THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 V 4 (oYro 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/essayonlifegeniu00murp_0 
 
✓ * 
 
 
 ======= 
 
 A N 
 
 E S S A 
 
 O N T H E 
 
 LIFE and GEN 
 
 O F 
 
 HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 
 
 T O Rand diRinguiflied from the common race of mankind, and by the efforts 
 of extraordinary virtues breaking out into adts of magnanimity and public 
 fpirit, or by a vigorous exertion of the faculties of the mind, enriching 
 human life with the invention of arts, or the graces of elegant compofition, to 
 attain that point of eminence, to which fucceeding times fhall look back with 
 gratitude and admiration, is a lot afligned but to very few. The generality of 
 people feem to be called into this world for no higher purpofes, than to breathe, 
 to gaze at the fun, to eat and drink, to deep and expire. When little more 
 than a century has rolled away, and a whole generation of men have pafled 
 from nature to eternity, as the poet folemnly exprefles it, how few names, out 
 of that wonderful multitude, Rand recorded to poRerity for any memorable 
 performances, or any remarkable ufe made of their exiflefce ! Xerxes wept 
 when he furveyed his millions round him, and reflected that in the courfe of a 
 few years not one of them fhould remain upon the face of the earth ; but the 
 reflection grows Rill more gloomy, when it is confidered, how few of them 
 were ever to be heard of again ! It is a melancholy curiofity to caR an eye 
 through the columns of chronology, where the princes, heroes, patriots, legis- 
 lators. 
 
 Y 
 
 I u s 
 
6 An ESSAY oil the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 lators, philofophers, poets, hiftorians, and artifts, who have figured in the 
 world fince the creation almoft to the prefent day, arc all carefully preferv- 
 ed, and like Egyptian kings embalmed for the notice of mankind : I low 
 fcanty the number ! What a thrifty lift does it afford us, when we compare it 
 with thofe prodigious bills of mortality which the perifhing generations, of 
 whom we only know that they lived and they died, have furnifhed forth for the 
 fpace of fix thoufand years ! It calls to our minds the battles recorded of Cyrus, 
 Semiramis, and other eaftern fovereigns, in which we only know that they led 
 an aftoniftiing number of millions to the field, and, almoft all, funk together into 
 one undiftinguiftied ftate of oblivion. Nor fhould this obfervation c^rry with it a 
 fatire upon the inadivity of mankind in general ; for many, no doubt, who have 
 not, to ufe Lord Verulam’s expreffion, furvived the weathers of time, employ- 
 ed themfelves in a courfe of laudable induftry, and ufed ftrenuous endeavours 
 not to wear away their lives in filence, like the beafts of the field, prone to the 
 earth, and fubfervient only to the excitements of appetite : But the fmall returns 
 . I may ufe a modern military phrafe) of good and ferviceable men, muff: not only 
 be owing to the viciflitudes of human affairs, and the devaluations of wars civil 
 and religious, but alio to the arduous difficulty of ferving mankind by public 
 condud, or performing any thing in the arts either elegant or ufeful, and fo 
 bequeathing to pofterity a lading legacy. 
 
 To the number of thofe, who by the vigour of their talents, and the vivacity 
 of their wit, feem to have enlarged the bounds preferibed, in the common courfe 
 of things, to the memory of man, and gained a pafs-port to future ages, may 
 be added the late Henry Fielding, whofe Works will be admired, while 
 a tafte for true humour remains in this country. The materials of his own 
 monument he has left behind him, fcattered indeed without arrangement, and 
 difperfed about the world : Thefe, in juftice to fo eminent an author, Mr. 
 Millar has determined to colled: together, that the public may have, in one 
 body, a good and valuable edition of writings, whofe merit is fo univerfally ac- 
 knowledged. 
 
 In the progrefs of this defign it naturally occurred, that our author would be 
 followed by the fame kind of curiofity, which ever attends on thofe, who have 
 made themfelves confpicuous in their time; which, with folicitude and an at- 
 tachment to their memories, loves to inform itfelf of the minuteft circumftan- 
 ces relating to them, where they were born, of what ftature they were, of what 
 temper of mind, what difficulties they met with in life, and with what difpo- 
 fition they met thofe difficulties, whether with defpondency or fortitude, wuth 
 gaiety or morofenefs, what fort of companions they were, with other anecdotes 
 of the fame nature. That the generality of readers, even though our author’s 
 memory is ftill recent in the minds of many, would exped to be gratified in thefe 
 ^particulars, was a very obvious remark ; and therefore it w r as refolved to prefix 
 t.o this edition an Effay on the Life and Genius of Henry rielding. 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 7 
 
 In complying with this ufual demand of the curious, it is not the intention 
 of the prefent writer to difturb the manes of the dead, as has been praCtifed by 
 certain biographers ; to infult his memory with an unneceflary detail of his 
 diftreflfes, and the actions which refulted from them ; to infer the character 
 of his heart from the overflowings of fudden and momentary paflions j to tear 
 off ungeneroufly the (hroud from his remains, and purfue him with a cruelty of 
 narrative, till the reader’s fenfe is (hocked, and is forced to exprefs his horror, 
 like Virgil’s TEneas, when he meets in the regions of the dead the (hade 
 of his mangled friend, 
 
 Deiphobe armipotens , genus alto a fanguine Teucri, 
 
 §>uis tam crudeles optavit fumere pcenas ? 
 
 Cui tantum de te licait l 
 
 It will, it is hoped, be fufficient for the reader’s curiofity if the principal fea- 
 tures of his mind are here delineated ; if his temper is (hewn, as much of it, 
 at lead;, as he transfufed into his writings ; if fome account be given of his fa- 
 mily, and of the various (ituations in life which his fortune allotted him. For 
 more than this the author of this little trad has determined not to ranfack ; for 
 it is not the entire hiftory of the man, but the memoirs of an author, which he 
 propofes to offer to the public. 
 
 Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park in Somerfetlhire near Glaf- 
 tonbury, April 22, 1707. His father, Edmund Fielding, ferved in the wars 
 under the Duke of Marlborough, and arrived to the rank of Lieutenant Gene- 
 ral at the latter- end of George I. or the beginning of George II. He was 
 grandfon to an earl of Denbigh ; nearly related to the Duke of Kingfton, and 
 many other noble and refpedable families. His mother was the daughter of 
 Judge Gold, the grandfather of the prefent Sir Henry Gold, one of the Barons of 
 the Exchequer. By thefe his parents he had four Afters, Catharine, Urfula, 
 Sarah and Beatrice ; and one brother, Edmund, who was an officer in the ma- 
 rine fervice. Sarah Fielding, his third After, is well known to the literary world 
 by the proofs (lie has given of a lively and penetrating genius in many elegant 
 performances, particularly David Simple, and the letters, which (he after- 
 wards publifhed, between the characters introduced into that work. The rea- 
 der will fee a very juft criticifm on thefe performances at the end of the fecond 
 Volume of thefe Works; where, though the affeCtion of the brother appears, yet 
 the author (hews himfelf the friend of truth as well as his After. Our author’s 
 mother having paid her debt to nature, Lieutenant General Fielding married a 
 fecond time, and the ifliie of that marriage were Ax fons, George, James, 
 Charles, John, William, and BaAl, all dead, excepting John, who is at prefent 
 in the commiflion of the peace for the counties of Middlefex, Surry, Eflex, 
 and the Liberties of Weftminfter, and has lately been raifed to the honour of 
 
 knighthood 
 
8 An E S S A Y on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 knighthood by his Majcfty, in reward of that zeal and fpirited afliduity with 
 which he ■ ferves his country as a public magiftrate. 
 
 Henry Fielding received the firft rudiments of his education at home, 
 under the care of the Rev. Mr. Oliver, to whom, we may judge, he was 
 not under any confiderable obligations from the very humorous and ftriking 
 portrait given of him afterwards under, the name of parfon Trulliber, in Jofcpb 
 Andrews . From Mr. Oliver’s care our authoi was removed to Eton School, 
 where he had the advantage of being early known to many of the firft people in 
 the kingdom, namely Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Sir Charles Hanbury 
 Williams, and the late Mr. Winnington, &c. At this great feminary of edu- 
 cation, Henry Fielding gave diftinguiffiing proofs of ftrong and peculiar parts ; 
 and when he left the place, he was faid to be uncommonly verfed in the Greek 
 authors, and an early mafter of the Latin claftics ; for both which he retained a 
 ftrong admiration in all the fubfequent paflages of his life. Thus accomplished 
 he went from Eton to Leyden, and there continued to Shew an eager third; for 
 knowledge, and to ftudy the civilians with a remarkable application for about 
 two years, when, remittances iailing, he was obliged to return to London, not 
 then quite twenty years old. 
 
 It is to be lamented that an excellent courfe of education was thus inter- 
 rupted, as there is ?o manner of doubt but with fuch excellent endowments 
 from nature, as he certainly poffefled, he might, by a continuance at a feat of 
 learning, have laid in a much ampler (tore of knowledge, and have given fuch 
 a complete improvement to his talents, as might afterwards have (hone forth 
 with ftill greater luftre in his writings ; not to mention that in a longer and 
 more regular courfe of ftudy, he might have imbibed fuch deep impreffions of 
 an early virtue, as would have made him lefs acceflible afterwards tothofe allure- 
 ments of pleafure, which, though they could not fupprefs the exertion of his 
 genius, yet retarded its true vigour, and, like clouds around the fun, made it 
 feem to ftruggle with oppofing difficulties, inftead of throwing out at once a 
 warm, an equal, and an intenfe heat. At this period however our author had 
 provided himfelf with a fund of more folid learning than ufuallyisthe portion of 
 perfons of his age, and his mind was at leaft fo feafoned with literature, that amidft 
 his wildeft diffipations afterwards, nothing could fubdue the love of reading which 
 he had fo early contracted. It appears from a preface to one of his plays, that he had 
 conceived an early inclination lor dramatic compofition ; the comedy called Don 
 Quixote in England, having made partof his literary amufement at Leyden ; though, 
 by h i 5 own account, it Should feem that what he executed Oi it theie, was little 
 more than his caqvafs in a more advanced age, when he gave it to the ftage with 
 additional frrokes of humour, and higher colourings than his inexperience had 
 beftowed upon it at firft. The play contains a true vein of good fenfe and fa- 
 tire, though his ufual hurrv in the production of his pieces did not afford him 
 
 lei lure, 
 
Of Ii E N R Y FIELDING, Efq; 9 
 
 leifure, when he once determined to offer it to the public, to give it all the 
 dramatic finifhings requifite in a complete piece. Mr. Fielding’s cafe was ge- 
 nerally the fame with that of the poet defcribed by Juvenal-, w'ith a great genius 
 he muft have ftarved, if he had not fold his performance to a favourite ador. 
 
 Efurit, intattam Paridi nifi vcndit Agaven. 
 
 To the fame motive we muft afcribe the multiplicity of his plays, and the great 
 rapidity with which they were produced ; for we find that tho’ fuch a writer as 
 Mr. Congreve was content in his whole life to produce four comedies and one tra- 
 gedy, yet the exigence of our author’s affairs required at his hand no lefs than 
 eight entire plays, befides fifteen farces, or pieces of a fubordinate nature. It has 
 been often a matter of wonder that he, who moft undoubtedly poffeffed a vein of 
 true and genuine humour, fhould not have proved more fuccefsful in his theatrical 
 produ&ions, that is to fay, fhould not in fome legitimate comedy have difcovered 
 the future father of Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, and Amelia. This how- 
 ever, from what has been premifed, feems pretty fairly accounted for ; but yet 
 for the real caufe of this inequality we muft ftill go fomewhat deeper than this 
 remark, which lies too palpable upon the furface of things. The enquiry may 
 perhaps not be incurious, and it fhall be purfued in its due place, when we 
 come to analyfe his genius, and determine its nature and quality. 
 
 At the age of twenty years, or thereabout, Henry Fielding returned from 
 Leyden to London ; in the fulleft vigour of conftitution, which was remarkably 
 ftrong, and patient of fatigue ; ftill unfhaken by excefles of pleafure, and un- 
 conquered by midnight watchings, till frequent returns of the gout attacked 
 him with a feverity, that made him, in the latter part of his days, a melancholy 
 repentant for the too free indulgencies of his youth, and drove him at length 
 to Lifbon in the hopes of lingering a little longer in life. From the account of 
 his voyage to that place we may judge of the adivity of his mind, and the ftre- 
 nuous flow of his fpirits, which, under a complication of infirmities, could yet 
 prompt him to the exercife of his wit and the fallies of his imagination. What 
 then muft have been the gaiety and quicknefs of his fancy, when his ftrength 
 was yet unimpaired by illnefs, and when young in life curiofity was eager to 
 know the world, and his paflions were ready to catch at every hook pleafure had 
 baited for them ? It is no wonder that, thus formed and difpoled for enjoy- 
 ment, he launched wildly into a career of diflipation. Though under age, he 
 found himfelf his own mafter, and in London: Hoc fonte derivata clades ! 
 From that fource flowed all the inconveniencies that attended him throughout 
 the remainder of his life. The brilliancy of his wit, the vivacity of his hu- 
 mour, and his high relift) of locial enjoyment, foon brought him into high re- 
 queft with the men of tafte and literature, and with the voluptuous of all ranks ; 
 to the former he was ever attentive, and gladly embraced alb opportunities of 
 aflociating with them if the latter often enfnared him, and won from him too 
 
 Vol. I. a great 
 
lo 
 
 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 great a portion of his time, it cannot be wondered at, confidcring the grccnncts 
 of his years, the fenfibility of his temper, and the warmth of his imagination. 
 His finances were not anfwerable to the frequent draughts made upon him by 
 the extravagance which naturally followed. He was allowed two hundred 
 pounds a-year by his father, which, as he himfelf ufed to fay, “ any body 
 might pay that would.” 
 
 The fa< 5 t was, General Fielding, with very good inclinations to fupport his 
 fon in the handfomefl: manner, very foon found it impra&icablc to make fuch 
 appointments for him, as he could have wifhed. He had married again foon 
 after the death of our author’s mother, and had fo large an increafe of family, 
 and that too fo quick, that, with the neceflary demands of his ftation for a 
 genteel and fuitable expencc, he could not fpare out of his income any confi- 
 derable dilburfements for the maintenance of his eldeft fon. Of this truth 
 Henry Fielding was fenfible, and he was therefore, in whatever difficulties he 
 might be involved, never wanting in filial piety, which, his neareft relations 
 agree, was a fhining part of his character. By difficulties his refolution was 
 never fubdued ; on the contrary, they only rouzed him to ftruggle through them 
 with a peculiar fpirit and magnanimity. When he advanced a little more in 
 life, and his commerce with mankind became enlarged, difappointments were 
 obferved by his acquaintance to provoke him into an occafional peevifhnefs, and 
 feverity of animadverfion. This however had not a tendency to embitter his 
 mind, or to give a tinge to his general temper ; which was remarkably gay, 
 and for the mofl part overflowing into wit, mirth, and good humour. As he 
 difdained all littlenefs of fpirit, wherever he met with it in his dealings with 
 the world, his indignation was apt to rife ; and as he was of a penetrating dif- 
 cernment, he could always develope felfiffinefs, miftruft, pride, avarice, interefted 
 friendfliip, the ungenerous, and the unfeeling temper, however plaufibly difguifed ; 
 and as he could read them to the bottom, fo he could likewife aflault them with 
 the keeneft ftrokes of fpirited and manly fatire. Amongft the many fine traits of 
 defeription in that character, which Tacitus has left us of Agricola, there 
 is a very delicate touch, which occurs to me at prefent, and feems applicable to 
 the temper of our author; his reproof was fometimes thought to carry with it 
 a degree of afperity ; as to the good and amiable, he was polite, to the un- 
 worthy he was rather harfh ; but his anger once vented, there remained no trace 
 of it ; from his fecrecy and filence you had nothing to apprehend. Apud quof- 
 dam acerbior in conviciis narrabatur ; ut bonis, comis , it a adverfus malos injneundus. 
 Ceterum ex iracundia nihil fupererat : fecretum & JHentium ejns non t ilneres. Oil- 
 agreeable impreflions never continued long upon his mind; his imagination was 
 fond of feizing every gay prolpedt, and in his word adverfities filled him with 
 fanguine hopes of abetter fituation. To obtain this, he flattered himfelf that 
 he flhould find his refources in his wit and invention ; and accordingly he com- 
 menced a writer for the ftage in the year 1727, being then about twenty years 
 of age. 
 
