essors. If the light is concentrated
in a narrow focus, it is still healthy daylight. So long as we do not
wish to leave his circle of ideas, we see little fault in the vigour
with which he fulfils his intention. And therefore, whatever Fielding's
other faults, he is beyond comparison the most faithful and profound
mouthpiece of the passions and failings of a society which seems at once
strangely remote and yet strangely near to us. When seeking to solve
that curious problem which is discussed in one of Hazlitt's best
essays--what characters one would most like to have met?--and running
over the various claims of a meeting at the Mermaid with Shakespeare and
Jonson, a 'neat repast of Attic taste' with Milton, a gossip at Button's
with Addison and Steele, a club-dinner with Johnson and Burke, a supper
with Lamb, or (certainly the least attractive) an evening at Holland
House, I sometimes fancy that, after all, few things would be pleasanter
than a pipe and a bowl of punch with Fielding and Hogarth. It is true
that for such a purpose I provide myself in imagination with a new set
of sturdy nerves, and with a digestion such as that which was once equal
to the horrors of an undergraduates' 'wine party.' But, having made that
trifling assumption, I fancy that there would be few places where one
would hear more good motherwit, shrewder judgments of men and things, or
a sounder appreciation of those homely elements of which human life is
in fact chiefly composed. Common-sense in the highest degree--whether we
choose to identify it or contrast it with genius--is at least one of the
most enduring and valuable of qualities in literature as everywhere
else; and Fielding is one of its best representatives. But perhaps one
is unduly biassed by the charm of a complete escape in imagination from
the thousand and one affectations which have grown up since Fielding
died and we have all become so much wiser and more learned than all
previous generations.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Richardson wrote the first part of 'Pamela' between November 10,
1739, and January 10, 1740. 'Joseph Andrews' appeared in 1742. The first
four volumes of 'Clarissa Harlowe' and 'Roderick Random' appeared in the
beginning of 1748; 'Tom Jones' in 1749.

[8] See some appreciative remarks upon this in Scott's preface to the
_Monastery_.

[9] It is rather curious that Richardson uses the same comparison to
Miss Fielding. He assures her that her brother only knew the outsi