a Par, at least, in that respect. Sir, reply'd I, I could not have
taken these Liberties, if you had not given me the Cause: And the Cause, Sir,
you know, is before the Effect.
    True, Pamela, said he; you chop Logick very prettily. What the Duce do we
Men go to School for? If our Wits were equal to Womens, we might spare much Time
and Pains in our Education. For Nature learns your Sex, what, in a long Course
of Labour and Study, ours can hardly attain to. - But indeed, every Lady is not
a Pamela.
    You delight to banter your poor Servant, said I.
    Nay, continued he, I believe I must assume to myself half the Merit of your
Wit, too; for the innocent Exercises you have had for it from me, have certainly
sharpen'd your Invention.
    Sir, said I, could I have been without those innocent Exercises, as you are
pleased to call them, I should have been glad to have been as dull as a Beetle.
But then, Pamela, said he, I should not have lov'd you so well. But then, Sir,
reply'd I, I should have been safe, easy, and happy. - Ay, may-be so, and may-be
not; and the Wife too of some clouterly Plough-boy.
    But then, Sir, I should have been content and innocent; and that's better
than being a Princess, and not so. And may-be not, said he; for if you had had
that pretty Face, some of us keen Fox-hunters should have found you out; and,
spite of your romantick Notions, (which then too, perhaps, would not have had
such strong Place in your Mind) would have been more happy with the Ploughman's
Wife, than I have been with my Mother's Pamela. I hope, Sir, said I, God would
have given me more Grace.
    Well, but, resum'd he, as to these Writings of yours, that follow your fine
Plot, I must see them. Indeed, Sir, you must not, if I can help it. Nothing,
said he, pleases me better, than that, in all your Arts, Shifts and Stratagems,
you have had a great Regard to Truth; and have, in all your little Pieces of
Deceit, told very few wilful Fibs. Now I expect you'll continue this laudable
Rule in