As to the Length of the Story, I fancy that Complaint arises from the great Earnestness the Characters inspire the Reader with to know the Event; and on a second Reading may vanish. _Clarissa_ is not intended as a Dramatic, but as a real Picture of human Life, where Story can move but slowly, where the Characters must open by degrees, and the Reader's own Judgment form them from different Parts, as they display themselves according to the Incidents that arise. As for Example; the Behaviour of _Lovelace_ to his Rosebud must strike every one, at first View, with Admiration and Esteem for him; but when his Character comes to blaze in its full Light, it is very apparent that his Pride preserved his Rosebud, as well as it destroyed _Clarissa_; like _Milton's Satan_, he could for a Time cloath himself like an Angel of Light, even to the Deception of _Uriel_. _For neither Man, nor Angel can discern Hypocrisie; the only Evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By his permissive Will, through Heaven and Earth: And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps At Wisdom's Gate, and to Simplicity Resigns her Charge; while Goodness thinks no ill Where no Ill seems; which now, for once, beguiled_ Uriel, _though Regent of the Sun, and held The sharpest-sighted Spirit of all in Heaven._ Proud Spirits, such as _Satan's_ and _Lovelace's_, require Objects of their Envy, as Food for their Malice, to compleat their Triumph and applaud their own Wickedness. From this Incident of the Rosebud, and the subsequent Behaviour of _Lovelace_, arises a Moral which can never be too often inculcated; namely, that Pride has the Art of putting on the Mask of Virtue in so many Forms, that we must judge of a Man upon the whole, and not from any one single Action. A celebrated _French_ Critick says, that 'An indifferent Wit may form a vast Design in his Imagination; but it must be an EXTRAORDINARY GENIUS that can work his Design, and fashion it according to Justness and Proportion: For 'tis necessary that the same Spirit _reign throughout_; that all contribute to the same _End_; and that all the _Parts_ bear a secret _Relation_ to each other; all depend on this Relation and Alliance.' Let the nicest Critick examine the Story of _Clarissa_, and see if in any Point it fails of coming up exactly to the before-mentioned Rule. The Author had all Nature before him, and he has beautifully made use of every Labyrinth, in the several Minds of his Characters, to lead him to his purposed End.