382 Romances and Novels, [Chap. XIX. 



Her Ethelinde and Emmeline have few equals. 

 Dr. Moore, in describing English manners, has 

 acquitted himself with high credit. But the 

 works of the three last writers will probably 

 never be mentioned as forming an era in the 

 histor}^ of British novels, like those of Field- 

 ing, Richardson, Smollet, Burney, and Rad- 

 diffe. 



To the class of novels, rather than to any other, 

 belongs that remarkable production, the Life and 

 Opinions of Trist7^am Shandy, by the reverend Law- 

 rence Sterne*. Notwithstanding the often re- 

 peated, and well supported, charges brought against 

 this writer, of borrowing without acknowledg- 

 ment many of his best thoughts from preceding 

 British and French authors f, yet his work is a 

 unique in the history of literature. When it first 

 appeared his readers were astonished at the sin- 

 gular farrago of obscurity, whim, indecency, and 

 extravagance which it exhibited. The majority 

 appeared to be at a loss, for a time, what judg- 

 ment to form of its merits. But some of the 

 friends of the writer, professing to comprehend his 

 meaning, and disposed to place him high in the 

 ranks of wit and humour, gave the signal to ad- 

 mire. The signal was obeyed; and multitudes^ 



•* Lawrence Sterne was born at Clonmell, in Ireland, in 1713. 

 The first two volumes of Tristram Shandy were published in 176O. 

 Two years afterwards he travelled into France, for the benefit of 

 his health, which gave rise to his Sentimental Journei/. He died 

 in 1773. 



+ It seems to be now well ascertained tliat Sterne carried to 

 a very great length the practice of filling his pages with plunder 

 from other writers. 



