has been enabled, by his sad experience, to give us
truthful pictures of every grade of English society in his day from the
lord, the squire, and the fop to the thief-taker, the prostitute, and the
thief.

Henry Fielding was born on the 22d of April, 1707, at Sharpham Park,
Somersetshire. While yet a young man, he had read _Pamela_; and to
ridicule what he considered its prudery and over-righteousness, he hastily
commenced his novel of _Joseph Andrews_. This Joseph is represented as the
brother of Pamela,--a simple country lad, who comes to town and finds a
place as Lady Booby's footman. As Pamela had resisted her master's
seductions, he is called upon to oppose the vile attempts of his mistress
upon his virtue.

In that novel, as well as in its successors, _Tom Jones_ and _Amelia_,
Fielding has given us rare pictures of English life, and satires upon
English institutions, which present the social history of England a
century ago: in this view our sympathies are not lost upon purely ideal
creations.

In him, too, the French _illuminati_ claimed a co-laborer; and their
influence is more distinctly seen than in Richardson's works: great
social problems are discussed almost in the manner of a Greek chorus;
mechanical forms of religion are denounced. The French philosophers
attacked errors so intertwined with truth, that the violent stabs at the
former have cut the latter almost to death; Richardson attacked the errors
without injuring the truth: he is the champion of purity. If _Joseph
Andrews_ was to rival _Pamela_ in chastity, _Tom Jones_ was to be
contrasted with both in the same particular.

TOM JONES.--Fielding has received the highest commendations from literary
men. Byron calls him the "prose Homer of human nature;" and Gibbon, in
noticing that the Lords of Denbigh were descended, like Charles V., from
Rudolph of Hapsburg, says: "The successors of Charles V. may despise their
brethren of England, but the romance of _Tom Jones_--that exquisite
picture of human manners--will outlive the Palace of the Escurial and the
Imperial Eagle of Austria." We cannot go so far; we quote the praise but
doubt the prophecy. The work is historically valuable, but technically
imperfect and unequal. The plot is rambling, without method: most of the
scenes lie in the country or in obscure English towns; the meetings are as
theatrical as stage encounters; the episodes are awkwardly introduced, and
disfigure the unity; the classical