Thus, Sir, thro' a Series of Intrigue interwoven with Amorous Incidents have we traced the Lovely _Pamela_ from the _Servant Maid_ to the _Mistress_ of the _Mansion House_, and as I think I have marked out several Passages, that tend only to _inflame_ without any View at all to _Instruction_, that the Images they present are so far from being innocent, they could not be stronger invented, or more naturally expressed, to _excite Lasciviousness_ in the Minds of the Youth of both _Sexes_. I shall conclude at present, hoping that in your next Edition you will either amend them or entirely strike them out; not that I have pointed all that I think exceptionable, as it would be too long for a Thing of this Kind, and am of Opinion that there are Faults enough of different Sorts, which may possibly be the Subject of a Second Epistle: In the mean time, let me address myself in the most earnest Manner to those of maturer Years, who may chance to be your Readears, that they would weigh what _Virtue_ is, and how much these amorous Expressions may tend to corrupt their Children, before they suffer them to peruse it, nor be led away by the slight Viel of a few Religious Sentiments, which are thinly spread over them, to permit the Youth under their Care to discover the naked Charms of an _inflaming Passion_, which is too much exposed in almost every Page of this _much-admir'd_ PAMELA. I am, SIR, _Your's_, &c. [Illustration] NOTES TO _PAMELA CENSURED_ Title page The epigraph is from Horace's Odes II. viii. 13-16: "All this but makes sport for Venus (upon my word, it does!) and for the artless Nymphs, and cruel Cupid, ever whetting his fiery darts on blood-stained stone" (_Horace: The Odes and Epodes_, trans. C. E. Bennett [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classics, 1952], p. 127). Title page Little is known about James Roberts, the bookseller (see Henry R. Plomer, _A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers Who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725_, ed. Arundell Esdaile [Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1922], p. 255). Undoubtedly familiar with Richardson, Roberts sold the _Weekly Miscellany_, which Richardson printed during the 1730's, and he printed Charles Povey's _Virgin in_ Eden (1741), which like _Pamela Censured_ attacks the morality of Richardson's novel. Dedication After recommending _Pamela_ from his pulpit sometime before 6 January 1741, Dr. Benjamin Slocock (1691-1753) earned the undeserved reputation of having been paid by Richardson for this praise (see Eaves and Kimpel, _Samuel Richardson_, pp. 123-24). 5.1-2 The third (duodecimo) edition of _Pamela_, published 12 March 1741, is virtually the same in content and collation as the second edition, published less than a month earlier (see William Merritt Sale, Jr., _Samuel Richardson: A Bibliographical Record_ [New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1936], pp. 18-19). 6.9-8.17