Conclufion of the Account of the Life and Writings of Henry Fielding, Efq; See our laft Appendix, published this

Month.

W E are how arrived at the fecond grand epoch of Mr.

Fielding's genius, when, as Mr. Murphy remarks, all his faculties were in perfect unifon, and confpired to produce a complete work. If, fays he, we confider Tom Jones in the fame. light in which the ableft critics have examined the Iliad, the Eneid, and the Paradife Loft, namely, with a view to the fable, the manners, the fentiments, and the ftyle, we fhall find it ftanding the teft of the fevereft criticifm. In the firft place, the action has that unity, which is the boast of the great models of compofition; it turns upon a single event, attended with many circumftances, and many fubordinate incidents, which feem, in the progrefs of the work, to per plex, to entangle, and to involve the whole in difficulties, and lead on the reader's imagination, with an eagerness of curiofity, through fcenes of prodigious variety, till at length the different intricacies and complications of the fable are explained after the fame gradual manner in which they had been worked up to a crifis incident arifes out of incident: the feeds of every thing that froots up are laid [fown] with a judicious hand, and whatever occurs in the latter part of the ftory, feems naturally to grow out of thofe paffages which preceded; fo that, upon the whole, the business with great propriety and probability works itfelf up into various embarafiments, and then afterwards, by a regular series of events, clears itself from all impediments, and brings itself inevitably to a conclufion; like a river, which, in its progrefs, foams amongst fragments of rocks, and for a while leems pent up by unfurmountable oppofitions; then angrily dafhes for a while, then plunges under ground into caverns, and runs a fubterraneous courfe, till at length it breaks out again, meanders round the country, and with a clear placid tream flows gently into the ocean. By this artful manage ment, our Author has given us the perfection of fable; which, as the writers upon the fubject have juftly obferved, confifts in such obftacles to retard the final iffue of the whole, as fhall at least, in their confequences, accelerate the catal trophe, and bring it evidently and neceflarily to that period only, which, in the nature of things, could arife from it; fo that the action could not remain in fufpenfe any longer, but muft naturally clofe and determine itself.

"In the execution of this plan, thus regular and uniform, what a variety of humorous fcenes, defcriptions, and characters has our Author found means to incorporate with the principal action; and this too, without distracting the reader's attention with objects foreign to his fubject, or weakening the general intereft by a multiplicity of epifodical events. Still obferving the grand effential rule of unity in the defign, I believe no Author has introduced a greater diverfity of characters, or difplayed them more fully, or in inore various attitudes. Allworthy is the most amiable picture of a man who does honour to his fpecies: in his own heart he finds conftant propenfities to the moft benevolent and generous actions, and his understanding conducts him with difcretion in the performance of whatever his goodness fuggefts to him. And though it is apparent that the Author laboured this portrait con amore, and meant to offer it to mankind as a juft object of imitation, he has foberly reftrained himself within the bounds of probability, nay, it may be faid, of ftrict truth; as in the general opinion, he is fupposed to have copied here the features of a worthy character ftill in being. Nothing can be more entertaining than WESTERN; his ruftic manners, his natural undifciplined honefty, his halfenlightened understanding, with the felf-pleafing threwdness which accompanies it, and the biafs of his mind to miftaken politics, are all delineated with precifion and fine humour. The fifters of thofe two gentlemen are aptly introduced, and give rife to many agrecable fcenes. Tom Jones will at all times be a fine leffon to young men of good tendencies to virtue, who yet fuffer the impetuofity of their paffions to hurry them away. Thwackum and Square are excellently oppofed to each other; the former is a well-drawn picture of a divine, who is neglectful of the moral part of his character, and oftentatiously talks of religion and grace; the latter is a ftrong ridicule of thofe, who have high ideas of the dignity of our nature, and of the native beauty of virtue, without owning any obligations of conduct from religion. In fhort, all the characters down to Partridge, and even to a maid or an hoftler at an inn, are drawn with truth and humour: and indeed they abound fo much, and are fo often brought forward in a dramatic manner, that every thing may be said to be here in action; every thing has MANNERS; and the very imanners which belong to it in human life. They look, they ct, they speak to cur imaginations juft as they appear to us in the world. The SENTIMENTS which they utter, are peculi rly annexed to their habits, paffions, and ideas; which

is what poetical propriety requires; and, to the honour of the author it must be faid, that, whenever he addreffes us in perfon, he is always in the interefts of virtue and religion, and inspires, in a strain of moral reflection, a true love of goodnefs, and honour, with a juft deteftation of imposture, hypocrify, and all fpecious pretences to uprightness."

Mr. Murphy now enters on a difquifition concerning that fpecies of writing called the mock-epic; and into an enquiry relating to the genius and writings of Monf. de Marivaux'; whom he compares with Mr. Fielding, and juftly gives the preference and the palm to the latter; from whofe eminence in all the great effentials of compofition, in fable, character, fentiment, and elocution, united with a rich invention, a fine imagination, an enlightened judgment, and a lively wit, our Author ventures to decide his character, and to pronounce him the English CERVANTES.

