ly any just information concerning the characters of which they treat.

Means were adopted, during the last age, for facilitating the acquisition and retention of biɑgraphical knowledge, similar to those which were before mentioned as belonging to the department of history. Biographical Charts were first formed on the continent of Europe, where they have appeared in various forms. This contrivance was first introduced into Great Britain by Dr. Priestley.

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CHAPTER XIX.

ROMANCES AND NOVELS.

FICTITIOUS narrative, as a medium of instruction or entertainment, has been employed from the earliest ages of which we have any knowledge. Of this kind of composition we have some interesting specimens in the sacred writings. But, like every thing else in the hands of depraved man, it has been unhappily perverted and abused. For many centuries the only form of fictitious history in vogue was that of Romance*, or descriptions of the characters and manners of former times, mingled with many extravagant and improbable circumstances, and calculated to meet that fondness for the marvellous which so strongly characterises the human mind.

One of the earliest writers of this class of whom we have any distinct account, but by no means one of the most extravagant of them, was Heliodorus, bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly, who lived in the fourth century †. His work was entitled

* The word Romance is of Spanish origin, and signifies the Spanish tongue; the greater part of which is derived from the ancient Latin or Roman language. It seems the first Spanish books were fabulous, and being called Romance on account of the tongue in which they were written, the same name was afterwards given, by the other nations of Europe, not to Spanish books, which is the proper application of the term, but to a certain class of fabulous writings. See Beattie On Fable and Romance.

† Doubts have been entertained whether the work of Heliodo

"

Ethiopics, from the scene of the adventures being laid in Ethiopia. And although it was a decent and moral performance, and the inhabitants of Antioch attested that it had reformed the females of their city, yet the author, for writing and refusing to suppress it, was deprived of his bishopric, and deposed from the clerical office. M. Bayle humorously observes, that the marriage of Theagines and Chariclea, the hero and heroine of this romance, was the most prolific of any that he had read of; having produced all the romances which have been written since that time.

After the time of Heliodorus romances became still more extravagant and absurd in their character. The times and principles of Chivalry conferred upon them new features, and gave them a different cast from all the fictitious writings which had before appeared. In these performances the reader was continually presented with the wild absurdities and the heroic exploits of knight-errantry. Giants, dragons, enchanted castles, fairies, ghosts, and all the tribes of imaginary wonders, were constantly passing before him. Probability, and even possibility, were little consulted. To arrest, astonish, and intoxicate the mind, seem to have been their principal objects. But extravagance was not the only fault of the old romantic writings. They

rus were really the first romance. Some suppose that instances of this kind of writing may be traced back as far as the time of Aristotle. Others have thought that, from the Asiatic Researches, and other modern publications on oriental literature, there is reason to believe that the native country of Romance is the East, which seems to have produced many extravagant specimens from time immemorial, See Curiosities of Literature, by d'Israeli.

were often grossly immoral in their nature and tendency, abounding in every species of impure and corrupting exhibition of vice. They were also, in general, tediously diffuse, extending to many volunies, and fatiguing the reader with their unnecessary prolixity.

Romance retained its empire in every literary part of Europe until the beginning of the seventeenth century, about which time Miguel de Cervantes, a native of Madrid, published his celebrat'ed satirical romance, entitled The History of Don Quixote. This performance was expressly intended to pour ridicule on those masses of absurdity and impurity which had so long maintained an influence over the world. Few works were ever so much read, or so effectually answered their proposed end. Its effect was equal to the most sanguine expectations of the author. It destroyed the reign of chivalry; produced a new modification of public taste; occasioned the death of the old romance; and gave birth to another species of fictitious writing.

This may be called romance divested of its most extravagant and exceptionable characters. In the works of this kind the heroism and the gallantry of the old romance were in a degree retained; but the dragons, the necromancers, and the enchanted castles, were chiefly banished, and a nearer approach made to the descriptions of real life. The Astræa of M. d'Urfe, and the Grand Cyrus, the Clelia, and the Cleopatra, of Madame Scudery, are among the most memorable specimens of romance thus pruned and improved. These works, however, had still too much of the improbable and un

natural to please a just taste; and therefore gave way to a further improvement, which was the introduction of the modern Novel.

The word Novel is intended to express that kind, of fictitious history, which presents natural and probable exhibitions of modern manners and characters*. In this species of writing the extravagance, the heroic exploits, the complicated and endless intrigues, and the mock elevation before thought necessary, were abandoned: heroes, instead of being taken from the throne, were sought for in common life: in place of the enchanted castles, the conflicts of giants, and the absurdities of chivalry, the incidents which daily happen in the world, the ordinary scenes of social and domestic intercourse, were introduced: instead of the pompous inflated style formerly admired, and which alone was congenial with the romantic spirit, a more simple and familiar manner was adopted; and, from ten or twelve tedious volumes, the narrative was reduced to two or three, and seldom much exceeded the latter number.

Of modern Novels a few appeared in the seven

* Most writers on this subject employ the word Romance to express both those performances which pourtrayed ancient manners, with all the extravagance and folly of chivalry; and those which depict modern manners true to nature and life. But since the word Romance is considered as invariably expressive of something wild, unreal, and far removed from common practice, ought not some other word to be adopted to designate those fictitious works which profess to instruct or entertain by describing common life and real characters? And is not the word Novel well suited to this purpose of discrimination? This word has long been used; but, if I do not mistake, in many instances without that accuracy of application which is desirable.