 3 
 
 His 
 
Of IIENRY FIELDING, Efq; 
 
 1 1 
 
 Ills flirffc dramatic piece foon after adventured into the world, and was cal- 
 led Love in fever a l Mafques. It immediately fucceeded the Provoked Hufband , a 
 play, which, as our author obferves, for the continued fpace of twenty-eight 
 nights received as great and as juft applaufes, as ever were beftowed on the 
 Englifti ftage. “ Thefe, fays Mr. Fielding, were difficulties, which feemed rather 
 to require the fuperior force of a IVycherley or a Congreve than a raw and unexpe- 
 rienced pen (for I believe 1 7nay boa (l that none ever appeared fo early upon the 
 ftage” ) Notwithftanding thefe obitacles, the play, we find, was favourably re- 
 ceived : and confidering that it was his firft attempt, it had, no doubt, the 
 marks of a promifing genius. His fecond play, the Temple Beau , appeared the 
 year after, and contains a great deal of fpirit and real humour. Perhaps in thofe 
 days, when audiences were in the aera of delicate and higher comedy, the fuc- 
 cels of this piece was not very remarkable ; but furely pieces of no very fu- 
 perior merit have drawn crowded houles within our own memory, and have 
 been attended with a brilliancy of fuccefs ; not but it mull be acknowledged 
 that the picture of a Temple Rake fince exhibited by the late Dr. Hoadly in the 
 Sufpicious Hulband, has more of what the Italians cA\ Fortunato, than can be 
 allowed to the carelefs and hafty pencil of Mr. Fielding. It would lead a great way 
 from the intention of this effay fhould we attempt to analyfe the feveral drama- 
 tic compofitions of this author ; and indeed, as he confeffedly did not attain 
 to pre-eminence in this branch of writing, at leaft was unequal to his other 
 productions, it may be fufficient to obferve that from the year 1727 to the end 
 of 1736, almoft all his plays and farces were written, not above two or three 
 having appeared fince that time j fo that he produced about eighteen theatrical 
 performances, plays and farces included, before he was quite thirty years old. 
 No feleCtion has been made of thofe pieces, but they are all printed together in 
 this edition, that the public might have the entire theatre of Henry Fielding. 
 For though it muft be acknowledged that in the whole collection there are few 
 plays likely to make any confiderable figure on the ftage hereafter, yet they 
 are worthy of being preserved, being the works of a genius, who in his wildeft 
 and moll inaccurate productions, yet occafionally difplays the talent of a mafter. 
 Though in the plan of his pieces he is not always regular, yet is he often 
 happy in his diCtion and ftile j and in every groupe, that he has exhibited, there 
 are to be feen particular delineations that will amply recompence the attention 
 beftowed upon them. The comedy of the Mifer, which he has moftly taken 
 from Moliere, has maintained its ground upon the ftage ever fince it was firft 
 performed, and has the value of a copy from a great painter by an eminent 
 hand. If the comedy of Pafquin were reftored to the ftage, it would perhaps be 
 a more favourite entertainment with our audiences than the much admired 
 Rehearfal -, a more rational one it certainly would be, as it would undoubt- 
 edly be better underftood. The Rehearfal at prefent feems to be received ra- 
 ther from prefeription than any real delight it affords : it was the work of a 
 noble wit, and the objeCt of its fatire was one of the greateft geniufes of this 
 nation, the immortal Dryden. Thefe two circumftances gave the play a won- 
 
 a 2 derful 
 
12 
 
 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 derful eclat on its firft appearance » and the wit and humour of the parodies 
 were undoubtedly very high-flavoured. But has it not loft its relifli at prefent ? 
 and does not the whole appear a wild caricatura which very few can refer to 
 any original objedts ? However, its traditional fame ftill procures for it a fafhion- 
 able prejudice in its favour; and for the fake of having the favourite adtor, who 
 performs the part of Bayes, continually before the eye, we crowd to it ftill, 
 whenever it is adted, and we laugh, and applaud, and roar and “ wonder with 
 “ a foolifh face of praife.” What Mr. Dryden has faid concerning this celebrated 
 performance, is but a mild judgment from one, who might have ul'ed more 
 exafperated language. “ I have anfwered not the Rehearfal,” fays he, “ becaufe 
 “ I knew the author fat to himfelf, when he drew the pidture, and was the 
 “ very Bayes of his own farce. Becaufe alfo I know that my betters were more 
 “ concerned than I was in that fatire; and, laftly, becaufe Mr. Smith and Mr. 
 “ Johnfon, the main pillars of it, were two fuch languifhing gentlemen in their 
 “ converfation, that I could liken them to nothing, but their own relations, 
 “ thofe noble characters of men of wit and pleafure about the town.” 
 
 But fenfe furvhed when merry jejis were pajl , as his generous rival has fung 
 fince ; and Dryden is now the admiration of his country. The Pafquin of 
 Fielding came from the pen of an author in indigence, or, as the late Colly Cibber 
 has contumelioufly called him, a broken wit ; and therefore, though its fuccefs 
 was confiderable, it never fhone forth with a luftre equal to its merit ; and yet 
 it is a compofition that would have done honour to the Athenian ftage, when 
 the Middle Comedy, under the authority of the laws, made ufe of fictitious 
 names to fatyrife vice and folly, however dignified by honours and employ- 
 ments. But the middle comedy did not flourifh long at Athens; the archnefs 
 of its aim, and the poignancy of its fatire foon became offenfive to the officers 
 of ftate ; a law was made to prohibit thofe oblique ftrokes of wit, and the co- 
 mic mufe was reftrained from all indulgences of perfonal fatire, however hu- 
 mouroufly drawn, under the appearance of imaginary characters; The fame fate 
 attended the ufe of the middle comedy in England ; and it is faid that the wit 
 and humour of our modern Arijlcp banes, Mr. Fielding, whofe quarry in fome 
 of his pieces, particularly the Hijlorical Rcgijlcr, was higher game than in pru- 
 dence he fhould have chofen, were principal inftruments in provoking that law, 
 under which the Britiffi theatre has groaned ever lince. But the minifter was 
 fore, and in his refentment he ftruck too deep a blow. Had he conlidered that 
 by the bill, which afterwards paffied into a law, he was entailing fhivery on 
 the mufes, and that a time might come, when all dramatic genius fhould there- 
 by be led a vafial in the train of the managers of the theatre, to be gracioufly 
 foftered, or haughtily opprefled, according to their caprice and prejudice ; per- 
 haps then, as he was himfelf of a large and comprehenfive underflanding, and 
 poffefifed befides the virtues of humanity, he might have been contented with 
 milder reftriCtions, and not have made the remedy almoft worfe than the difeafe. 
 But licentioufnefs was to be retrenched, and liberty received a ftab in the ope- 
 ration : 
 
Of H E N R Y FIELDING, Efq; 13 
 
 ration : luxuriant branches, that were extravagant in their growth were to be 
 lopped away, and to make fliort work of it, the woodman in a fit of anger ap- 
 plied his ax to the root of the tree. The tree, it is true, is not quite fallen to 
 the ground] but it is grown faplefs, withered and unproductive ; its annual 
 fruits want the high flavour, which they might have in a more generous nurfe- 
 ry ; no wood- notes wild are heard from its branches, and it is exaCtly in the- 
 ftate defcribed by Lucan ; 
 
 Lrunco, non frondibus efficit umbratn. 
 
 But it may be afked, are the players to be judges of the king’s minifters ? Shall 
 grimace and mimickry attack the moft exalted characters ; and muft the great 
 officers of ftate be, at the mercy of the aCtors, exhibited on a public ftage ? 
 Why no; — except in a coronation, I think, his Majefty’s fervants fhould not- 
 be made ridiculous j and the dangerous tendency of this buffooning kind of 
 humour is ftrongly marked by a learned writer *, when he obferves that “ this 
 “ weapon, in the diffolute times of Charles II. completed the ruin of the beft 
 “ minifter of that age. The hiflorians telb us, that Chancellor Hyde was 
 “ brought into his Majefty’s contempt by this court argument. They mi- 
 “ micked his walk and gefture, with a fire fhovel and bellows for the mace 
 “ and purfe. Thus it being the reprefentation, and not the objeCt reprefented, ; 
 “ which ftrikes the fancy, vice and virtue muft fall indifferently before it.” 
 
 If fuch were the effects of private mimickry, public drolls would undoubtedly' 
 be found of more pernicious confequence. Away with them therefore ; they 
 are illiberal, they are unworthy ; let licentioufnefs be banifhed from the theatres, 
 but let the liberty of the free-born mufe be immortal ! The true idea of li- 
 berty confifts in the free and unlimited power of doing whatever fhall not in- 
 jure the civil and religious inftitutions of the ftate, nor be deemed invafive of' 
 the peace and welfare of our fellow-fubjeCts ; but dramatic authors are fo cir-- 
 cumftanced at prefent, that this invaluable bleffing is withdrawn from them ; 
 the mufes are enflaved in a land of liberty, and this at leaft fhould excufe the 
 poets of the age for not rifing to nobler heights, till the weight is taken off,- 
 which now depreffes their ftrongeft efforts. It muft be allowed, that in re-- 
 ftraining the licentioufnefs of the theatre our legiflature very wifely imitated the 
 good fenfe of the Athenian magiftracy, Vvho by law interdicted the freedoms of 
 the Middle Comedy; but it is to be wilhed that they had alfo imitated the 
 moderation of the Greek lawgivers, who, when they refolved to give a check to 
 indecorum, yet left a free and unbounded fcope to the New Comedy , which 
 confifted in agreeable and lively reprefentations of manners, paflions, virtues,- 
 vices, and follies from the general volume of nature, without giving to any 
 part of the tranfcript the peculiar marks or Angularities of any individual. Thus 
 poets were only hindered from being libellers, but were left in full ppffeffion of 
 
 * The author cf the Divine Legation of Mofes, 
 
 ufeful 
 
i 4 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 uleful and general fatire, and all avenues of accefs to the public were generoufly 
 thrown open to them. As we have at prefent the happinefs of living in a 
 reign, when majedy condefcends to look with a favourable afped on the liberal 
 arts, many are fanguine enough to entertain hopes that the mufe may be rr- 
 leafed from her fetters, and redored to the free exercife of the amiable part of 
 her province. When a bee has been deprived of its noxious fling, it may 
 be fafely permitted to rove at large among all the flowers of a garden ; and it 
 will be no inconfiderable addition to the luflre of the crown, if with an Au- 
 gustan Reign of equity, moderation, vidory, and wifdom, which every 
 Briton promifes himfelf, there be alfo revived an Augustan Age of 
 Letters. 
 
 Though the foregoing obfervations may appear digreflivc from the main de- 
 fign of this eflay, yet as the fubjed is important, and took its rife in a great 
 meafure from the writings of Mr. Fielding, to advert awhile to the confequcncc' 
 which flowed to the community from his adions, cannot be deemed altogether 
 impertinent. It is only like going out of the way a little to trace a rivulet in its 
 progrefs, to mark its windings, to obferve whether it bellows fertility on the 
 neighbouring meadows, and then returning to the flraight road, to purfue the 
 regular trad of the journey. 
 
 In the comedy called Rape upon Rape , or the Coffee- houfe Politician , we have 
 .an admirable draught of a charader very common in this country, namely, a 
 man who is fmitten with an infatiable third for news, and concerns himfelf 
 more about the balance of power than of his books. The folly of thefe datef- 
 men out of place is there exhibited with a maflerly ridicule; and indeed in all 
 the plays of our author, however in fome refpeds deficient, there are flrokes of 
 humour and half-length paintings not excelled by fome of the ablefl artifls. 
 The farces written by Mr. Fielding were almofl all of them very fuccefsful, and 
 many of them are dill aded every winter with a continuance of approbation. 
 They were generally the produdion of two or three mornings, fo great was his 
 facility in writing ; and to this day, they bear frequent repetition, at lead as 
 well as any other pieces of the kind. It need not be obferved, in judification of 
 their being preferved in this colledion of more important works, that farce is 
 deemed by our bed critics an appendage of the theatre as well as pieces of a 
 higher nature. A learned and excellent * critic has given it a full confideration in 
 his Differtation on the feveral Provinces of the Drama. “ The reprefentations,” fays 
 he, “ of common nature may either be taken accurately, fo as to refled a faith- 
 <« ful and exatt image of their original, which alone is that I would call Co- 
 “ medy ; or they may be forced and overcharged above the Ample and jud 
 u proportions of nature ; as when the excefles of a few are given for funding 
 ft charaders, when not the Man (in general) but the paffion is deferibed ; or 
 u when, in the draught of the man, the leading feature is extended beyond 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Hurd. 
 
 €€ 
 
 meafure ; 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; i 5 
 
 <* meafure ; and in thefe cafes the reprefentation holds of the province of 
 
 “ farce.” 
 
 These remarks, from the penoffo accurate and fen fible a writer, will evince 
 that our author’s farces very juflly make a part of this edition. The mock 
 tragedy of Tom Thumb is replete with as fine parody as, perhaps, has ever 
 been written: the Lottery, the Intriguing Chambermaid, and the 
 Virgin Unmasked, befides the real entertainment they afford, had on their 
 firfl appearance this additional 'merit, that they ferved to make early difcoveries 
 of that true comic genius which was then dawning forth in Mrs. Clive, which 
 has fince unfolded itfelf to a fullnefs of perfection, and continues to this day 
 to be one of the trued; ornaments of the ilagc. As this excellent adtrefs re- 
 ceived great advantages from the opportunities Mr. Fielding’s pen afforded her, 
 l'o he, in his turn, reaped the fruits of fuccefs from her abilities, and accord- 
 ingly we find him acknowledging it in a very handfome letter addrelfed to her, 
 and prefixed to the Intriguing Chambermaid: fuch a teflimony of her 
 merit, as it conduced to advance her progrefs, fo it now will ferve to perpe- 
 tuate her fame, being enrolled in the records of a genius, whofe works will be 
 long admired. “ I cannot help reflecting, fays our author, that the town has one 
 “ obligation to me, who made the firfl difcovery of your great capacity ■, and brought 
 “ you earlier forward on the theatre , than the ignorance of J'ome , and the envy of 
 “ others would have otherwife permitted. I fhall not here dwell on any thing fo 
 “ well known as your theatrical merit, which one of the finefl judges, and the 
 “ great efl man of his age, hath acknowledged to exceed in humour that of any of your 
 “ predeceffors in his time.” If this remark was true thirty years ago, it may be 
 added, to her honour, that fhe hath not been eclipfed by any, who have entered- 
 into the fervice of the comic mufe fince that time. 
 