"Thus we have traced our author in his progrefs to the time when the vigour of his mind was in its full growth of perfection; from this period it funk, but by flow degrees, into a decline: Amelia, which fucceeded Tom Jones in about four years, has indeed the marks of genius, but of a genius beginning to fall into its decay. The author's invention in this performance does not appear to have loft its fertility; his judgment too feems as ftrong as ever; but the warmth of imagination is abated; and in his landfkips or his scenes of life, Mr. Fielding is no longer the colourift he was before. The perfonages of the piece delight too much in narrative, and their characters have not thofe touches of fingularity, those specific differences, which are fo beautifully marked in our Author's former works: of courfe the humour, which confifts in happy delineations of the caprices and predominant foibles of the human mind, lofes here its high flavour and relish. And yet Amelia holds the fame proportion to Tom Jones, that the Odyffey of Homer bears, in the estimation of Longinus, to the Iliad. A fine vein of morality runs thro' the whole; many of the fituations are affecting and tender; the fentiments are delicate; and upon the whole, it is the Odyffey, the moral and pathetic work of Henry Fielding.

"While he was planning and executing this piece, it fhould be remembered, that he was diftracted by that multiplicity of avocations, which furround a public magiftrate; and his conftitution, now greatly impaired and enfeebled, was labouring under attacks of the gout, which were, of courfe, feverer than ever. However, the activity of his

D 2

mind

mind was not to be fubdued. One literary purfuit was no fooner over, than fresh game arofe. A periodical paper, under the title of The Covent Garden Journal, by Sir Alexander Drawcanfir, Knight, and Cenfor General of Great Britain, was immediately fet on foot. It was published twice in every week, viz. on Tuefday and Saturday, and conduced fo much to the entertainment of the public, for a twelvemonth together, that it was at length felt with a general regret that the author's health did not enable him to perfift in the undertaking any longer. Soon after this work was dropt, our Author's whole frame of body was fo entirely fhattered by continual inroads of complicated diforders, and the inceffant fatigue of bufinefs in his office, that, by the advice of his phyficians, he was obliged to fet out for Lisbon, to try if there was any reftorative quality in the more genial air of that climate. Even in this diftrefsful condition, his imagination ftill continued making its ftrongeft efforts to display itfelf; and the last gleams of his wit and humour faintly parkled in the account he left behind him of his voyage to that place. About two months after his arrival at Lisbon, he yielded his laft breath, in the year 1754, and in the fortyeighth year of his age.

"He left behind him (for he married a fecond time) a wife, and four children, three of which are ftill living, and are now training up under the care of their uncle, with the aid of a very generous donation, given annually by Ralph Allen, Efq; for that purpose."

Thus was clofed a courfe of difappointment, distress, vexation, infirmity, and ftudy: for with each of thefe his life was variously chequered, and, perhaps, in ftronger proportions than has been the lot of many. Shall we now, fays our biographer, after the manner of the Egyptian ritual, frame a public accufation against his memory, or fhall we rather fuffer him to pafs by quietly, and reft in peace among the departed? The former method would gratify malevolence, more efpecially if we ftated facts with aggravation, or difcoloured them a little by mifreprefentation, and then, from premies injuriously eftablished, drew, with , a pretended reluctance, a few conclufions to the utter defruction of his moral character. But the candid reader will recollect that the charge of venality never ceafes to be exhibited against abilities in diftrefs, which was our author's lot in the first part of his life, and that the first magiltrate for Weftminster is ever liable to imputations; for

an answer to which we refer to a paffage in the l'oyage to Lisbon, and a note annexed to it. Page 463, vol. IV. of the prefent Edition."

The indignation with which he there throws the difhonour from him will plead in his behalf with every candid mind; inore particularly when it is confidered as the declaration of a dying man. It will therefore, adds Mr. Murphy, be the more humane and generous office, to fet down to the account of flander and defamation a great part of that abuse which was difcharged against him by his enemies, in his life-time; deducing, however, from the whole this useful leffon, That quick and warm paffions fhould be early controuled, and that diffipation and extravagant pleasures are the most dangerous palliatives that can be found for difappointments and vexations in the first stages of life. We have feen how Mr. Fielding very foon fquandered away his fmall patrimony, which, with economy, might have procured him independence; we have feen how he ruined, into the bargain, a conftitution, which, in its original texture, feemed formed to last much longer. When illness and indigence were once let in upon him, he no longer remained the mafter of his own actions; and that nice delicacy of conduct, which alone constitutes and preferves a character, was occafionally obliged to give way. When he was not under the immediate urgency of want, they, who were intimate with him, are ready to aver, that he had a mind greatly fuperior to any thing mean or little; when his finances were exhaufted, he was not the most elegant in his choice of the means to redrefs himself, and he would inftantly exhibit a farce or a puppet-fhew in the Haymarket theatre, which was wholly inconfiftent with the profeffion he had embarked in. But his intimates can witnefs how much his pride fuffered, when he was forced into measures of this kind; no man having a jufter fenfe of propriety, or more honourable ideas of the employment of an author and a fcholar."

Our biographer now gives us the following very brief defcription of Mr. Fielding's perfon. "He was in ftature rather rifing above fix feet; his frame of body large, and remarkably robuft, till the gout had broke the vigour of his conftitution. Confidering the efteem he was in with all the artifts, it is fomewhat extraordinary that no portrait of him had ever been made. He had often promifed to fit to his friend Hogarth, for whofe good qualities and excellent genius he always entertained fo high an esteem, that he has left