Life only in order to write it. The other is communicated to us by an Historian
who borrows his Lights, as the common Method is, from authentic Papers and
Records. The Reader, I believe, already conjectures, I mean, the Lives of Mr.
Colley Cibber, and of Mrs. Pamela Andrews. How artfully doth the former, by
insinuating that he escaped being promoted to the highest Stations in Church and
State, teach us a Contempt of worldly Grandeur! how strongly doth he inculcate
an absolute Submission to our Superiors! Lastly, how completely doth he arm us
against so uneasy, so wretched a Passion as the Fear of Shame; how clearly doth
he expose the Emptiness and Vanity of that Fantom, Reputation!
    What the Female Readers are taught by the Memoirs of Mrs. Andrews, is so
well set forth in the excellent Essays or Letters prefixed to the second and
subsequent Editions of that Work, that it would be here a needless Repetition.
The authentic History with which I now present the public, is an Instance of the
great Good that Book is likely to do, and of the Prevalence of Example which I
have just observed: since it will appear that it was by keeping the excellent
Pattern of his Sister's Virtues before his Eyes, that Mr. Joseph Andrews was
chiefly enabled to preserve his Purity in the midst of such great Temptations; I
shall only add, that this Character of Male-Chastity, tho' doubtless as
desirable and becoming in one Part of the human Species, as in the other, is
almost the only Virtue which the great Apologist hath not given himself for the
sake of giving the Example to his Readers.
 

                                   Chapter II

  Of Mr. Joseph Andrews his Birth, Parentage, Education, and great Endowments,
                    with a Word or two concerning Ancestors.
 
Mr. Joseph Andrews, the Hero of our ensuing History, was esteemed to be the only
Son of Gaffar and Gammer Andrews, and Brother to the illustrious Pamela, whose
Virtue is at present so famous. As to his Ancestors, we have searched with great
Diligence, but little Success: being unable to trace them farther than his Great
Grandfather, who, as an elderly Person in the Parish remembers to have heard his
Father say, was an excellent Cudgel-player. Whether he had any Ancestors before
this, we must leave to the Opinion of our curious Reader, finding nothing of
sufficient Certainty to relie on. However, we cannot omit inserting an Epitaph
which an ingenious Friend of ours hath communicated.
 
Stay Traveller, for underneath this Pew
Lies fast asleep that merry Man Andrew;
When the