 As this effay promifes to treat of the genius, as well as the life of Henry Field- 
 ing, it may not be improper to paufe here for an enquiry into his talents, 
 though we are not arrived at that period of his life, when they difplayed them- 
 felves in their full warmth and fplendor. And here it is necelTary to caution, 
 the reader not to confine his idea of what is intended by the word genius to any 
 one fingle faculty of the mind; becaufe it is obfervable that many miflakes 
 have arifen, even among writers of penetrating judgment, and well verfed in cri- 
 tical learning, by haflily attaching themfelves to an imperfect notion of this 
 term fo common in literary differtations. That invention is the firfl gre3t lead- 
 ing talent of a poet has been a point long fince determined, becaufe it is princi- 
 pally owing to that faculty of the mind that he is able to create, and be as it 
 were a Maker, which is implied in his original title given to him by the con- 
 fent of Greece. But furely there are many other powers of the mind as fully 
 eflential to conflitute a fine poet, and therefore, in order to give the true cha- 
 racter of any author’s abilities, it fhould feem neceffary to come to a right un- 
 derflanding of what is meant by Genius, and to analyle and arrange its leve- 
 
 ral • 
 
i6 
 
 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 ral qualities. This once adjufted, it might prove no unpleafing talk to examine 
 what are the fpecific qualities of any poet in particular, to point out the talents 
 of which he feems to have the freeft command, or in the ufe of which he 
 feems, as it were, to be left-handed. In this plain fair-dealing way the true 
 and j-eal value of an author will be eafily afeertained ; whereas in the more 
 confined method of inveftigation, which eftablifhes, at the outlet, one giant- 
 quality, and finding the objedt of the enquiry deficient in that, immediately 
 proceeds to undervalue him in the whole, there feems to be danger of not try- 
 ing his caufe upon a full and equitable hearing. Thus, I think, a late cele- 
 brated poet is likely to fufFer an unjuft fentence from a gentleman, who has al- 
 ready obliged the public with the firft volume of an Eflay on his Life and Ge- 
 nius. The common aflertion which has been in every half-critic’s mouth, 
 namely, that Mr. Pope had little invention, and therefore has but a bad claim 
 to the name of poet, feems to be unguardedly adopted in the very beginning 
 of that ingenious and entertaining work ; and from that principle the conclu- 
 sion will probably decide againft our Englilh Homer. From the elegant, and, 
 in general, true fpirit of criticifm, which the Eflayift on Mr. Pope’s Life and 
 -writings is acknowledged to poflefs, it was reafonably to be expedted that he 
 would have taken a comprehenfive view of what Invention is, and then exa- 
 mined how far the want of it can be charged upon his author. But in that point, 
 -does he not feem to think him defencelefs, when he aflerts that it is upon the 
 merit of the Rape of the Lock that he will rank as a poet with pofterity ? The 
 introduction of machinery into this beautiful poem, Mr. Wharton feems to 
 think fhews more invention than any other compofition of the Twickenham 
 bard; tho’ even in this point he deals out to him the reputation of a Maker 
 with a fparing and a thrifty hand. As the book is near me, I will tranferibe 
 his words : “ It is in this compofition Pope principally appears a poet, in 
 ** which he has difplayed more imagination than in all his other works taken 
 « together: It fhould however be remembered that he was not the first 
 *< former and creator of thofe beautiful machines the Sylphs, on which his 
 “ claim to imagination is chiefly founded. He found them exifting ready to his 
 *» hand, but has indeed employed them with Angular judgment and artifice.” 
 But furely in the ufe made of the Sylphs and Gnomes , and the various employ- 
 ments afiigned to thofe imaginary beings, the Britifh author is as much a Poet, 
 as manifeftly a Maker, as the great father of the epic fable. Homer invented 
 not the gods and goddefles which he has interwoven in his immortal Rhapfody. 
 He took up the fyftem of theology which he found received in Greece. “He 
 “ rofe,” fays Mr. Pope, “ with the fineft turn imaginable for poetry, and, de- 
 n figning to inftrudt mankind in the manner for which he was moft adapted, 
 “ made ufe of the miniftry of the gods to give the higheft air of veneration to 
 “ his writings. Nor was it his bufinefs, when he undertook the province of a 
 ** poet (not of a mere philofopher) to be the firft who fliould difeard that, 
 s* which furnilhes poetry with its moft beautiful appearance. Whatever there - 
 i* fore he might think of his gods, he took them as he found them ; he 
 
 “ brought 
 
Of H E N R Y FIELDING, Efq ; 17 
 
 “ brought them into a&ion according to the notions which were then enter- 
 “ tained, and in fuch ftcries as were then believed.” In the fame manner, the 
 author of the Rape of the Lock availed himfelf of the Roficrucian fyftem, as he 
 found it fet forth in a French book, called, “ Le Comte de Gabalis,” and 
 to thofe ideal beings he has given fuch a miniftry, fuch interefts, affedtions, and 
 employments as carried with them fufficient poetical probability, and made a 
 very beautiful machinery in his poem, enlarging the main adtion, and ennobling 
 the trifles, which it celebrates ; not to mention that the fuperintendency of thofe 
 imaginary agents was as new in poetry, as the Minijleria Deorum in the Iliad or 
 Odyfley. Perhaps, if the matter could be traced with accuracy, and a full know- 
 ledge of the ftate of learning, the various fyftems of theology, and all the doc- 
 trines, opinions, and fables, which exifted in Homer’s days, could be attained, 
 we ftiould find that the invention of the father of epic poetry, did not fo much 
 conlift in creating new exiftencies, and ftriking out new ideas, as in making 
 a poetic ufe of the fabulous deities which previoufly exifted in the imagina- 
 tions of mankind, and in forming new combinations of thofe ideas, which had 
 been conceived before, but had never been arranged in thofe complexities into 
 which his fancy was able to difpofe them. Thus we find that Homer’s cele- 
 brated defeription of the ftate of the dead, is an abfolute copy of the rites, cu- 
 ftoms, and ceremonies obferved by the Egyptians at their funerals. The di- 
 ftribution of rewards and punifhments, the refidence of the blefied in the Ely- 
 fian fields, and the fhadows of the deceafed, correfpond exactly, fays Diodorus Si- 
 culus, with the funerals of the Egyptians. The Grecian Mercury was founded 
 upon the cuftom of a man’s delivering a dead body to be conveyed or carried by an- 
 other, who wore a malk with three heads refembling the fiction of Cerberus. The 
 Ocean was no other than the Nile, and was even fo called by the Egyptians ; the 
 gates of the fun, meant the town of Heliopolis; and the manfions of the happy, the 
 delightful country about the lake Acherufia, near Memphis, where the dead were 
 depofited in fubterraneous vaults. Many other circumftances alfo agree with 
 the folemnities of Egypt, as they w r ere praftifed in the time of Diodorus; as 
 the boat in which the deceafed were carried ; the ferryman, who was called 
 Charon in the language of the country ; the temple of Hecate, placed by the 
 poets at the entrance of the infernal regions ; the gates of Cocytus and Lethe 
 fliut with bars of brafs, and the gates of Truth, where there was an image of 
 Juftice. Minos and Rhadamanthus were indeed names taken from Crete, but 
 the ideas were derived from the Egyptian cuftom of fitting in judgment upon 
 the life, manners, and conduct of the dead, before they were allowed the rites 
 of lepulture. And even ftrong traces of the puniftiment of Tityos , Tantalus, and 
 Sifyphus, appear in the antiquities of Egypt ; not to mention that the allotment 
 of the daughters of Danaus , is a manifeft allufion to the ceremony of three 
 hundred and twenty priefts pouring water from the Nile into a veflel with holes 
 in the bottom, at a city not far from Memphis. The Greek traveller and hi- 
 ftorian enumerates many other myftic traditions, fables, and religious ceremo- 
 nies, from which the poet made palpable infertions into his work : Sir ]ohn 
 ^ oe. I. b Mariham 
 
i8 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 Matfliam alfo, elaborate in his refearches into antiquity, has pointed out, in the 
 Canon /Egypt iacus, a confiderablc number of thofe transfufions from the cuftoms 
 and theology of Egypt. 13ut it would lead too far from the fcopc of this cflay, 
 fhould we enter into a detail of thefe matters ; the curious reader may, if he 
 pleafes, lee this enquiry purfued with great tafte and accuracy by the ingenious 
 author of the Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer j who makes it fufti- 
 ciently evident that Egypt, like its own Nile upon the adjacent country, over- 
 flowed with all the fertility of fcience, fable, and mythology, to enrich the vTfl 
 and capacious imagination of the Grecian bard. It will be proper however to 
 add one'obfervation more in this place, namely, that Homer was not the full 
 who faw that the Aliatic cuftoms, manners, and learning were capable of being 
 perpetuated with that venerable air, with which they have come down to po- 
 fterity : a very ill uilrious ornament both of the republic of letters and the 
 church *, in a mod admirable diflertation on the fixth book of the /Encid, has 
 obferved that “ in the Mysteries, the defeription of the pajj'agc into the 
 “ other world was borrowed” by the Egyptians themfelves, “ as was natural, 
 “ from the circumfiances of their funeral rites : and it might eajily be proved , 
 •“ if there were occajion , that they themfelves transferred thefe realities into the 
 “ MT0OI, and not the Greeks, as later writers generally imagine.” The fame 
 learned enquirer into antiquity has remarked in another part of the fame trad, 
 that if “ an old poem , under the name of Orpheus, intit led, a Defcent into Hell, had 
 “ been now extant, it would, perhaps , have fhewn us that no more was meant 
 “ than Orpheus's initiation.” Now as it is a fettled point that Orpheus preceded 
 Homer, what lhall we fay of that invention which all fucceeding ages have 
 agreed to call the very origin and fountain of poetry ? Shall we, in the ftile of 
 the ancient or the modern Zoilus, illiberally call his immortal Rhapfodies mere 
 patch-work plundered from the fopperies of /Egypt ? Shall we not rather admire 
 and venerate the vigour of that mind, which, in an age of general darknefs and 
 ignorance, could, by unabating induftry, by indefatigable travels, and a conflant 
 purfuit of knowledge, fo replenifh itfelf with the ftores of morality, hiflory, 
 politics, geography, fable, and theology, as to import them all into Greece from 
 the various Afiatic climes, which he had vifited, and interweave them into the 
 texture of two poems, adorned and dignified with all the graces of the molt 
 fruitful imagination ? If Homer did not originally form and create thofe pro- 
 digious images which abound in his work; if he was not the Maker of 
 many of thofe fables, particularly the Defcent into Hell, which mankind 
 have fo much admired, he at leaft found out the ufe and application of them ; the 
 combination of thofe ideas was his own ; the fcheme was his which aflembled 
 them all into that wonderful union ; in other words, the general fable was 
 Homer’s, and it required no lefs a genius to give uniformity amidft fuch an 
 exuberance of variety, intricacy and complication, with fuch a noble perfpicuity, 
 fuch a ccnfent of parts fo uniting, as the painters exprefs it, into harmony, 
 and rifing gradually into fuch a wonderful whole, that, as Mr. Pope exprefies it. 
 
 * The author of the Divine Legation of Mofes. 
 
 it 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq ; j 9 
 
 it /hall always f and at the top of the fublime char artery to he gazed at by rea- 
 ders with an admiration of its perfection , and by writers with a defpair that it 
 ft: outd ever be emulated with fuccefs. There can be no manner of doubt but Ho- 
 mer, from the fecundity of his own fancy, enriched his poetry with many 
 noble deferiptions and beautiful epifodes which had never prefented themlelveft 
 to any of his predeceffors : but as the models of many pafiages are ftill extant 
 in the records of antiquity, it muft be allowed that he polfelied two forts of 
 invention ; one, primary and original, which could alTociate images never be- 
 fore combined ; the other, fecondary and fubordinate, which could find out for 
 tnofe ideas, which had been aflembled before, a new place, a new order, and 
 arrangement, with new embellifhments of the moft harmonious and exalted 
 language. From this obfervation arifes the true idea of Invention; and 
 whether a poet is hurried away into the defeription of a fictitious battle, or a 
 grand council of gods or men, or employs hirnfelf in giving poetic colourings 
 to a real fyftem of Myferies , (as Virgil has done in the fixth fEneid) there is 
 invention in both cafes ; and though the former may aftonifh more, the latter will 
 always have its rational admirers, and from fuch a commentary as the Bifhop 
 of Gloucefter’s, inflead of lofing from its influence, will appear with a truer and 
 more venerable fublime, than when it was confidercd as the mere vifionary 
 fcheme of a poetic imagination. Thus then we fee the two provinces of In- 
 vention ; at one time it is employed in opening a new vein of thought ; at an- 
 other, in placing ideas, that have been pre-occupied, in a new light, and lend- 
 ing them the advantages of novelty by the force of a fublimer diction, or the 
 turn of delicate compofition. There is a poetic touch that changes whatever it 
 lights upon to gold ; and furely he who calls forth from any objeCt in nature, 
 or any image of the mind, appearances that have not been obferved before, is 
 the Inventor, the Maker of thofe additional beauties. There is reafon to be- 
 lieve, that of what we have called Primary, or Original Invention, there 
 has not been fo much in any one poet (not even excepting Homer) as has been - 
 generally imagined ; and indeed, from the many fine deferiptions in the Iliad and 
 the Odyfley, which can fairly be proved to be copies, but the copies of a mafter- 
 poet, there feems room to think, that of the fecond fort he held a very confiderable 
 portion. Norfhould this remark be thought derogatory from the high character 
 of the bard, becaufe it only tends to fhew that he availed hirnfelf of all the 
 knowledge, religion, and mythology, that in his time were fcattered over the. 
 different regions of Afia and Greece. What is here alferted concerning Homer, 
 may alfo with truth be aflerted of Mr. Pope. Determining to acquire the ex- 
 alted character of a poet, he enriched his mind with all the knowledge that 
 fublifted in his time ; all that could be furniflied by the valuable remains of an- 
 tiquity, all the improvements in fcience which modern application has brought 
 to light, the pure morality and fublime theology which revelation has de- 
 livered down to us, together with the various fyflems of philofophy, which 
 fpeculative men have formed ; and of all thefe he has made as noble an ufe as a 
 fine imagination could fuggeft. The fcheme of thought which introduces his 
 
 b 2 acquired 
 
20 
 
 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 •acquired ideas into any of his poems, was finely his own j theViRTUE and Vf.nus 
 of Order, which he has given to them, was his own; the apt allulion which 
 illuftrates, the metaphor which railes his language into dignity, the general 
 fplendor of his didtion, the harmony of his numbers, and in fhort, the poetic 
 turn of his pieces, were all his own ; and all thefe furely were the work of In- 
 vention. And as this Invention glows equally through all his poetry, it is 
 not eafy to conceive upon what principle it can be faid, that upon the liriglc 
 ftrength of the Rape of the Lock he will rank as a poet with pofterity. Can 
 it be faid that Invention folely coniifts in deferibing imaginary beings? or 
 that where there is not what the critics call a Fable, that is to fay, an unity of 
 adtion, with all the various perplexities and incidents which retard or accele- 
 rate the progrefs of that adtion, together with a proper degree of marvellous 
 machinery. Invention mull be proferibed, and declared to have no hand in 
 the work ? Even in this way of reafoning, the Dunciad will be an everlafting 
 inftance of Mr. Pope’s Invention,, and will, perhaps, conftitute him a poet in 
 a degree fuperior to the Rape of the Lock , however exquifite it be in its kind. 
 But thefe two pieces (if we except the latter part of the fourth Dunciad, which is 
 in its fubjedt important, and in its execution fublime) feem to be but the fpor- 
 tive exercife of the poet’s fancy ; or as he himfelf, talking of the Batrachomy- 
 omachia , has exprefted it, they are “ a beautiful raillery, in which a great writer 
 might delight to unbend himfelf ; an inftance of that agreeable trilling, which 
 *« generally accompanies the charadter of a rich imagination ; like a vein of 
 «* mercury running mingled with a mine of gold.” The Eflay on Man will 
 always ftand at the top of the fublime char after : a noble work indeed, where wc 
 find the thorny reafonings of philofophy blooming and fhooting forth into all the 
 flowers of poetry ; feret & rubus afper amomum ! To give to a fubjedt of this kind 
 fiich beautiful embellifhments, required, in Lord Shaftfbury’s language, a Mufe- 
 like apprehenfon ; and I cannot fee why the treating of effential truths in a poetic 
 manner fhould not be allowed as cogent an inftance of Invention, as the 
 ornamented difplay of an Egyptian theology. The Georgies would have gain- 
 ed Virgil the name of poet, though the JEneid had never been written ; and 
 Mr. Pope muft ever be considered by pofterity as a Christian Lucretius. 
 It was perhaps harder to give a poetic air and grace to the following ideas, 
 than to deferibe the imaginary beings of the Roficrucian philofophy, or the fa- 
 bulous deities of Greece. 
 
 Say what the ufe, were finer optics given ? 
 
 T’ infpedt a mite, not comprehend the heaven 1 
 The touch, if tremblingly alive all o’er. 
 
 To fmart and agonize at ev’ry pore ? 
 
 Or, quick effluvia darting thro’ the brain. 
 
 Die of a rofe in aromatic pain ? 
 
 If nature thunder’d in his op’ning ears. 
 
 And ftunn’d him with the mufick of the fpheres. 
 
 How 
 
21 
 
 Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq ; 
 
 How would he wiffi that heav’n had left him ftill 
 
 The whifp'ring Zephir, and the purling rill ? 
 
