Through the looking-glass

Something really interesting happened today: as I was paging through v.2 of Pamela, I noticed that there was ink residue on the verso of the title page. Upon taking a second look, I saw that the ink had not come off of the proceeding page, but rather came off of a preface that was not/no longer in the volume. Since the writing was backwards, the only way to read the ghost-like marks was with a mirror, which Lynn provided. Richard demonstrates our reading method in the following photo:















It's hard to tell since I took this picture with my cell phone, but you can kind of see the words in this photo as viewed through the mirror:















Anyway, it was quite hard to read since there also was ink residue from the first page of the text, but we were able to decipher what most of it said. Here is what we got:

Preface. If to give practical examples ... to be followed in the most critical and affecting cases by the modest virgin, the chaste bride, and the obliging wife: If to effect all these good ends so probable, so natural, so lively a manner, as shall engage the passions of every sensible reader, and strongly ... in the edifying story : and all without raising a single idea throughout the whole, that shall ... the [exactest?] ... instances where the [exactest?] purity would be most apprehensive: if these (embellished with a great variety of entertaining incidents) laudable of worthy recommendations of any work, the editor of the following letters which have their foundation in nature venture to offer-

So it's pretty rough. But it's a start! Now we have to check online PDFs of Pamela to see if it appeared in similar editions of the novel. Doing so will hopefully answer some questions, such as: Was this preface ever included in the text, or was the ink residue left over from something else? Was this preface meant for Pamela, or was it meant for another novel? What is the full text of this preface? and so on. To be continued...