prefent lord Lyttelton, whofe friendfhip to our author foftened the rtgour of his misfortunes while he lived, and exerted itself towards his memory when he was no more, by taking pains to clear up imputations of a particular kind, which had been thrown out against his character.

determined to exert his beft endeavours to recover, what he had wantonly thrown away, a decent competence; and being then about thirty years of age, he betook himfelf to the ftudy of the law. The friendships he met with from fome, who have fince rifen to be the first ornaments of the law, will for ever do honour to his memory. His application, while he was a ftudent in the Temple, was remarkably intenfe: he has been frequently known by his intimates, to retire late at night from a tavern to his chambers, and there read, and make extracts from the most abftrufe authors, for several hours before he went to bed. After the cuftomary time of probation at the Temple he was called to the bar. He attended with affiduity both in term-time and on the western circuit, as long as his health permitted; but the gout foon rendered it impoffible for him to be as conftant at the bar as the laboriousness of his profeffion required: he could only now follow the law by fnatches, at fuch intervals as were free from indifpofition; 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 still pursued his researches with an eagerness of curiofity peculiar to him; and tho it is wittily remarked by Wycherly, that Apollo and Littleton feldom meet in the fame brain, yet Mr. Fielding is allowed to have acquired a refpectable share of jurifprudence, and in fome particular branches he is faid to have arifen to a great degree of eminence, more especially in crown law, as may be judged from his leaving two volumes in

Mr. Fielding had not been long a writer for the stage, when he married Mifs Craddock, a beauty from Salisbury. About that time his mother dying, a moderate eftate at Stower in Dorsetshire devolved to him. To that place he retired with his wife, on whom he doated, with a refolution to bid adieu to all the follies and intemperances of a town life. But unfortunately a kind of family-pride here gained an afcendant over him, and he began immediately to vie in fplendor with the neighbouring country fquires. With an eftate not much above two hundred pounds a year, and his wife's fortune, which did not exceed fifteen hundred pounds, he encumbered himself with a large retinue of fervants all clad in coftly yellow liveries. For their master's honour, thefe people could not defcend fo low as to be careful in their apparel, but in a month or two were unfit to be feen; the fquire's dignity. required that they fhould be new equipped; and his chief pleasure confifting in fociety and convival mirth, hofpitality threw open his doors, and in lefs than three years, entertainments, hounds, and horfes entirely devoured a little patrimony, which, had it been managed with ceconomy, might have fecured to him a ftate of independence for the reft of his life. Senfible of the difagreeable fituation he had now re. duced himself to, he immediately VOL. V.

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folio upon that fubject §. This work remains flill unpublished in the hands of his brother, Sir John Fielding; and by him I am informed that it is deemed perfect in fome parts. It will ferve to give us an idea of the great force and vigour of his mind, if we confider him pursuing fo arduous a ftudy under the exigencies of family diftrefs, 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 diftracted with 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 scene of bufinefs, came from his pen the periodical paper, called The Champion, owed its chief fupport to his abilities; and though his effays in that collection cannot now be afcertained, yet the reputation arifing to him at the time of publication was not inconfiderable. It does not appear that he ever wrote much poetry: correct verfification probably required more pains and time than his exigencies would allow. In the preface to his Mifcellanies he tells us, that his poetical pieces were moftly written when he was very young, and were productions of the heart rather than of the head. He adds, that this

branch of writing is what he very little pretended to, and was very little his purfuit. Accordingly out of the new edition of his works, which was intended to confift entirely of pieces more highly finished than his works of mere amusement generally are, his verses are all difcarded.

In the progrefs of Henry Fielding's talents there seem to have been three remarkable periods; one, when his genius broke forth at once, with an effulgente fuperior to all the rays of light it had before emitted, like the fun in his morning glory; the fecond, when it was difplayed with collected force, and a fullness of perfection, like the fun in meridian majefty; and the third, when the fame genius, grown more cool and temperate, ftill continued to cheer and enliven, but fhewed at the fame time that it was tending to its decline, like the fame fun, abating from his ardour, but ftill gilding the western hemisphere.

To these three epochas of our author's genius, there is an exac correfpondency in the Jofeph Andrews, Tom Jones, and Amelia. It will not be improper here to mention that the reverend Mr. Young, a learned and much efteemed friend of Mr. Fielding's, fat for parfon Adams. Mr. Young was remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with the Greek authors, and had as paffionate a veneration for Æfchylus as Parfon Adams; the over

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flowings of his benevolence were as ftrong, and his fits of reverie were as frequent, and occurred too upon the most interesting occafions. Of this last observation, a fingular inftance is given by a gentleman who ferved, during the last 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 in his love of a folitary walk; and accordingly he fallied forth from his tent: the beauties of the hemisphere, and the landskip round him, preffed warmly on his imagination; his heart overflowed with benevolence 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 là, 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 commanded his refpect, very politely gave him leave to purfue his contemplations home again.

