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From Macmillan's Magazine.
OUR FIRST GREAT NOVELIST.

the public mind as that of the pebble cast into the pool. The waters have been HENRY FIELDING, for he it is upon agitated and disturbed by ever-widening whom we place the distinction of being circles of discontent, even to their utmost England's first great novelist, has for a limits. Much laborious effort has been century past been the constant subject required to exorcise the prejudice thus of criticism. His surpassing merits have established; and it is just this power compelled even his most pronounced which a wrong judgment possesses over foes to assign him a lofty place in the minds of men in an equivalent degree the art which he adorned. Attempts with a right one, which makes criticism to depreciate his genius, because the dangerous. In the hands of an incapamoral backbone was lacking in some of ble person it is an engine of incalculable his characters, have been repeatedly mischief. And the fact that now and made, but with no permanent effect upon then this engine destroys its foolish his renown, For ourselves, we affirm at owner is no satisfaction for the wrong the outset that we consider him the done to men of undoubted genius. The Shakespeare of novelists. By this, of self-righting power of criticism certainly course, it will be understood, we do not moves slowly. We are somewhat diffiimply that the sum of his genius was in dent, for example, when we find it necesany way comparable to that of the illus- sary to differ strongly from such authortrious dramatist; but that he achieved ities as Dr. Johnson; or at any rate his results in the same way. He was the should unquestionably have been so had great artist in fiction because he was the we been amongst his contemporaries. great observer and interpreter of human Now that we are out of the reach of his nature. The novel will never be able to terrible voice and his overbearing deassume a position of equal importance meanour, and regarding him thus from a with the drama, because of its compara- safe distance, we do not find it so diffitive defectiveness of construction. But cult to designate his capacity for judging to such perfection as it is capable of in literary matters as often shallow and being brought, Fielding almost attained. It is, then, for the reason of the similarity of his method to that of Shakespeare that we have ventured to award him the highest title of eminence. It will be our endeavour, while not hiding his defects, to set forth the grounds of justification for the position we have assumed.

pretentious. Most people admit that his view of Milton is far from a just and worthy one of that sublime poet. He lacked the balance of mind, the intellectual equipoise, which is the foundation of the critical faculty. Consequently, with the lapse of time, his reputation in this respect will crumble away. Even With that perversity which only men of the obsequious Boswell has ventured to the same class or profession can exhibit insinuate that at times Johnson was so towards each other, it was the fashion swayed by his feelings that, when making with literary men of Fielding's time comparisons between writers, he very and indeed for many years subsequently often contradicts his intellect by his -to compare him unfavourably with his affection; and, while saying the utmost rival, Richardson. It is singular how fre- he could of the inferior qualities of his quently individuals of professed literary personal favourite, ignored those which acumen are willing to accept the dicta of were superior in the person with whom others in matters of criticism. We are he was ranged in comparison. Some only just now losing the effects of this such treatment as this was meted out to empiricism. Some unfortunate epigram, Fielding when he placed him in juxtapoor some warped and fantastic judgment, sition with Richardson. Let us reprohas frequently been passed upon an author duce his criticism. "Sir," said he, in by those who were supposed to be com- that pompous manner in which we can petent judges, and the depreciatory obser- | fancy the burly old Doctor was wont to vations have had the same effect upon settle the affairs of men and mundane

concerns generally, "there is all the ants of Eltrico, in the seventh century difference in the world between charac- Dukes of Alsace. Far different have ters of nature and characters of manners; and there is the difference between the characters of Fielding and those of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood by a more superficial observer than characters of nature, where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart." There is very little in this beyond saying that there is a great deal of difference between things which differ. Yet it is the kind of criticism which bears a deceptive sound with it, and acquires a reputation far in excess of its value, as being an expression of great apparent profundity. We shall hope to show that in his attribution of the one method to Fielding and the other to Richardson, Dr. Johnson came to an erroneous conclusion. For the present his observations lend some force to what has gone before, and it is an undoubted fact that the weakness of Fielding's moral character had much to do with Johnson's estimate of him. The formidable lexicographer was of that class of men who are almost prepared to find fault with the sun because of the spots upon his surface.

