ON

ROMANCES,

AN ΙΜΙΤΑΤΙΟ Ν.

OF

F all the multifarious productions which the efforts of fuperior genius, or the labours of scholaftic industry, have crowded upon the world, none are perused with more insatiable avidity, or diffeminated with more univerfal applause, than the narrations of feigned events, descriptions of imaginary scenes, and delineations of ideal characters. The celebrity of other authors is confined within

D 4

within very narrow limits. The Geometrician and Divine, the Antiquary and the Critic, however diftinguished by uncontefted excellence, can only hope to please those whom a conformity of dif polition has engaged in fimilar pursuits; and must be content to be regarded by the rest of the world with the fmile of frigid indifference, or the contemptuous fneer of felf-fufficient folly. The collector of fhells and the anatomist of infects is little inclined to enter into theological difputes: the Divine is not apt to regard with veneration the uncouth diagrams and tedious calculations of the Aftronomer: the man whofe life has been confumed in adjusting the disputes of lexicographers, or elucidating the learning of antiquity, cannot eafily bend his thoughts to recent tranfactions, or readily intereft himself in the unimportant hiftory of his contemporaries: and the

Cit,

Cit, who knows no bufinefs but acquiring wealth, and no pleasure but difplaying it, has a heart equally fhut up to argument and fancy, to the batteries of fyllogifm, and the arrows of wit.

To the

writer of fiction alone, every ear is open, and every tongue lavish of applause ; curiofity sparkles in every eye, and every bofom is throbbing with concern.

It is, however, eafy to account for this enchantment. To follow the chain of perplexed ratiocination, to view with critical skill the airy architecture of systems, to unravel the web of fophiftry, or weigh the merits of oppofite hypothefes, requires perfpicacity, and prefuppofes learning. Works of this kind, therefore, are not fo well adapted to the generality of readers as familiar and colloquial compofition; for few can reafon, but all can feel; and many who

cannot

cannot enter into an argument, may yet liften to a tale. The writer of Romance has even an advantage over those who endeavour to amufe by the play of fancy; who, from the fortuitous collifon of diffimilar ideas produce the scintillations of wit; or by the vivid glow of poetical imagery delight the imagination with colours of ideal radiance. The attraction of the magnet is only exerted upon fimilar particles; and to taste the beauties of Homer, it is requifite to partake his fire; but every one can relish the author who reprefents common life, because every one can refer to the originals from whence his ideas were taken. relates events to which all are liable, and applies to paffions which all have felt. The gloom of folitude, the languor of inaction, the corrofions of difappointment, and the toil of thought, induce men to ftep afide from the rugged road of life,

He

and

and wander in the fairy land of fiction; where every bank is fprinkled with flowers, and every gale loaded with perfume; where every event introduces a hero, and every cottage is inhabited by a Grace. Invited by thefe flattering fcenes, the ftudent quits the investigation of truth, in which he perhaps meets with no lefs fallacy, to exhilarate his mind with new ideas, more agreeable, and more eafily attained: the bufy relax their attention by defultory reading, and smooth the agitation of a ruffled mind with images of peace, tranquillity, and pleafure: the idle and the gay relieve the lift ffness of leifure, and diverfify the round of life by a rapid feries of events pregnant with rapture and astonishment; and the penfive folitary fills up the vacuities of his heart by interesting himself in the fortunes of imaginary beings, and forming connections with ideal excellence.

IT