ames and dates, whereas in his
everything is true but the names and dates. If so, he has the advantage on
his side.

I will here confess, however, that I am a little prejudiced on the point
in question; and that the effect of many fine speculations has been lost
upon me, from an early familiarity with the most striking passages in the
work to which I have just alluded. Thus nothing can be more captivating
than the description somewhere given by Mr. Burke of the indissoluble
connection between learning and nobility; and of the respect universally
paid by wealth to piety and morals. But the effect of this ideal
representation has always been spoiled by my recollection of Parson Adams
sitting over his cup of ale in Sir Thomas Booby's kitchen. Echard "On the
Contempt of the Clergy" is, in like manner, a very good book, and "worthy
of all acceptation:" but, somehow, an unlucky impression of the reality of
Parson Trulliber involuntarily checks the emotions of respect, to which it
might otherwise give rise: while, on the other hand, the lecture which
Lady Booby reads to Lawyer Scout on the immediate expulsion of Joseph and
Fanny from the parish casts no very favourable light on the flattering
accounts of our practical jurisprudence which are to be found in
Blackstone or De Lolme. The most moral writers, after all, are those who
do not pretend to inculcate any moral. The professed moralist almost
unavoidably degenerates into the partisan of a system; and the philosopher
is too apt to warp the evidence to his own purpose. But the painter of
manners gives the facts of human nature, and leaves us to draw the
inference: if we are not able to do this, or do it ill, at least it is our
own fault.

The first-rate writers in this class, of course, are few; but those few we
may reckon among the greatest ornaments and best benefactors of our kind.
There is a certain set of them who, as it were, take their rank by the
side of reality, and are appealed to as evidence on all questions
concerning human nature. The principal of these are Cervantes and Le Sage,
who may be considered as having been naturalised among ourselves; and, of
native English growth, Fielding, Smollett, Richardson, and Sterne.[132] As
this is a department of criticism which deserves more attention than has
been usually bestowed upon it, I shall here venture to recur (not from
choice, but necessity) to what I have said upon it in a well-known
periodical publication; and e