more perfectly than any other species of
composition: it is in novels we observe as it were passing under our
eyes the refined frivolity of the French; the gloomy and disordered
sensibility of the German; and the petty intrigues of the modern Italian
in some Venetian Novels. We have shown the world that we possess writers
of the first order in this delightful province of Fiction and of Truth;
for every Fiction invented naturally, must be true. After the abundant
invective poured on this class of books, it is time to settle for ever
the controversy, by asserting that these works of fiction are among the
most instructive of every polished nation, and must contain all the
useful truths of human life, if composed with genius. They are pictures
of the passions, useful to our youth to contemplate. That acute
philosopher, Adam Smith, has given an opinion most favourable to
NOVELS. "The poets and romance writers who best paint the refinements
and delicacies of love and friendship, and of all other private and
domestic affections, Racine and Voltaire, Richardson Marivaux, and
Riccoboni, are in this case much better instructors than Zeno,
Chrysippus, or Epictetus."

The history of romances has been recently given by Mr. Dunlop, with many
pleasing details; but this work should be accompanied by the learned
Lenglet du Fresnoy's "Bibliotheque des Romans," published under the name
of M. le C. Gordon de Percel; which will be found useful for immediate
reference for titles, dates, and a copious catalogue of romances and
novels to the year 1734.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 117: Since the above was written, many other volumes have been
published illustrative of this branch of literature. The Bannatyne and
Maitland Club and the Camden and Percy Societies have printed Metrical
Romances entire.]

[Footnote 118: This famed lay has been magnificently published in
Germany, where it is now considered as the native epic of the ancient
kingdom. Its scenes have been delineated by the greatest of their
artists, who have thus given a world-wide reputation to a poem
comparatively unknown when the first edition of this work was printed.]

[Footnote 119: These early novels have been collected and published by
Mr. J. P. Collier, under the title of _Shakespeare's Library_. They form
the foundation of some of the great Poet's best dramas.]

[Footnote 120: They were ridiculed in a French burlesque Romance of the
Shepherd Lysis, translated by Davis, and