Prove to me, therefore, that you have one of those souls which may be forgiven for its disobedience to the common law, by perceiving and comprehending the spirit of this letter as you did that of my first letter.

If you are destined to a middle-class life, obey the iron law which holds society together.

Lifted in mind above other women, I admire you; but if you seek to obey an impulse which you ought to repress, I pity you.

The all-wise moral of that great domestic epic "Clarissa Harlowe" is that legitimate and honorable love led the poor victim to her ruin because it was conceived, developed, and pursued beyond the boundaries of family restraint.
The family, however cruel and even foolish it may be, is in the right against the Lovelaces.

The family is Society.