means of his own experience, must obtain a considerable acquaintaince with the latter.. It were to be wished, however, that he could obtain some portion of it, previous to his entrance upon active life. Experience comes late, and is often too dearly bought. Before acquiring it, he may have committed those errors, and suffered those evils, from which the possession of it would have secured him. Written narratives would form. also the best foundation for what may be termed the philosophy of domestic life; a science, which, though yet in its infancy, seems likely to be at least as useful as political philosophy.

But, in stating these defects of historical composition, it is by no means my intention to represent fiction as a very eligible substitute. For the resemblance which it bears to truth can hardly ever be so exact, as that truth itself must not still be preferable. However well executed, it can never be referred to by the moralist, as an authority, on which to establish maxims for the conduct of life. The chief fictitious performances, that have pretensions of this kind, are those which

go by the name of comic romances. Here, the great aim of the writers being to present their characters in a ludicrous and amusing point of view, they are naturally led, instead of a faithful representation of nature, to give very strong caricatures. With the same view of entertaining their readers, they have filled the story with surprising and improbable incidents, such as seldom or never take place in real life. Nor have they scrupled to use other methods still more unwarrantable, which render many of these works by no means serviceable to the cause of morality.

The best method, then, of supplying the deficiencies of history, seems, instead of these works, to be the biography of private life. Here a man may view others acting in the very same circumstances in which he himself, either is, or may be placed. This species of composition is generally objected to, as not capable of exciting a sufficient degree of interest. For this objection, there has hitherto, no doubt, been some ground. So long as this is the case, fiction may, in some degree, though very imperfectly, supply its

place. Of late, however, it seems to have . more and more attracted the attention of the public. The chief cause has probably been the grect diffusion of literature among the middling, and even the lower classes, of society. This circumstance, according to all appearance, is likely, not only to continue, but to increase; and the taste for this species of biography may be expected to keep pace with it.

We proceed, now, to what may be termed reasoning fictions. These are composed with the view of proving the truth of some proposition, which the author considers as important. This may be either a philosophical opinion, or a moral principle. They may be divided, therefore, into philosophical and moral; on each of which it will be proper to make a few separate observations.

Philosophical romances are a very late invention, and have not been always employed for the best of purposes. Some of the first, indeed, which made their appearance, were written with the view of supporting some very ill-founded and dangerous principles.

It is obvious, however, that this is merely an accidental circumstance; that they might have been employed in support of useful, as well as of pernicious doctrines. Of late, indeed, they have actually been so several very ingenious works have been produced, with the view of counteracting the bad effects of those above alluded to.* The question is, then, how far this can be considered, in itself, as a proper mode of investigating truth?

The only opinions, it is evident, which can be introduced here, are those of a practical nature; and the object must be, to shew the good or bad effects which these opinions pro-duce, when applied to the conduct of life. To effect this purpose, the leading events in the story must appear to be the immediate and direct consequences of their operation. These events, too, must be strictly conformable to the usual course of nature: every thing unnatural and improbable is to be excluded. Were these rules to be carefully.

See note [A] at the end of the volume.

observed, the attempt might, at first sight, appear not altogether preposterous; and it might be thought, by many readers, to be a very easy and amusing manner of devoting themselves to philosophical inquiry. Yet, there are considerations, which, if duly attended to, will probably lead us to a somewhat different conclusion.

First, then, it tends to form a very pernicious habit, that of resting philosophical opinions upon any foundation, besides that of well ascertained facts. The building upon these, by what is termed the method of induction, is now universally allowed to be the only road which can lead to the discovery of im-portant truth. But no good purpose can be answered by an attempt to draw inferences from imaginary events. Such an attempt is one of the abuses of this kind of writing, which, the reader, instead of being encouraged in, ought to be carefully guarded against.

This objection will apply, even on the supposition of the execution being unexceptionable. But there are several circumstances