lebrated performance. Mr Trueworth is the same generous and pleasing lover as Lord Orville. Lady Mellasin, with whom Miss Thoughtless resides in London, is the same low-born, coarse, and dissolute woman with Mad. Duval. The malice and jealousy with which Miss Flora Mellasin persecutes the heroine in the beginning of the older novel, corresponds to the malice and jealousy of the Miss Branghtons. Miss Mabel, the amiable and modest friend of Betsy Thoughtless, seems to have suggested the character of Miss Mirvan, the companion of Evelina; while in the novel of Mrs Heywood, and of Miss Burney, we may trace the same assurance, affected indifference, and impertinent gallantry, in many of the secondary cha

racters.

Towards the middle of the 18th century the number of English novels rapidly increased. Those which have appeared subsequently to that period may, I think, be divided into the serious, the comic, and the romantic.

At the head of the first class we must unquestionably place the works of Richardson. The earliest performance of that celebrated writer is his Pamela, the first part of which was published in 1740. We are informed, in the Life of Richard

son, that the booksellers, for whom he occasionally employed his pen, had requested him to give them a volume of familiar letters on various supposed occasions. It was the intention of the author to render his work subservient to the benefit of the inferior classes of society, but letter producing letter, it grew into a story, and was at length given to the public under the title of the History of Pamela. In the work above quoted, it is said, that the author's object in Pamela is two-fold: to reclaim a libertine by the influence of virtuous affection, and to conduct virtue safe and triumphant through the severest trials to an honourable reward. With this view, a young girl, in the humblest sphere of life, is represented as exposed to the amorous solicitations of her master. The earlier part of the story consists of the attempts practised against her virtue, and her successful resistance, all which are related in letters from Pamela to her parents, whose characters are intended as a representation of the manners and virtues of the humblest sphere of English society. From the unremitting assiduity of her master, however, our heroine begins to think she may play a higher game than a mere escape from his snares: prudence now comes to the aid of purity, and her

master, after a struggle between passion and pride, rewards her by the offer of his hand, which is most thankfully accepted. Two volumes were subsequently added, which exhibited Pamela in the marriage state. From these two parts Goldoni has formed his comedies of Pamela Nubile, and Pamela Maritata.

On its first appearance, Pamela was received with universal applause, but its fame has been in some measure dimmed by the brighter reputation of its author's subsequent performances. Of these, Clarissa is the production on which his reputation is principally founded. It is the story, as is universally known, of a young lady, who, to avoid a matrimonial union to which her heart could not consent, and to which she was urged by her parents, casts herself on the protection of a lover, who scandalously abuses the confidence she had reposed in him, and finally succeeds in gratifying his passion, though he had failed in ensnaring her virtue. She rejects the reparation of marriage which was at length tendered, and retires to a solitary abode, where she expires, overwhelmed with grief and with shame. It is a trite remark, that it was reserved for Richardson, in this story, to overcome all circumstances of dishonour and disgrace, to exhibit the dignity of virtue in circumstances the

most painful, and apparently the most degrading, and to show, which seems to be the great moral of the work, that in every situation virtue is triumphant.

The chief merit of Richardson consists in his delineation of character. Clarissa is the model of female excellence. There is something similar in the rest of the Harlowe family, and at the same time something peculiar to each individual. "The stern father," says Mrs Barbauld, "the passionate and dark-souled brother, the envious and ill-natured sister, the money-loving uncles, the gentle but weak-spirited mother, are all assimilated by that stiffness, love of parade, and solemnity, which is thrown over the whole group, and by the interested family views in which they all concur." The character of Lovelace, as is well known, is an expansion of that of Lothario in the Fair Penitent; but, in the opinion of Dr Johnson, expressed in his Life of Rowe, the novelist has greatly excelled his original in the moral effect of the fiction. "Lothario," says the illustrious biographer," with gaiety which cannot be hated, and bravery which cannot be despised, retains too much of the spectator's kindness. It was in the power of Richardson alone to teach us at once esteem and detestation; to make virtuous resentment overpower all

the benevolence which art and elegance and courage naturally excite; and to lose at last the hero in the villain."

But though the character of Lovelace may not perhaps be objectionable in its moral tendency, there is no representation, in the whole range of fiction, which is such an outrage on verisimilitude. Such a character as Lovelace not only never existed, but seems incompatible with human nature. Great crimes may be hastily perpetrated where there is no strong motive for their commission, but a long course of premeditated villainy has always some assignable object which cannot be innocently attained.

Richardson having exhibited in his Clarissa a model of female delicacy, grace, and dignity, attempted in Sir Charles Grandison, his third and last production, to represent a perfect male character, who should unite every personal advantage and fashionable accomplishment with the strict observance of the duties of morality and religion. All the incidents have a reference to the multifa rious interests of this "faultless monster;" and the other characters seem only introduced to give him an opportunity of displaying in every light his various perfections, with the exception perhaps of Clementina, whose mental alienation is