440 THE FIRST 11OMANCE. 



both to Italy and Greece, for the purchase of curious manuscripts 

 and rare works of art. In the library of its new proprietor at Buda, 

 though doubtless known to the few literati who had access to that 

 collection, and were masters of the Greek tongue, it might be still 

 said to have been buried in a comparative obscurity. On the cap- 

 ture and pillage of the city and library in 1526, most of the other 

 works were dispersed or destroyed ; but the loves of Theogenes and 

 Chariclea, snatched from the general doom, and given to the world 

 in a variety of translations, were destined to enjoy a subsequent cele- 

 brity, which might well atone for their long previous oblivion. 



Who would have thought that the volume thus casually preserved 

 by a succession of lucky chances, should be the primary source of 

 those innumerable and redundant streams that are fed by the ro- 

 mances and novels of modern literature ? The mighty waters of the 

 seven-mouthed Nile seem less disproportioned to the insignificant 

 Abyssinan spring whence they proceed, than does our present wide 

 world of fictitious narrative to the little Ethiopic volume of Helio- 

 dorus : yet from this must all our novels be deduced. Bishop Huet, 

 a contemporary and admirer of the Scuderis, and too apt, perhaps, 

 to judge after the models of that time, pronounces the work in ques- 

 tion to be the most ancient monument that has reached us, of adven- 

 tures, supposititious and yet probable, conceived artfully, and written 

 in prose, for the amusement and instruction of the reader. A Latin 

 translation, by Stanislaus Warszewicski, a Polish knight, was pub- 

 lished at Basle in 1551 ; since which time, versions have been made 

 in most of the modern languages. 



Opening in a very striking and spirited manner, the incidents of 

 the romance succeed one another with rapidity, and the interest of 

 the first part is tolerably well sustained : but the second is somewhat 

 tedious and wire-drawn. The unexpected meetings of the lovers 

 after their separations, though by no means deficient in the marvel- 

 lous, cease to excite or surprize us ; and we feel far from dissatisfied 

 when their long-desired nuptials terminate the work. Is it to be 

 presumed that the romance of real life always ceases with marriage ? 

 Our novelists seem to think so for the great majority have, in this 

 respect, been imitators of Heliodorus. 



In the Ethiopic romance there are observations that evince a con- 

 siderable insight into human nature, generally viewed ; but there is 

 little attempt at that marked and faithful portraiture of individual 

 character which constitutes the charm of modern fictitious narrative. 

 As in the Arabian and other Oriental tales, the parties introduced are 

 rather distinguished by their professions and stations in life, than by 

 personal and peculiar traits. Heliodorus, and the other ancient tale 

 writers, described with tolerable accuracy the different divisions of 

 mankind ; but they had no idea of isolating a member from his 

 class : they attempted not idiosyncracy. This is the great distinc- 

 tion between the ancient and the modern schools. 



From internal evidence, it might be presumed that the Ethiopic 

 romance was written not only before its author obtained the mitre, 

 but even previously to his being converted to Christianity: for it is 



