, that
she declares it to be one of the most agreeable of her amusements. And
the more agreeable, as she teaches every one whom she benefits, to bless
the memory of her departed friend; to whom she attributes the merit of
all her own charities, as well as the honour of those which she dispenses
in pursuance of her will.

She has declared, That this fund shall never fail while she lives. She
has even engaged her mother to contribute annually to it. And Mr.
Hickman has appropriated twenty pounds a year to the same. In
consideration of which she allows him to recommend four objects yearly to
partake of it.--Allows, is her style; for she assumes the whole
prerogative of dispensing this charity; the only prerogative she does or
has occasion to assume. In every other case, there is but one will
between them; and that is generally his or her's, as either speaks first,
upon any subject, be it what it will. MRS. HICKMAN, she sometimes as
pleasantly as generously tells him, must not quite forget that she was
once MISS HOWE, because if he had not loved her as such, and with all her
foibles, she had never been MRS. HICKMAN. Nevertheless she seriously, on
all occasions, and that to others as well as to himself, confesses that
she owes him unreturnable obligations for his patience with her in HER
day, and for his generous behaviour to her in HIS.

And still more the highly does she esteem and love him, as she reflects
upon his past kindness to her beloved friend; and on that dear friend's
good opinion of him. Nor is it less grateful to her, that the worthy
man joins most sincerely with her in all those respectful and
affectionate recollections, which make the memory of the departed
precious to survivors.

Mr. BELFORD was not so destitute of humanity and affection, as to be
unconcerned at the unhappy fate of his most intimate friend. But when
he reflects upon the untimely ends of several of his companions, but just
mentioned in the preceding history*--On the shocking despondency and
death of his poor friend Belton--On the signal justice which overtook the
wicked Tomlinson--On the dreadful exit of the infamous Sinclair--On the
deep remorses of his more valued friend--And, on the other hand, on the
example set him by the most excellent of her sex--and on her blessed
preparation, and happy departure--And when he considers, as he often does
with awe and terror, that his wicked habits were so rooted in his
depraved heart, that all these warnings, and this lovely example, seemed
to be but necessary to enable him to subdue them, and to reform; and that
such awakening-calls are hardly ever afforded to men of his cast, or (if
they are) but seldom attended the full vigour of constitution:--When he
reflects upon all these things, he adores the Mercy, which through these
calls has snatched him as a brand out of the fire: and thinks himself
obliged to make it his endeavours to find out, and to reform, any of
those who may have been endangered by his means; as well as to repair, to
the utmost of his power, any damage or mischiefs which he may have
occasioned to others.

* See Letters XLI. and LVII. of this volume.

With regard to the trust with which he was honoured by the inimitable
lady, he had the pleasure of acquitting himself of it in a very few
months, to every body's satisfaction; even to that of the unhappy family;
who sent him their thanks on the occasion. Nor was he, at delivering up
his accounts, contented without resigning the legacy bequeathed to him,
to the uses of the will. So that the poor's fund, as it is called, is
become a very considerable sum: and will be a lasting bank for relief of
objects who best deserve relief.

There was but one earthly blessing which remained for Mr. Belford to wish
for, in order, morally speaking, to secure to him all his other
blessings; and that was, the greatest of all worldly ones, a virtuous and
prudent wife. So free a liver as he had been, he did not think that he
could be worthy of such a one, till, upon an impartial examination of
himself, he found the pleasure he had in his new resolutions so great,
and his abhorrence of his former courses so sincere, that he was the less
apprehensive of a deviation.

Upon this presumption, having also kept in his mind some encouraging
hints from Mr. Lovelace; and having been so happy as to have it in his
power to oblige Lord M. and that whole noble family, by some services
grateful to them (the request for which from his unhappy friend was
brought over, among other papers, with the dead body, by De la Tour); he
besought that nobleman's leave to make his addresses to Miss CHARLOTTE
MONTAGUE, the eldest of his Lordship's two nieces: and making at the same
time such proposals of settlements as were not objected to, his Lordship
was pleased to use his powerful interest in his favour. And his worthy
niece having no engagement, she had the goodness to honour Mr. Belford
with her hand; and thereby made him as completely happy as a man can be,
who has enormities to reflect upon, which are out of his power to atone
for, by reason of the death of some of the injured parties, and the
irreclaimableness of others.

