Romances and Novels. 161 



of" excellence which they attained. Among the 

 most successful of these was Dr. Smollet. His 

 Roderick Random was written in imitation of Tom 

 Jones; his Humphrey Clinker, the last and best 

 of his works, after the manner of Richardson; 

 and his History of Sir Launcelot Greaves, with a 

 view to the manner of Cervantes/ These imi- 

 tations are by no means without success, and cer- 

 tainly hold, in some respects, a very high place in 

 the list of those fictitious writings which belong to 

 the age under consideration. In exhibiting the pe- 

 culiarities of professional character Dr. Smollet 

 displays great powers. Perhaps no writer was 

 ever more successful in drawing the character of 

 seamen. Sometimes, indeed, his pictures border on 

 the extravagance of caricatura, to which his satiri- 

 cal and cynical disposition strongly inclined him. 

 His propensity to burlesque and broad humour 

 too frequently recurs; and he is often indelicate 

 and licentious to a very shameful degree. These 

 remarks apply, in some measure, to most of his 

 works; but to his Peregrine Pickle, and The Ad- 

 ventures of an Atom, the charge of indelicate de- 

 scription, and immoral tendency, is particularly 

 applicable. 



About the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 M. Le Sace, an ingenious French writer, pub- 

 lished his Gil Bias, which appears to have been 

 among the earliest works of the novel kind, pub- 

 lished on the continent of Europe, that rank with 

 the first class, or that are now held in much esteem. 

 This performance was intended to be a picture of 

 Spanish manners, and abounds with a great variety 

 of incident and vivacity of description. It differs 

 from Tom Jones in that it partakes less of the Epic 



t It is obvious, from the definition before given of a Novel, that Sm ot- 

 ter's Sir Launcelot Greaves does not strictly belong to this class ; but ra- 

 ther falls under the denomination of Romance. 

 VOL. II. Y 



