ceeding occurrences of his life, but that he shall preserve a confiftent character to the end; that fo, when his part is finished, be it happy or unhappy, he may earn a plaudit as the curtain drops.

I do not aim to draw a perfect character, for after a pretty long acquaintance with mankind I have never met with any one example of the fort: how then fhall I defcribe what I have not feen? On the contrary, if I wish to form a character, like this of Henry, in which virtue predominates, or like that of Blachford, where the oppofite qualities prevail, I have nature before me in both cafes: but if in the former inftance I will not fuffer a single shade to fall upon my canvas, and in the latter do not let one tint of light appear, what do I present to the fpectator, but a confufed and fhapeless mafs, here too glaring, and there too opaque, to preserve any outline that can give to view the form and fashion of a man?-The brighteft fide of human nature is not without a spot, the darkest fide is not without a spark.

For my own part, as I am not apt to be amufed with ftories told to the difcredit of mankind, I should be forry if this of mine appeared to any of my readers to have that tendency

tendency in the general. A contrast of character there will be in all hiftories, true or feigned; but when an author is the biographer of men and women of his own making, he has it in his power, without lofing fight of nature, to let the prevailing impreffion of his fable be favourable or unfavourable, and indulge his own propenfities to a certain degree, which ever way they point. Now I know not why we should studiously put forward none but the worst features of the time we live in; yet I think this has been done by fome novelifts of great celebrity, in whom there reigns a fpirit of fatire, that in my opinion neither adds to their merit nor our amusement. A pedant, who fecludes himself from fociety, may nourish a cynical humour; but a writer, who gives the living manners of the age, is fuppofed to live amongst men, and write from the crowd rather than the clofet; now if fuch a man runs about from place to place with no cleanlier purpose than to fearch for filth and ordure, I conceive his office to be that of a fcavenger rather than a scholar. An honeft man, as I take it, will always find honefty enough, and a friendly man meet friendship enough in his contemporaries, to keep him in good

B 3

good-humour with them. Something indeed may be found to reprehend in all times; as the manners and the morals fluctuate, the mirror that reflects them faithfully will give to objects as they pass their proper form and feature. In the time I am now writing, the national character fhews itself in fo bright a point of view, that the author must be harsh in the extreme, who holds up fictions of depravity as exemplars of the æra in which he lives.

I think I may promife myself, therefore, that the general fpirit of my hiftory will not be thought morofe. I have, indeed, taken occafion, in the character of Jemima Cawdle, to make free with enthusiasm; but I have at the fame time exhibited it in contact with a virtu'ous principle, under the aufpices of my worthy friend Ezekiel Daw: I have defcribed a domeftic tyrant in the perfon of Lord Crowbery; but I did not give him a title because I thought that pride was attached to a peerage, or that the cruel and overbearing part which my fable affigns to him, was characteristic of nobility, the very contrary of which I hold for doctrine; neither did I locate Blachford in Jamaica, as favouring an invective against our countrymen in the Weft Indies; no man, I

believe,

believe, can be found lefs inclined to be a convert to that groundless prejudice, which vain and fhallow heads have been hatching for purposes no less fatal to the interefts of the public than to the reputations of individuals.

To represent scenes of familiar life in an elegant and interefting manner, is one of the moft difficult tasks an author can take in hand; for of these every man is a critic: Nature is in the firft place to be attended to, and probability is not to be loft fight of; but it must be nature strongly featured, and probability closely bordering on the marvellous; the one must touch upon extravagance, and the other be highly feasoned with adventures-for who will thank us for a dull and lifeless journal of infipid facts? Now every peculiarity of humour in the human character is a ftrain upon nature, and every furprizing incident is a degree of violence to probability: How far fhall we go then for our reader's amusement, how foon fhall we ftop in confideration of ourselves? There is undoubtedly a land-mark in the fields of fancy, funt certi denique fines, but it requires a nice difcernment to find them out, and a cautious temper not to step beyond them.

Here, then, I will reft my cause, and conclude my chapter. My readers have my beft endeavours to amufe them; I have devoted very many hours to the composition of thefe volumes, and I am beholden to them for beguiling me of many a care; if they retain their property when they fhall pass into the hands of those who perufe them, it will be every thing I can hope for from them.

CHAPTER II.

Chamber Dialogues of different Serts.

WHEN our hero arrived at Zachary's caftle, he found a' poft-chaife in waiting at the gate: As he paffed it to enter the court, he made a profound reverence to a lady, whom at first fight he fuppofed to be his noble benefactrefs and the owner of it. Upon the glafs being let down, to return his civility, he perceived his mistake: It was Ifabella Manftock: She had accompanied her coufin in her morning airing, and was now filling up the time with a book, whilst her ladyship was in private conference with Doctor Cawdle. That lady had imparted fo much of her business to Mifs

Manftock