t,
and rising in due Proportion one after another, till all the vast
Building centers in the pointed View of the Author's grand Design. Of
all the lively well-painted Scenes in the four first Volumes, and all
those in the fifth previous to the Night before the Outrage, mention but
any of the most trifling Circumstances, such as _Clarissa's_ torn
Rufles, and Remembrance places her before us in all the Agonies of the
strongest Distress; insulted over by the vilest of Women, and prostrate
on her Knees imploring Mercy at the Feet of her Destroyer. Her Madness
equals, (I had almost said exceeds) any Thing of the Kind that ever was
written: That hitherto so peculiar Beauty in King _Lear_, of preserving
the Character even in Madness, appears strongly in _Clarissa_: the same
self-accusing Spirit, the same humble Heart, the same pious Mind
breathes in her scattered Scrapes of Paper in the midst of her Frenzy;
and the Irregularity and sudden broken Starts of her Expressions alone
can prove that her Senses are disordered. Her Letter to _Lovelace_,
where, even in Madness, _galling_ Reproach drops not from her Pen, and
which contains only Supplications that she may not be farther
persecuted, speaks the very Soul of _Clarissa_, and by the Author of her
Story could have been wrote for no one but herself. Whoever can read her
earnest Request to _Lovelace_, that she may not be exposed in a public
Mad-house, on the Consideration that it might injure _him_, without
being overwhelmed in Tears, I am certain has not in himself the Concord
of sweet Sounds, and, must, as _Shakespear_ says, be fit for Treasons,
Stratagems and Spoils. And to close at once, all I will say of the
Author's Conduct in regard to the managing (what seems most
unmanageable) the Mind even when overcome by Madness, he has no where
made a stronger Contrast between _Clarissa_ and _Lovelace_, or kept the
Characters more distinct than in their Madness. I have already mentioned
how much _Clarissa's_ Thoughts in her Frenzy apparently flow from the
same Channel, tho' more disturbed and less clear than when her
uninterrupted Reason kept on its steady Course. _Lovelace's_ Character
is not less preserved: his Pen or Tongue indeed seldom uttered the Words
of Reason, but the same overbearing Passions, the same Pride of Heart
that had accustomed him to strut in his fancy'd Superiority, makes him
condemn all the World but himself; and rave that _Bedlam_ might be
enlarged, imagining, th