[Illustration: Clariſsa Dormer. _Pub. Oct 14-1808, by I. Harris, Corner St. Paul’s Church Yd._] CLARISSA DORMER: OR, THE ADVANTAGES OF _GOOD INSTRUCTION_. [Illustration: logo] LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. HARRIS, SUCCESSOR TO E. NEWBERY, AT THE ORIGINAL JUVENILE LIBRARY, AT THE CORNER OF ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD. [Illustration: decoration] 1808. H. Bryer, Printer, Bridge-Street, Blackfriars. CLARISSA DORMER: [Illustration: decoration] The parents of Clarissa Dormer were natives of one of our West India settlements. They were not black enough to be esteemed descendants of those unhappy beings whom perfidy or avarice brought into the hands of Europeans, nor yet so fair as to pass for natives of our temperate clime. Born amid the tears and groans of their fellow creatures, and taught by example to tyrannize over the miserable Africans, they were callous to their sufferings, and unmindful of the barbarities inflicted upon them. One only child (Clarissa) was the fruit of their marriage, and heiress to their vast possessions. Dearer to them than their lives or riches, they would not suffer her to be contradicted in any thing, from the moment her little legs were able to carry her; and from the instant she knew how to frame a wish or feel a want, her will was a law. Every slave on the plantation must serve her, in preference to any other business. Can it be wondered at then, that, before she was five years of age, she was a tyrant? At a prodigious expence, a governess from England was engaged to attend her. The gentleman who was agent for Mr. Dormer in this business, saw many before his choice was absolutely decided. He well knew the tempers and habits of those with whom the lady would have to deal; and he wished to act with justice on both sides. At length, his choice fell on Miss Melville, a young lady born to happier prospects, educated under the eyes of the most tender and indulgent, as well as the most accomplished parents, whose pride she had been, and who had spared no cost to bestow upon her a most liberal education. Versed in all the elegant accomplishments, as well as the more solid and useful parts of female education, she was at once the woman of fashion and the domestic character. Fortune, however, seemed to use her unkindly, by depriving her first of her parents, and then of a considerable part of her property, through the means of an unjust executor. These losses were too severe to be viewed with indifference; but they were nevertheless endured with a degree of composure which proved that reason, and not passion, governed her mind.