ue than his or
even than that of his greatest follower, Thackeray. Far be it from the
present writer to say, or to insinuate, anything disrespectful of the
great moderns who have lately left us. Yet it may be said without the
slightest disrespect to them that the unfavourable comparison is mainly
a revival of Johnson's mistake as to Fielding and Richardson. It is,
however, something more--for it comes also from a failure to estimate
aright the _parabasis_-openings which have been more than once referred
to. These passages do not perhaps exhibit the by-work and the process in
the conspicuous skeleton-clock fashion which their critics admire and
desire, but they contain an amount of acute and profound exploration of
human nature which it would be difficult to match and impossible to
surpass elsewhere: while the results of Fielding's working, of his
"toylike" scheme, are remarkable toys indeed--toys which, if we regard
them as such, must surely strike us as rather uncanny. One is sometimes
constrained to think that it is perhaps not much more difficult to make
than to recognise a thoroughly live character. It certainly must be very
difficult to do the latter if there is any considerable number of
persons who are unable to do it in the case of almost every one of the
personages of _Tom Jones_. With one possible exception they are all
alive--even more so than those of _Joseph Andrews_ and with a less
peculiar and limited liveliness than those of _Jonathan Wild_. But it
certainly is curious that as the one good man of _Jonathan_, Heartfree,
is the least alive of its personages, so the one bad man of _Tom_,
Blifil, occupies the same position.

The result of this variety and abundance of life is an even more than
corresponding opportunity for enjoyment. This enjoyment may arise in
different persons from different sources. The much praised and seldom
cavilled at unity and completeness of the story may appeal to some.
There are others who are inclined towards elaborate plots as Sam Weller
was to the "'rig'nal" of his subpoena. It was a "gratifyin' sort o'
thing, and eased his mind" to be aware of its existence, and that was
all. These latter find _their_ sources of enjoyment elsewhere, but
everywhere else. The abundance and the vividness of character-presentation;
the liveliness and the abundance of the staging of that character; the
variety of scene and incident--all most properly connected with the plot,
but capable of existing