n immediately the horses moved on, and, with universal
applause, our hero swung out of this world.

* * * * *

Joseph Andrews

"Joseph Andrews," Fielding's first novel, was published in
1742, and was intended to be a satire on Richardson's "Pamela"
(see Vol. VII), which appeared in 1740. He described it as
"written in the manner of Cervantes," and in Parson Adams
there is the same quaint blending of the humorous and the
pathetic as in the Knight of La Mancha. Although such
characters as Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop are admittedly
ridiculous, Parson Adams remains an admirable study of a
simple-minded clergyman of the eighteenth century.

_I.--The Virtues of Joseph Andrews_

Mr. Joseph Andrews was esteemed to be the only son of Gaffer and Gammer
Andrews, and brother to the illustrious Pamela.

At ten years old (by which time his education was advanced to writing
and reading) he was bound an apprentice to Sir Thomas Booby, an uncle of
Mr. Booby's by the father's side. From the stable of Sir Thomas he was
preferred to attend as foot-boy on Lady Booby, to go on her errands,
stand behind her chair, wait at her tea-table, and carry her prayer-book
to church; at which place he behaved so well in every respect at divine
service that it recommended him to the notice of Mr. Abraham Adams, the
curate, who took an opportunity one day to ask the young man several
questions concerning religion, with his answers to which he was
wonderfully pleased.

Mr. Abraham Adams was an excellent scholar, a man of good sense and good
nature, but at the same time entirely ignorant of the ways of the world.
At the age of fifty he was provided with a handsome income of twenty-
three pounds a year, which, however, he could not make any great figure
with, because he was a little encumbered with a wife and six children.

Adams had no nearer access to Sir Thomas or my lady than through Mrs.
Slipslop, the waiting-gentlewoman, for Sir Thomas was too apt to
estimate men merely by their dress or fortune, and my lady was a woman
of gaiety, who never spoke of any of her country neighbours by any other
appellation than that of the brutes.

Mrs. Slipslop, being herself the daughter of a curate, preserved some
respect for Adams; she would frequently dispute with him, and was a
mighty affecter of hard words, which she used in such a manner that the
parson was freque