Epistemic Authority, Moral Interpretation, and Probability in Eliza Haywood's The Invisible Spy

Abstract

Exploralibus, the narrator of Eliza Haywood's Invisible Spy (1754), acquires an invisibility belt and recording tablet, which he uses to discover secrets that he believes will entertain and educate the public. Yet, in order to erase the tablet, Exploralibus must purchase a three-year-old girl and raise her so that she has no concept of gender difference. Through this frame narrative, Haywood undermines Exploralibus's moral authority by showing that he is willing to abuse a young girl to pursue his literary career. My methodology draws on historical epistemology, the history of genre, and proto-feminism to analyze the purpose of Exploralibus's hypocrisy. I discuss how Haywood uses allusions to The Spectator (1711-14), The New Atalantis (1709), and the Canning case (1753-54) to craft a generically complex miscellany. I argue that Haywood aims to teach readers how to judge the believability of any given story for themselves instead of relying on problematic narrators.