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FIELDING, 1707-1754, began with Joseph Andrews, 1742; SMOLLETT, 1721-1771, with Roderick Random, 1748. Both wrote many other stories, but in truthful representation of common life, and in the natural growth and winding up of the story, Fielding's Tom Jones, 1749, is our English master-piece and model. Ten years thus sufficed to create an entirely new literature. LAURENCE STERNE, 1713-1768, in his Tristram Shandy, 1759, introduced the novel of Character in which events are few. His peculiar vein of labyrinthine humor and falsetto sentiment has been imitated, but never attained. We mention Johnson's Rasselas, 1759, as the first of our Didactic tales, and the Fool of Quality, by HENRY BROOKE, as the first of our Theological tales.

Under George III. new forms of fiction appeared. GOLDSMITH'S Vicar of Wakefield, 1766, was the first, and perhaps the most charming, of all those novels which we may call Idyllic, which describe the loves and the simple lives of country people in country scenery. MISS BURNEY'S Evelina, 1778, and Cecilia were the first novels of Society. MRS. INCHBALD'S Simple Story, 1791, introduced the novel of Passion, and MRS. RADCLIFFE, in her wild and picturesque tales, the Romantic novel."

BIBLIOGRAPHY. RICHARDSON.-D. Masson's Brit, Novelists; Mrs. Oliphant's Hist, Sketches; L. Stephen's Hours in a Library; Fort. Rev., v. 12, 1869; Fraser's Mag., V. 62, 1860, and v. 71, 1865; West. Rev., v. 91, 1869.

FIELDING.-Thackeray's Eng. Humorists; Whipple's Essays and Reviews; Forsyth's Novels and Novelists; Scott's Lives of the Novelists; Black. Mag., v. 87, 1860; Fraser's Mag., v. 57, 1858, and v. 61, 1860; N. Br. Rev., v. 24, 1855; Quar. Rev., v. 98, 1856.

STERNE.-P. Fitzgerald's Life of; Thack.'s Eng. Humorists; Scott's Lives of the Novelists; Tuckerman's Essays; Black. Mag., v. 97, 1865; Nat. Rev., v. 18, 1864; N. A. Rev., v. 81, 1865, and v. 107, 1868; Quar. Rev., v. 94, 1854.

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From Fielding's Tom Jones.

Mr. Jones, being at last in a state of good spirits, agreed to carry an appointment, which he had before made, into execution. This was to attend Mrs. Miller and her youngest daughter into the gallery at the playhouse, and to admit Mr. Partridge as one of the company. For, as Jones had really that taste for humor which many affect, he expected

to enjoy much entertainment in the criticisms of Partridge; from whom he expected the simple dictates of nature, unimproved, indeed, but likewise unadulterated, by art.

In the first row, then, of the first gallery, did Mr. Jones, Mrs. Miller, her youngest daughter, and Partridge take their places. Partridge immediately declared it was the finest place he had ever been in. When the first music was played, he said it was a wonder how so many fiddlers could play at one time without putting one another out. While the fellow was lighting the upper candles, he cried out to Mrs. Miller, “Look, look, madam; the very picture of the man in the end of the common prayer-book, before the gunpowder treason service." Nor could he help observing with a sigh, when all the candles were lighted, that here were candles enough burned in one night to keep an honest poor family for a whole twelvemonth.

As soon as the play, which was Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, began, Partridge was all attention, nor did he break silence till the entrance of the ghost; upon which he asked Jones what man that was in the strange dress; "something," said he, "like what I have seen in a picture. Sure it is not armor, is it?"

Jones answered, That is the ghost."

To which Partridge replied with a smile, "Persuade me to that, sir, if you can. Though I can't say I ever actually saw a ghost in my life, yet I am certain I should know one, if I saw him, better than that comes to. No, no, sir; ghosts don't appear in such dresses as that, neither." In this mistake, which caused much laughter in the neighborhood of Partridge, he was suffered to continue till the scene between the ghost and Hamlet, when Partridge gave that credit to Mr. Garrick which he had denied to Jones, and fell into so violent a trembling that his knees knocked against each other.

Jones asked him what was the matter, and whether he was afraid of the warrior upon the stage.

"O la! sir," said he, "I perceive now it is what you told me. I am not afraid of anything, for I know it is but a play; and, if it was really

a ghost, it could do one no harm at such a distance, and in so much

company; and yet, if I was frightened, I am not the only person."

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Why, who," cries Jones, "dost thou take to be such a coward here besides thyself?"

"Nay, you may call me coward if you will; but, if that little man there upon the stage is not frightened, I never saw any man frightened in my life. Ay, ay; go along with you! Ay, to be sure! Who's fool, then? Will you? Lud have mercy upon such foolhardiness! What

ever happens it is good enough for you. Follow you? I'd follow the devil as soon. Nay, perhaps it is. the devil-for they say he can put on what likeness he pleases. Oh! here he is again. No farther! No, you have gone far enough already; farther than I'd have gone for all the king's dominions." Jones offered to speak, but Partridge cried, "Hush, hush, dear sir, don't you hear him?” And, during the whole speech of the ghost, he sat with his eyes fixed partly on the ghost and partly on Hamlet, and with his mouth open; the same passions which succeeded each other in Hamlet succeeding likewise in him.

