o the Completion of that Story, is a Method so
intirely new, so much an Original manner of Writing, that the Author
seems to have a Right to make his own Laws; the painting Nature is
indeed his Aim, but the Vehicle by which he conveys his lively Portraits
to the Mind is so much his own Invention, that he may guide and direct
it according to his own Will and Pleasure. _Aristotle_ drew his Rules of
Epic Poetry from _Homer_, and not _Homer_ from _Aristotle_; tho' had
they been Cotemporaries, perhaps that had been a Point much disputed.

As to the Length of the Story, I fancy that Complaint arises from the
great Earnestness the Characters inspire the Reader with to know the
Event; and on a second Reading may vanish. _Clarissa_ is not intended as
a Dramatic, but as a real Picture of human Life, where Story can move
but slowly, where the Characters must open by degrees, and the Reader's
own Judgment form them from different Parts, as they display themselves
according to the Incidents that arise. As for Example; the Behaviour of
_Lovelace_ to his Rosebud must strike every one, at first View, with
Admiration and Esteem for him; but when his Character comes to blaze in
its full Light, it is very apparent that his Pride preserved his
Rosebud, as well as it destroyed _Clarissa_; like _Milton's Satan_, he
could for a Time cloath himself like an Angel of Light, even to the
Deception of _Uriel_.

_For neither Man, nor Angel can discern
Hypocrisie; the only Evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By his permissive Will, through Heaven and Earth:
And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps
At Wisdom's Gate, and to Simplicity
Resigns her Charge; while Goodness thinks no ill
Where no Ill seems; which now, for once, beguiled_
Uriel, _though Regent of the Sun, and held
The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven._

Proud Spirits, such as _Satan's_ and _Lovelace's_, require Objects of
their Envy, as Food for their Malice, to compleat their Triumph and
applaud their own Wickedness. From this Incident of the Rosebud, and the
subsequent Behaviour of _Lovelace_, arises a Moral which can never be
too often inculcated; namely, that Pride has the Art of putting on the
Mask of Virtue in so many Forms, that we must judge of a Man upon the
whole, and not from any one single Action.

A celebrated _French_ Critick says, that

'An indifferent Wit may form a vast Design in his Imagination; but it