THE NOVELS AND NOVELISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, IN ILLUSTRATION OF THE Manners and Morals of the Age. BY WILLIAM FORSYTH, M.A., Q.C., AUTHOR OF 'the life of CICERO,' 'CASES AND OPINIONS ON CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ETC., ETC.; LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. CAMBRITY UNION SOCIETY LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1871. [Right of Translation Reserved.] BEGAN this work intending to amuse the idleness of a Long -Vacation; but a severe and dangerous illness, caused by an accident, entirely baffled my design, and I was obliged to finish the task when I had much less leisure. I do not say this to deprecate criticism-if the work is to be criticised at all but merely state the fact, which may account for shortcomings that are very likely to be discovered. But I hope that the book will be judged by what it professes to be, and not by what it is not. It is not a history of the works of Fiction of the last century, which would have required much more copious detail, but a view of the manners and morals of that century, as gathered principally from hints and descriptions |