580 Romances mid Novels. [Chap. XIX. 



of genius. His Nouvelle Heloise is one of the most 

 j*eniarkable productions of the age. Eloquent, 

 tender, and interesting in the highest degree ; 

 yet full of inconsistency, of extravagance, of li- 

 centious principle, and of voluptuous, seducting 

 description. Poison lurks in every page; but 

 conceafed from the view of niany readers by tbe 

 wonderful fascination which is thrown around 

 every object. Of the dangerous tendency of his 

 work, indeed, tlie author was himself fully sen- 

 sible, and speaks freely. A circumstance which 

 forms one among the many grounds of imputatioa 

 against the morality of that singular man *• 



The writings of the distinguished novelists above 

 mentioned produced, in every part of Europe, a 

 host of imitators and adventurers in the regions of 

 fiction. To give even a general sketch of the nu- 

 merous classes of those who have written under the 

 titles of Memoirs y Lives, Histoines, Adventures, 

 &c. would fill a volume. Since the time of Field- 



* The character of Rousseau perhaps exhibits the most sin- 

 gular and humiliating contrasts that were ever displayed in a hu- 

 man being. Exalted genius and groveling folly alternately cha- 

 racterized his mind. At some periods he appeared to be under 

 the influence of the most pure and sublime moral feelings 5 while, 

 at others^ the lowest propensities, and most detestable passions, 

 possessed and governed him. Oftentimes, when speaking of 

 morality and religion, one would imagine that sentiments of the 

 most elevated benevolence and piety were habitual to him j but 

 the tenour of his life, and, indeed, his own Confessiom demon- 

 strate, that an unnatural compound of vanity, meanness, and 

 contemptible self-love, a suspicious, restless temper, bordering 

 on insanity, and a prostration of every principle and duty to his 

 own aggrandisement and gratification, were the real predominant 

 characteristics of this strange phenomenon in human nature. He 

 was born at Geneva, in the year 1712, and died in ITS. 