 An entire piece written in this true vein of poetry, requires as fine an imagina- 
 tion to give grace, elegance, and harmony to the compofition, as any other 
 fubjeCt whatever; and though fable, including various incidents, pafiions, and 
 characters, be wanting, yet he who forms a plan fuch as the nature of his 
 materials require, and in a barren field finds the moft beautiful flowers to 
 adorn his defign, can never in reafon be charged with a want of Invention. 
 The three great primary branches of compofition are finely united in the writings 
 of Pope ; the imagination is delighted, the pafiions are awakened, and reafon 
 receives conviction ; there is poetry to charm, rhetoric to perfuade, and ar- 
 gument to demonflrate : and perhaps i f Empedocles, whom Ariftotle pronounces a 
 phijiologifl, rather than a poet, had been thus excellent in the graces of ftile, 
 the great critic would have paffed upon him a lefs fevere fentence. 
 
 It may be obferved by the reader, that in purfuing the foregoing train of re- 
 flections, fight has been loft of Henry Fielding : but it never was intended, 
 in this little traCt, to obferve the rules of ftriCt biography. Befides, men of 
 genius, like the arts they praCtife, have a connection with each other, and are 
 in a manner linked together by certain ties of affinity : habent quoddam commune 
 vinculum , & quaji cognatione quadam inter fe continentur. Moreover, it was expe- 
 dient, for the true delineation of an eminent writer’s character, to remove 
 difficulties out of the way, and to explain the terms of art which critics make 
 ufe of. And thus having ffiewn the different provinces of Invention, we 
 may now arrive at a jufter idea of what is meant, when we talk of an author’s 
 Genius. 
 
 He may be truly faid to be a Genius, who poffeffes the leading faculties 
 of the mind in their vigour, and can exercife them with warmth and fpirit 
 upon whatever fubjeCt he chufes. The imagination (in order to form a writer 
 of eminence) mull:, in particular, be very quick and fufceptible, or, as a fine 
 poet has expreffed it, it mull be feelingly alive all o'er, that it may receive the 
 ftrongeft impreflions either from the objeCts of nature, the works of art, or 
 the actions and manners of men ; for it is in proportion as this power of the 
 mind is wrought upon, that the author feels in his own breaft thofe fine fen- 
 fations, which it is his bulinefs to impart to others, and that he is able to de- 
 fcribe things in fo lively a manner, as to make them, as it were, prefent to us, 
 and of confiequence to give what turn he pleafes to our affeCtions. The Judg- 
 ment alfo mull be clear and ftrong, that the proper parts of a ftory or de- 
 fcription may be feleCted, that the difpolition of the various members of a work 
 may be fuch, as to give a lucid order to the whole, and that fuch exprefiion 
 may be made ufe of as fhall not only ferve to convey the intended ideas, but 
 fhall convey them forcibly, and with that decorum of ftile which the art of 
 o - compofition _ 
 
22 
 
 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 compofition requires; fo that fimplicity Shall not be impoveriihed into mern- 
 nefs, nor dignity be incumbered with a load of finery, and afl’o&cd orna- 
 ment. Invention muft alfo concur, that new feenery may be opened to the 
 ' fancy, or at leaft that new lights may be thrown upon the profpcCts of nature ; 
 that the fphere of our ideas may be enlarged, or a new aSTemblagc may be 
 formed of them, either in the way of fable or illustration, fo that if the author 
 does not difclofe original traces of thinking, by prefenting to us objects unfeen ' 
 before, he may at leaft delight by the novelty of their combination, and the 
 points of view in which he offers them. The power of the mind, moreover, 
 which exerts itfelf in what Mr. Locke calls the aflociation of ideas, muft be 
 quick, vigorous, and warm, becaufe it is from thence that language receives its 
 animated figures, its bold translation of phrafes from one idea to another, the 
 Verbwn ardens , the glowing metaphorical exprefiion, which conftitutes the rich- 
 nefs and boldnefs of his imagery ; and from thence likewife fprings the readi- 
 nefs of ennobling a fentiment or defeription with the pomp of fublime compa- 
 nion, or Striking it deeper on the mind by the aptnefs of witty allufion. Per- 
 haps what we call genius, might be ftill more minutely analyfed ; but thefc 
 are its principal efficient qualities; and in proportion as thefe, or any of thefe, 
 iliall be found deficient in an author, fo many degrees Shall he be removed from 
 the firft rank and character of a writer. To bring thefe remarks home to the 
 late Mr. Fielding, an eftimate of him may be juftly formed, by enquiring how 
 i'ar thele various talents may be attributed to him ; or if he failed in any, what 
 that faculty was, and what difeount he muft Suffer for it. But tho’ it will ap- 
 pear, perhaps, that when he attained that period of life, in which his mind 
 was come to its full growth, he enjoyed every one of thefe qualifications, in 
 great Strength and vigour; yet in order to give the true character of his talents, 
 to mark the distinguishing fpecific qualities of his genius, we muft look into 
 the temper of the man, and fee what byafs it gave to his understanding ; for 
 when abilities are poffeifed in an eminent degree by feveral men, it is the pe- 
 culiarity of habit that muft diferiminate them from each other. 
 
 A love of imitation very foon prevailed in Mr. Fielding’s mind. By Imi- 
 tation the reader will not understand that illegitimate kind, which confifts in 
 mimicking Angularities of perfon, feature, voice or manner ; but that higher 
 fpecies of reprefentation, which delights in juft and faithful copies of human 
 life. So early as when he was at Leyden, a propenfity this way began to exert 
 its emotions, and even made fome efforts towards a comedy in the Sketch of 
 Don Quixote in England. When he left that place, and fettled in London, 
 a variety of characters could not fail to attraCt his notice, and of courfe to 
 Strengthen his favourite inclination. It has been already obferved in this elfay, 
 that diftrefs and disappointments betrayed him into occalional fits of pecviSh- 
 nefs, and fatyric humour. The eagernefs of creditors, and the fallacy of dil- 
 feinbling friends, would for a while Sower his temper ; his feelings were acute, 
 and naturally fixed his attention to thofe objeCts from whence his unCafinefs 
 
 Sprung ; 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 2^ 
 
 fprung; of courfc he became, very early in life, an obferver of men and man- 
 ners. Shrewd and piercing in his dilcernment, he faw the latent fources of hu- 
 man adtions, and he could trace the various incongruities of condudt ariiing 
 from them. As the ftudy of man is delightful in itfclf, affording a variety of 
 difeoveries, and particularly interefting to the heart, it is no wonder that he 
 fhould feel delight from it ; and what v/e delight in foon grows into an habit. 
 The various ruling paffions of men, their foibles, their oddities, and their hu- 
 mours, engaged his attention; and from thefe principles he loved to account 
 for the confequences which appeared in their behaviour. The inconfiftencies 
 that flow from vanity, from affectation, from hypocrify, from pretended friend- 
 fhip, and in fliort, all the diflonant qualities, which are often whimfically blend- 
 ed together by the folly of men, could not fail to ftrike a perfon who had fo 
 fine afenfe of ridicule. A quick perception in this way, perhaps, affords as much 
 real pleafure as the exercife of any other faculty of the mind ; and accordingly 
 we find that the ridiculous is predominant through all our author’s writings, and 
 he never feems fo happy, as when he is developing a character made up of 
 motley and repugnant properties, and thews you a man of fpecious pretences, 
 turning out in the end the very reverfe of what he would appear. To fearch 
 out and to deferibe objeCts of this kind, feems to have been the favourite bent 
 of Mr. Fielding’s mind, as indeedit was of Theophraftus, Moliere, and others; 
 like a vortex it drew in all his faculties,, which were fo happily employed in 
 deferiptions of the manners, that upon the whole he muft be pronounced an 
 admirable Comic Genius. 
 
 When I call our author a Comic Genius, I would be underftood in the 
 largeft acceptation of the phrafe, implying humorous and pleafant imitation 
 of men and manners, whether it be in the way of fabulous narration, or dra- 
 matic compofition. In the former fpecies of writing, lay the excellence of Mr. 
 Fielding : but in dramatic imitation he muft be allowed to fall fhort of the 
 great mailers in that art; and how this hath happened to a Comic Genius, 
 to one eminently pofleifed of the talents requifite in the humorous provinces of 
 the drama, will appear at the firft bluih of the queflion fomething unaccount- 
 able. But feveral caufes concurred to produce this effieCt. In the firft place, 
 without a tinCture of delicacy running through an entire piece, and giving to 
 good fenfe an air of urbanity and politenefs, it appears to me that no comedy 
 will ever be of that kind, which Horace lays, will be particularly defired, and 
 feen, will be advertifed again. I know that the influence of a favourite per- 
 former may for a time uphold a middling production ; but when a Wilks leaves 
 the ftage, even a Sir Harry V/ildair will be thrown by negleCted. The idea of 
 delicacy in writing, I find fo well explained in an ingenious effay on that fubjeCt 
 now on the table before me, that I (hall tranferibe the paflage. “ Delicacy ,” 
 fays this polite author, “ is good fenfe ; but good fenfe refined - } which produces an 
 “ inviolable attachment to decorum , and fanblity as well as elegance oj manners , 
 with a clear difeernraent and warm ferfibility of whatever is pure , regular , 
 
 “ and 
 
 (< 
 
24 
 
 
 An ESSAY on the LIFE 
 
 and GENIUS 
 
 “ and polite ; and, at the fame time, an abhorrence of whatever is grofs, ruftic, or 
 “ impure ; of unnatural, effeminate , and overwrought ornaments of every kind. It is, 
 “ in fort , the graceful and the beautiful added to the juft and the good.” By {hatching 
 
 the grace here defined and defcribed, the late Colly Cibber has been able in a few 
 of his plays to vie with, and almoft outftrip, the greateft wits of this country; 
 and by not adverting to this embellilhment, this liberal air of exprefiion, if I 
 may fo call it, Mr. Fielding, with ftrong obfervation upon life, and excellent 
 difcernment of the humorous and the ridiculous, in Ihort, with a great Co- 
 mic Genius, has been rather unfuccefsful in Comedy. There feems to me 
 little or no room to doubt but that this want of refinement, which we here com- 
 plain of, was principally owing to the woundings which every frelh dil'appoint- 
 ment gave him, before he was yet well difciplined in the fchool of life, and 
 hackney’d in the ways of men ; for in a more advanced period, when he did not 
 write recentibus odiis, with his uneafinefs juft beginning to feller, but with a 
 calmer and more difpaflionate temper, we perceive him giving all the graces of 
 defcription to incidents and paflions, which in his youth he would have 
 dalhed out with a rougher hand. An ingenious writer *, to whom we have 
 already referred, has paffed a judgment upon Ben fonfon, which, though 
 Fielding did not attain the fame dramatic eminence, may be juftly applied to 
 him. “ His tafte for ridicule was ftrong, but indelicate, which made him 
 «* not over-curious in the choice of his topicks. Andlaftly, his Jlyle in piCtur- 
 “ ing his chambers, tho’ mafterly, was without that elegance of hand, which is 
 “ required to correct and allay the force of lo bold a colouring. Thus the byafs of 
 « his nature leading him to Plautus, rather than Terence, for his model, it is not 
 “ to be wondered that his wit is too frequently cauftic ; his raillery coarfe ; 
 ** and his humour exceftive.” Perhaps the afperity of Fielding s mufe was not a 
 little encouraged by the practice of two great wits, who had fallen into the 
 fame vein before him ; I mean Wycherley and Congreve , who were in general 
 painters of harfh features, attached more to fubjeCts of deformity than grace ; 
 whole drawings of women are ever a fort of Harlot s Progrefs, and whofe men 
 for the moft part lay violent hands upon deeds and fettlements, and generally 
 deferve informations in the king’s bench. Thefe two celebrated writers were not 
 fond of copying the amiable part of human life; they had not learned the fe- 
 cret of giving the lofter graces of compolition to their tablatuie, by contrafting 
 the fair and beautiful in characters and manners to the vicious and irregular, 
 and thereby rendering their pieces more exaCt imitations of nature. By mak- 
 ing Congreve his model, it is no wonder that our author contracted this vicious 
 turn, and became faulty in that part of his art, which the painters would call 
 Design. In his ftyle, he derived an error from the fame fource : he fometimes 
 forgot that humour and ridicule were the two principal ingredients of comedy ; 
 and, like his mafter, he frequently aimed at decorations of wit, which do not ap- 
 pear to make part of the ground, but feeni rather to be embroidered upon it. 
 It has been obferved •'j', that the plays of Congreve appear not to be legitimate co~ 
 
 * Mr. Hurd. t See the Adventurer. 
 
 medics, 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 25 
 
 medics, , but firings of repartees and /allies of wit, the mofi poignant and polite in- 
 deed, but unnatural and ill-placed. If we except the Old Batchelor, Forefight * 
 and Sir Sampfon Legend, there will hardly, perhaps, be found a character in 
 this lively writer exempt from this general cenfure. The frequent furprizes of 
 allufion, and the quicknefs and vivacity of thofe hidden turns, which abound 
 in Mr. Congreve, breaking out where you leaft expected them, as if a train of 
 wit had been laid all around, put one in mind of thofe fire-works in a water- 
 piece, which ufed formerly to be played off" at Cupers Gardens ; no fooner one 
 tube, charged with powder, raifed itfelf above the furface, and vented itfelf in, 
 various forms and evolutions of fire, but inftantly another and another was 
 lighted up ; and the pleafure of the fpeCtators arofe from feeing fecret artificial 
 mines blazing out of an element, in which fuch a machinery could not be ex- 
 pected. The fame kind of entertainment our author aimed at, too frequently* 
 in his comedies ; and as in this he bore a fimilitude to Wycherley and Congreve , 
 fo he alfo frequently refembled them in the indelicacy, and Sometimes the down- 
 right obfeenity of his raillery ; a vice introduced, or, at leaff, pampered by the 
 wits of Charles II. the dregs of it, till very lately, not being quite purged away. 
 There is another circumftance refpeCting the drama, in which Fielding s judg- 
 ment feems to have failed him : the Strength of his genius certainly lay in fa- 
 bulous narration, and he did not fufficiently confider that fome incidents of a 
 Story, which, when related, may be worked up into a deal of pleafantry and 
 humour, are apt, when thrown into action, to excite fenfations incompatible 
 with humour and ridicule. I will venture to fay, that if he had refolved to 
 Ihape the bufinefs and characters of his laft comedy (the Wedding Day) into the 
 form of a novel, there is not one Scene in the piece, which, in his hands, would 
 not have been very fufceptible of ornament : but as they are arranged at prefent 
 in dramatic order, there are few of them from which the tafte and good fenfe 
 of an audience ought not, with propriety, to revolt. When Virgil is prepar- 
 ing the cataflrophe of his Dido, the critics have never objected to him that 
 he deferibes the nurfe with a motherly and officious care tottering along the 
 apartments: 
 
 Ilia gradum Jludio celerabat anilu . ' 
 
 But woe to the tragic poet, that Should offer to prefent the fame circumftance 
 to the eye of an audience ! The Tom Jones of our author, and the Gil Bias of 
 Le Sage, ftill continue to yield univerfal delight to their refpeCtive readers but 
 two late attempts to dramatize them, if I may fo call it, have demonstrated that 
 the characters and incidents of thofe applauded performances, which, when 
 figured to us by the imagination only, are found fo agreeable and interesting, 
 lofe much of their comic force and beauty, when they are attempted to be re^ 
 alifed to us on the ftage. There are objeCts and parts of nature, which the 
 rules of compofition will allow to be deferibed, but not actually to be produced 
 on the fcene, becaufe they are attended with fome concomitant circumstances, 
 ^’ol. I. c which 
 
26 . An E S S A Y on the L I F E and GENIUS 
 
 which in the narrative are overlooked, but, when lhewn to view, prefs too 
 hardly on the mind, and become indelicate. 
 
 Segnius irritant amnios demiffa per aurem 
 
 §>uam qua funt oculis Jubjcth Jidehbus, £r qua 
 Jibi tradit Jpebiator. 
 
