HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING. By HENRY FIELDING, Efq; Mores hominum multorum vidit VOLUME IN DRESDEN, Printed for G. C. WALTHER. MDCCLXXIV. HISTORY OF A FOUNDLING. BOOK VIII. CHAP. I. A wonderful long chapter concerning the marvellous; being much the longest of all our introductory chapters. A$ S we are now entering upon a book, in which the course of our hiftory will oblige us to relate some matters of a more strange and furprising kind than any which have hitherto occurred, it may not be amifs in the prolegomenous, or introductory chapter, to fay fomething of that fpecies of writing which is called the marvellous. To this we shall, as well for the fake of ourselves, as of others, endeavour to set some certain bounds; and indeed nothing can be more neceffary, as critics* of different complexions are here A 2 apt By this word here, and in moft other parts of our work, we mean every reader in the world. apt to run into very different extremes; for while fome are, with M. Dacier, ready to allow, that the fame thing which is impoffible may be yet probable*, others have fo little hiftoric or poetic faith, that they believe nothing to be either poflible or probable, the like to which hath not occurred to their own obfervation. Firft then, I think, it may very reasonably be required of every writer, that he keeps within the bounds of poffibility; and ftill remembers that what it is not poffible for man to perform, it is fcarce poffible for man to believe he did perform. This conviction perhaps, gave birth to many ftories of the ancient Heathen deities (for moft of them are of poetical original.) The poet, being defirous to indulge a wanton and extravagant imagination, took refuge in that power, of the extent of which his readers were no judges, or rather which they imagined to be infinite, and confequently they could not be fhocked at any prodigies related of it. This hath been ftrongly urged in defence of Homer's miracles; and it is, perhaps, a defence; not, as Mr. Pope would have it, becaufe Ulyffes told a fet of foolish lies to the Phæacians, who were a very dull nation; but because the poet himself wrote to hea thens, to whom poetical fables were articles of faith. For my own part, I must confess, so compaffionate is my temper, I wish Polypheme had confined himself to his milk-diet, and preserved his eye; nor could Ulyf ses be much more concerned than myself, when his companions were turned into fwine by Circe, who fhewed, I think, afterwards, too much regard for man's flesh to be fuppofed capable of converting it It was happy for M. Dacier that he was not an Irithman. into into bacon. I wifh, likewife, with all my heart, that Homer could have known the rule prefcribed by Horace, to introduce fupernatural agents as feldom as poffible. We fhould not then have seen his gods coming on trivial errands, and often behaving themfelves fo as not only to forfeit all title to respect, but to become the object of scorn and derition. A conduct which must have fhocked the credulity of a pious and fagacious heathen; and which could never have ' been defended, unlefs by agreeing with a fuppofition to which I have been sometimes almost inclined, that this most glorious poet, as he certainly was, had an intent to burlesque the fuperftitious faith of his own age and country. But I have refted too long on a do&trine which can be of no ufe to a chriftian writer; for as he cannot introduce into his works any of that heavenly hoft which make a part of his creed; fo is it horrid puerility to fearch the heathen theology for any of thofe deities who have been long fince dethroned from their immortality. Lord Shaftesbury obferves, that nothing is more cold than the invocation of a muse by a modern; he might have added that nothing can be more abfurd. A modern may with much more elegance invoke a ballad, as fome have thought Homer did, or a mug of ale with the author of Hudibras; which latter may perhaps have inspired much more poetry as well as profe, than all the liquors of Hippocrene or Helicon. The only fupernatural agents which can in any manner be allowed to us moderns, are ghosts; but of these I would advise an author to be extremely fparing. These are indeed like arfenic, and other dan A 3 gerous |