tion, and heat his mind with incredibilities; a book was thus produced without fear of criticifm, without the toil of study, without knowledge of nature, or acquaintance with life.

The task of our prefent writers is very different; it requires, together with that learning which is to be gained from books, that experience which can never be attained by folitary diligence, but muft arife from general converfe, and accurate obfervation of the living world. Their performances have, as Horace expreffes it, plus oneris quantum venia minus, little indulgence, and therefore more difficulty. They are engaged in portraits of which every one knows the original, and can detect any deviation from exactnefs of resemblance. Other writings are fafe, except from the malice of learning, but these are in danger from every common reader; as the flipper ill executed was cenfured by a fhoemaker who happened, to ftop in his way at the Venus of Apelles.

But the fear of not being approved as juft copyers of human manners, is not the most important. concern that an author of this fort ought to have before him. Thefe books are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they ferve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life. They are the entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore eafily fufceptible of impreffions; not fixed by principles, and therefore eafily following the current of fancy; not informed by experience, and confequently open to every false fuggeftion and partial account.

That the highest degree of reverence should be paid to youth, and that nothing indecent fhould be fuffered to approach their eyes or ears; are precepts torted by sense and virtue from an ancient writer,

means eminent for chastity of thought. The ind, though not the fame degree of caution, is red to every thing which is laid before them, to

fecure

fecure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous combinations of images.

In the romances formerly written, every tranfaction and fentiment was fo remote from all that paffes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himself; the virtues and crimes were equally beyond his fphere of activity; and he amufed himself with heroes and with traitors, deliverers and perfecutors, as with beings of another fpecies, whofe actions were regulated upon motives of their own, and who had neither faults nor excellencies in common with himfelf.

But when an adventurer is levelled with the rest of the world, and acts in fuch fcenes of the univerfal drama, as may be the lot of any other man; young spectators fix their eyes upon him with closer attention, and hope by obferving his behaviour and fuccefs to regulate their own practices, when they fhall be engaged in the like part.

For this reafon these familiar hiftories may perhaps be made of greater use than the folemnities of profeffed morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is fo great, as to take poffeffion of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almost without the intervention of the will, care ought to be taken that, when the choice is unreftrained, the beft examples only should be exhibited; and that which is likely to operate so strongly, fhould not be mischievous or uncertain in its effects.

The chief advantage which thefe fictions have over real life is, that their authors are at liberty, though not to invent, yet to felect objects, and to cull from the mass of mankind, those individuals upon which the attention ought most to be employed; as a diamond, though it cannot be made, may be polifhed

by

1

by art, and placed in fuch a fituation, as to display that luftre which before was buried among common ftones.

It is juftly confidered as the greatest excellency of art, to imitate nature; but it is neceffary to diftinguifh those parts of nature, which are most proper for imitation: greater care is ftill required in reprefenting life, which is fo often difcoloured by paffion, or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promifcuoufly described, I cannot fee of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as fafe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which fhows all that prefents itself without difcrimination.

It is therefore not a fufficient vindication of a character, that it is drawn as it appears, for many characters ought never to be drawn; nor of a narrative, that the train of events is agreeable to obfervation and experience, for that obfervation which is called knowledge of the world, will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. The purpose of these writings is furely not only to fhow mankind, but to provide that they may be seen hereafter with lefs hazard; to teach the means of avoiding the fnares which are laid by TREACHERY for INNOCENCE, without infufing any wish for that fuperiority with which the betrayer flatters his vanity; to give the power of counteracting fraud, without the temptation to practise it; to initiate youth by mock encounters in the art of neceffary defence, and to increase prudence without impairing virtue.

Many writers, for the fake of following nature, fo mingle good and bad qualities in their principal perfonages, that they are both equally confpicuous; and as we accompany them through their adventures with delight, and are led by degrees to intereft ourfelves in their favour, we lofe the abhorrence of

their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasure, or, perhaps, regard them with fome kindnefs for being united with fo much merit.

There have been men indeed fplendidly wicked, whofe endowments threw a brightnefs on their crimes, and whom scarce any villainy made perfectly deteftable, because they never could be wholly divefted of their excellencies; but fuch have been in all ages the great corrupters of the world, and their refemblance ought no more to be preserved, than the art of murdering without pain.

Some have advanced, without due attention to the confequences of this notion, that certain virtues have their correfpondent faults, and therefore that to exhibit either apart is to deviate from probability. Thus men are obferved by Swift to be "grateful in "the fame degree as they are refentful." This principle, with others of the fame kind, fuppofes man to act from a brute impulse, and pursue a certain degree of inclination, without any choice of the object; for, otherwife, though it fhould be allowed that gratitude and refentment arife from the fame conftitution of the paffions, it follows not that they will be equally indulged when reafon is confulted; yet unless that confequence be admitted, this fagacious maxim becomes an empty found, without any relation to practice or to life.

Nor is it evident, that even the first motions to thefe effects are always in the fame proportion. For pride, which produces quickness of refentment, will obftruct gratitude, by unwillingness to admit that inferiority which obligation implies; and it is very unlikely, that he who cannot think he receives a favour will acknowledge or repay it.

It is of the utmost importance to mankind, that pofitions of this tendency fhould be laid open and confuted; for while men confider good and evil as fpringing from the fame root, they will fpare the

one

one for the fake of the other, and in judging, if not of others at leaft of themselves, will be apt to eftimate their virtues by their vices. To this fatal error all those will contribute, who confound the colours of right and wrong, and inftead of helping to fettle their boundaries, mix them with fo much art, that no common mind is able to difunite them.

In narratives, where hiftorical veracity has no place, I cannot discover why there should not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability, for what we cannot credit we shall never imitate, but the highest and pureft that humanity can reach, which, exercised in fuch trials as the various revolutions of things fhall bring upon it, may, by conquering fome calamities, and enduring others, teach us what we may hope, and what we can perform. Vice, for vice is neceffary to be fhewn, fhould always difguft; nor fhould the graces of gaiety, or the dignity of courage, be fo united with it, as to reconcile it to the mind. Wherever it appears, it fhould raife hatred by the malignity of its practices, and contempt by the meanness of its ftratagems; for while it is fupported by either parts or fpirit, it will be feldom heartily abhorred. The Roman tyrant was content to be hated, if he was but feared; and there are thousands of the readers of romances willing to be thought wicked, if they may be allowed to be wits. It is therefore to be fteadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only folid basis of greatness; and that vice is the natural confequence of narrow thoughts, that it begins in miftake, and ends in ignominy.

NUMB.