'Happy is the man who, in the time of health and strength, sees and
reforms the error of his ways!--But how much more happy is he, who has no
capital and wilful errors to repent of!--How unmixed and sincere must the
joys of such a one come to him!'

Lord M. added bountifully in his life-time, as did also the two ladies
his sisters, to the fortune of their worthy niece. And as Mr. Belford
had been blessed with a son by her, his Lordship at his death [which
happened just three years after the untimely one of his unhappy nephew]
was pleased to devise to that son, and to his descendents for ever (and
in case of his death unmarried, to any other children of his niece) his
Hertfordshire estate, (designed for Mr. Lovelace,) which he made up to
the value of a moiety of his real estates; bequeathing also a moiety
of his personal to the same lady.

Miss PATTY MONTAGUE, a fine young lady [to whom her noble uncle, at his
death, devised the other moiety of his real and personal estates,
including his seat in Berkshire] lives at present with her excellent
sister, Mrs. Belford; to whom she removed upon Lord M.'s death: but, in
all probability, will soon be the lady of a worthy baronet, of ancient
family, fine qualities, and ample fortunes, just returned from his
travels, with a character superior to the very good one he set out with:
a case that very seldom happens, although the end of travel is
improvement.

Colonel MORDEN, who, with so many virtues and accomplishments, cannot be
unhappy, in several letters tot eh executor, with whom he corresponds
from Florence, [having, since his unhappy affair with Mr. Lovelace
changed his purpose of coming so soon to reside in England as he had
intended,] declares, That although he thought himself obliged either to
accept of what he took to be a challenge, as such; or tamely to
acknowledge, that he gave up all resentment of his cousin's wrongs; and
in a manner to beg pardon for having spoken freely of Mr. Lovelace behind
his back; and although at the time he owns he was not sorry to be called
upon, as he was, to take either the one course or the other; yet now,
coolly reflecting upon his beloved cousin's reasonings against duelling;
and upon the price it had too probably cost the unhappy man; he wishes he
had more fully considered those words in his cousin's posthumous letter--
'If God will allow him time for repentance, why should you deny it him?'*

* Several worthy persons have wished, that the heinous practice of
duelling had been more forcibly discouraged, by way of note, at the
conclusion of a work designed to recommend the highest and most important
doctrines of christianity. It is humbly presumed, that these persons
have not sufficiently attended to what is already done on that subject in
Vol. II. Letter XII. and in this volume, Letter XVI. XLIII. XLIV. and
XLV.

To conclude--The worthy widow Lovick continues to live with Mr. Belford;
and, by her prudent behaviour, piety, and usefulness, has endeared
herself to her lady, and to the whole family.

POSTSCRIPT

REFERRED TO IN THE PREFACE

In which several objections that have been made, as well to the
catastrophe, as to different parts of the preceding history,
are briefly considered.

The foregoing work having been published at three different periods of
time, the author, in the course of its publication, was favoured with
many anonymous letters, in which the writers differently expressed their
wishes with regard to the apprehended catastrophe.

Most of those directed to him by the gentler sex, turned in favour of
what they called a fortunate ending. Some of the fair writers,
enamoured, as they declared, with the character of the heroine, were
warmly solicitous to have her made happy; and others, likewise of their
mind, insisted that poetical justice required that it should be so. And
when, says one ingenious lady, whose undoubted motive was good-nature and
humanity, it must be concluded that it is in an author's power to make
his piece end as he pleases, why should he not give pleasure rather than
pain to the reader whom he has interested in favour of his principal
characters?

Others, and some gentlemen, declared against tragedies in general, and in
favour of comedies, almost in the words of Lovelace, who was supported in
his taste by all the women at Mrs. Sinclair's and by Sinclair herself.
'I have too much feeling, said he.* There is enough in the world to make
our hearts sad, without carrying grief into our diversions, and making
the distresses of others our own.'

* See Vol. IV. Letter XL.

And how was this happy ending to be brought about? Why, by this very
easy and trite expedient; to wit, by reforming Lovelace, and marrying him
to Clarissa--not, however, abating her one of her trials, nor any of her
sufferings, [for the sake of the sport her distresses would give to the
tender-hearted reader, as she went along,] the last outrage excepted:
that, indeed, partly in compliment to Lovelace himself, and partly for
her delicacy-sake, they were willing to spare her.

