e from Fear, and animated only by a lively Hope.

She wished her closing Scene might be happy. _She had her Wish_, (says
the Author in his Postscript) _it was happy._

Nothing ever made so strong a Contrast as the Deaths of _Lovelace_ and
_Clarissa_. Wild was the Life of _Lovelace_, rapid was his Death; gentle
was _Clarissa's_ Life, softly flowed her latest Hours; the very Word
_Death_ seems too harsh to describe her leaving Life, and her last
Breath was like the soft playing of a western Breeze, all calm! all
Peace! all Quiet!

The true Difference between the Virtuous and the Vicious lies in the
Mind, where the Author of _Clarissa_ has placed it; _Lovelace_ says
well, when he views the persecuted _Clarissa_ a-sleep.

'See the Difference in our Cases; she the charming Injured can sweetly
sleep, whilst the varlet Injurer cannot close his Eyes, and has been
trying to no purpose the whole Night to divert his Melancholy, and to
fly from himself.'

Rightly I think in the Author's Postscript is it observed, that what is
called poetical Justice is chimerical, or rather anti-providential
Justice; for God makes his Sun to shine alike on the Just and the
Unjust. Why then should Man invent a kind of imaginary Justice, making
the common Accidents of Life turn out favourable to the Virtuous only?
Vain would be the Comforts spoken to the Virtuous in Affliction, in the
sacred Writings, if Affliction could not be their Lot.

But the Author of _Clarissa_ has in his Postscript quoted such undoubted
Authorities, and given so many Reasons on the Christian System for his
Catastrophy, that to say more on that Head would be but repeating his
Words. The Variety of Punishments also of those guilty Persons in this
Work who do not die, and the Rewards of those who are innocent, I could
go through; had not that Postscript, and the Conclusion supposed to be
writ by Mr. _Belford_, already done it to my Hands. Only one thing I
must say, that I don't believe the most revengeful Person upon Earth
could wish their worst Enemy in a more deplorable Situation, than if
_Lovelace_ in his Frenzy, in that charming picturesque Scene, where he
is riding between _Uxbridge_ and _London_, when his impatient Spirit is
in suspence; and also when he hears of _Clarissa's_ Death.

Thus have I just hinted at the Heads of the Characters, the Difference
of the chief Scenes, and the Variety of the several Deaths, all the
natural Consequences of the se