NOV 
fictitious bbe took its fae ri = fentimental ; 
confifted, principally, in the expo delineation: of 
in min de 
certain co and delicate fenfations, which either have no 
exiftence, or p iced, in ative and bufy life. The 
moft celebrated writers of this {pecies of novel, are Ster 
and t offeffes wit mour, intermingled 
ith 
3 
] 
xim, which he too often neglected, that fimple and ahd 
tural ineident, if told in correfpondent language, have more 
over the feelings and fympathy of the reader, than 
foenes oe extraordinary and accumulated ae pourtrayed 
in figurative and ftrained language. Itm | 
be doubted, whether indolent and te fympathy, irae 
than active and difcriminating benevolence, will not be gene- 
rated by the perufal, even of the fineft paflages in Sterne’s 
novels, 
Perhaps few novels were ever more popular than the 
Sorrows of Werter were, at one time ; but their popularity 
has been long on the wane. It is a fentimental novel of a 
very different clafs from the writings of Sterne; being diftin- 
guifhed rather by ftrong and boifterous paflion, than by de- 
licate and fhrinking fenfibility ; and while an indolent lan- 
guor of feeling is produced by the latter author, the perufal 
of the novel of Goethé is calculated to ftimulate an un- 
governable temper, impatience of reftraint, and contempt 
for all the fober and rational maxims of life. 
ree fies view of fome of the beft authors in the higheft 
clafs of novel writing, it will be abundantly evident, that 
the perufal of thefe works is more calculated, and apt, to be 
prejudicial than advantageous, unlefs the mind i is previoufl 
fortified with found a and the Paflions and reeling 
Even then 
their claim au reft, ee ee on nae intereft which they excite, 
than on the inftru@ion which they afford. Whoever draws 
his opinions of the world, of the manners, chara¢ters, and 
purfuits of mankind, from novels, will enter on real life to 
great difadvantage; the penoneere of novels, efpecially of 
thofe which teem from the n prefs, either bear no 
refemblance to mankind, or iat nar Hee confifts in fuch 
a narrow peculiarity of feature, as renders it rather an indi- 
vidu an a general piture. But the ftrongeft and moft 
undoubted objeGion to novels, arifes from the effects which 
the perufal of them produces on the mental faculties, and the 
literary tafte ; during it the mind is nearly paffive ; a loung- 
ing, defultory habit of reading is acquired, fo that when 
NOV 
works are to be perufed which require clofe and regular at- 
n the alert, to follow 
le 
difcipline, pene ou 
be aaa in to an improper 
to e fober and vfeful eariee with greater relifh 
aad renewed Ge ne 
L Affgnment, in an ation of trefpafs, is an affign- 
cient of time, place, o the like, in a declaration, other- 
wife or more particularly than it was in the writ. 
See AssIsE of tei diffeifin. 
il n of Spain, in the 
NO A, in Ge eagraphy 
rovince of Valencia; 15 mile Of he nt. 
NOVEMASTO, a town of Auftrian Poland, in Gali- 
of Lemberg. 
cla; 40 miles W.S, W. 
NOVEMBER, the eleventh month in the Julian year, 
but the ninthin the year of Romulus; whence its name. 
NOVEMIA SECZKO, in Casals, atown of Samo- 
gitia; 26 miles N.E. of Medniki. 
NOVEMPOPULANIA, in cued Geography, a pro- 
vince of Gaul, towards the fouth-w 
NOVEMSILES, or Novis, in os ed a {pe- 
cies of gods worfhipped among the ancient Rom 
The dii novemfiles were the gods oF the Sabines, adopted 
by Romulus; js had a temple built to them, in confequence 
of a vow, by ki Tatius. 
Some an nee take the name to have heen given to 
thofe heroes who were laft placed among the number of the 
gods; as Hercules, Vefta, Sanity, Fortune 
shied rae an order of magiftrates at Aakers, nine 
in num 
he nevemviri were the chief oo of the city ; 
their office only held for one year. chief was called 
archon, whofe ae was ayaa n the Ades foals as, 
at Rome, that of the confu 
e — aa the title of bafileus ; the third, of a 
archa, i. e. of the troops; and the remaining fix, 
the/moth as 
NOVENDIALE, or NovempiALe, in ee a {o- 
emn facrifice among the Romans, held o a of any 
prodigies appearing to menace them with ill vane 
It had its name from the term of its ebeaccis 
novem dies, nine days. 
NOUER w’EcuiLtetrte, in the Manege. 
haar 
Viz. 
See YERK- 
NG. 
NOVES, in Geography, a town of Spain, in New val 
tile; 16 miles N.N.W. of Toledo. 
ARSEK, a town of Eaft Greenland. N. i. 
61° 14!. W. long. 45° 30'. 
NOVGOROD, or Novocoron, a city of Ruffia, and 
capital of a government, on the river Volchova, at the N. 
end of the lake Ilmen; the fee of an archbifhop. This is 
rit 
made this city the metropolis of his dominions; and though 
the 
