veral hours before he went to bed; to powerful were the vigour of his conflitution and the activity of his mind. After the customary time of probation at the Temple, he was called to the bar, and was allowed to have carried with him to Weftminfter Hall no incompetent fhare of learning. He attended with punctual affiduity both in term-time and on the Weftern tircuit, as long as his health permitted him; but the gout foon began to make fuch affaults upon him, as rendered it impofiible for him to be as conftant at the bar as the laborioufnefs of his profefion required: he could enly now follow the law by fnatches, at fuch intervals as were free from indisposition; which could not but be a difpiriting circumftance, as he faw himself at once difabled from ever rifing to the eminence he aspired to. However, under the feverities of pain and want, he ftill purfued his refearches with an eagerness of curiofity peculiar to him; and, though it is wittily remarked by Wycherley, that Apollo and Littleton feldom meet in the fame brain, yet Mr. Fielding is allowed to have acquired a refpe&table thare of jurisprudence, and in fome particular branches he is faid to have arisen to a great degree of eminence, more especially in crown law, as may be judged from his leaving two volumes in folio upon that fubje&t. This work ftill remains unpublished in the hands of his brother; and it will ferve to give us an idea of the great force and vigour of his mind, if we confider him purfuing fo arduous a ftudy under the exigencies of familydiftrefs, with a wife and children, whom he tenderly loved, looking up to him for fubfiftence; with a body: lacerated by the acuteft pains, and

with a mind distracted by a thousand avocations, and obliged for immediate fupply, to produce almoft extempore a play, a farce, a pamphlet, or a news paper. A large number of fugitive political tracts, which had their value when the incidents were actually paffing on the great fcene of bufinefs, came from his pen: the periodical paper, called the Champion, owed its chief fupport to his abilities.

"Of his other works, fays Mr. Murphy, (I mean fuch as were written before his genius was come to its full growth) an account will naturally be expected in this place; and fortunately he has spoken of them himself in the difcourfe prefixed to his Mifcellanies (which is not reprinted in the body of this edition) in terms fo modest and fenfible, that I am fure the reader will difpenfe with any other criticism or analyfis of them.

"The Effay on Converfation," fays Mr. Fielding, "was defigned to ridicule out of fociety, one of the moft pernicious evils which attends it, viz. pampering the gross appetites of felfishness and ill-nature, with the fhame and difquietude of others; whereas true good-breeding confifts in contributing to the fatisfaction and happiness of all about us."

"The Effay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men expofes a fe. cond great evil, namely, hypocrify; the bane of all virtue, morality, and goodness; and may ferve to arm the honeft, undefigning, open-hearted man, who is generally the prey of this monfler, against it."

"The Journey from this World to the Next, it should feem, provoked the dull, fhort-fighted, and malignant enemies of our author to charge

With regard to the Hiftory of Jonathan Wild, his defign, he tells us, was not "to enter the lifts with that excellent hiftorian, who, from authentic papers and records, &c. hath given fo fatisfactory an account of this great man; nor yet to contend with the memoirs of the ordinary of Newgate, which generally contain a more particular relation of what the heroes are to fuffer in the next world, than of what they did in this. The history of Jonathan Wild is rather a narrative of fuch actions, as he might have perform ed, or would, or fhould have performed, than what he really did; and may in reality as well fuit any other fuch great man, as the perfon bimself, whose name it bears. As it is not a very faithful portrait of Jonathan Wild, fo neither is it intended to represent the features of any other perfon; roguery, and not a rogue, is the fubject; fo that any particular application will be unfair in the reader, especially if he knows much of the great world, fince he muft then be acquainted with more than one, on whom he can fix the resemblance."

Though the merit of the life of Jonathan Wild be very confiderable, yet it must be allowed to be very fhort of that higher order of com. pofition which our author attained in his other pieces of invention. Hitherto he seems but preluding, as it were, to fome great work, in which all the component parts of his genius were to be feen in their

full and vigorous exertion; in which his imagination was to frike us by the moft lively and juft colouring, his swit to enliven by the happiett allufions, his invention to enrich with the greatest variety of character and incident, and his judgment to charm not only by the propriety and grace of particular parts, but by the order, harmony, and congruity of the whole: to this high excellence he made ftrong approaches in the Jofeph Andrews; and in the Tom Jones he has fairly bore away the palm.

