.88 



excluded from meaning of the term liheriinism, might in the 

 same manner be shewn to be equally incompatible with it : 

 but perhaps it is sufficient to ask in the words of the gospel, 

 " do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? A good 

 tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree 

 bring forth good fruit." 



On the other hand, to introduce profligate characters, for 

 the purpose of exposing them to shame and ridicule, is a 

 dangerous experiment. As Swift's " directions to servants" 

 are said to have spoiled more good servants than corrected 

 bad ones, by teaching tricks, which otherwise would not 

 have been thought of; so, the high-coloured pictures of vice 

 and folly drawn in novels, leave on the inexperienced mind, 

 such copies of their reality, as the good moral of the work 

 is but ill calculated to efface. 



It is rather a curious circumstance, and worthy to be 

 noted, that notwithstanding the manifest evil tendency of 

 the novels of Fielding, he professes most solemnly, that 

 " to recommend goodness, and innocence, has been his sin- 

 cere desire/' and he " hopes that nothing will be found in the 

 whole course of his work, prejudicial to the cause of virtue 

 and religion, nothing inconsistent with the strictest rules of 

 <3ecency, or which can offend the chastest eye on the pe- 

 jrusal." In these his pious desires, as well as in the method 

 lie adopted to put them into execution, he has been followed 

 universal!}' by the multitude of novel writers who have suc- 

 ceeded him, from Marmontel, to G. M. Lewis, author of 