 To thete caufes of our author’s failure in the province of the drama, may 
 be added that fovereign contempt he always entertained for the underftandings 
 of the generality of mankind. It was in vain to tell him that a particular fccnc 
 was dangerous on account of its coarfenefs, or becatife it retarded the general 
 bufmefs with feeble efforts of wit ; he doubted the difeernment of his auditors, 
 and fo thought himfelf fecuredby their ftupidity, if not by his own humour and 
 vivacity. A very remarkable inffanceof this dil'poiition appeared, when the co- 
 medy of the Wedding Day was put into rehearfal. An aCtor, who was princi- 
 pally concerned in the piece, and, though young, was then, by the advantage ol 
 happy requifites, an early favourite of the public, told Mr. Fielding he was ap- 
 p rehen five that the audience would make free with him in a particular paflage ; 
 adding, that a repulfe might fo flurry his fpiritsas to difconcert him for the reft 
 of the night, and therefore begged that it might be omitted. “ No, d-mn 
 “ ’em," replied the bard, “ if the fccne is not a good one, let them find that 
 “ out.” Accordingly the play was brought on without alteration, and, juft as 
 had been forefeen, the difapprobation of the houfe was provoked at the paflage 
 before objected to; and the performer, alarmed and uneafy at the hifles he had 
 met with, retired into the green-room, where the author was indulging his 
 genius, and folacing himfelf with a bottle of champain. He had by this time 
 drank pretty plentifully; and cocking his eye at the aCtor, while ftieams of 
 tobacco trickled down from the corner of his mouth, “ What's the matter , 
 Garrick ? fays he, what are they biffing now? Why the fee ne that I begged you 
 to retrench ; I knew it would not do, and they have fo frightened me, that I 
 fliall not be able to colleCt myfelf again the whole night. Oh ! d—mn 'em , re- 
 plies the author, they have found it out ; have they ?” — 
 
 If we add to the foregoing remarks an oblervation of his own, namely, that 
 he left off writing for the ftage, when he ought to have begun ; and together 
 with this conflder his extreme hurry and difpatch, we (hall be able fully to 
 account for his not bearing a more diftinguifhed place in the rank of dramatic 
 writers. It is apparent, that in the frame and conftitution of his genius there 
 was no defeCt, but fome faculty or other was fuffered to lie dormant, and the reft 
 of courfe were exerted with lefs efficacy : at onetime we fee his wit fupercedmg 
 all his other talents ; at another his invention runs riot, and multiplies incidents 
 and characters in a manner repugnant to all the received laws of the drama. 
 Generally his judgment was very little confulted. And indeed, how could it be 
 ©therwife ? When he had contracted to bring on a play, or a farce, it is well 
 
 1 known 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 27 
 
 known by many of his friends now living, that he would go home rather late from 
 a tavern/and would, the next morning, deliver a fcene to the players written upon 
 the papers, which had wrapped the tobacco, in which he fo much delighted. 
 
 Notwithstanding the inaccuracies, which have arifen from this me- 
 thod of proceeding, there is not a play in the whole collection which is not 
 remarkable for fomc degree of merit very ftriking in its kind ; in general, there 
 prevails a fine idea of character ; occafionallv, we lee the true comic both of fi- 
 xation and fentiment ; and always, we find a ftrong knowledge of life, deliver- 
 ed indeed with a cauftic wit, but often zefted with fine infufions of the ridicu- 
 lous : fo that, upon the whole, the plays and farces of our author are well wor- 
 thy of a place in this general edition of his works ; and the reader, who perules 
 them attentively, will not only carry away with him many ufeful difcoveries of 
 the foibles, affectations, and humours of mankind, but will alfo agree with me 
 that inferior productions are now fuccefsful upon the Rage. 
 
 As it was the lot of Henry Fielding to write always with a view to profit, it 
 cannot but mortify a benevolent mind to perceive, from our author’s own ac- 
 count (for he is generally honefi enough to tell the reception his pieces met with) 
 that he derived but fmall aids towards his fubfiftence from the treaiurer of the play- 
 houfe. One of his farces he has printed as it was damned at the theatre royal in 
 Drury-lane; and that he might be more generous to his enemies than they were willing 
 to be to him , he informs them, in thegeneral preface to hisMifcellanies, that for the 
 Wedding Day , though aCted fix nights, his profits from the houfe did not exceed 
 fifty pounds. A fate not much better attended him in his earlier productions ; but 
 the feverity of the public, and the malice of his enemies met with a noble alleviation 
 from the patronage of the late Duke of Richmond, John Duke of Argyle, the late 
 Duke of lloxborough,and manyperfonsof diRinguiflied rank and character; among 
 whom may be numbered the prefent Lord Lyttelton, whofe friendlhip to our 
 author foftened the rigour of his misfortunes, while he lived, and exerted itfelf 
 towards his memory, when he was no more, by taking pains to clear up impu- 
 tations of a particular kind, which had been thrown out againR his character. 
 
 Mr. Fielding had not been long a writer for the Rage, when he married 
 Mifs Craddock, a beauty from Salilbury. About that time his mother dying, 
 a moderate efiate at Stower in Dorfetfliire 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 intemperancies to which he had addicted himl'elf in the career 
 of a town-life. But unfortunately a kind of family-pride here gained an af- 
 cendant over him, and he began immediately to vie in iplendor with the neigh- 
 bouring country fiquires. With an eltate not much above two hundred pounds 
 a-year, and his wife’s fortune, which did not exceed fifteen hundred pounds, 
 he encumbered himfelf with a large retinue of fervants all clad in cofily yellow 
 liveries. For their mailer’s honour, thefe people could not delccnd fo low as to 
 
 c 2 be 
 
28 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 be careful in their apparel, hut in a month or two were unfit to be fecn ; the 
 Iquirc’s dignity required that they fhould be new-equipped *, and his chid plcal'ure 
 confuting in lbciety and convivial mirth, hofpitality threw open his doors, and, 
 in lets than three years, entertainments, hounds and horfes entirely devoured a 
 little patrimony, which, had it been managed with ceconomy, might have fe- 
 cured to him a ftate of independence for the reft of his life ; and, with inde- 
 pendence, a thing ftill more valuable, a character free from thofc interpreta- 
 tions, which the feverity of mankind generally puts upon the actions of a man, 
 whofe imprudencies have led him into difficulties : for when once it is the fa- 
 ftiion to condemn a character in thegrofs, few are willing to diftinguilh between 
 the impulfes of necefiity, and the inclinations of the heart. Senfible of the dis- 
 agreeable fituation he had now reduced himfelf to, our author immediately de- 
 termined to exert his belt endeavours to recover, what he had wantonly thrown 
 away, a decent competence j and being then about thirty years of age, lie betook 
 himfelf to the ftudy of the law. The friendships he met with in the courfc of 
 his ftudies, and indeed through the remainder of his life, from the gentlemen of 
 that profeftion in general, and particularly from fome, who have fince rifen to 
 be the firft 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 ; 
 and though it happened that the early tafte he had taken of pleafure would oc- 
 cafionally return upon him, and confpire with his fpirits and vivacity to carry 
 him into the wild enjoyments of the town, yet it was particular in him that amidft 
 all his diffipations nothing could fupprefs the thirft he had for knowledge, and 
 the delight he felt in reading ; and this prevailed in him to fuch a degree, that he 
 has been frequently known by his intimates, to retire late at night from a tavern 
 to his chambers, and there read, and make extra&s from the moll abftrufe au- 
 thors, for feveral hours before he went to bed ; fo powerful were the vigour of 
 his conflitution and the activity of his mind. A parody on what Paterculus 
 fays of Scipio might juftly be applied to Henry Fielding : always over a focial 
 bottle or a book, he enured his body to the dangers of intemperance, and ex- 
 ercifed his mind with ftudies : femperque inter arma ac Jludia verfatus , aut cor- 
 pus periculis, aut animum difeiplinis exercuit. After the cuftomary time of pro- 
 bation at the Temple, he was called to the bar, and was allowed to have car- 
 ried with him to Weftminfter Hall no incompetent (hare of learning. He at- 
 tended with punctual afliduity both in term-time and on the Weftern circuit, as 
 long as his health permitted him; but the gout foon began to make fuch af- 
 faults upon him, as rendered it impoftible for him to be as conftant at the bar 
 as the laborioufnefs 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 himfelf at once difabled from 
 ever riling to the eminence he alpired to. However, under the feverities of pain 
 and want, he ftill purfued his refearches with an eagernefs 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 
 
Of H E N R Y FIELDING, Efq; 29 
 
 acquired a refpettablc fhare of jurifprudence, and in fome particular branches he 
 is laid to have arifen to a great degree of eminence, more efpecially in crown- 
 law, as may be judged from his leaving two volumes in folio upon that fubjedt. 
 This work ftill remains unpublifhed in the hands of his brother, Sir John 
 Fielding ; and by him I am informed that it is deemed perfect in fome parts. It 
 w iH ferve to give us an idea of the great force and vigour of his mind, if we con- 
 lider him purluing fo arduous aftudy under the exigencies of family-diftrefs, with 
 a w 7 ife and children, whom he tenderly loved, looking up to hrm for fubfift- 
 ence, with a body lacerated by the acuteft pains, and with a mind diftradted by 
 a thoufand avocations, and obliged for immediate fupply to produce almoft ex- 
 tempore a play, a farce, a pamphlet, or a news-paper. A large number of fu- 
 gitive political tradls, 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 ; and tho’ hiseflaysin 
 that collection cannot now be fo afcertained, as to perpetuate them in this edition 
 of his works, yet the reputation ariling to him at the time of publication was 
 not inconliderable. It does not appear that he ever wrote much poetry : with 
 fuch talents as he polfelfed, it cannot be fuppofed that he was unqualified to ac- 
 quit himfelf handfomely in that art ; but corredt verification 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 produdtions 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 this edition, which is intended to 
 confift entirely of pieces more highly finilhed than works of mere amufement 
 generally are, his verfes are all difcarded : but as a fpecimen of his ability in this 
 way, it is judged proper to preferve, in this Efiay on his Life and Genius, one 
 fhort piece, which the reader will not find unentertaining. 
 
 An EPISTLE 
 
 To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, 
 
 TT 7 HILE at the helm of Hate you ride, 
 
 * ' Our nation’s envy and its pride ; 
 
 While foreign courts with wonder gaze. 
 
 And curfe thofe councils, which they praile •, 
 
 Would you not wonder. Sir, to view 
 Your bard a greater man than you ? 
 
 Which that he is, you cannot doubt. 
 
 When you have read the fequel out. 
 
 You 
 
An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 . You know, great Sir, that ancient fellows, 
 Philofophers, and fuch folks, tell us, 
 
 No great analogy between 
 Greatnefs and happinefs is feen. 
 
 If then, as it might follow ftreight. 
 
 Wretched to be, is to be great ; 
 
 Forbid it, Gods, that you fhould try 
 What 'tis to be fo great as I. 
 
 The family that dines the lateft, 
 
 Is in our ftreet efteem’d the greateft ; 
 
 But lateft hours muft furely fall 
 ’Fore him, who never dines at all. 
 
 Your tafte in architect, you know, 
 
 Hath been admir’d by friend and foe ; 
 
 But can your earthly domes compare 
 With all my caftles — in the air ? 
 
 We're often taught, it doth behove us 
 To think thofe greater, who’ re above us; 
 
 Another inftance of my glory. 
 
 Who live above you, twice two ftory ; 
 
 And from my garret can look down 
 On the whole ltreet of Arlington *. 
 
 Greatness by poets ftill is painted 
 With many followers acquainted : 
 
 This too doth in my favour fpeak ; 
 
 Tour levee is but twice a week ; 
 
 From mine I can exclude but one day. 
 
 My door is quiet on a Sunday. 
 
 Nor in the manner of attendance 
 Doth your great bard claim lefs afcendance ; 
 
 Familiar you to admiration 
 May be approach’d by all the nation ; 
 
 While I, like the Mogul in Indo, 
 
 Am never feen but at my window. 
 
 If with my greatnefs you’re offended. 
 
 The fault is eafily amended ; 
 
 For I’ll come down with wondrous eafe. 
 
 Into whatever place you pleale. 
 
 * Where Sir Robert lived. 
 
3 * 
 
 Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 
 
 I’m not ambitious ; little matters 
 Will ferve us great, but humble creatures. 
 
 Suppofe a Secretary o’ this ifle 
 [ud to be doing with a while ; 
 
 Admiral, gen’ral, judge, or bidiop : 
 
 Or I can foreign treaties difli up. 
 
 If the good genius of the nation 
 ■* Should call me to negociation, 
 
 T ufcan and French are in my head, 
 
 Latin I write, and Greek — I read. 
 
 If you fhould afk, what pleafes bed ? 
 
 To get the mod, and do the lead. 
 
 What fitted for ? — You know. I’m fure. 
 
 I’m fitted for a Jine-cure. 
 
 This piece, it appears, was written in the year 1730, and it fhews at once our 
 author’s early acquaintance with didrefs, and the firmnefs of mind, which he 
 fupported under it. Of his other works (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 fpoken of them himfelf in the diicourfe pre- 
 fixed to his Mifcellanies (which is not reprinted in the body of this edition) in 
 terms fo moded and fenfible that I am fure the reader will difpenie with any 
 other criticifm or analyfis of them. 
 
 “ The Eflay on Converfation,” fays Mr. Fielding, “ was defigned to ridicule 
 out of fociety, one of the mod pernicious evils which attends it, viz. pamper- 
 ing the grofs appetites of felfidinefs and ill-nature, with the diame and dis- 
 quietude of others ; whereas true good-breeding confids in contributing to the 
 fatisfadtion and happinefs of all about us.” 
 
 © 
 
 “ The Efiay on the Knowledge of the Ghar afters of Men expofes a fecond great 
 evil, namely hypocrify ; the bane of all virtue, morality and goodnefs ; and may 
 lerveto arm the honed, undefigning, open-hearted man, who is generally the 
 prey of this monder, againd it.” 
 
 The Journey from this World to the Next, it fliould feem, provoked the dull, 
 Ihort-fighted, and malignant enemies of our author to charge him with an in- 
 tention to fubvert the fettled notions of mankind in philofophy and religion : 
 for he adures us, in form, that he did not intend, in this allegorical piece, “ to 
 oppofe any prevailing fydem, or to eredt anew one of his own. With greater 
 judice,” he adds, “ that he might be arraigned of ignorance, for having, in the 
 “ relation which he has put into the mouth of Julian, whom they call the 
 “ Apodate, done many violences to hidory, and mixed truth and falfehood 
 
 <£ ,with 
 
3*. An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 “ with much freedom. But he profeffcd fidlion, and though he chofc fomc 
 “ fa^ts out of hidory, to embellHh his work, and fix a chronology to it, he 
 ** ^ as no *» however, confined himfelf to nice exadtnefs, having often ante- 
 " dated, and fometimes pod-dated the matter, which he found in the Spanifli 
 “ hidory, and tranfplanted into his work.” The reader will find a great deal 
 of true humour in many pafiages of this produdtion ; and the furprize with 
 which he has made Mr. Addifon hear of the Eleujiman Myjleries , in the fixtli 
 A^neid, is a well turned compliment to the learned author who has, with fo 
 much elegance and ability, traced out tile analogy between Virgil’s fydem and 
 thofe memorable rites. 
 
 With regard to the Hidorv of "Jonathan Wild , his defign, he tells us, was 
 not “ to enter the lids with tnat excellent hidorian, who, from authentic pa- 
 “ pers and records, &c. hath given fo fatisfadtory an account of this great man; 
 “ nor yet to contend with the memoirs of the ordinary of Newgate, which ge- 
 “ nerally contain a more particular relation of what the heroes are to fuffer in 
 ** the next world, than of what they did in this. The hidory of Jonathan 
 41 Wild is rather a narrative of fuch adtions, as he might have performed, or 
 *■* “ would, or fhould have performed, than what he really did ; and may in rea- 
 “ jity as well fuit any other fuch great man, as the perfon himfelf, whofe name 
 “ it bears. As it is not a very faithful portrait of Jonathan Wild ’, fo neither is 
 44 it intended to reprefent the features of any other perfon ; roguery, and 
 44 not a rogue, is the fubjedt ; fo that any particular application will be un- 
 “ fair in the reader, efpecially if he knows much of the great world, fince he 
 “ m «d then be acquainted with more than one, on whom he can fix the re- 
 44 femblance.” 
 
