and their worst actions; both are related in the same animated and approving manner.

Roderick Random is generally supposed to contain only an embellished narrative of his own adventures. The character of the hero, therefore, is naturally supposed to resemble his own; high spirited, irritable, and vindictive; not devoid of a certain rough generosity and good humour, but destitute of any fixed principles, and readily yielding to every temptation which chance throws in his way. There is more real life and business in this novel than are commonly to be met with. It does not, indeed, always present these under the most favourable aspect, but is deeply tinged with those irritable and satirical habits which appear to have strongly predominated in the mind of the writer.

Peregrine Pickle presents us with nearly the same features, only that the humour is broader, and the manners still coarser and more licentious.

Humphrey Clinker contains less incident, and is therefore not quite so attractive to the bulk of readers. But it possesses, perhaps,

more genuine merit, as being that in which Smollet has most completely displayed his talent for the ludicrous delineation of character. Bramble is supposed to be a picture of himself in more advanced life, after his spirit was lowered, and his temper soured by age and infirmity. Ile discovers, however, a view of worth and benevolence, which did not appear in his youthful predecessors. In Tabitha malignity and ill-temper are very properly represented under a ridiculous and disgusting aspect. The tendency of the whole is nearly unexceptionable..

*

BURNEY..

Proceeding in the order of time, we come now to the purer and more elegant perform ances of Miss Burney. The distinguishing excellence of this lady is, as might be ex-. pected, a perfect acquaintance with whatever relates to the character and peculiar cir cumstances of her own sex. She excels particularly in describing the feelings of a young lady at her first entrance into the

na.

world; the hopes, the fears, the little embarrassments, which agitate her mind at this interesting crisis. Nothing can exceed the picture of these which is given in EveliThe venial errors into which she is betrayed by youth and inexperience, with the disastrous consequences which threaten to ensue, are described in a manner the most lively and natural. The correct view which is given of the habits prevalent in the fashionable circles, must be useful both to those who are destined to move in them, and to such as wish to form a general estimate of the reigning manners. It is only to be regretted that she should have occasionally given way to a somewhat mean species of buffoonery, from which the elegant taste she has else where displayed, might have been expected to preserve her.

In the Brangton family the awkward attempts frequently made by the trading partof society to copy the manners of fashionable life are very happily ridiculed. Perhaps, however, this part of the work may tend to increase that horror of vulgarity, and

that disposition to sigh after the abodes of elegance and fashion, to which young ladies, at the age of Evelina, are of themselves in general sufficiently inclined.

Cecilia is more varied in incident, but of a somewhat more romantic and extravagant cast. Many of the characters, too, are a good deal outrés. In Harrel, however, is given an admirable picture of the thoughtless and unfeeling man of pleasure, and in the Delvilles, of family pride, shewing itself under various aspects, according to the different age and disposition of each.

Camilla discovers a vein of good sense, and of accommodation to the actual circumstances of society, which is rarely found in compositions of this kind. Sir Hugh Tyrold is a complete original, and admirably drawn. He may alınost be placed by the side of Sir Roger de Coverley.

Notwithstanding the just views of human life which abound in the writings of this lady, it may be observed, that their groundwork does not essentially differ from the ge nerality of similar performances. How far

this is to be considered as matter of praise or censure, we shall presently have occasion to examine.

MOORE.

Dr. Moore has given an admirable picture of the manners of young men of fashion, and of the various follies to which they are liable. With them, his former habits of life had led him very much to associate. The portraits of this writer appear to me juster, more free from exaggeration and caricature, than those of any other that has yet been mentioned. This may probably be ascribed to his great knowledge of the world, and to that good sense which, rather than any brilliancy of parts, seems to have formed the predominant feature in his character.

Zeluco is a singular and somewhat whimsical performance. Fiction affords an opportunity of representing, not better only, but also worse characters than are to be found in real life; and the representation may not be altogether without its use. The