Request it of him then to suffer it to be told them, that not a
limited, but general, Excitement to Virtue was the first and great
End to his Story: And that this Excitement must have been deficient,
and very imperfectly offer'd, if he had not look'd quite _as low as
he cou'd_ for his Example: because if there had been any Degree or
Condition, more remote from the Prospect than that which he had
chosen to work on, that Degree might have seem'd out of Reach of the
Hope, which it was his generous Purpose to encourage.---And, so, he
was under an evident _Necessity_ to find such a Jewel in a
_Cottage_: and expos'd, too, as she was, to the severest Distresses
of Fortune, with Parents unable to support their own Lives, but from
the daily hard Product of _Labour_.

Nor wou'd it have been sufficient to have plac'd her thus _low_ and
_distressful_, if he had not also suppos'd her a _Servant_: and that
too in some elegant Family; for if she had always remain'd a
Fellow-cottager with her Father, it must have carried an Air of
Romantick Improbability to account for her polite Education.

If she had _wanted_ those Improvements, which she found means to
acquire in her _Service_, it wou'd have been very unlikely, that she
shou'd have succeeded so well; and had destroy'd _one_ great _Use_
of the Story, to have allow'd such uncommon Felicity to the Effect
of mere _personal Beauty_.---And it had not been _judicious_ to have
represented her as educated in a superior Condition of Life with the
proper Accomplishments, before she became reduc'd by Misfortunes,
and so not a Servant, but rather an Orphan under hopeless
Distresses---because Opportunities which had made it no Wonder how
she came to be so winningly qualified, wou'd have lessen'd her Merit
in being so. And besides, where had then been the purpos'd
Excitement of Persons in PAMELA's Condition of Life, by an Emulation
of her Sweetness, Humility, Modesty, Patience, and Industry, to
attain some faint Hope of arriving, in time, within View of _her_
Happiness?----And what a delightful Reformation shou'd we see, in
all Families, where the Vanity of their _Maids_ took no Turn toward
Ambition to _please_, but by such innocent Measures, as PAMELA's!

As it is clear, then, the Author was under a Necessity to suppose
her a _Servant_, he is not to be accountable for mistaken
Impressions, which the Charms he has given h