been the fortunes of the English and German divisions of the family of Hapsburgh; the former, the knights and sheriffs of Leicestershire, have slowly risen to the dignity of a peerage; the latter, the Emperors of Germany and Kings Spain, have threatened the liberties of the Old, and invaded the treasures of the New World. The successors of Charles V. may disdain their brethren of England; but the romance of Tom Jones,' that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial, and the Imperial Eagle of Austria." Ornate as is Gibbon's language it yet contains a judgment upon Fielding which has been in gradual process of verification since the words were written. Most of those who have dispassionately considered Fielding's works, and compared them with the works of his contemporaries and successors, will arrive at a conclusion much nearer that expressed by Gibbon than that of the detractor, Horace Walpole. Of course, an argument which we have previously used for another purpose, may possibly be inverted and turned against ourselves. It may be replied that after all criticism is only the Horace Walpole was another of the opinion of one man, though it is often critics who appear to have been either acted upon by the multitude: and that blinded by envy or unable to detect the judgments upon literary works attain an effects of true genius, for we find that inordinate influence when delivered by he was amongst the earliest detractors individuals of acknowledged reputation. of Fielding a prominent member of the Supposing this were to some extent true, school of depreciators which endeavoured every single reader has the opportunity to humble him in the eyes of his contem- of righting the matter so far as he is perporaries. It is pleasant, however, to sonally concerned. But what we do find think that some who bear great names valuable about the art of criticism, nothave expressed the most unqualified ad- withstanding its numerous and manifest miration for the novels of our author, and imperfections, is this, that it not unfrethe opinion of one really master mind quently results in the deposition of much outweighs that of a hundred Walpoles. that is unworthy, and in the exaltation of Byron gave it as his belief that " Fielding some works which have been threatened was the prose Homer of human nature; "with an undeserved obscurity. The critic the far-seeing Goethe was delighted with is really nothing more than a leader of his art; and Gibbon demonstrated his literary sagacity by the following eloquent eulogium: "Our immortal Fielding was of the younger branch of the Earls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from the Counts of Hapsburgh, the lineal descend

men; he is supposed to have the capa city of leading in the right way, and when it is found that there is no light in him, and he is incapable of perceiving eternal Truth, we should withdraw ourselves from his guidance. We say, then, that

while it is necessary for a man's self- cul- extent she may have been indebted to him in regard to these compositions. There is every reason to believe that he was most accessible to advice and sympathy, whilst his affection for his relatives was deep and sincere. This — in addition to a warm affection for children

ture and intellectual independence that he should not accept off hand the opinions of any critic, however eminent, in the bulk and without scrutiny, yet when judgments come to us stamped with the names of those who have devoted themselves to the art of criticism, they should is one of the redeeming traits in a at any rate receive candid, if searching, investigation. The destruction of the empiricism of the critic need not involve the destruction of the eclecticism of the art. It must come to us as a friendly guide, and not as a tyrant. Our own opinion of Fielding stands very little short of the most eulogistic which has been expressed concerning him; but we trust we have arrived at it out of no slavish regard for other minds.

character that was subsequently marred by many imperfections. Having received the earlier part of his education at home, from the Rev. Mr. Oliver, his private tutor who is supposed to have been laid under contribution as the original of Parson Trulliber — Fielding was sent to Eton, where he became intimate with Fox, Lord Lyttelton, Pitt, and others, who afterwards acquired celebrity with himself, and at various crises in his history A glance at the novelist's life is almost sustained towards him the part of real a necessity, for it elucidates many points friendship. Unlike many literary men, in connection with his works which would whose scholastic career has been rather a otherwise be obscure. There has proba- fiasco than otherwise, Fielding was most bly been no instance where the impress successful in his acquisition of knowlof the author's character has been more edge, and when only sixteen years of age perceptible upon his writings than that of was acknowledged by his masters to posFielding. Some of his novels confess- sess a very sound acquaintance with all edly contain passages from his own life, the leading Greek and Latin writers. with very little variation of detail. It will Traces of this linguistic proficiency are have been perceived by the quotation again and again beheld in his novels. from Gibbon that Fielding was of illustri- From Eton he went to the University of ous descent, but the wealth of the family Leyden, where he immediately entered must have flowed into another channel, upon still wider and more liberal studies; for he got none or little of it. He was but at the threshold of his life the demon born on the 22nd of April, 1707, at Sharp- of misfortune which seems to have dogged ham Park, near Glastonbury. His father his footsteps all through his career found was a distinguished soldier, having served him out. His university career closed with Marlborough at Blenheim, and at prematurely, for his father, General length obtained the rank of Lieutenant- Fielding, had married again, and having general. Besides being grandson of an now two large families to keep out of a Earl of Denbigh this warrior was related small income, discovered that his origito other noble families. The mother of nal intention with regard to his son must Fielding was a daughter of Judge Gold, be abandoned. This could not have one of whose immediate descendants was been a pleasant intimation to a youth of also a baron of the Exchequer. Posterity twenty, who had just begun to feel the may thus rest satisfied with the novelist's expansion of his faculties, and doubtless birth. Fielding, however, was not the to be conscious that his future "might only one of his family who appears to copy his fair past" as regards the accuhave been talented in literature. One of mulation of the stores of knowledge. his sisters wrote a romance entitled Whatever laxity of mind overtook him in "David Simple," and was also the author after life, the earlier years of Fielding of numerous letters, which, with the story, show him to have been enamoured of earned the encomiums of her brother. learning, and in no wise averse to its rouWe cannot, of course, now say to what tine. His spirit was keen and eager, and