Chap. XIX.] Romances and Novels. 377 



species of composition. Though Fielding has been 

 less popular abroad, owing, perhaps, to the pecu- 

 liar appropriateness of his pictures of English nian- 

 ners; yet, in several important attributes of ficti- 

 tious narrative, he certainly transcends every other 

 writer. 



These distinguished and standard novelists have 

 had many imitators, particularly in their own coun- 

 try ; but none who have risen to the same degree 

 of excellence which they attained. Among the 

 most successful of these was Dr. Smollet. His 

 Roderic Random was written in imitation of 7 is;/! 

 Jones ; his Humphrey Clinker, the last and best 

 of his works, after the manner of Richardson; 

 and his Historif of Sir Launcelot Greaves, with a 

 view to the manner of Cervantes *. These imita- 

 tions 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 

 peculiarities of professional character Dr. Smollet 

 displays great powers. Perhaps no writer was ever 

 more successful in drawing the character of sea- 

 men. Sometimes, indeed, his pictures I)or(ler on 

 the extravagance of carkatura, to which his sati- 

 rical 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 Peregi^ine Pkidcj and T/ie Ad- 



* It is obvious, from the definition before ^^iven of a Strvrl, 

 that Smollet's Sir Launcelot Greaves dioes not stricdy belong tothii 

 class 3 but rather falls under the denomination of liomanu: 