In the progrefs of Henry Fielding's talents there feem to have been three remarkable periods; one, when his genius broke forth at once with an effulgence fuperior to all the rays of light it had before emitted, like the fun in his morning glory, without the ardour and the blaze which afterwards attend him; the fecond, when it was difplayed with collected force, and a fullness of perfection, like the fun in meridian majesty, with all his higheft warmth and fplendor; and the third, when the fame genius, grown more cool and temperate, ftill continued to cheer and enliven, but thewed at the fame time that it was tending to its declinte, like the fame fun, abating from his ardour, but still gilding the western hemisphere.

"To these three epochas of our author's genius, proceeds our ingenious Biographer, the reader will be before hand with me in obferving that there is an exact correspondency in the Jofeph Andrèws, Tom Jones, and Amelia. Jofeph Andrews, as the preface to the work informs us, was intended for an imitation of the ftile and manner of Cervantes: and how delightfully he has copied the humour, the gravity, and the fine Y y z

ridicule

ridicule of his master, they can witnefs who are acquainted with both writers. The truth is, Fielding, in this performance, was employed in the very province for which his talents were peculiarly and happily formed; namely, the fabulous narration of some imagined action, which did occur, or might probably have occurred in human life. Nothing could be more happily conceived than the character of Parfon Adams for the principal perfonage of the work; the humanity, and benevolence of affection, the goodnefs of heart, and the zeal for virtue, which come from him upon all occafions, attach us to Mr. Adams in the most endearing manner; his excellent talents, his erudition, and his real acquirements of knowledge in claffical antiquity, and the facred writings, together with his honefty, command our esteem and refpe&t; while his fimplicity and innocence in the ways of men provoke our fmiles by the contraft they bear to his real intelle&ual character, and conduce to make him in the highest manner the obje&t of mirth, without degrading him in our cftimation, by the many ridiculous embarraffments to which they every now and then inake him liable; and to crown the whole, that habitual abfence of mind, which is his predominant foible, and which never fails to give a tinge to whatever he is about, makes the honeft clergyman almost a rival of the renowned Don Quixote; the adventures he is led into, in confequence of this infirmity, affuming fomething of the romantic air which accompanies the knight errant, and the circumftances of his forgetfulness tending as strongly to excite our laughter as the mistakes of the Spanish hero. I will venture

to fay, that when Don Quixote mif takes the barber's bafon for Mambrino's helmet, no reader ever found the fituation more ridiculous and truly comic than Parfon Adams's travelling to London to fell a fet of fermons, and a&tually snapping bis fingers and making two or three turns round the room in extacy, when introduced to a bookfeller in order to make an immediate bargain; and then immediately after, not being able to find thofe same sermons, when he exclaims, "profess, I believe I left them behind me." There are many touches in the conduct of this character, which occafion the most exquifite merriment; and I believe it will not be found too bold an affertion, if we say that the celebrated character of an abfent man by La Bruyere is extremely fhort of that true and juft refemblance to nature with which our author has delineated the features of Adams: the former indeed is carried to an agreeable extravagance, but the latter has the fine lights and fhades of probability. It will not be improper here to mention that the reverend Mr. Young, a learned and much esteemed friend of Mr. Fielding's, fat for this picture. Mr. Young was remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with the Greek authors, and had as paffionate a veneration for fchylus as Parfon Adams; the overflowings of his benevolence were as ftrong, and his fits of reverie were as frequent, and occurred too upon the most interesting occafions. Of this laft obfervation, a fingular inftance is given by a gentleman who ferved, during the laft war in Flanders, in the very fame regiment to which Mr. Young was chaplain. On a fine fummer's evening, he thought proper to indulge

himself

himself in his love of a folitary walk;

and accordingly he fallied forth from his tent the beauties of the hemifphere and the landfkip round him preffed warmly on his imagination; his heart overflowed with benevo. lence to all God's creatures, and gratitude to the Supreme Difpenfer of that emanation of glory, which covered the face of things. It is very poffible that a paffage in his dearly beloved Æfchylus occurred to his memory on this occafion, and feduced his thoughts into a profound meditation. Whatever was the object of his reflections, certain it is that fomething did powerfully feize his imagination, fo as to preclude all attention to things that lay immediately before him; and in that deep fit of abfence, Mr. Young proceeded on his journey, till he arrived very quietly and calmly in the enemy's camp, where he was, with difficulty, brought to a recollection of himself by the repetition of Qui va la, from the foldiers upon duty. The officer, who commanded, finding that he had ftrayed thither in the undefigning fimplicity of his heart, and feeing an innate goodnefs in his prifoner, which com. manded his respect, very politely gave him leave to purfue his contemplations home again. Such was the gentlemen from whom the idea of Parfon Adams was derived; how it is interwoven into the Hiftory of Jofeph Andrews, and how fuftained with unabating pleafantry to the conclufion, need not be mentioned here, as it is fufficiently felt and acknowledged. The whole work indeed abounds with fituations of the truly comic kind; the incidents and characters are unfolded with fine turns of furprize; and it is among the few works of invention, pro

