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manuscript. Pointing to his saddle-bag, he told him, "with a face and voice full of solemnity, that there were in that bag no less than nine volumes of manuscript sermons, as well worth a hundred pounds as a shilling was worth twelve pence, and that he would deposit one of the volumes in his hands by way of pledge." But the landlord did not like the security —and shortly afterward, when the saddle-bags are opened by Joseph to look for the sermons, he can find "Sure, sir,' says Joseph, 'there is nothing in the bags.' Upon which Adams, starting and testifying some surprise, cried, 'Hey! fie, fie upon it! they are not here, sure enough. Ay, they are certainly left behind.""

none.

The least objectionable, according to modern notions, of Fielding's novels, is Amelia.' There is much less coarseness, and also less licentiousness. His object is to portray the conduct of a virtuous wife, who adores her husband and children; and she is really a charming character. Scenes, of course, are introduced in which the old, old story of illicit love goes on; but they are wholly unknown to her, and they serve only to enhance, by the force of contrast, the innocence and purity of her mind. M. Taine says: "Amelia' is the perfect model of an English wife, excelling in the kitchen, devoted to her

husband, even so far as to pardon his accidental infidelities; toujours grosse. She is modest in excess, always blushing and tender.” *

She is, no doubt, intended to represent the character of Fielding's first wife, as her husband, Captain Booth, is, in some points, intended to represent his own. But he is, upon the whole, a poor creature, if not what Lady Mary Wortley Montagu called him, "a sorry scoundrel" - hardly ever proof against temptation, and getting constantly into debt. He, however, fully appreciates the value of the treasure he has got in his wife; and in the midst of his frailties has the merit of feeling repentance and remorse.

'Amelia' is not a comic novel. There are no ludicrous scenes like those in 'Tom Jones,' 'Joseph Andrews,' and 'Peregrine Pickle;' and yet there is sufficient incident and variety in the plot to interest and amuse the reader. We are introduced into the interior of a prison, and have a vivid picture of all its abominations in those days-to Vauxhall, where Amelia is insulted by libertine advances-to a masquerade, with its intrigues and loose talk-and to

'Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise,' vol. iii. p. 33. I hardly know what M. Taine means by applying the terms toujours grosse" here, for Amelia is not once represented as being in that interesting situation.

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domestic scenes of profligate noblemen and colonels, and conversations where Mrs. Atkinson quotes Virgil and Horace as familiarly as if they had been written in her mother tongue.

If we may believe Richardson, who had a spite against Fielding for representing Pamela as the sister of Joseph Andrews, and ridiculing her, the novel of 'Amelia' was not successful. He says in one of his letters in 1752: "Mr. Fielding has met with the disapprobation you foresaw he would meet with in his 'Amelia.' He is, in every paper he publishes under the title of the Covent Garden, contributing to his own overthrow. He has been overmatched in his own way by people whom he had despised, and whom he thought he had vogue enough from the success his spurious brat Tom Jones' so unaccountably met with, to write down." And again: "Captain Booth" (Amelia's husband), "madam, has done his own business. . . . The piece, in short, is as dead as if it had been published forty years ago, as to sale. You guess that I have not read 'Amelia.' Indeed, I have read but the first volume. I had intended to go through with it; but I found the characters and situations so wretchedly low and dirty, that I imagined I could not be interested for any one of them...

*

*'Richardson's Letters,' vol. iii. p. 63.

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Booth in his last piece again himself. Amelia, even to her noselessness, is again his first wife. His brawls, his jars, his gaols, his spunging-houses, are all drawn from what he has seen and known.”*

However this may be, I think that of all the novels of that period, 'Amelia' is the one which gives the most generally truthful idea of the manners and habits of middle-class society then. There is little, if any, exaggeration or caricature, and I have no doubt that Fielding intended faithfully to depict society, such as he knew it, with its merits and its faults; its licentious manners, and domestic virtues; its brawls, its oaths, its prisons, and its masquerades.

*This is bitter spite on the part of Richardson. Fielding describes Amelia as having her nose injured by a fall before her marriage. Dr. Johnson said: "Fielding's 'Amelia' was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances; but that vile broken nose, never cured, ruined the sale of perhaps the only book which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night."

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CHAPTER IX.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIM AND FIELDING.-'PER'HUMPHRY CLINKER.'- 'THE

PICKLE.'

SPIRITUAL

THE jolly, riotous kind of life which I have spoken of as characteristic of one class of novels of the last century is fully displayed in the pages of Smollett. He reflects, in many respects, the character of the age more fully than any other writer-its material pleasures, its coarse amusements, its hard drinking, loud swearing, and practical jokes. His heroes are generally libertines, full of mirth and animal spirits, who make small account of woman's chastity, and whose adventures are intrigues, and their merriment broad farce. Such are the chief features of 'Roderick Random' and 'Peregrine Pickle,' neither of which, however, is so offensive as the 'Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom,' the hero of which is a blackguard and a scoundrel, without a redeeming virtue.

The French critic, M. Taine, whom I have already

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