MR. BELFORD, TO ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ. FRIDAY, SEPT. 22.
…
The undeserved sufferings of Miss Clarissa Harlowe, her exalted merit, her exemplary preparation, and her happy end, will be standing subjects with us [i.e., Belford and Mrs. Lovick].
She shall read to me, when I have no company; write for me, out of books, passages she shall recommend. Her years (turned of fifty,) and her good character, will secure me from scandal; and I have great pleasure in reflecting that I shall be better myself for making her happy.
Then, whenever I am in danger, I will read some of the admirable lady’s papers: whenever I would abhor my former ways, I will read some of thine, and copies of my own.
The consequence of all this will be, that I shall be the delight of my own relations of both sexes, who were wont to look upon me as a lost man. I shall have good order in my own family, because I shall give a good example myself. I shall be visited and respected, not perhaps by Lovelace, by Mowbray, and by Tourville, because they cannot see me upon the old terms, and will not, perhaps, see me upon the new, but by the best and worthiest gentlemen, clergy as well as laity, all around me. I shall look upon my past follies with contempt: upon my old companions with pity. Oaths and curses shall be for ever banished my mouth: in their place shall succeed conversation becoming a rational being, and a gentleman. And instead of acts of offence, subjecting me perpetually to acts of defence, will I endeavour to atone for my past evils, by doing all the good in my power, and by becoming an universal benefactor to the extent of that power.
Now tell me, Lovelace, upon this faint sketch of what I hope to do, and to be, if this be not a scheme infinitely preferable to the wild, the pernicious, the dangerous ones, both to body and soul, which we have pursued?
I wish I could make my sketch as amiable to you as it appears to me. I wish it with all my soul: for I always loved you. It has been my misfortune that I did: for this led me into infinite riots and follies, of which, otherwise, I verily think I should not have been guilty.
You have a great deal more to answer for than I have, were it only in the temporal ruin of this admirable woman. Let me now, while you yet have youth, and health, and intellect, prevail upon you: for I am afraid, very much afraid, that such is the enormity of this single wickedness, in depriving the world of such a shining light, that if you do not quickly reform, it will be out of your power to reform at all; and that Providence, which has already given you the fates of your agents Sinclair and Tomlinson to take warning by, will not let the principal offender escape, if he slight the warning.
…
I do not think I ought to communicate with you, as I used to do, on this side the Channel: let me, then, hear from you on the opposite shore, and you shall command the pen, as you please; and, honestly, the power of
J. BELFORD.
Clarissa may not have been able to “save” Lovelace in time, but even in death, she seems to enable Belford to redeem himself. So I would ask the same question that Anna asked, only in the context of this letter: is this kind of legacy ALL of Clarissa's story?
Her body is all her story of her as a living being that is left. But the consequences of her life continue in Belford and in the purported future readers of her letters (and the further circle of readers of Richardson's text–i.e., us).
I was thinking the same thing about her body, and also all the texts she leaves behind. Isn't there a point where Belford vows to read through the letters whenever he feels the need for moral instruction?
It's interesting to me that in some hard-to-define sense, Clarissa has passed from Lovelace to Belford, who now controls–but with her clear cooperation–HER. She will now be, as she has been to us, the marvelous and complex and sometimes not quite believable character we've been allowed to encounter and construct throughout of 1500 pages of reading. She has clearly saved Belford; for all we know, she has in the end saved Lovelace himself. But most importantly, her letter to all the other characters, Lovelace's letters to all he writes to, have created both central characters vividly and enduringly. In the body of all these words, they keep living–and instructing (how happy Samuel Richardson would be to have someone type that phrase in the 21st century).