Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

THE works of fiction, with which the prefent generation feems more particularly delighted, are fuch as exhibit life in its true ftate, diverfified only by accidents that daily happen in the world, and influenced by paffions and qualities which are really to be found in converfing with mankind.

This kind of writing may be termed not improperly the comedy of romance, and is to be conducted nearly by the rules of comick poetry. Its province is to bring about natural events by eafy means, and to keep up curiofity without the help of wonder': it is therefore precluded from the machines and expedients of the heroick romance, and can neither employ giants to fnatch away a lady from the nuptial rites, nor knights to bring her back from captivity; it can neither bewilder its perfonages in deferts, nor lodge them in imaginary caftles.

I remember a remark made by Scaliger upon Pontanus, that all his writings are filled with the fame images; and that if you take from him his lilies and his rofes, his fatyrs and his dryads, he will have nothing left that can be called poetry. In like manner almost all the fictions of the laft age will vanish, if you deprive them of a hermit and a wood, a battle and a fhipwreck.

Why

Why this wild ftrain of imagination found reception fo long in polite and learned ages, it is not easy to conceive; but we cannot wonder that while readers could be procured, the authors were willing to continue it; for when a man had by practice gained fome fluency of language, he had no further care than to retire to his clofet, let loofe his invention, and heat his mind with incredibilities; a book was thus produced without fear of criticifm, without the toil of ftudy, without knowledge of nature, or acquaintance with life.

The task of our prefent writers is very different; it requires, together with that learning which is to be gained from books, that experience which can never be attained by folitary diligence, but must arise from general converfe and accurate obfervation of the living world. Their performances have, as Horace expreffes it, plus oneris quantum venie minus, little indulgence, and therefore more difficulty. They are engaged in portraits of which every one knows the original, and can detect any deviation from exactnefs of refemblance. Other writings are fafe, except from the malice of learning, but thefe are in danger from every common reader: as the flipper ill executed was cenfured by a fhoemaker who happened to ftop in his way at the Venus of Apelles.

But the fear of not being approved as juft copiers of human manners, is not the most important concern that an author of this fort ought to have before him. Thefe books are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they ferve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into

[blocks in formation]

life. They are the entertainment of minds unfurnifhed 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 falfe fuggestion and partial account.

That the higheft degree of reverence fhould be paid to youth, and that nothing indecent should 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 fame 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 tranfaction and fentiment was fo remote from all that paffes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himfelf; the virtues and crimes were equally beyond his fphere of activity; and he amused 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 closer attention, and hope, by obferving his behaviour and fuccels, to regulate their own practices, when they fhall be engaged in the like part.

For

For this reafon thefe familiar hiftories may perhaps be made of greater use than the folemnities of profeffed morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is fo 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 best 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 thefe fictions have over real life is, that their authors are at liberty, though not to invent, yet to select objects, and to cull from the mafs of mankind, those 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 fuch a fituation, 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 distinguish those parts of nature, which are moft proper for imitation: greater care is ftill required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by paffion, or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously 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 a mirrour which fhews 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

[blocks in formation]

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 purpofe 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 with 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 intereft ourselves in their favour, we lose 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 brightnefs on their crimes, and whom fcarce any villany made perfectly deteftable, because they never could be 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 preferved, than the art of murdering without pain.

Some have advanced, without due attention to the confequences of this notion, that certain virtues have

their

« FöregåendeFortsätt »