 the whole in general defamatory Terms;
such as vile, dull, da-d Stuff, etc. and particularly by the Use of the
Monosyllable LOW; a Word which becomes the Mouth of no Critic who is not RIGHT
HONOURABLE.
    Again, tho' there may be some Faults justly assigned in the Work, yet if
those are not in the most essential Parts, or if they are compensated by greater
Beauties, it will savour rather of the Malice of a Slanderer, than of the
Judgment of a true Critic, to pass a severe Sentence upon the whole, merely on
account of some vicious Part. This is directly contrary to the Sentiments of
Horace.
 
Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine non ego paucis
Offendor maculis, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit natura -
 
But where the Beauties, more in Number, shine,
I am not angry, when a casual Line
(That with some trivial Faults unequal flows)
A careless Hand, or human Frailty shows.
                                                                    Mr. FRANCIS.
 
For as Martial says, Aliter, non fit, Avite, Liber. No Book can be otherwise
composed. All Beauty of Character, as well as of Countenance, and indeed of
every Thing human, is to be tried in this Manner. Cruel indeed would it be if
such a Work as this History, which hath employed some Thousands of Hours in the
composing, should be liable to be condemned, because some particular Chapter, or
perhaps Chapters, may be obnoxious to very just and sensible Objections. And yet
nothing is more common than the most rigorous Sentence upon Books supported by
such Objections, which if they were rightly taken (and that they are not always)
do by no Means go to the Merit of the whole. In the Theatre especially, a single
Expression which doth not coincide with the Taste of the Audience, or with any
individual Critic of that Audience, is sure to be hissed; and one Scene which
should be disapproved, would hazard the whole Piece. To write within such severe
Rules as these, is as impossible, as to live up to some splenetic Opinions; and
if we judge according to the Sentiments of some Critics, and of some Christians,
no Author will be saved in this World, and no Man in the next.
 

                                   Chapter II

         The Adventures which Sophia met with, after her leaving Upton.
 
Our History, just before it was obliged to turn about, and travel backwards, had
mentioned the Departure of Sophia and her Maid from the Inn; we shall now
therefore pursue the Steps of that lovely Creature, and leave her unworthy Lover
a little longer to
