ake what you can of them.' Fielding will not efface himself; he
is always present as chorus; he tells us what moral we ought to draw; he
overflows with shrewd remarks, given in their most downright shape,
instead of obliquely suggested through the medium of anecdotes; he likes
to stop us as we pass through his portrait gallery; to take us by the
button-hole and expound his views of life and his criticisms on things
in general. His remarks are often so admirable that we prefer the
interpolations to the main current of narrative. Whether this plan is
the best must depend upon the idiosyncrasy of the author; but it goes
some way to explain one problem, over which Scott puzzles
himself--namely, why Fielding's plays are so inferior to his novels.
There are other reasons, external and internal; but it is at least clear
that a man who can never retire behind his puppets is not in the
dramatic frame of mind. He is always lecturing where a dramatist must be
content to pull the wires. Shakespeare is really as much present in his
plays as Fielding in his novels; but he does not let us know it; whereas
the excellent Fielding seems to be quite incapable of hiding his broad
shoulders and lofty stature behind his little puppet-show.

There are, of course, actors in Fielding's world who can be trusted to
speak for themselves. Tom Jones, at any rate, who is Fielding in his
youth, or Captain Booth, who is the Fielding of later years, are drawn
from within. Their creator's sympathy is so close and spontaneous that
he has no need of his formulae and precedents. But elsewhere he betrays
his method by his desire to produce his authority. You will find the
explanation of a certain line of conduct, he says, in 'human nature,
page almost the last.' He is a little too fond of taking down that
volume with a flourish; of exhibiting his familiarity with its pages,
and referring to the passages which justify his assertions. Fielding has
an odd touch of the pedant. He is fond of airing his classical
knowledge; and he is equally fond of quoting this imaginary code which
he has had to study so thoroughly and painfully. The effect, however, is
to give an air of artificiality to some of his minor characters. They
show the traces of deliberate composition too distinctly, though the
blemish may be forgiven in consideration of the genuine force and
freshness of his thinking. If manufactured articles, they are not
second-hand manufactures. His knowledge, unli