 Our author proceeds to give a further account of this work in a drain, which 
 rtiews, however converfant he might be in the charadlers of men, that he did not 
 fuffer a gloomy mifanthropy to take fuch poffeflion of him, as to make him en- 
 tertain depreciating ideas of mankind in general, without exceptions in favour 
 of a great part of the fpecies. Though the paffage be long, I fhall here trail feribe 
 it, as it will prove fubfervient to two purpofes : it will throw a proper light 
 upon the Hidory of Jonathan Wild y and it will do honour to Mr. Fielding’s fen- 
 timents. 44 I folemnly proted,” fays he, 44 that I do by no means intend, in the 
 “ charadter of my hero, to reprefent human nature in general. Such infinua- 
 44 tions mud be attended with very dreadful conclufions ; nor do I fee any other 
 44 tendency they can naturally have, but to, encourage and footh men in their 
 44 villanies, and to make every well-difpofed man difclaim his own fpecies, 
 44 and curfe the hour of his birth into fuch a fociety. For my part, I under- 
 “ dand thofe writers, who deferibe human nature in this depraved charadter, 
 44 as fpeaking only of fuch perfons as Wild and his gang ; and, 1 think, it may 
 ** be judly inferred, that they do not find in their own bofoms any deviation 
 4i from the general rule. Indeed it would be an infufferable vanity in them 
 
 “ to 
 
Of H E N R Y FIELDING, Efq; 33 
 
 “ to conceive themfelves as the only exception to it. Bui without confulering 
 “ Newgate as no other than human nature with its maflt off, which fome very 
 “ fhamelefs writers have done, I think we may be excufed for fufpedting, that 
 “ the fplendid palaces of the great are often no other than Newgate with the 
 “ mafk on ; nor do I know any thing which can raife an honeft man’s indig- 
 “ nation higher, than that the fame morals fhould be in one place attended 
 “ with all imaginable mifery and infamy, and in the other, with the higheft 
 “ luxury and honour. Let any impartial man in his fenfes be afked, for which 
 “ of thefe two places a compofition of cruelty, luft, avarice, rapine, infolence, 
 “ hypocrify, fraud and treachery, is beft fitted ? Surely his anfwer mud be cer- 
 “ tain and immediate ; and yet I am afraid all thefe ingredients, gloffed over 
 “ with wealth and a title, have been treated with the higheft refpedt and ve- 
 “ neration in the one, while one or two of them have been condemned to the 
 “ gallows in the other. If there are then any men of fuch morals, who dare call 
 “ themfelves great, and are fo reputed, or called at leaft, by the deceived mul- 
 “ titude, furely a little private cenfure by the few is a very moderate tax for 
 “ them to pay, provided no more was to be demanded : but however the glare of 
 “ riches and awe of title may dazzle and terrify the vulgar ; nay, however hy- 
 “ pocrify may deceive the more difeerning, there is ftill a judge in every man’s 
 “ breaft, which none can cheat or corrupt, tho’ perhaps it is the only uncor- 
 “ rupt thing about him. And yet, inflexible and honeft as this judge is (how- 
 “ ever polluted the bench be on which he fits) no man can, in my opinion, en- 
 “ joy any applaule, which is not adjudged to be his due. Nothing feems to 
 “ me more prepofterous than that, while the way to true honour lies fo open 
 “ and plain, men fhould feek falfe by fuch perverfe and ruggedpaths; that 
 “ while it is fo eafy and fafe, and truly honourable to be good, men fhould 
 “ wade through difficulty and danger, and real infamy, to be greats or to ufe 
 “ a fynonimous word, villains. Nor hath goodnefs lefs advantage in the article 
 “ of pleafure, than of honour, over this kind of greatnefs. The fame righteous 
 “ judge always annexes a bitter anxiety to the purchafes of guilt, whilft it adds 
 “ double dweetnefs to the enjoyments of innocence and virtue ; for fear, which, 
 “ all the wife agree, is the moft wretched of human evils, is, in fome degree, 
 v always attending the former, and never can in any manner moleft the happi- 
 “ nefs of the latter. This is the dodtrine, which I have endeavoured to incul- 
 M cate in this hiftory, confining myfelf at the fame time within the rules of 
 *- probability : for, except in one chapter, which is meant as a burlefque on 
 “ the extravagant accounts of travellers, I believe I have not exceeded it. And 
 though perhaps it fometimes happens, contrary to the inftances I have given, 
 that the villain fucceeds in his purfuit, and acquires fome tranfitory imper- 
 “ fedt honour or pleafure to himfelf for his iniquity ; yet, I believe, he oftener 
 fh ares the fate of Jonathan Wild , and fuffers the punifhment, without ob- 
 “ taining the reward. As I believe it is not eafy to teach a more ufeful leflon 
 “ than this, if I have been able to add the pleafant to it, I might flatter my- 
 felf with having carried every point. But, perhaps, fome apology may be 
 Vol. I. d “ required 
 
An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 3 + 
 
 “ required of me, for having ufed the word greatnefs , to which the world 
 «« have annexed fuch honourable ideas, in fo difgraceful and contemptuous a 
 •* light. Now if the fad: be, that the greatnefs which is commonly worfliip- 
 ped, is really of that kind which I have here reprefented, the fault feems 
 «« rather to lie in thofe who have aferibed to it thofc honours, to which it hath 
 “ not in reality the leaf: claim. The truth, I apprehend, is, we often con- 
 *< found the ideas of goodnefs and greatnefs together, or rather include the 
 «« former in our idea of the latter. If this be fo, it is furely a great error, and 
 “ no lefs than a miftake of the capacity for the will. In reality, no qualities can 
 «« be more diftind : for as it cannot be doubted but that benevolence, honour, 
 «« honelty, and charity, make a good man ; and that parts and courage arc the 
 « efficient qualities of a great man ; fo it muft be confefled, that the ingredients 
 « which compofe the former of thefe charaders bear no analogy to, nor depend- 
 « ence on thofe, which conftitute the latter. A man mdy therefore be great with- 
 *< out being good, or good without being great. However, though the one bear 
 «« no neceffary dependence on the other, neither is there any abfolute repugnancy 
 «« among them, which may totally prevent their union ; fo that they may, 
 “ though not of neceffity, aflemble in the fame mind, as they adually did, 
 “ and all in the higheft degree, in thofe of Socrates and Brutus ; and perhaps 
 « in fome among us. I at leaf!: know one, to whom nature could have added 
 «« no one great or good quality, more than (he hath bellowed on him. Here 
 «« then appear three diftind charaders ; the great, the good, and the great and 
 « good. The laft of thefe is the true fublime in human nature ; that eleva- 
 “ tion, by which the foul of man, raffing and extending itfelf above the order 
 « of this creation, and brightened with a certain ray of divinity, looks down 
 « on the condition of mortals. This is indeed a glorious objed, on which we 
 «* can never gaze with too much praife and admiration. A perfed work ! the 
 ** Iliad of nature ! raviffiing, and aftoniffiing, and which at once fills us with 
 «< love, with wonder, and delight. The fecond falls greatly ffiort of thisperfedion, 
 «« and yet hath its merit. Our wonder ceafes ; our delight is leffened ; but our 
 «* love remains; of which paffion goodnefs hath always appeared to me the 
 “ only true and proper objed. On this head, it may be proper to obferve, 
 “ that I do not conceive my good man to be abfolutely a fool or a coward ; but 
 “ that he often partakes too little of parts or courage to have any pretenfion to 
 *« greatnefs. Now as to that greatnefs, which is totally devoid of goodnefs, 
 “ it feems to me in nature to refemble the falfe fublime in poetry, where bom- 
 “ baft is, by the ignorant and ill-judging vulgar, often miftaken for folid wit 
 “ and eloquence, whilft it is in effed the very reverfe. Thus pride, oftenta- 
 “ tion, infolence, cruelty, and every kind of villany, are often conftrued into 
 “ true greatnefs of mind, in which we always include an idea of goodnefs. 
 (t This bombaft greatnefs then is the charader I intend to expofe j and the more 
 ** this prevails in and deceives the world, taking to itfelf not only riches and 
 k pov/er, but often honour, or at lead: the fhadow of it, the more neceflary it is 
 “ to ftrip the mo^er of thefe falfe colours, and Ihew it in its native defor- 
 
 “ mity $ 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq ; 35 
 
 " mity ; for by fuffcring vice to poflefs the reward of virtue, we do a double 
 “ injury to fociety, by encouraging the former, and taking away the chief in- 
 “ centivc to the latter. Nay, though it is, I believe, impoffible to give vice 
 “ a true relifh of honour and glory, or though we give it riches and power, to 
 “ give it the enjoyment of them ; yet it contaminates the food it cannot tafle, 
 “ and fullies the robe, which neither fits nor becomes it, till virtue dil'dains 
 “ them both.” 
 
 Thus hath our author developed the defign/ with which he wrote the hifiory 
 of Jonathan Wild ; a noble purpofe furely, and of the highefl importance tofocietv. 
 A fatire like this, which at once ftrips off the fpurious ornaments of hypocrify, 
 and (hews the genuine beauty of the moral character, will be always worthy of 
 the attention ol the reader, who delires to rife wifer or better from the book 
 he perufes ; not to mention that this performance hath in many places fuch fea- 
 fonings of humour, that it cannot fail to be a very high entertainment to all, 
 who have a tafte for exhibitions of the abiurd and ridiculous in human life. But 
 though the merit of the Life of Jonathan Wild be very confiderable, yet it mull 
 be allowed to be very fhort of that higher order of compofition which our au- 
 thor attained in his other pieces of invention. Hitherto he feems but prelud- 
 ing, 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 imagi- 
 nation was to flrike us by the mofl lively and juft colouring, his wit to enliven 
 by the happieft allufions, his invention to enrich with the greateft 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 re- 
 markable periods; one, when his genius broke forth at once with an effulgence 
 lupeiior to all the rays of light it had before emitted, like the fun in his morn- 
 ing glory, without the ardor and the blaze which afterwards attend him ; the 
 fecond, when it was difplayed with colledled force, and a fullnefs of perfedlion, 
 like the fun in meridian majefly, with all his higheil warmth and fplendor • 
 and the third, when the fame genius, grown more cool and temperate, ftill con- 
 tinued to cheer and enliven, but fhewed at the fame time thgit it was tendin'* to 
 its decline, like the fame fun, abating from his ardor, but fill <nlding & the 
 weftern- hemifphere. 6 
 
 To thefe three epochas of our author’s genius, the reader will be before-hand 
 w;th me in obferving that there is an exadl correfpondency in the Jofeph An- 
 drews, Tom JoneSy and Amelia. Jofeph Andrews, as the preface to the work 
 mfoims us, was intended for an imitation of the (file and manner of Cervantes : 
 and how defghtfully he has copied the humour, the gravity, and the fine ridi- 
 
 ^ 2 cule 
 
An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 cole of his matter, they can witnefs who are acquainted with both writers. The 
 truth is, Fielding, in this performance, was employed in the very orovince for 
 which his talents were peculiarly and happily formed ; namely, the fabulous nar- 
 ration of fome imagined adtion, 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 attention, tne goodnefs of heart, and the zeal for virtue, which 
 come from him upon all occalions, attach us to Mr. Adams in the moft en- 
 dearing manner ; his excellent tafents, his erudition, and his real acquirements 
 of knowledge in clattical antiquity, and the facred writings, together with his 
 honetty, command our efteem and refpedt ; while his limplicity and innocence 
 in the ways of men provoke our fmiles by the contratt they bear to his real in- 
 tellectual character, and conduce to make him in the higheft manner the objedt 
 of mirth, without degrading him in our eftimation, by the many ridiculous 
 embaraflments to which they every now and then make 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 almott a rival of the renowned Don Quixote ; the adven- 
 tures he is led into, in confequence of this infirmity, afliiming fomething of the 
 romantic air which accompanies the knight errant, and the circumftances of 
 his forgetfulnefs tending as ttrongly to excite our laughter as the miftakes of 
 the Spanilh hero. I will venture to fay, that when Don Quixote miftakes 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 actually /napping his fingers and taking two or three turns 
 round the room in extacy , when introduced to a fcookfeller in order to make an 
 immediate bargain; and then immediately after, not being able to find thofefame 
 fermons, when he exclaims, “ I profefs, I believe I left them behind me.” There 
 are many touches in the condud of this character, which occafion the moft exquifite 
 merriment ; and I believe it will not be found too bold an aftertion, if we fay 
 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 extrava- 
 gance, but the latter has the fine lights and lhades of probability. 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 this pidture. Mr. Young was 
 remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with the Greek authors, and had as 
 paffionate a veneration for Mfchylus as Parfon Adams ; the overflowings of his 
 benevolence were as ftrong, and his fits of reverie were as frequent, and occur- 
 red too upon the moft interefting occalions. Of this laft obfervation, a lin- 
 gular 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 himlelf in his love of a 
 folitary walk ; and accordingly he /allied forth from his tent : the beauties of 
 
Of H E N R Y FIELDING, Efqj 37 
 
 the hemifphcie and the landfkip round him prefled 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 poflible that a paflage in his dearly beloved JEfchylus 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 pro^ 
 ceeded 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 himfelf by the 
 repetition of $ui va la , from the foldiers upon duty. The officer, who com- 
 manded, finding that he had Grayed 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. 
 Such was the gentleman from whom the idea of Parfon Adams was derived ; how 
 it is interwoven into the Hiftory of Jofeph Andrews, and how fuftained with un- 
 abating pleafantry to the concluiion, need not be mentioned here, as it is fufficient- 
 ly 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, produced by the 
 Englifh writers, which will always continue in requeft. But ftill it is but the 
 rife of our author’s genius. The hint, it feems, was fuggefted to him by 
 the fuccefs of the late Mr. Ricbardforis hiftory of Pamela Andrews : Jofeph is 
 here reprefented as her brother, and he boafts the fame virtue and continency 
 which are the charaCteriftics of his fifter. In the plan of the work, Mr. Field- 
 ing did not form to himfelf a circle wide enough for the abundance of his ima- 
 gination ; the main aClion was too trivial and unimportant to admit of the va- 
 riety of characters and events which the reader 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 fhare of 
 fuccefs. The law from this time had its hot and cold fits with him; he pur- 
 fued it by ftarts, and after rrcquent intermiflions, which are ever fatal in this 
 profeffion, in which whoever is lituated, is, for. a long time, in the condition of 
 the boatman defcribed in the Georgies, working his vvay againft the ftream ; and 
 if he fhoula by chance remit from his labour, he is rapidly carried back, and 
 lofes from the progrefs he had made. 
 
 -Ji bracchia forte remift , 
 
 Atque ilium in praceps prono rapit alveus amnt . 
 
 2 
 
 Thefe 
 
3 8 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 Thefe occasional relaxations of induilry Mr. Fielding felt, and he alio felt the in - 
 conveniencies of them; which was the more fevere upon him, as voluntary and 
 wilful negledt could not be charged upon him. The repeated lhocks of illncls 
 difabled him from being as affiduous an attendant at the bar, as his own incli- 
 nation, and patience of the mod laborious application, would otherwile have 
 made him. BeSides the demands for expence, which his valetudinarian habit 
 of body conftantly made upon him, he had likewise a family to maintain ; 
 from bufinefs he derived little or no fupplies, and his profpedts therefore grew 
 every day more gloomy and melancholy. To thele difeouraging circumftanccs, 
 if we add the infirmity of his wife, whom he loved tenderly, and the agonies lie 
 felt on her account, the mcafure of his afflictions will be well nigh full. To fee 
 her daily languishing and wearing away before Ins eyes, was too much fora man 
 of his Strong fenfations ; the fortitude of mind, with which he met all the 
 other calamities of life, delerted 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 
 firit emotions of his forrow were abated, philofophy administered her aid ; his 
 refolution returned, and he began again to Struggle with his fortune. He en- 
 ^ gaged in two periodical papers fucceSfively, with a laudable and fpirited delign 
 "of rendering fcrvice to his country. The firit of thefe was called the True Pa- 
 triot, which was let on foot during the late rebellion, and was conducive to 
 the excitement of loyalty, and a love for the constitution in the breaSts 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 deli- 
 cate vein of wit and raillery : but it may be pronounced with fafety, 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 inconsiderable figure in the political compofitions of an Addifon, or a 
 Swift. The Jacobite Journal was calculated to diferedit the Shattered remains 
 of an unfuccefsful party, and by a well-applied raillery and ridicule to bring 
 the fentiments of the difaffedted into contempt, and thereby efface them not 
 only from the converfation, but the minds of men. How excellently he fuc- 
 ceeded in this defign, may be felt by the reader, if he will be at the fmall 
 trouble of turning over the leaves, which clofe the fecond volume of this edition. 
 