But whatever were the fate of his work, the author was resolved to take a
different method. He always thought that sudden conversions, such,
especially, as were left to the candour of the reader to suppose and make
out, has neither art, nor nature, nor even probability, in them; and that
they were moreover of a very bad example. To have a Lovelace, for a
series of years, glory in his wickedness, and think that he had nothing
to do, but as an act of grace and favour to hold out his hand to receive
that of the best of women, whenever he pleased, and to have it thought
that marriage would be a sufficient amends for all his enormities to
others as well as to her--he could not bear that. Nor is reformation, as
he has shown in another piece, to be secured by a fine face; by a passion
that has sense for its object; nor by the goodness of a wife's heart, nor
even example, if the heart of the husband be not graciously touched by
the Divine finger.

It will be seen, by this time, that the author had a great end in view.
He had lived to see the scepticism and infidelity openly avowed, and even
endeavoured to be propagated from the press; the greatest doctrines of
the Gospel brought into question; those of self-denial and mortification
blotted out of the catalogue of christian virtues; and a taste even to
wantonness for out-door pleasure and luxury, to the general exclusion of
domestic as well as public virtue, industriously promoted among all ranks
and degrees of people.

In this general depravity, when even the pulpit has lost great part of
its weight, and the clergy are considered as a body of interested men,
the author thought he should be able to answer it to his own heart, be
the success what it would, if he threw in his mite towards introducing a
reformation so much wanted: and he imagined, that if in an age given up
to diversion and entertainment, if he could steal in, as may be said, and
investigate the great doctrines of Christianity under the fashionable
guise of an amusement; he should be most likely to serve his purpose,
remembering that of the Poet:--

A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice.

He was resolved, therefore, to attempt something that never yet had been
done. He considered that the tragic poets have as seldom made their
heroes true objects of pity, as the comics theirs laudable ones of
imitation: and still more rarely have made them in their deaths look
forward to a future hope. And thus, when they die, they seem totally to
perish. Death, in such instances, must appear terrible. It must be
considered as the greatest evil. But why is death set in such shocking
lights, when it is the universal lot?

He has, indeed, thought fit to paint the death of the wicked, as terrible
as he could paint it. But he has endeavoured to draw that of the good in
such an amiable manner, that the very Balaams of the world should not
forbear to wish that their latter end might be like that of the heroine.

And after all, what is the poetical justice so much contended for by
some, as the generality of writers have managed it, but another sort of
dispensation than that with which God, by revelation, teaches us, He has
thought fit to exercise mankind; whom placing here only in a state of
probation, he hath so intermingled good and evil, as to necessitate us to
look forward for a more equal dispensation of both?

The Author of the History (or rather Dramatic Narrative) of Clarissa, is
therefore well justified by the christian system, in deferring to
extricate suffering virtue to the time in which it will meet with the
completion of its reward.

But not absolutely to shelter the conduct observed in it under the
sanction of Religion, [an authority, perhaps, not of the greatest weight
with some of our modern critics,] it must be observed, that the Author is
justified in its catastrophe by the greatest master of reason, and best
judge of composition, that ever lived. The learned reader knows we must
mean ARISTOTLE; whose sentiments in this matter we shall beg leave to
deliver in the words of a very amiable writer of our own country:

'The English writers of Tragedy,' says Mr. Addison,* 'are possessed with
a notion, that when they represent a virtuous or innocent person in
distress, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of
his troubles, or made him triumph over his enemies.

* Spectator, Vol. I. No. XL.

'This error they have been led into by a ridiculous doctrine in modern
criticism, that they are obliged to an equal distribution of rewards and
punishments, and an impartial execution of poetical justice.

'Who were the first that established this rule, I know not; but I am sure
it has no foundation in NATURE, in REASON, or in the PRACTICE OF THE
ANTIENTS.

'We find that good and evil happen alike unto ALL MEN on this side the
grave: and as the principal design of tragedy is to raise commiseration
and terror in the minds of the audience, we shall defeat this great end,
if we always make virtue and innocence happy and successful.

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