the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve 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 extorted by fenfe and virtue from an ancient writer, by no means eminent for chastity of thought. The fame kind, though not the same degree of caution, is required in every thing which is laid before them, to fecure them from unjuft prejudices, perverfe opinions, and incongruous combinations of images.

In the romances formerly written, every transaction 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 himself.

But when an adventurer is levelled with the reft of the world, and acts in fuch fcenes of the univerfal drama, as may be the lot of any other man; young fpectators fix their eyes upon him with

clofer

closer attention, and hope, by obferving his behaviour and fuccefs, to regulate their own practices, when they shall be engaged in the like part.

For this reason these familiar hiftories may perhaps be made of greater ufe than the folemnities of professed morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is so great as to take poffeffion of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almoft 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 fo ftrongly, fhould not be mifchievous or uncertain in its effects.

The chief advantage which these 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 mafs of mankind, thofe individuals upon which the attention ought moft to be employed; as a diamond, though it cannot be made, may be polished by art, and placed in such a situation, as to display that luftre which before was buried among common ftones.

It is justly confidered as the greatest excellency of art, to imitate nature; but it is neceffary to diftinguish 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 promifcuously defcribed, 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

C 4

upon a mirrour which shows 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 encrease 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 interest ourselves in their favour, we lofe the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasure, or, perhaps, regard them with fome kindness for being united with fo much merit.

There have been men indeed fplendidly wicked, whofe endowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and whom fcarce any villany made perfectly deteftable, because they never could be

wholly

wholly divested 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 refent"ful." 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 these effects are always in the fame proportion. For pride, which produces quickness of refentment, will obstruct 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 for the fake of the other, and in judging, if not of others at least of themselves, will be apt

to

To this

to estimate their virtues by their vices. fatal error all thofe will contribute, who confound the colours of right and wrong, and, instead of helping to settle 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 fhould not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability, for what we cannot credit we fhall never imitate, but the higheft 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 raise hatred by the malignity of its practices, and contempt by the meannefs 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 higheft proof of understanding, and the only folid bafis of greatness; and that vice is the natural confequence of narrow thoughts; that it begins in miftake, and ends in ignominy.