Dear Madam,

When you were pleased to decline singling out in Clarissa any particular Virtue or Excellence, you disappoint me a little, tho’ you give so polite a Reason for it, because I should have seen, by your distinguishing some one, Which, among the many that adorn your own Mind, was what you yourself thought most preferable.

Expose yourself! - At your own Expence! - What Words are these! - Do you think, that there is not a Justice due to one's self, as well as to the rest of the World? - And can you, who are so quicksighted to the Merits of others, be allowed to be blind to your own?

How judiciously do you observe, that there is not one in ten of our Sex, that have Sense enough to captivate any Woman of common Understanding! - Let me tell you, that did not Ductility of Mind in the Fair Sex, and great Condescension, and great Charity, and great Good-nature, assist, there would not be one in twenty, in an Age of Flashes and Fribbles that would make an Impression.

O that your Sex would not, so often as they do, permit their Hearts o be under the Dominion of their Eyes and Ears! - How many more happy Marriages would there be, than there are, if the Fair Sex (indeed if both Sexes) would choose for intellectual rather than personal Qualities!

Were you, you say, Madam, addressed by a Hickman and a Lovelace, you would choose the former in Preference to the latter, if it were only to shew me how strong an Impression my Advice against such as the latter has made upon you. This is extremely obliging. But let me tell you, my dear Miss Grainger, that while you can express such an Indifference as you express to a Character like that of Mr. Hickman, you will be in some Danger, should a Lovelace make his Addresses to you at the same time.