not difficult to prove, that either the papists are guilty of idolatry, or the pagans never were so.  You may see in Lucian (in his vindication of his images), that they did not take their statues to be real gods, but only the representations of them.  The same doctrine may be found in Plutarch; and it is all the modern priests have to say in excuse for their worshipping wood and stone, though they cannot deny, at the same time, that the vulgar are apt to confound that distinction.”

Lady Mary frequently re-read Richardson, and not seldom referred to them in her correspondence.

“It is certain there are as many marriages as ever.  Richardson is so eager for the multiplication of them, I suppose he is some parish curate, whose chief profit depends on weddings and christenings.  He is not a man-midwife; for he would be better skilled in physic than to think fits and madness any ornament to the characters of his heroines:  though his Sir Charles had no thoughts of marrying Clementina till she had lost her wits, and the divine Clarissa never acted prudently till she was in the same condition, and then very wisely desired to be carried to Bedlam, which is really all that is to be done in that case.  Madness is as much corporal distemper as the gout or asthma, never occasioned by affliction, or to be cured by the enjoyment of their extravagant wishes.  Passion may indeed bring on a fit, but the disease is lodged in the blood, and it is not more ridiculous to attempt to relieve the gout by an embroidered slipper, than to restore reason by the gratification of wild desires.

“Richardson is as ignorant in morality as he is in anatomy, when he declares abusing an obliging husband, or an indulgent parent, to be an innocent recreation.  His Anna How and Charlotte Grandison are recommended as patterns of charming pleasantry, and applauded by his saint-like dames, who mistake pert folly for wit and humour, and impudence and ill nature for spirit and fire.  Charlotte behaves like a humorsome child, and should have been used like one, and*** well whipped in the presence of her friendly confidante Harriet.  Lord Halifax very justly tells his daughter, that a husband’s kindness is to be kindly received by a wife, even when he is drunk, and though it is wrapped up in never so much impertinence.  Charlotte acts with an ingratitude that I think too black for human nature, with such coarse jokes and low expressions as are only to be heard among the lowest class of people.  Women of that rank often plead a right to beat their husbands, when they don’t cuckold them; and I believe this author was never admitted into higher company, and should confine his pen to the amours of housemaids, and the conversation at the steward’s table, where I imagine he has sometimes intruded, though oftener in the servants hall:  yet, if the title be not a puff, this work has passed three editions.  I do not forgive him his disrespect of old china, which is below nobody’s taste, since it has been the D. of Argyll’s, whose understanding has never been doubted either by his friends or enemies.