 Our author by this time attained the age of forty-three; and being incef- 
 fantly purfued by reiterated attacks of the gout, he was wholly rendered inca- 
 pable of purfuing the bufinefs of a barrister any longer. He was obliged there- 
 fore to accept an office, which feldom fails of being hateful to the populace, 
 and of courfe liable to many injurious imputations, namely, an adting magistrate 
 in the commiffion of the peace for MiddleJ'ex. That he was not inattentive to 
 the calls of his duty, and that, on the contrary, he laboured to be an ufeful 
 
 citizen. 
 
Of H E N R Y FIELDING, Efq; 39 
 
 citizen, is evident from the many tra&s he publifhed, relating tofeveral of the penal 
 laws, and to the vices and mal-pra&ices which thofe laws were intended f 
 retrain. Under this head will be found feveral valuable pieces; particularly a 
 Charge to the grand jury, delivered at Weftminfter on the 29th of June, 1749. 
 In this little work the hi (lory of grand juries from their origin, and the wife 
 intention of them for the cognizance of abufe, and the fafety of the fubjedt, are 
 thought to be traced with no fmall fkill and accuracy. The pamphlet on the 
 Encreafe and Caufe of Robberies , has been held in high eftimation by fome emi- 
 nent perfons who have adminiftered juftice in Weflminfter Hall, and ftill con- 
 tinue to ferve their country in a legiflative capacity. It has been already ob- 
 ferved, that he left behind him two volumes of Crown Law; and it will not be 
 improper to mention in this place a pamphlet, intitled, A Propofal for the 
 Maintainance of the Poor ; which, though it is not reprinted in this collection, 
 not being deemed of a colour with works of invention and genius, yet it does 
 honour to our author as a magiftrate, as it could not be produced without intenfe 
 application, and an ardent zeal for the fervice of the community. 
 
 Amidst tfiefe fevere exercifes of his underftanding, and all the laborious 
 duties of his office, his invention could not lie ftill ; but he found leifure to 
 amufe himfelf, and afterwards the world, with the Hiltory of Tom Jones. And 
 now we are arrived at the lecond grand epoch of Mr. Fielding’s genius, when 
 all his faculties were in perfedl unifon, and confnired to produce a complete work. 
 If we conlider Tom Jones in the fame light in which the ableft critics have 
 examined the Hind, the /Eneid , and the Paradife Loft , namely, with a view to 
 the fable, the manners, the fentiments, and the ftile, we fhall find it ftanding 
 the teft of the fevereft criticifm, and indeed bearing away the envied praife 
 of a complete performance. In the firft place, the adtion has that unity, 
 which is the boaft of the great models of compofition ; it turns upon a fingle 
 event, attended with many circumftances, and many fubordinate incidents, 
 which leem, in the progrefs of the work, to perplex, to entangle, and to involve 
 the whole in difficulties, and lead on the reader’s imagination, with an eager- 
 nefs of curiofity, through fcenes of prodigious variety, till at length the different 
 intricacies and complications of the fable are explained after the fame gradual 
 manner in which they had been worked up to a crifis : incident arifes out of 
 incident; the feeds of every thing that flioots up, are laid with a judicious 
 hand, and whatever occurs in the latter part of the ftory, feems naturally to 
 grow out of thofe paffages which preceded; l'o that, upon the whole, the 
 bufinefs with great propriety and probability works itfelf up into various em- 
 barafirnents, and then afterwards, by a regular feries of events, clears itfelf 
 from all impediments, and brings itfelf inevitably to a conclufion ; like a river, 
 which, in its progrefs, foams amongft fragments of rocks, and for a while feems 
 pent up by unfurmountable oppofitions ; then angrily daffies for a while, then 
 pltinges under ground into caverns, and runs a fubterraneous courfe, till at 
 length it breaks out again, meanders round the country, and with a clear pla- 
 cid 
 
4 0 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 cid ftream flows gently into the ocean. By this artful management, our author 
 has given us the perfection of fable ; which, as the writers upon the fubjeCt 
 have juftly obferved, confifts in fueh obftacles to retard the final ifluc of the 
 whole, as fhall at lead, in their confequcnces, accelerate the cataftrophc, and 
 bring it evidently and ncceffarily to that period only, which, in the nature ol 
 things, could arife from it; fo that the aCtion could not remain in lufpenfe 
 any longer, but muft naturally clofe and determine itfelf. It mav be proper 
 to add, that no fable whatever affords, in its folution, fueh artful dates of ful- 
 pence, fueh beautiful turns of furprife, fueh unexpected incidents, and fueh 
 fudden difeoveries, fometimes apparently embarrafllng, but always promifing 
 the cataftrophe, and eventually promoting the completion of the whole. V ida, 
 the celebrated critic of Italy, has tranfmitted down to us, in his Art of Poetry, 
 a very beautiful idea of a well-concerted fable, when he reprefents the reader of 
 it in the fituation of a traveller to a diftant town, who, when he perceives but a 
 faint fhadowy glimmering of its walls, its fpires, and its edifices, purfues his jour- 
 ney with more alacrity than when he cannot fee any appearances to notify the 
 place to which he is tending, but is obliged to purfue a melancholy and for- 
 lorn road through a depth of vallies, without any objeCt to flatter or to raile 
 his expectation. 
 
 Haud aliter , longinqua petit qui fort) viator 
 Mania, fi pofitas alt is in collibus arces 
 Nunc etiam dubias oculis videt, incipit ultrb 
 Lcetior ire viam, placidumque tirgere laborem , 
 
 Quam cum nufquam ullce ccrnuntur quas adit arces , 
 
 Obfcurum fed iter tedit convallibus imis. 
 
 In the execution of this plan, thus regular and uniform, what a variety of 
 humorous feenes of life, of deferiptions, and characters has our author found 
 means to incorporate with the principal aCtion ; and this too, without diffract- 
 ing the reader’s attention with objeCts foreign to his fubjeCt, or weakening the 
 general intereft by a multiplicity of epifodical events ? Still obferving the grand 
 effential rule of unity in the defign, I believe, no author has introduced a greater 
 diverfity of characters, or difplayed them more fully, or in more various atti- 
 tudes. Allworthy is the moft amiable picture in the world of a man who does 
 honour to his fpecies : in his own heart he finds conftant propenfities to the moft 
 benevolent and generous aCtions, and his underftanding conducts him with dilcre- 
 tion in the performance of whatever his goodnefs luggefts to him. And though it 
 is apparent that the author laboured this portrait con amore , and meant to offer it 
 to mankind as a juft objeCt of imitation, he has foberly reftrained himfelf within 
 the bounds of probability, nay, it may be faid, of ftriCt truth; as in the gene- 
 ral opinion, he is fuppofed to have copied here the features of a worthy cha- 
 racter ftill in being. Nothing can be more entertaining than Western ; his 
 ruftic manners, his natural undifeiplined honefty, his half-enlightened undtr- 
 
 ftanding. 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efqj 41 
 
 Handing, with the felf-pleafing fhrewdncfs which accompanies it, and the biafs 
 of his mind to miftaken politicks, are all delineated with precifion and fine hu- 
 mour. The fillers of thofe two gentlemen are aptly introduced, and give rife- 
 to many agreeable feenes. Tom Jones will at all times be a fine lefion to young 
 men of good tendencies to virtue, who yet fuffer the impetuofity of their pal- 
 fions to hurry them away. Thackwum and Square are excellently oppofed to 
 each other ; the former is a well drawn picture of a divine , who is neglectful 
 of the moral part of his character, and often tat iou fly talks of religion and grace ; 
 the latter is a ftrong ridicule of thofe, who have high ideas of the dignity of 
 our nature, and of the native beauty of virtue, without owning any obligations 
 of conduCl from religion. But grace, without practical goodnefs, and the mo- 
 ral fitnefs of things, are (hewn, with a fine vein of ridicule, to be but weak prin- 
 ciples of aCtion. In fhort, all the characters down to Partridge, and even to a 
 maid or an hoftler at an inn, are drawn with truth and humour : and indeed 
 they abound fo much, and are fo often brought forward in a dramatic manner, 
 that every thing may be faid to be here in aCtion ; every thing has Manners ; 
 and the very manners which belong to it in human life. ' They look, they 
 aCt, they fpeak to our imaginations juft as they appear to us in the world. The 
 Sentiments which they utter, are peculiarly annexed to their habits, paf- 
 fions, and ideas ; which is what poetical propriety requires j and, to the ho- 
 nour of the author, it mult be faid, that, whenever he addrefles us in perlon, 
 he is always in the interefts of virtue and religion, and infpires, in a ltrain of 
 moral reflection, a true love of goodnefs, and honour, with a juft deteftation of 
 impofture, hypocrify, and all fpecious pretences to uprightness. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no province of the comic mufe tliat requires fo great a 
 variety of ftile as this kind of defeription of men and manners, in which Mr. 
 Fielding fo much delighted. The laws of the mock-epic, in which this fpecies 
 of writing is properly included demand, that, when trivial things are to be re- 
 prefented with a burlefque air, the language fhould be raifed into a fort of tu- 
 mor of dignity, that by the contrail; between the ideas and the pomp in which 
 they are exhibited, they may appear the more ridiculous to our imaginations. 
 Of our author’s talent in this way, there are inftances in almoft every chapter ; 
 and were we to aflign a particular example, we fhould refer to the relation of a 
 battle in the Homerican Jiile. On the other hand, when matters, in appearance, 
 of higher moment, but, in reality, attended with incongruous circumftances, are 
 to be fet forth in the garb of ridicule, which they deferve, it is necellary that 
 the language fhould be proportionably lowered, and that the metaphors and 
 epithets made ufe of be transferred from things of a meaner nature, that fo the 
 falfe importance of the objeCt deferibed may fall into a gay contempt. The firft 
 fpecimen of this manner that occurs to me is in the Jonathan Jf ild : “ For my 
 <• own part,” lays he, “ I confefs I look on this death of hanging to be as proper 
 “ for a hero as any other ; and I folemnly declare, that had Alexander the 
 “ Great been hanged, it would not in the’leaft have diminifhed my refpeCt to 
 
42 An E S S A Y on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 “ his memory.” A better example of what is here intended might, no doubt, 
 be chofen, as things of this nature may be found almoft every where in Tom 
 Jones, or Jofeph Andrews ; but the quotation here made will ferve to illuftratc, 
 and that is fufHcient. The mock-epic has likewifc frequent occafion for the 
 graved: irony, for florid ddcription, for the true fublime, for the pathetic, for 
 clear and perfpicuous narrative, for poignant fatire, and generous panegyrick. 
 For all thefe different modes of eloquence, Mr. Fielding’s genius was mod hap- 
 pily verfatile, and his power in all of them is fo confpicuous, that he may juftl v 
 be faid to have had the rare {kill, required by Horace, of giving to each part of 
 his work its true and proper colouring. 
 
 Servare vices , operumque colores. 
 
 In this confifts the fpecific quality of fine writing : and thus our author being 
 confefledly eminent in all the great efientials of compofition, in fable, charader, 
 fentiment, and elocution ; and as thefe could not be all united in fo high an af- > 
 femblage, without a rich invention, a fine imagination, an enlightened judg- 
 ment, 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 our author 
 poffefled the fofter graces of charader-painting, and of defeription ; many fixa- 
 tions and fentiments are touched with a delicate hand, and throughout the 
 work he feems to feel as much delight in deferibing the amiable part of human 
 nature, as in his early days he had in exaggerating the ftrong and harfh features 
 of turpitude and deformity. This circumflance breathes an air of philanthropy 
 through his work, and renders it an image of truth , as the Roman orator calls a 
 comedy. And hence it arofe, from this truth oj character which prevails in 
 Tom Jones, in conjundion with the other qualities of the writer, above fet 
 forth, that the fuffrage of the moft learned critic * of this nation was given to our 
 author, when he fays, Monf. de Marivaux, in France, and Mr. Fielding in 
 “ England ftand the foremofl: among thofe, who have given a faithful and 
 ** chaffe copy of life and manners , and by enriching their romance with, the bed 
 t( part of the comic art, may be faid to have brought it to perfedion. Such 
 a favourable decifion from fo able a judge, will do honour to Mr. Fielding with 
 pofterity ; and the excellent genius of the perfon, with whom he has paralleled 
 him, will refled the trued praife on the author, who was capable of being his 
 illuflrious rival. 
 
 Marivaux poffefled rare and fine talents; he was an attentive obferver of man- 
 kind, and the tranferipts he made from thence are the image oj truth. At his 
 reception into the French Academy, he was told in an elegant fpeech, made by the 
 Archbifhop of Sens, that the celebrated La Bruyere feemed to be revived in him, 
 and to retrace with his pencil thofe admirable portraits of men and manners, 
 
 * Dr. Warburton. 
 
 which 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 43. 
 
 which formerly unmalked fo many characters, and expofed their vanity and af- 
 fectation. Marivaux feems never fo happy as when he is reprobating the falfe 
 pretences of affumed characters : the diffimulation of friends, the policy of the 
 ambitious, the littlenefs and arrogance of the great, the infolenceof wealth, the 
 arts of the courtezan, the impertinence of foppery, the refined foibles of the 
 fair fex, the diffipation of youth, the gravity of falfe-importance, the fubtleties 
 ofhypocrify and exterior religion, together with all the delicacies of real ho- 
 nour, and the fentiments of true virtue, are delineated by him in a lively and link- 
 ing manner. He was not contented merely to copy their appearances ; he went 
 ftill deeper, and fearched for all the internal movements of their paffions, with 
 a curiofity that is always penetrating, but fometimes appears over-folicitous, 
 and, as the critic exprelfes it, ultra perfeftum trahi. It is not intended by this 
 to infinuate that he exceeds the bounds of truth j but occafionally he feems to 
 refine, till the traces grow minute and almoft imperceptible. He is a painter, 
 who labours his portraits with a careful and a fcrupulous hand ; he attaches 
 himfelf to them with affeCtion ; knows not when to give over, nefeivit quod bene 
 cejjit , relinquere, but continues touching and retouching, till his traits become fo 
 delicate, that they at length are without efficacy, and the attention of the con- 
 noifl'eur is tired, before the diligence of the artift is wearied. But this refine- 
 ment of Marivaux is apologized for by the remark of the ethic poet, who ob- 
 ferves that this kind of enquiry is 
 
 Like following life thro’ infedts we diftedt ; 
 
 We lofe it in the moment we deteCl. 
 
 If therefore he fometimes feems over-curious, it is the nature of his fubjedt that 
 allures him, and, in general, he greatly recompenfes us for the unwillingnefs he 
 ffiews to quit his work, by the valuable illuftrations he gives it, and the delicacy 
 with which he marks all the finer features of the mind. His didtion, it muft 
 not be diflembled, is fometimes, but not often, far-fetched and ftrained ; and it 
 was even objedled to him in the fpeech, already mentioned of the Archbifnop of 
 Sens, that his choice of words was not always pure and legitimate. Each 
 phrafe, and often each word is a fentence ; but he was apt to be hazardous and 
 daring in his metaphors, which was obferved to him, left his example and the 
 connivance of the Academy, which fits in a kind of legiflative capacity upon 
 works of tafte, fhould occafion a vicious imitation of the particulars in which 
 he was deemed defedtive. This criticifm Marivaux has fomewhere attempted to 
 anfwer, by obferving that he always writes more like a man than an author, 
 and endeavours to convey his ideas to his readers in the fame light they ftruck 
 his own imagination, which had great fecundity, warmth, and vivacity. The 
 Payfan Parvenu feems to be the Jofeph Andrews of this author, and the Mari- 
 anne his higher work, or his Pom Jones. They are both, in a very exquifite 
 degree, amufing and inftru&ive. They are not written, indeed, upon any of 
 the laws of compofition promulged by Arijlotle , and expounded by his fol- 
 
 e 2 lowers : 
 
44 An E S S A Y on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 lowers: his romances begin regularly with the birth and parentage of the prin- 
 cipal perfon, and proceed in a narrative of events, including indeed great va- 
 riety, and artfully raifing and fufpending our expectation : they are rather to he 
 called JiBitious biography , than a comic fable, confining of a beginning , a middle, 
 and end, where one principal aCtion is offered to the imagination, in its pro- 
 cefs is involved in difficulties, and rifes gradually into tumult and perplexity, 
 till, in a manner unexpected, it works itfelf clear, and comes, by natural but 
 unforefeen incidents, to a termination. 
 
