"For, as I have heard you, my best Tutor, often observe, the Peculiarities of Habit, where a Person aims at something fantastick, or out of Character, are an undoubted Sign of a wrong Head: For such an one is so kind, as always to hang out on his Sign, what sort of Furniture he has in his Shop, to save you the Trouble of asking Questions about him; so that one may know what he is, as much as one can know a Widow by her Weeds."
— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for C. Rivington and J. Osborn
Date
1741 [1740]; continued in 1741
Metaphor
"For, as I have heard you, my best Tutor, often observe, the Peculiarities of Habit, where a Person aims at something fantastick, or out of Character, are an undoubted Sign of a wrong Head: For such an one is so kind, as always to hang out on his Sign, what sort of Furniture he has in his Shop, to save you the Trouble of asking Questions about him; so that one may know what he is, as much as one can know a Widow by her Weeds."
Metaphor in Context
As to the first, the Difficulty of finding a qualify'd Tutor; we must not expect so much Perfection, I doubt, as Mr. Locke lays down as necessary. What, therefore, I humbly conceive is best to be done, will be to avoid chusing a Man of bigotted and narrow Principles, who yet shall not be tainted with sceptical or heterodox Notions; who shall not be a mere Scholar or Pedant; who has travell'd, and yet preserv'd his moral Character untainted; and whose Behaviour and Carriage is easy, unaffected, unformal, and genteel, as well acquiredly as naturally so, if possible; who shall not be dogmatical, positive, overbearing, on one hand; nor too yielding, suppliant, fawning, on the other; who shall study the Child's natural Bent, in order to direct his Studies to the Point, in which he is most likely to excel. In order to preserve the Respect due to his own Character from every one, he must not be a Busybody in the Family, a Whisperer, a Tale-bearer; but be a Person of a benevolent Turn of Mind, ready to compose Differences: who shall avoid, of all things, that Foppishness of Dress and Appearance, which distinguishes the Petits-maîtres, and French Ushers, (that I have seen at some Boarding-schools) for Coxcombs, rather than Guides of Education: For, as I have heard you, my best Tutor, often observe, the Peculiarities of Habit, where a Person aims at something fantastick, or out of Character, are an undoubted Sign of a wrong Head: For such an one is so kind, as always to hang out on his Sign, what sort of Furniture he has in his Shop, to save you the Trouble of asking Questions about him; so that one may know what he is, as much as one can know a Widow by her Weeds.
Such a Person as I have thus negatively describ'd, may be found without very much Difficulty perhaps, because some of these Requisites are personal, and others are such as are obvious, at first Sight, to a common Penetration; or, where not so, may be found out by Inquiry into his general Character and Behaviour: And to the Care of such an one, dear Sir, let me for the present suppose your Billy is committed: And so we acquit ourselves of the first Difficulty, as well as we can, that of the Tutor; who, to make himself more perfect, may form himself, as to what he wants, by Mr. Locke's excellent Rules on that Head.
(Volume IV, Letter 54)
Such a Person as I have thus negatively describ'd, may be found without very much Difficulty perhaps, because some of these Requisites are personal, and others are such as are obvious, at first Sight, to a common Penetration; or, where not so, may be found out by Inquiry into his general Character and Behaviour: And to the Care of such an one, dear Sir, let me for the present suppose your Billy is committed: And so we acquit ourselves of the first Difficulty, as well as we can, that of the Tutor; who, to make himself more perfect, may form himself, as to what he wants, by Mr. Locke's excellent Rules on that Head.
(Volume IV, Letter 54)
Provenance
Searching "predominant passion" in HDIS
Citation
Over 53 entries in ESTC (1740, 1741, 1742, 1743, 1746, 1754, 1762, 1767, 1771, 1772, 1775, 1776, 1785, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799). [Richardson published third and fourth volumes in 1741.]
First edition published in two volumes on 6 November, 1740--dated 1741 on the title page. Volumes 3 and 4 were published in December 7, 1741 (this sequel is sometimes called Pamela in her Exalted Condition).
See Samuel Richardson, Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. In a Series of Familiar Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel, to Her Parents: Now First Published in Order to Cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the Youth of Both Sexes. A Narrative Which Has Its Foundation in Truth and Nature: and at the Same Time That It Agreeably Entertains, by a Variety of Curious and Affecting Incidents, Is Intirely Divested of All Those Images, Which, in Too Many Pieces Calculated for Amusement Only, Tend to Inflame the Minds They Should Instruct (London: C. Rivington and J. Robinson, 1740). [Title page says 1741] <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to first vol. of 3rd edition in ECCO-TCP>
See also Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. in a Series of Familiar Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel to Her Parents: and Afterwards, in Her Exalted Condition, Between Her, and Persons of Figure and Quality, Upon the Most Important and Entertaining Subjects, in Genteel Life. the Third and Fourth Volumes. Publish’d in Order to Cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the Youth of Both Sexes. by the Editor of the Two First. (London: Printed for S. Richardson: and sold by C. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; and J. Osborn, in Pater-Noster Row, [1742] [1741]). <Link to ESTC>
All searching was originally done in Chadwyck Healey's eighteenth-century prose fiction database through Stanford's HDIS interface. Chadwyck-Healey contains electronic texts of the original editions (1740-1741) and the 6th edition (1742).
First edition published in two volumes on 6 November, 1740--dated 1741 on the title page. Volumes 3 and 4 were published in December 7, 1741 (this sequel is sometimes called Pamela in her Exalted Condition).
See Samuel Richardson, Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. In a Series of Familiar Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel, to Her Parents: Now First Published in Order to Cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the Youth of Both Sexes. A Narrative Which Has Its Foundation in Truth and Nature: and at the Same Time That It Agreeably Entertains, by a Variety of Curious and Affecting Incidents, Is Intirely Divested of All Those Images, Which, in Too Many Pieces Calculated for Amusement Only, Tend to Inflame the Minds They Should Instruct (London: C. Rivington and J. Robinson, 1740). [Title page says 1741] <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO><Link to first vol. of 3rd edition in ECCO-TCP>
See also Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. in a Series of Familiar Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel to Her Parents: and Afterwards, in Her Exalted Condition, Between Her, and Persons of Figure and Quality, Upon the Most Important and Entertaining Subjects, in Genteel Life. the Third and Fourth Volumes. Publish’d in Order to Cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion in the Minds of the Youth of Both Sexes. by the Editor of the Two First. (London: Printed for S. Richardson: and sold by C. Rivington, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard; and J. Osborn, in Pater-Noster Row, [1742] [1741]). <Link to ESTC>
All searching was originally done in Chadwyck Healey's eighteenth-century prose fiction database through Stanford's HDIS interface. Chadwyck-Healey contains electronic texts of the original editions (1740-1741) and the 6th edition (1742).
Theme
Inner and Outer; Lockean Philosophy
Date of Entry
06/07/2004
