Romances and Novels. 177 



pronounce the likeness to be perfect; and yet the 

 view may be fitted to corrupt the mind of every 

 one who looks upon it. The truth is, there are 

 many characters which ought never to be drawn 

 in fiction, as there are many which ought never to 

 be contemplated in fact. And he who regards the 

 welfare of a child will be as anxious to withhold 

 from him the view of many natural and lively de- 

 scriptions of vice, as to keep him from the com- 

 pany of those who are really vicious. Cf Many 

 writers," says a celebrated critic and moralist/ 

 " for the sake, as they tell us, of following nature* 

 so mingle good and bad qualities in their principal 

 personages, that they are both equally conspicuous; 

 and as we accompany them through their adven- 

 tures with delight, and are led by degrees to in- 

 terest ourselves in their favour, we lose the abhor- 

 rence of their faults because they do not hinder our 

 pleasure, or perhaps regard them with kindness 

 for being united with so much merit. There have 

 been men, indeed, splendidly wicked, whose en- 

 dowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and 

 whom scarce any villainy made perfectly detest- 

 able, because they never could be wholly divested 

 of their excellences; but such have been, in all 

 ages, the great corrupters of the world; and their 

 resemblance ought no more to be preserved than 

 the art of murdering without pain."* 



Estimating novels, then, not as they might be 

 made, but as they are in fact, it may be asserted, 

 that there is no species of reading which, promis- 

 cuously pursued, has a more direct tendency to 



d Dr. Johnson. Rambler, vol. i. 



e On this principle it is plain that such a character as Tom Jones ought; 

 never to have been exhibited by a friend to virtue. And though the cha- 

 racters drawn by Richardson are by no means so liable to censure on 

 this ground as several of those by Fielding, yet it may be doubted whe- 

 ther the Lovelace of the former, taken in all its parts, be a character calcu- 

 lated to make a virtuous impression, especially on the youthful mind._ 

 VOL. II. 2. A 