duced by the English writers, which will always continue in request. Bue ftill it is but the fun-rife of our author's genius. thor's genius. The hint, it feems, was fuggefted to him by the fuccefs of the late Mr. Richardson's history of Pamela Andrews: Jofeph is here reprefented as her brother, and he boafts the fame virtue and continency which are the characteristics of his fifter. In the plan of the work, Mr. Fielding did not form 10 himfelf a circle wide enough for the abundance of his imagination; the main action was too trivial and unimportant to admit of the variety of characters and events which the rea der generally looks for in fuch productions the attainment of perfection in this kind of writing was in referve for Mr. Fielding in a future work."

Soon after the publication of Jofeph Andrews, the laft comedy, which came from this writer's pen, was exhibited on the ftage, intitled the Wedding Day: and, as we have already obferved, it was attended with an indifferent share of fuccefs. The law from this time had its hot and cold fits with him; he pursued it by starts, and after frequent intermiffions, which are ever fatal in this profeffion, in which whoever is fituated, is, for a long time, in the condition of the boatman described in the Georgics, working his way againft the ftream; and if he should by chance remit from his labour, he is rapidly carried back, and lofes from the progrefs he had made...

- fi brackia fortè remifit, Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni. Thefe occafional relaxations of induftry Mr. Fielding felt, and he alfo telt the inconveniences of them; which was the more fevere upon him, as voluntary and wilful neglect

could

could not be charged upon him. The repeated shocks of illness difabled him from being as affiduous an attendant at the bar, as his own inclination and patience of the most laborious application, would other wife have made him. Befides the demands for expence, which his valetudinarian habit of body constantly made upon him, he had likewife a family to maintain; from bufinefs he derived little or no fupplies, and his profpects therefore grew every day more gloomy and melancholy. To thefe difcouraging circumstances, if we add the infirmity of his wife, whom he loved tenderly, and the agonies he felt on her account, the measure of his afflictions will be well nigh full. To fee her daily languishing and wearing away before his eyes, was too much for a man of his ftrong fenfations; the fortitude of mind, with which he met all the other calamities of life, deferted him on this moft trying occafion; and her death, which happened about this time, brought on fuch a vehemence of grief, that his friends began to think him in danger of losing his reason. When the firft emotions of his forrow were abated, philofophy adminiftered her aid; his refoJution returned, and he began again to ftruggle with his fortune. He engaged in two periodical papers 'fucceffively, with a laudable and fpirited defign of rendering fervice to his country. The first of thefe was called the True Patriot, which was fet on foot during the late rebellion, and was conducive to the excitement of loyalty, and a love for the constitution in the breafts of his countrymen. A project of the fame kind had been executed in the year 1715, when the nation laboured under the fame difficulties, by the

celebrated Mr. Addifon, who afterwards rofe to be secretary of state. The Freeholder by that elegant writer contains no doubt many feafonable animadverfions, and a delicate vein of wit and raillery: but it may be pronounced with safety, that in the True Patriot there was difplayed a folid knowledge of the British laws and government, together with occafional fallies of humour, which would have made no inconfiderable figure in the political compositions of an Addifon, or a Swift. The Jacobite Journal was calculated to difcredit the shattered remains of an unfuccessful party, and by a wellapplied raillery and ridicule to bring the fentiments of the difaffected into contempt, and thereby efface them not only from the converfation, but the minds of men.

Our author by this time attained the age of forty-three; and being inceffantly pursued by reiterated attacks of the gout, he was wholly rendered incapable of pursuing the business of a barrister any longer. He was obliged therefore to accept an office, which seldom fails of being hateful to the populace, and of courfe liable to many injurious imputations, namely, an acting magiftrate in the commiffion of the peace for Middlefex. That he was not inattentive to the calls of his duty, and that, on the contrary, he laboured to be an useful citizen, is evident from the many tracts he published, relating to feveral of the penal laws, and to the vices and mal-practices which those laws were intended to restrain.

Amidft thefe fevere exercifes of his understanding, and all the laborious duties of his office, his invention could not lie ftill, but he found leifure to amufe himself, and after

wards