Important Quotations Explained
…I intend to digress, through this whole History, as often as I see
Occasion: Of which I am myself a better Judge than any pitiful Critic whatever.
And here I must desire all those Critics to mind their own Business … For,
till they produce the Authority by which they are constituted Judges, I shall
[not] plead to their Jurisdiction.
…we are obliged to bring our Heroe on the Stage in a much more
disadvantageous Manner than we could wish; and to declare … that it was the
universal Opinion of all Mr. Allworthy's Family, that he was certainly born to
be hanged.
Thus a Swarm of foolish Novels, and monstrous Romances will be produced …
to the great Loss of Time … in the Reader; nay, often to the spreading of
Scandal and Calumny, and to the Prejudice of the Characters of many worthy and
honest People.
So Sophia … found such immediate Satisfaction from the Relief of those
Terrors she had of being overtaken by her Father, that the Arrival of the French
scarce made any impression on her.
To paint the Looks or Thoughts of either of these Lovers is beyond my
Power…. And the Misfortune is, that few of my Readers have been enough in
Love, to feel by their own Hearts what past at this Time in theirs.
