Pamela Censured by Anonymous - The publication of Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded on 6 November 1740 occasioned the kind of immediate and hyperbolic praise which would have turned the head of an author less vain than Richardson. Proclaimed by Aaron Hill as being "the Soul of Religion, " and by Knightley Chetwood as the book next to the Bible which ought to be saved "if all the Books in England were to be burnt, " Pamela seemed certain of universal acclaim, especially when the Reverend Benjamin Slocock praised it extravagantly from the pulpit of St. Saviour's in Southwark within two months of its initial printing. Even the "Objections" voiced by several correspondents and published at the beginning of the second edition of Pamela (14 February 1741) seemed relatively inconsequential when weighed against the Gentleman's Magazine's assertion in January 1741 that every Londoner with the slightest curiosity was reading Pamela.Literary and moral opposition to Pamela gradually began to mount, however. April 1741 saw the publication of the first and perhaps most perceptive attacks on Richardson's novel: An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews appeared on 2 April, followed by Pamela Censured: In a Letter to the Editor some twenty-three days later. While we now feel certain that Henry Fielding wrote Shamela, the author of Pamela Censured has eluded us. Though both works attack Pamela on moral grounds and incidentally make unflattering comments about Colley Cibber, their literary methods differ so greatly that it is impossible to tell whether or not Shamela influenced Pamela Censured to any extent.