hundred late novels; to give a turn and a variety to love affairs, by every mode of cross-purposes, and haibreadth escapes, there must be a termination even to thefe, and the com mon adventures of novels were actu

ally becoming as infipid as the progrefs of real life, when a bold and fuccefsful attempt was lately made to enliven these narratives by a certain proportion of murders, ghofts, clanking chains, dead bodies, fkeletons, old caitles, and damp dungeons. Happily for those who are tired with themselves and all around them, this attempt produced a number of imitations, and we now rarely fee a novel that is not entirely compofed of the terrific materials above enumerated.

Murder is certainly a very fruitful topic: it can be contrived in fo many ways, and if once we return to the old-fashioned belief in ghosts, it is incredible with what eafe we may increase our flock of perfonages, for every one mentioned in the work may have a ghost, and living or dead, we may in this way exactly double our amufement. We may truly fay with Macbeth,

The times have been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

And there an end: but now, they rife again,

With twenty mortal murders on their

fore must be, and certainly is amufement of a very fingular kind, fuch as appears to me to be very incompatible with tendernefs of frame, or purity of mind. What fhould we think, if a lady, who had the command of an extenfive library, fhould ranfack the indexes, and reject every page but that which contained an account of a murder? A queftion then very naturally arifes, Why are works entirely compofed of murders confidered as most certain of being gerufed? The anfwer to this question I fhall leave to my readers, and content myself with hoping that the prefent fathion, like all departures from nature and common fenfe, will have but a short reign.

Still muft I revert to my original thought, that a mistaken notion of the dulnefs and famenefs of common life so often fends us for relief to the regions of fiction, and if we go there merely upon the principle of amusement, we fhall derive no difadvantage from perufing the mott claffical productions of this defcription: but beyond that, I fufpect we fhall often be deluded by eftimates of human life and happiness that are calculated upon falfe foundations. The days of youth are certainly days of curiofity, and if that is directed to proper objects around us, we shall not find that real life is fo devoid of variety as we imagined, or that there is any abfolute neceffity for relieving our minds by fabulous narratives. The page of hiftory, to him whose mind has not been weakened by a course of fuperficial reading, will contain more variety and entertainment, than the utmoft ftretch of fiction could

have produced, and we shall have the fuperior fatisfaction in reflecting that the inftruction we receive is wellgrounded, and that the events which furprise us are always true, or at least probable. Where they are doubtful, the hiftorian's fufpicions prevent our being deceived. This, added to an E 2

round

From Illuftrations of Sterne,

STERNE was no friend to gravity, for which he had very good reafons; it was a quality which excited his difguft, even in authors who lived in times that exacted an appearance of it. Like the manager in the farce*, he fometimes took the best part of their tragedy to put it into his own comedy. Previous to the Reformation, great latitude in manners was affumed by the clergy. Bandello, who published three volumes of tales, in which he often laid afide decorum, was a bishop; and perhaps fome of Sterne's friends expected him to become one alfo, without confidering the feverity of conduct required in proteftant prelates. His friend Hall has run the parallel to my hands. "Why mayn' Bandello have a rap? Why maya't I imitate Bandello? There never was a prelate's cap Beftow'd upon a droiler fellow. Like Triftram in mirth delighting; Like Triftram a pleasant writer; Like his, I hope that Triftram's writing Will be rewarded with a mitret.

Sterne has contrived to give a ludicrous turn to thofe paffages which he took from Burton's Anatomy, of Melancholy, a book, once the favourite of the learned and the witty, and a fource of furreptitious learning to many others befides our author. I had often wondered at the pains beflowed by Sterne in ridiculing opinions not fashionable in his time, and had thought it fingular, that he should produce the portrait of his fophift, Mr Shandy, with all the ftains and mouldinefs of the last century about him. I am now convinced that moft of the fingularities of that character were drawn from the perufal of Bur

-ton.

The Anatomy of Melancholy, though written on a regular plan, confifts

The Critic."

&c. by John Ferriar, M. D.

chiefly of quotations: the author has honeftly termed it a cento. He collects, under every divifion, the opinions of a multitude of writers, without regard to chronological order, and has too often, the modefty to decline the interpofition of his own fentiments. Indeed the bulk of his materials generally overwhelms him. In the course of his folio, he has contrived to treat a great variety of topics, that feem very loofely connected with the general fubject, and, like Bayle, when he starts a favourite train of quotations, he does not fcruple to let the digreffion outrun the principal queftion. Thus from the doctrines of religion to military difcipline, from inland navigation to the morality of dancing-fchools, every thing is difcuffed and determined.

In his introductory addrefs to the reader, where he indulges himself in an Utopian fketch of a perfect government (with due homage previoufly paid to the character of James I.), we find the origin of Mr Shandy's notions on this fubject. The paffages are too long to be transcribed.

The quaintnefs of many of his divifions feems to have given Sterne the hint of his ludicrous titles to feveral chapters; and the rifible effect of Burton's grave endeavours to prove indifputable facts by weighty quotations, he has happily caught, and fometimes well burlefqued. The archnefs which Burton difplays occafionally, and his indulgence of playful digreffions from the mott serious difcuffions, often give his ftyle an air of familiar converfation, notwithflanding the laborious collections which fupply his text. He was capable of writing excellent poetry, but he feems

"Zachary's Tale."

to