low Adventures in which he is engaged, that I have made him a Clergyman;
since no other Office could have given him so many Opportunities of displaying
his worthy Inclinations.
 

                                     Book I

                                   Chapter I

Of writing Lives in general, and particularly of Pamela; with a Word by the bye
                          of Colley Cibber and others.
 
It is a trite but true Observation, that Examples work more forcibly on the Mind
than Precepts: And if this be just in what is odious and blameable, it is more
strongly so in what is amiable and praise-worthy. Here Emulation most
effectually operates upon us, and inspires our Imitation in an irresistible
manner. A good Man therefore is a standing Lesson to all his Acquaintance, and
of far greater use in that narrow Circle than a good Book.
    But as it often happens that the best Men are but little known, and
consequently cannot extend the Usefulness of their Examples a great way; the
Writer may be called in aid to spread their History farther, and to present the
amiable Pictures to those who have not the Happiness of knowing the Originals;
and so, by communicating such valuable Patterns to the World, he may perhaps do
a more extensive Service to Mankind than the Person whose Life originally
afforded the Pattern.
    In this Light I have always regarded those Biographers who have recorded the
Actions of great and worthy Persons of both Sexes. Not to mention those antient
Writers which of late days are little read, being written in obsolete, and, as
they are generally thought, unintelligible Languages; such as Plutarch, Nepos,
and others which I heard of in my Youth; our own Language affords many of
excellent Use and Instruction, finely calculated to sow the Seeds of Virtue in
Youth, and very easy to be comprehended by Persons of moderate Capacity. Such
are the History of John the Great, who, by his brave and heroic Actions against
Men of large and athletic Bodies, obtained the glorious Appellation of the
Giant-killer; that of an Earl of Warwick, whose Christian Name was Guy; the
Lives of Argalus and Parthenia, and above all, the History of those seven worthy
Personages, the Champions of Christendom. In all these, Delight is mixed with
Instruction, and the Reader is almost as much improved as entertained.
    But I pass by these and many others, to mention two Books lately published,
which represent an admirable Pattern of the Amiable in either Sex. The former of
these which deals in Male-Virtue, was written by the great Person himself, who
lived the Life he hath recorded, and is by many thought to have lived such a