Even after the publication of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" Mrs. Haywood failed to realize the narrative possibilities of consecutive letters, for "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) hardly contains three missives on any one theme. Though the collection is not free from letters in the vein of gallantry, the emphasis on the whole is decidedly changed. There are few attempts to exploit the emotions by describing the palpitations of injured beauty or the expostulations and vows of love-sick cavaliers. Instead Aminta is praised for enduring with unusual self-possession the treachery of her lover and her most intimate friend. Sophronia encourages Palmira to persist in her resolution of living apart from her husband until she is convinced of the reformation of his manners, and Isabinda sends to Elvira a copy of a modest epithalamium on her sister's marriage. Occasionally a romantic love story runs through three or four letters, but any deviation from the strictest principles of delicacy-- and there are not many--is sure to be followed by a fitting catastrophe. Some reprobation of the licentious manners of the age is permitted, but no catering to degenerate taste and no breath of scandal. The aim of the epistles, which were apparently not intended as models, was to convey moral precepts in an agreeably alleviated form, but the balance inclines rather heavily toward sober piety. A mother recommends poetry and history for the reading of her twelve year old daughter, though allowing an occasional indulgence in "well wrote Novels." Eusebia discusses the power of divine music with the Bishop of ***. Berinthia writes to Berenice to urge her to make the necessary preparations for futurity. Philenia assures the Reverend Doctor *** that she is a true penitent, and beseeches his assistance to strengthen her pious resolutions. Hillaria laments to Clio that she is unable to think seriously on death, and Aristander edifies Melissa by proving from the principles of reason and philosophy the certainty of a future existence, and the absurdity and meanness of those people's notions, who degrade the dignity of their species, and put human nature on a level with that of the brute creation. In all this devotion there was no doubt something of Mrs. Howe. "Epistles for the Ladies" was not the first "attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion"[6] nor the best, but along with the pious substance the author sometimes adopts an almost Johnsonian weightiness of style, as when Ciamara gives to Sophronia an account of the finishing of a fine building she had been at an infinite expense in erecting, with some moral reflections on the vanity and disappointment of all sub-lunary expectations.