Samuel Richardson Quotes
Sorrow makes an ugly face odious.
Richardson, Samuel. A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflexions, Contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison. S. Richardson, 1755.
On the morning of August 4, 1974, hours before his resignation in disgrace, President Richard M. Nixon called the Senator to say good-bye.
In the 18th Century, the Islamic Barbary States combined their religious beliefs for Jihad against non believers with a classic criminal enterprise. They would authorize cosairs to outfit ships and attack Christian merchant ships on the high seas. They would capture the ship and the cargo, which would be split with the ruler of the country. The crew and passengers would by “rented out” as slaves until they would be ransomed, the proceeds of which would also be shared. To motivate a larger ransom, the captives were regularly tortured as well as worked almost to death. The Barbary Pirates encouraged the “slaves” to write to their relatives, friends and governments to try and raise the ransom. O’Brien’s ship was captured in 1785. He had been a slave for 4 years when he wrote this. See for a quote from a letter he sent Congress. Finally, after 10 years, O’Brien and those of his crew that were still alive were finally freed. O’Brien’s unusual experience and knowledge of the Barbary States qualified him as an expert and he was then appointed Consul-General to Algiers. Individual Christian countries were offered a “treaty” whereby for an annual payment of tribute to the Barbary country, the corsairs of that country would not attack ships flying their flag. The Christian country had to make 4 different tribute payments to each of the Barbary nations. Most of the European powers were paying the tribute even though some could easily defeat the Corsair navies in a war. The cost of outfitting a fleet for war was much more costly than paying the tribute. The new nation of the United States was good pickings for the Barbary pilots and there was a period of several decades where the Americans had to create a policy to pay tribute or go to war. At different times America did both.
Samuel Richardson was an English writer and printer best known for three epistolary novels: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). He printed almost 500 works during his life, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar. Richardson had been apprenticed to a printer, whose daughter he eventually married. He lost her along with five sons, but remarried and had four daughters who reached adulthood, but no male heirs to continue the print shop. As it ran down, he wrote his first novel at the age of 51 and immediately joined the popular, admired writers of his day. Leading figures he knew included Samuel Johnson and Sarah Fielding, and the eminent physician and Behmenist George Cheyne and the theologian and writer William Law, whose books he printed. At Law's request, Richardson printed some poems by John Byrom. In the literary world he rivalled Henry Fielding, and the two responded to each other's literary styles.
