NOV 
of the fame family as the preceding, and born in 1729. 
He greatly diftinguifhed himfelf as a Oa officer in the 
war of 1741, and alfo in that of 1756. He was flain in the 
action of Saxenhoufen in 1760. Lewis XV. being saa of 
his death, faid that « he had loft the Loudon of France.”” 
The count wrote “ New Military Conttitutions,”’ ned 
at Frankfort in 1760. 
OUR, Jouy-Savve DE LA, a French actor and dramatic 
writer, was born at Meaux in the year r7or. The duke 
of Orleans affigned | to him the direCtion of histheatre at St. 
Cloud, and Voltaire wrote fome pieces purpofely for him. 
He died in 1761. His tragedies and comedies were publifhed 
at Paris in 1765. 
N » NoveLta, in Juri/prudence, isa term ufed for 
the edn ftitutions of fevera viz. Juftin, Tibe- 
inian. 
’s Novels were originally Greek, and af- 
terwards were t tranflated i into Latin. eir number is 168, 
pa rifled in nine colleGions or age. See Civit 
had their name salle either from their making a 
reat alteration i in the fac . the ancient law; or, as Cu- 
me Se e on new cafes not yet confi- 
after the mere of the code, compiled by or- 
der of the emperor 
Wherever Accurfius {peaks of novels, he means thofe 
publifhed in Greek by Juftinian : the Latin verfion of them, 
made in the time of Bulgarus, he calls Authentics, by reafon 
of its eg and fidelit 
L, in Matters of Literature, a eae hiftory of a 
feries of {urprizing and entertainin s in common life, 
wherein the rules of probability are, or anouel to be, riGly 
obferved ; in which it differs from a romance, where the 
hero and heroine are fome prince and princefs, and the ne 
which lead to the cataftrophe are, in general, highly abfurd 
and unnatural. 
fter a general change in the manners of Europe, a dif- 
belief 1 in magic and enchantments, the abolition of tourna- 
abf 
fe 
hicle for profligate adventures, and for the difplay and re- 
commendation of loofe and immoral charaéter. Since that 
time, imitations of life and manners have been their princi- 
pal obje@, and though their moral or beneficial tendency may 
often be aera yet their profeffed objeé& is to inftrud as 
well as t 
Mrs, Ba rba uld, in her oo on the life and writings 
els ma 
of Richardfon, remarks, that n y be diftinguifhed 
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that in which the ‘sae relates n adventures ; and the 
third is o- epiftolary pete ai in which all the 
NOV 
ss chara&ters of the novel jae the events in which 
they were moft concerned. i mode appears to have 
rative probability of a perfon fitting down, after, his adven« 
tures were finifhed, to give an account of them to the pub- 
lic, and of his difpatching a narrative of every intere(ting 
occurrence, immediately after it happened, to his friends b 
may have had for tellingit. Pethaps the firft of thefe modes, 
the author’s own narrative, is the bl ives him 
greater {cope, and allows him to introduce greater variety in 
his mode of narration, and in his ftyle. The epiftolary 
ityle, however, is beft adapted to that {pecies of novel in 
which the characters, and not the adventures of the perfons 
introduced, are intended principally to roufe, and fix the in- 
as it 
tere sara : it is, therefore, emp or. yed with great 
propriety and e Rouffeau, in his Heloife 
The French ee ate excel all other nations in this 
MOLUL 
poffible degree ay asians and excefs. 
their objet was to recommend vice, or crime, b exhibiting 
it united with great vigour of mind, {plendour of genius, and 
even with fome interefting and attradive virtues. 
The Gil Blas of Le Sage is filled with a band dar 
of the world ; and is evidently the work of a who had 
ftudied human nature, under certain circumflances, with 
great attention and fkill: but his turn for fatire is fo ftrong 
and predominating, that a tinge of caricature runs through 
the whole work. One of the chief advantages and excel- 
lencies of Gil Blas, confifts 1 in e correct and an nimated view 
changes of human manners and character, and confines his 
attention to thofe events and circumftances only, which in- 
tereft or benefit the politician. 
e novels o Sage do not prefent a ee pic- 
ture of the chara¢teriftic qualities and excellen s of the 
the 
all fais force aa cee rings. Per. 
ing too minute and refined in tracing the motives and painting 
the feelings of his charaGter. The novels of Florian have 
Aa more 