Soon after the publication of JoSeph Andrews, Fielding's laft co

medy, the Wedding-Day, was exhibited on the stage; 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. The repeated fhocks of illness disabled him from being as affiduous an attendant at the bar, as his own inclination, and patience of the most laborious application, would otherwise have made him. Befides the demands for expence, which his valetudinarian habit of body conftantly 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 circumftances, if we add the infirmity of his wife, whom he loved tenderly, and the agonies he felt on her account, the measures 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 most 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 lofing his reafon. When the first emotions of his forrow were abated, he began again to ftruggle with his fortune. He engaged in two periodical papers fucceffively: the firft 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. The Jacobite Fournal was calculated to difcredit the C 2

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fhattered remains of an unfuccefsful party, and, by a well-applied raillery and ridicule, to bring the fentiments of the difaffected into contempt.

By this time Fielding had attained the age of forty-three; and being inceffantly pursued by reiterated attacks of the gout, he was wholly rendered incapable of purfuing the bufinefs of a barrister any longer. He was obliged therefore to accept the office of an acting magistrate in the commiffion of the peace for Middlesex, with a yearly penfion out of the public-fervice money. That he was not inattentive to the calls of his duty, 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 reftrain, particularly a Charge to the grand jury, delivered at Weftminster on the 29th of June, 1749, and the Enquiry into the Caufe of the Increase of Robberies, and a Propofal for the Maintenance of the

Poor.

Amidst 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 afterwards the world, with the Hiftory of Tom Jones. And now we are arrived at the fecond grand epoch of Mr. Fielding's genius, when all his faculties were in perfect unifon, and confpired to produce a complete work, eminent in all the great effentials of compofition, in fable, character, fenti

ment, and elocution; and as thefe could not be all united in fo high an affemblage, without a rich invention, a fine imagination, an enlightened judgment, and a lively wit, we may fairly here decide his character, and pronounce him the English Cervantes. It may be added, that in many parts of the Tom Jones we find he poffeffed the fofter graces of character-painting, and of defcription: many fituations and fentiments are touched with a delicate hand, and throughout the work he seems to feel as much delight in defcribing the amiable part of human nature, as is his early days he had in exaggerating the ftrong and harsh features of turpitude and deformity. This circumftance breathes an air of philanthropy through his work.

Thus have we traced our author in his progrefs to the time when the vigour of his mind was in its full growth of perfection; from this period it funk, but by flow degrees, into a decline: Amelia, which fucceeded Tom Jones in about four years, has indeed the marks of genius; but of a genius beginning to fall into its decay. Amelia is the Odyffey, the moral and pathetic work, of Henry Fielding *.

While he was planning and executing this piece, it fhould be remembered, that it was distracted by that multiplicity of avocations which furround a public magistrate; and his conftitution, now greatly impaired and enfeebled, was labouring under the attacks of the gout, which were, of course, feverer than

ever. However, the activity of his mind was not to be fubdued. One literary purfuit was no fooner over, than fresh game arofe. A periodical paper, under the title of The Covent Garden Journal, by Sir Alexander Drawcanfir, Knight, and Cenfor General of Great Britain, was immediately fet on foot. It was published twice in every week, viz. on Tuesday and Saturday, and conduced fo much to the entertainment of the public, that it was felt with a general regret that the author's health did not enable him to perfift in the undertaking any longer. Soon after this work was dropt, by the advice of phyficians Mr. Fielding fet out for Lifbon: the laft gleams of his wit and humour fparkled in the account he left behind him of his Voyage to that place. In this his laft fketch he puts us in mind of a perfon, under fentence of death, jefting on the fcaffold for his ftrength was now quite exhaufted; and in about two months after his arrival at Lifbon, he yielded his laft breath, in the year 1754, and in the fortyeighth year of his age.

He left behind him (for he mar. ried a fecond time) a wife, and four children, three of which are flli living, and are now training up in a handfome courfe of education under the care of their uncle, with the aid of a very generous donation, given annually by Ralph Allen, Efq; for that purpose. An inftance of humanity, which the reader did not want to learn of him, whofe life is a conftant effufion of munificence; but for the fake of the writer, whose works have afforded fuch exquifite entertainment, he will be glad to know that the generous patron of the father is

now the tender guardian of his orphans.

Thus was clofed a courfe of dif appointment, diftrefs, vexation, infirmity, and study; for with each of thefe his life was variously chequered, and, perhaps, in ftronger proportions than has been the lot of many. We have feen how Mr. Fielding very foon fquandered away his fmall patrimony, which, with œconomy, might have procured him independence: we have feen how he ruined, into the bargain, a conftitution, which, in its orignal texture, seemed formed to last much longer. When illness and indigence were once let in upon him, he no longer remained the matter of his own actions; and that nice delicacy of conduct, which alone constitutes and preferves a character, was occafionally obliged to give way.

When he was not under the immediate urgency of want, they, who were intimate with him, are ready to aver, that he had a mind greatly fuperior to any thing mean or little; when his finances were exhaufted, he was not the most elegant in the choice of the means to redrefs himself, and he would inftantly exhibit a farce or a puppetfhew in the Hay-market theatre, which was wholly inconfiftent with the profeffion he had embarked in. But his intimates can witness how much his pride fuffered, when he was forced into meafares of this kind; no man having a jufter sense of propriety, or more honourable ideas of the employment of an author and a scholar.

Henry Fielding was in ftature rather rifing above fix feet; his frame of body large, and remarkably robuft, till the gout had broke the vigour of his conflitution. His

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