 In this laft mentioned particular. Fielding boafts a manifeft fuperiority over 
 Marivaux. Uniformity amidft variety is juftly allowed in all works of inven- 
 tion to be the prime fource of beauty, and it is the peculiar excellence of Tom 
 Jones. The author, for the mofi part, is more readily fatisfied in his drawings 
 of character than the French writer ; the ftrong fpecific qualities of his perfon - 
 ages he fets forth with a few mafterly ftrokes, but the nicer and more fubtle 
 workings of the mind he is not fo anxious to inveftigate ; when the paffions are 
 agitated, he can give us their conflicts, and their various tranlitions, but he 
 does not always point out the fecret caufe that fets them in motion, or in the 
 poet’s language, “ the fmall pebble that ftirs the peaceful lake.” Fielding was 
 more attached to the manners than to the heart : in deferiptions of the former 
 he is admirable ; in unfolding the latter he is not equal to Marivaux. In the 
 management of his ftory, he piques and awakens curiolity more ftrongly than his 
 rival of France ; when he interefts and excites our affeCtions, he fometimes ope- 
 rates more by the force of fituation, than by the tender pathetic of fentiment, 
 for which the author of Marianne is remarkable; not that it muft be imagined 
 that Fielding wanted thefe qualities ; we have already faid the reverfe of him ; 
 but in thefe particulars Marivaux has the preference. In point of ftile, he is 
 more unexceptionable than Marivaux , the critics never having objected to him 
 that his figures are forced or unnatural ; and in humour the praife of pre-emi- 
 nence is entirely his. Marivaux was determined to have an air of originality, 
 and therefore difdained to form himfelf upon any eminent model of preceding 
 writers ; Fielding confidered the rules of compofition as delivered by the great 
 philofophic critic, and finding that Homer had written a work, intitled Mar- 
 git es, which bore the fame relation to comedy, that the Iliad or OdyJJey does to 
 tragedy, he meditated a plan * conformable to the principles of a well-arranged 
 fable. Were the Margites ftill extant, it would perhaps be found to have the fame 
 proportion to this work of our author, as the fublime epic has to the Tclemaque 
 of Fenelon. This W3S a noble vehicle for humorous defeription ; and to en- 
 fure his fuccefs in it, with great judgment, he fixed his eye upon the fide and 
 manner of Cervantes, as Virgil had before done in refpect to Homer. To this 
 excellent model, he added all the advantages he could deduce from Scarron and 
 Swift ; few or no fprinklings of Rablais being to be found in him. His own 
 ftrong dilcernment of the foibles of mankind, and his 'quick fenfe of the ridi- 
 * Fide the Preface to Jofeoh Andrews. 
 
 culous 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq ; 45 
 
 culous being thus improved, by a careful attention to the works of the gjeat 
 matters of their art, it is no v/onder that he has been able to raife himfelf to the 
 top of the comic character, to be admired by readers with the moft lively fen- 
 fations of mirth, and by novel-writers with a dejpair that he fiould ever be emu- 
 lated with J'uccefs. 
 
 * 
 
 Thus we have 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. The author’s invention in this performance does not appear to 
 have loft its fertility ; his judgment too feems as ftrong as ever j but the warmth 
 of imagination is abated ; and in his landfkips or his fcenes of life, Mr. Field- 
 ing is no longer the colourift he was before. The perforrages of the piece 
 delight too much in narrative, and their characters have not thofe touches of 
 Angularity, thofe fpeciflc differences, which are fo beautifully marked in our 
 author’s former works : of courfe the humour, which conflfts in happy deline- 
 ations of the caprices and predominant foibles of the human mind, lofes here 
 its high flavour and relifh. And yet Amelia holds the fame proportion to* Tom 
 Jones , that the OdyJJ'ey of Homer bears, in the eftimation of Longinus , to the 
 Iliad. A fine vein of morality runs through the whole ; many of the Atuations 
 are affeCting and tender ; the fentiments are delicate ; and upon the whole, it is 
 the Odyjjey , the moral and pathetic work of Henry Fielding *. 
 
 While he was planning and executing this piece, it fhould be remembered, 
 that he was diftraCted by that multiplicity of avocations, which furround a pub- 
 lic magiftrate ; and his conftitution, now greatly impaired and enfeebled, was 
 labouring under attacks of the gout, which were, of courfe, leverer than ever. 
 However, the activity of his mind was not to be fubdued. One literary purfuit 
 was no fooner over, than frefh game arofe. A periodical paper, under the title 
 of The Covent Garden Journal , by Sir Alexander Drawcanfir , Knight, and CenJ'or 
 General of Great Britain , was immediately fet on foot. It was publiftied twice 
 in every week, viz. on Tuejday and Saturday, and conduced fo much to the en- 
 tertainment of the public, for a twelvemonth together, that it was at length felt 
 with a general regret that the author’s health did not enable him to perflft in the 
 undertaking any longer. There are, in that collection, many effays of fuch good 
 fenfe and Ane humour, that they would have been admired in the lucubrations 
 of the Tatler or the Spectator ; and the reader will And them carefully feleCted 
 and preferved in this edition. Soon after this work was dropt, our author’s • 
 whole frame of body was fo entirely fhattered by continual inroads of complicate 
 
 * It is proper the reader Jkould he informed that Amelia, in this ed tion, is pr'ritel from a coty c,r retted 
 ly the aethers own hand. The exceptional le pajfages , which inadvertency had thrown out , are here re- 
 trench, d 3 end tie work , upon the whole, will be found nearer perfection than it was ir, its original Jlalt. 
 
 ed 
 
46 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 ed diforders, and the inceflant fatigue of bufinefs in his office, that, by the ad- 
 vice of his phyficians, he was obliged to fet out for Liffion, to try if there was 
 any reftorative quality in the more genial air of that climate. Even in this di- 
 ftrefsful condition, his imagination ftill continued making its ftrongeft efforts to 
 difplay itfelf; and the laft gleams of his wit and humour faintly fparkled in the 
 account he left behind him of his voyage to that place. In this his laft fkctch 
 he puts us in mind of aperfon, under fentence of death, jetting on the fcaffold ; 
 for his ftrength was now quite exhautted ; and in about two months after his 
 arrival at Lifbon, he yielded his laft breath, in the year 1754, and in the forty- 
 eighth year of his age. 
 
 He left behind him (for he married a fecond time) a wife, and four children, 
 three of which are ftill 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 dona- 
 tion, given annually by Ralph Allen, Efq; for that purpofe. An inftance of 
 humanity, which the reader did not want to learn of him, vvhofe life is a con- 
 ftant effufion of munificence ; but for the fake of the writer, whofe works have 
 afforded fuch exquifite entertainment, he will be glad to know that the gene- 
 rous patron of the father is now the tender guardian of his orphans. 
 
 Thus was clofed a courfe of difappointment, diftrefs, vexation, infirmity, and 
 ftudy : for with each of thefe his life was varioufly checquered, and, perhaps, 
 in ftronger proportions than has been the lot of many. Shall we now, after the 
 manner of the Egyptian ritual, frame a public accufation againft his memory, 
 or fhall we rather fuffer him to pafs by quietly, and reft in peace among the 
 departed ? The former method would gratify malevolence, more efpecially if 
 we ftated fadts with aggravation, or difcoloured them a little by mifreprefen- 
 tation, and then, from premifes injurioufty eftablifhed, drew, with a pretended 
 reluctance, a few conclufions to the utter deftruCtion of his moral character. But 
 the candid reader will recolleCt that the charge of venality never ceafes to be 
 exhibited againft abilities in diftrefs, which was our author’s lot in the firft part 
 of his life, and that the firft magiftrate for Weftminfter is ever liable to impu- 
 tations ; for an anfwer to which we refer to a pafiage in the Voyage to Lijbon , 
 and a note annexed to it. Page 463, Vol. IV. “ A predecefi'or of mine ufed to 
 “ boaft that he made one thoufand pounds a year in his office : but how he 
 “ did this (if indeed he did it) is to me a fecret. His clerk, now mine, told me 
 
 I had more bufinefs than he had ever known there I am fure I had as 
 “ much as any man could do. The truth is, the fees are fo very low, when any 
 “ are due, and fo much is done for nothing, that if a fingle juftice of peace had 
 “ bufinefs enough to employ twenty clerks ; neither he nor they would get much 
 “ ty their labour. The public will not therefore, I hope, think I betray a l'e- 
 “ cret when I inform them, that I received from the government a yearly pen- 
 “ fion out of the public fervice-money ; which I believe, indeed, would have 
 “ been larger, had my great patron been convinced of an error, which I have 
 3 “ heard 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efq; 47 
 
 “ heard him utter more than once, That he could not indeed lay, that the a<5t- 
 ** ing as a principal juftice of peace in Wefttninfter was on all accounts very 
 “ delirable, but that all the world knew it was a very lucrative office. Now to 
 “ have ffiewn him plainly, that a man mull be a rogue to make a very little this 
 “ way, and that he could not make much by being as great a rogue as he could 
 “ be, would have required more confidence than, I believe, he had in me, and 
 “ more of his converfation than he chofe to allow me ; I therefore refigned the 
 “ office, and the farther execution of my plan to my brother, who had long 
 “ been my affiftant. And now, left the cafe between me and the reader fhould 
 “ be the fame in both inftances as it was between me and the great man, I will 
 “ not add another word on the fubjedh” The indignation with which he 
 throws the dishonour from him will plead in his behalf with every candid mind ; 
 more particularly when it is conlidered as the declaration cf a dying man. It will 
 therefore be the more humane and generous office, to fet down to the account of 
 Hander and defamation a great part of that abufe which was difeharged againft 
 him by his enemies, in his life-time ; deducing, however, from the whole this 
 ufeful leffon, That quick and warm paffions fhould be early controuled, and 
 that diffipation and extravagant pleafures are the moft dangerous palliatives that 
 can be found for dilappointments and vexations in the firft ftages of life. We 
 have feen how Mr. Fielding very foon fquandered away his fmall patrimony, 
 which, with ceconomy, might have procured him inde_ endence ; we have feen 
 how he ruined, into the bargain, a conftitution, which, in its original texture, 
 feemed formed to laft much longer. When illnefs and indigence were once let in 
 upon him, he no longer remained the mafter of his own adtions ; and that nice 
 delicacy of condudt, which alone conftitutes and preferves a character, was occafion- 
 ally 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 moft -elegant in his choice of the means to redrefs himfelf, and he would 
 inftantly exhibit a farce or a puppet-fhew in the Haymarket theatre, which was 
 wholly inconfiftent with the profeffion he had embarked in. But his intimates 
 can witnefs how much his pride buffered, when he was forced into meafures 
 of this kind; no man having a jufter fenfe of propriety, or more honourable 
 ideas of the employment of an author and a fcholar. 
 
 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 confti- 
 tution. Confidering the efteem he was in with all the artifts, it is fomewhat 
 extraordinary that no portrait of him had ever been made. • He had often pro- 
 mifed to fit to his friend Hogarth, for whofe good qualities and excellent genius 
 he always entertained fo high an efteem, that he has left us in his writings 
 many beautiful memorials of his affedfion : unluckily, however, it fo fell out 
 that no pidture of him was ever drawn ; but yet, as if it w^as intended that fome 
 traces of his countenance fhould be perpetuated, and that too by the very artift 
 
 whom 
 
48 An ESSAY on the LIFE and GENIUS 
 
 whom our author preferred to all others, after Mr. Ilogarth had long laboured 
 to try if he could bring out any likenefs of him from images exifting in his own 
 fancy ; and juft as he was defpairing of fuccefs, for want of fome rule to go by 
 in the dimenfions and outlines of the face, fortune threw the grand defidcratum 
 in the way. A lady, with a pair of feiflars, had cut a profile, which gave the 
 diftances and proportions of his face fufficiently to reftore his loft ideas of him. 
 Glad of an opportunity of paying his laft tribute to the memory of an author 
 whom he admired, Mr. Hogarth caught at this outline with pleafure, and 
 worked with all the attachment of friendftiip till he finifhed that excellent draw- 
 ing, which ftands at the head of this work, and recalls to all, who have feen the 
 original, a correfponding image of the man. 
 
 Had the writer of this Eftay the happy power of delineation which diftin- 
 guifties the artift juft mentioned, he would here attempt a portrait of Mr. 
 Fielding’s mind : of the principal features, fuch as they appear to him, he will 
 at leaft endeavour to give a {ketch, however imperfeCt. His paftions, as the 
 poet exprefles it, were tremblingly alive all o'er : whatever he defired, he defired 
 ardently; he was alike impatient of difappointment, or ill-ufage, and the fame 
 quicknefs of fenfibility rendered him elate in profperity, and overflowing with 
 gratitude at every inftance of friendftiip or generality ; lleady in his private at- 
 tachments, his afteCtion was warm, lincere, and vehement; in his refentments 
 he was manly, but temperate, feldom breaking out in his writings into gratifi- 
 cations of ill-humour, or perfonal fatire. It is to the honour of thofe whom he 
 loved, that he had too much penetration to be deceived in their characters ; and 
 it is to the advantage of his enemies, that he was above paflionate attacks upon 
 them. Open, unbounded, and focial in his temper, he knew no love of money; 
 but inclining to excefs even in his very virtues, he puftied his contempt of avarice 
 into the oppofite extreme of imprudence and prodigality. When young in life 
 he had a moderate eftate, he foon fuffered hofpitality to devour it ; and when in 
 the latter end of his days he had an income of four or five hundred a-year, he 
 knew no ufe of money, but to keep his table open to thofe who had been his 
 friends when young, .and had impaired their own fortunes. Though difpofed to 
 gallantry by his ftrong animal fpirits, and the vivacity of his paflions, he was 
 remarkable for tendernefs and conftancy to his wife, and the ftrongeft afteCtion 
 for his children. Of ficknefs and poverty he was Angularly patient, and under 
 the preflure of thofe evils, he could quietly read Cicero de Confolatione ; but if 
 either of them threatened his wife, he was impetuous for her relief: and thus 
 often from his virtues arofe his imperfections. A fenfe of honour he had as 
 lively and delicate as moft men, but fometimes his paflions were too turbulent 
 for it, or rather his neceffities were too prefling ; in all cafes where delicacy 
 was departed from, his friends know how his own feelings reprimanded him. 
 The interefts of virtue and religion he never betrayed ; the former is amiably 
 enforced in his works ; and, for the defence of the latter, he had projected a la- 
 borious anfwer to the pofthumous philofophy of Bolingbrook ; and the prepara- 
 tion 
 
Of HENRY FIELDING, Efqj 49 
 
 tion he had made for it of long extracts and arguments from the fathers and the 
 mod: eminent writers of controverfy, is dill extant in the hands of his brother. 
 Sir John Fielding. In fhort, our author was unhappy, but not vicious in his 
 nature; in his underdanding lively, yet folid ; rich in invention, yet a lover 
 of real fcience ; an obferver of mankind, yet a fcholar of enlarged reading ; 
 a fpirited enemy, yet an indefatigable friend ; a fatirid of vice and evil man- 
 ners, yet a lover of mankind ; an ufeful citizen, a polifhed and indrudtive 
 wit ; and a magidrate zealous for the order and welfare of the community 
 which he ferved. 
 
 Such was the man, and fuch the author, whofe works we now offer to the 
 public. Of this undertaking we fhall only fay, that the proprietor was above 
 taking advantage of the author’s edablifhed reputation to enhance the price, but 
 dudicd principally to fend it into the world at as cheap a purchafe as poffible ; 
 and the editor, from the prodigious number of materials before him, was care- 
 ful, after communicating with the abled and bed of the author’s friends, to re- 
 print every thing worthy of a place' in this edition of his Works ; which is in- 
 tended, and, no doubt, will prove, a lasting Monument of the Genius 
 of Henry Fielding.. 
 
 T.ineoln’s Inn, 
 March 35, 1761, 
 
 Arthur Murphy.. 
 
 
 
 ( 
 
 VoL. I. 
 
 CONTE N T S