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When the scene was over, Jones said, Why, Partridge, you exceed my expectations. You enjoy the play more than I conceived possible." 'Nay, sir,” answered Partridge, “if you are not afraid of the devil, I can't help it; but, to be sure, it is natural to be surprised at such things, though I know there is nothing in them: not that it was the ghost that surprised me, neither; for I should have known that to have been only a man in a strange dress; but, when I saw the little man so frightened himself, it was that which took hold of me."

And dost thou imagine then, Partridge,” cries Jones, “that he was really frightened?"

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'Nay, sir," said Partridge, "did not you yourself observe afterwards, when he found it was his own father's spirit, and how he was murdered in the garden, how his fear forsook him by degrees, and he was struck dumb with sorrow, as it were, just as I should have been, had it been my own case. But hush! O la! what noise is that? There he is again. Well, to be certain, though I know there is nothing at all in it, I am glad I am not down yonder where those men are. Then, turning his eyes again upon Hamlet, "Ay, you may draw your sword; what signifies a sword against the power of the devil?"

During the second act, Partridge made very few remarks. He greatly admired the fineness of the dresses; nor could he help observing upon the king's countenance. "Well," said he, "how people may be deceived by faces! Who would think, by looking in the king's face, that he had ever committed a murder?" He then inquired after the ghost; but Jones, who intended he should be surprised, gave him no other satisfaction than that he might possibly see him again soon, and in a flash of fire.

Partridge sat in fearful expectation of this; and now, when the ghost made his next appearance, Partridge cried out, "There, sir, now; what say you now? is he frightened now or no? As much frightened as you think me; and, to be sure, nobody can help some fears. I would not be in so bad a condition as-what's his name?-Squire Hamlet is there,

for all the world.

Bless me! what's become of the spirit? As I am a living soul, I thought I saw him sink into the earth."

"Indeed you saw right," answered Jones.

"Well," cries Partridge, "I know it is only a play; and besides, if there was anything in all this, Madam Miller would not laugh so; for, as to you, sir, you would not be afraid, I believe, if the devil was here in person. There, there; ay, no wonder you are in such a passion; shake the vile, wicked wretch to pieces. If she was my own mother, I should serve her so. To be sure, all duty to a mother is forfeited by such wicked doings. Ay, go about your business; I hate the sight of you."

Our critic was now pretty silent till the play which Hamlet introduces before the king. This he did not at first understand, till Jones explained it to him; but he no sooner entered into the spirit of it than he began to bless himself that he had never committed murder. Then turning to Mrs. Miller, he asked her if she did not imagine the king looked as if he was touched; "though he is," said he, "a good actor, and doth all he can to hide it. Well, I would not have so much to answer for as that wicked man there hath, to sit upon a much higher chair than he sits upon. No wonder he ran away; for your sake I'll never trust an innocent face again.'

The grave-digging scene next engaged the attention of Partridge, who expressed much surprise at the number of skulls thrown upon the stage. To which Jones answered that it was one of the most famous burialplaces about town.

'No wonder, then," cries Partridge, "that the place is haunted. But I never saw in my life a worse grave-digger. I had a sexton, when I was clerk, that should have dug three graves while he is digging one. The fellow handles a spade as if it was the first time he had ever had one in his hand. Ay, ay, you may sing. You had rather sing than work, I believe." Upon Hamlet's taking up the skull, he cried out, "Well! it is strange to see how fearless some men are; I never could bring myself. to touch anything belonging to a dead man, on any acHe seemed frightened enough, too, at the ghost, I thought." Little more worth remembering occurred during the play; at the end of which Jones asked him which of the players he had liked best. To this he answered, with some appearance of indignation at the question, The king, without doubt."

count.

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"Indeed, Mr. Partridge," says Mrs. Miller, "you are not of the same opinion with the town; for they are all agreed that Hamlet is acted by the best player who ever was on the stage."

"He the best player!" cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer, "why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did. And then, to be sure, in that scene, as you called it, between him and his mother, where you told me he acted so fine, why, Lord help me, any man, that is, any good man, that had such a mother, would have done exactly the same. I know you are only joking with me; but, indeed, madam, though I was never at a play in London, yet I have seen acting before in the country; and the king for my money; he speaks all his words distinctly, half as loud again as the other. Anybody may see he is an actor."

Thus ended the adventure at the playhouse, where Partridge had afforded great mirth nct only to Jones and Mrs. Miller but to all who sat within hearing, who were more attentive to what he said than to anything that passed on the stage. He durst not go to bed all that night for fear of the ghost; and, for many nights after, sweated two or three hours, before he went to sleep, with the same apprehensions, and waked several times in great horrors, crying out, "Lord have mercy upon us! there it is."

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LESSON 43.

HISTORY. History, to which we now turn, was raised into the rank of literature in the latter half of the eighteenth century by three men.

DAVID HUME'S History of England, finished 1761, is, in the importance it gives to letters, in its clear narrative and style, and in the writer's endeavor to make it a philosophic whole, our first literary history. Of DR. ROBERTSON'S Histories of Scotland, of Charles V., and of America, the two last are literary by their descriptive and popular style, and show how our historical interests were reaching beyond our own land.

EDWARD GIBBON, 1737-1794, excelled the others in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, completed in 1788. The execution of his work was as accurate and exhaustive as a scientific treatise. Gibbon's conception of the whole subject was as poetical as a great picture. Rome, eastern and

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