city makes it not only more amiable,
but doubly amusing, by gratifying the sense of superior sagacity in the
reader. Our laughing at him does not once lessen our respect for him. His
declaring that he would willingly walk ten miles to fetch his sermon on
vanity, merely to convince Wilson of his thorough contempt of this vice,
and his consoling himself for the loss of his AEschylus, by suddenly
recollecting that he could not read it if he had it, because it is dark,
are among the finest touches of _naivete_. The night-adventures at Lady
Booby's with Beau Didapper, and the amiable Slipslop, are the most
ludicrous; and that with the huntsman, who draws off the hounds from the
poor Parson, because they would be spoiled by following _vermin_, the most
profound. Fielding did not often repeat himself; but Dr. Harrison, in
Amelia, may be considered as a variation of the character of Adams: so
also is Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield; and the latter part of that work,
which sets out so delightfully, an almost entire plagiarism from Wilson's
account of himself, and Adams's domestic history.

Smollett's first novel, Roderick Random, which is also his best, appeared
about the same time as Fielding's Tom Jones; and yet it has a much more
modern air with it: but this may be accounted for from the circumstance
that Smollett was quite a young man at the time, whereas Fielding's manner
must have been formed long before. The style of Roderick Random is more
easy and flowing than that of Tom Jones; the incidents follow one another
more rapidly (though, it must be confessed, they never come in such a
throng, or are brought out with the same dramatic effect); the humour is
broader, and as effectual; and there is very nearly, if not quite, an
equal interest excited by the story. What, then, is it that gives the
superiority to Fielding? It is the superior insight into the springs of
human character, and the constant developement of that character through
every change of circumstance. Smollett's humour often arises from the
situation of the persons, or the peculiarity of their external
appearance; as, from Roderick Random's carrotty locks, which hung down
over his shoulders like a pound of candles, or Strap's ignorance of
London, and the blunders that follow from it. There is a tone of vulgarity
about all his productions. The incidents frequently resemble detached
anecdotes taken from a newspaper or magazine; and, like those in Gil Blas,
might ha