Autograph letter signed : London, to Frances Grainger, 1750 Mar. 29.

A sustained analysis of his novel Clarissa, and a consideration of the moral issues at the heart of Richardson's work and the character Clarissa: "Clarissa was not perfect, but Clarissa could accuse herself in instances where she thought she ought not to be acquitted. She left it to heaven to punish those who did not do their duty by her, and who were not tryable, if I may use the word, and they were punished." Discoursing at length on the moral duty of a child to obey her parents, arguing that obedience is an absolute principle ("...I would not have children provoked to wrath. I would have them complied with in every reasonable request, only that the parents should be the judges, not the children, of the fit and reasonable..."), drawing on his own works and especially Clarissa for examples of behavior, extending the theme of obedience to that of a wife to her husband. There is also a discussion of William Whitehead's tragedy "The Roman Father," in which Richardson's remarks are indebted to a pamphlet on the play published a few weeks earlier, and newly attributed to Sarah Fielding. Richardson criticizes the play's simplistic representation of a heroine ("...It was the poet's notion that she must whine, and be madly in love, to be a woman...") and absurdity of its action ("...can you form anything in your mind more contemptible ... than the idea of a young woman, when her country is in the utmost danger, running about complaining that her man may have his crown cracked, that she is in love up to her ears and cannot bear it..."), and finally commenting adversely on the playing of card games.