NOVELS. 
more fimplicity than thofe of Marivaux, while they 
equally interefting from the fkill with which ye narative i is 
conduéted, the vividnefs and animation wit h the in- 
cidents are related, and the faithful portraits. which they 
exhibit of human nature, in fome of its moft pleafing and 
aay form s. 
very different Gane and even in the mof 
eloquent parts of Roufleaw’ s° ae the characters of the 
French fchool may be traced. He does not indeed paint his 
charaéters by minute and laboured features: but with the 
hand of genius, he ftrikes off the portrait, by a rapid and 
flowing exhibition of thofe features, on whic e foul is 
mott ftrongly expreffed. His novels alfo are cicontioaly 
interefting, from the infight which they afford into the au- 
thor’s own charafter; though there is fo little appearance 
of art in his writings, that the idea of the {kill or talents . 
the writer does not crofs our mind, or break in ae ou 
a elias and obfcu 
re weakne 
ae ee of character, cannot be paralleled in any other 
"The circumftances which gave rife to this moft extraordi- 
nary work are detailed by Rouffeau in his memoirs; and as 
they are extremely interefting, from the difplay which they 
exhibit of the workings of his imagination, and the ex- 
treme and morbid fenfibility of his feelings, we fhall briefly 
cetailthem. Tired of Paris, he withdrew toa {mall coun- 
try houfe near it; where he fhut himfelf completely up from 
all vifitors, indulging his tafte for folitude and vifionary en- 
Here he defcribes himfelf as having ia feized 
he moft violent propenfity to love ; but as his age and 
fituation precluded aving a real miftrels, he 
night 
he s that it might produce; but he 
urges, that the dire a iguich it prefents an egal was 
lefs dangerous and criminal than that which had become 
common in France: as, therefore, he defpaired of freeing hue 
man nature from vice, he refolved to content himfelf with 
perfection, 
a are ae hbiced, will naturally infpire a wifh to imitate 
co 
~ 
The novels of Richardfon are of a very peculiar cha- 
rater; and as they cannot be {triétly claffed with any other 
Englifh ae it fe be neceffary to confider them by them- 
felves, and ci ome length. Certainly his great ae 
extreme minutenefs and fulnefs o s de- 
the midft of thefe, the reader is frequently tired or r difgated, 
but they neverthelefs leave on his min nd a more diftiné idea 
reft. 
ccurs to 
ery we 
actually bibl By this means Richa le ie the: i 
vantage of bringing readers, already interefted in the higheft 
degree, to the perufal of thofe fcenes, where his knowledge 
of the human heart, and his powers of pathetic defcrip- 
tion, are brought forward to the greateit advantage and 
effe 
all the merits of Richardfon’s novels, they have 
ee ‘faults. the argumentative difcuffions which he intro- 
: Mrs. Barbauld 
$ intimacy with female fociety and female letter- 
writing. ith regard to the moral tendency of his works, 
it is probably not fo highly rated now as it was at the time 
t th were written: on this {core Pamela cannot be defend- 
umour is coarfe an 
caily aoe and carral but they are fuch as require rather 
an acquaintance with manners, and with the influence of 
particular 
