acquainted with life. His family and education, first--his
fortunes and misfortunes afterwards, brought him into the society of every
rank and condition of man. He is himself the hero of his books: he is wild
Tom Jones, he is wild Captain Booth, less wild, I am glad to think, than
his predecessor, at least heartily conscious of demerit, and anxious to
amend.

When Fielding first came upon the town in 1727, the recollection of the
great wits was still fresh in the coffee-houses and assemblies, and the
judges there declared that young Harry Fielding had more spirits and wit
than Congreve or any of his brilliant successors. His figure was tall and
stalwart; his face handsome, manly, and noble-looking; to the very last
days of his life he retained a grandeur of air, and, although worn down by
disease, his aspect and presence imposed respect upon the people round
about him.

A dispute took place between Mr. Fielding and the captain(150) of the ship
in which he was making his last voyage, and Fielding relates how the man
finally went down on his knees and begged his passenger's pardon. He was
living up to the last days of his life, and his spirit never gave in. His
vital power must have been immensely strong. Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu(151) prettily characterizes Fielding and this capacity for
happiness which he possessed, in a little notice of his death, when she
compares him to Steele, who was as improvident and as happy as he was, and
says that both should have gone on living for ever. One can fancy the
eagerness and gusto with which a man of Fielding's frame, with his vast
health and robust appetite, his ardent spirits, his joyful humour, and his
keen and hearty relish for life, must have seized and drunk that cup of
pleasure which the town offered to him. Can any of my hearers remember the
youthful feats of a college breakfast--the meats devoured and the cups
quaffed in that Homeric feast? I can call to mind some of the heroes of
those youthful banquets, and fancy young Fielding from Leyden rushing upon
the feast, with his great laugh and immense healthy young appetite, eager
and vigorous to enjoy. The young man's wit and manners made him friends
everywhere: he lived with the grand Man's society of those days; he was
courted by peers and men of wealth and fashion. As he had a paternal
allowance from his father, General Fielding, which, to use Henry's own
phrase, any man might pay who would; as he liked good wine, good cl