PHICAL NOTE

The Preface to the first edition is reproduced from a copy at the
Huntington Library, the Postscript to the fourth edition of _Clarissa_
from a copy in the Rare Books Room of the Library of the University of
North Carolina. _Hints of Prefaces for Clarissa_ is a transcript of a
manuscript in the Forster Collection (Vol. XV, ff 49-58) in the Victoria
and Albert Museum. (Single underlinings have been rendered in italics,
double underlinings in boldface.) Thanks is extended to these
institutions for their kind permission for the reproduction of this
material.

CLARISSA.
OR, THE
HISTORY
OF A
YOUNG LADY:
Comprehending
_The most_ Important Concerns _of_ Private LIFE,
And particularly shewing,
The DISTRESSES that may attend the Misconduct
Both of PARENTS and CHILDREN,
In Relation to MARRIAGE.

_Published by the_ EDITOR _of_ PAMELA.

VOL. I.

_LONDON:_
Printed for S. Richardson:
And Sold by A. MILLAR, over-against _Catharine-street_ in the _Strand_:
J. and JA. RIVINGTON, in _St. Paul's Church-yard_:
JOHN OSBORN, in _Pater-noster Row_;
And by J. LEAKE, at _Bath_.

M.DCC.XLVIII.

PREFACE.

The following History is given in a Series of Letters, written
principally in a double, yet separate, Correspondence;

Between Two young Ladies of Virtue and Honour, bearing an inviolable
Friendship for each other, and writing upon the most interesting
Subjects: And

Between Two Gentlemen of free Lives; one of them glorying in his Talents
for Stratagem and Invention, and communicating to the other, in
Confidence, all the secret Purposes of an intriguing Head, and resolute
Heart.

But it is not amiss to premise, for the sake of such as may apprehend
Hurt to the Morals of Youth from the more freely-written Letters, That
the Gentlemen, tho' professed Libertines as to the Fair Sex, and making
it one of their wicked Maxims, to keep no Faith with any of the
Individuals of it who throw themselves into their Power, are not,
however, either Infidels or Scoffers: Nor yet such as think themselves
freed from the Observance of those other moral Obligations, which bind
Man to Man.

On the contrary, it will be found, in the Progress of the Collection,
that they very often make such Reflections upon each other, and each
upon himself, and upon his Actions, as reasonable Beings, who disbelieve
not a future State of Rewards and Punishments (and who one day propose
to refo