To Mrs.Goodhart,in the Upper Mississippi Valley.
Dear Madam,--Many thanks for the New York newspaper you have kindly sent me,with the statistics of book-buying in the Upper Mississippi Valley.Those are interesting particulars which tell one so much about the taste of a community.
So the Rev.E.P.Roe is your favourite novelist there;a thousand of his books are sold for every two copies of the works of Henry Fielding?This appears to me to speak but oddly for taste in the Upper Mississippi Valley.On Mr.Roe's works I have no criticism to pass,for I have not read them carefully.
But I do think your neighbours lose a great deal by neglecting Henry Fielding.You will tell me he is coarse (which I cannot deny);you will remind me of what Dr.Johnson said,rebuking Mrs.Hannah More.
"I never saw Johnson really angry with me but once,"writes that sainted maiden lady."I alluded to some witty passage in 'Tom Jones.'"He replied:"I am shocked to hear you quote from so vicious a book.I am sorry to hear you have read it;a confession which no modest lady should ever make."You remind me of this,and that Johnson was no prude,and that his age was tolerant.You add that the literary taste of the Upper Mississippi Valley is much more pure than the waters of her majestic river,and that you only wish you knew who the two culprits were that bought books of Fielding's.
Ah,madam,how shall I answer you?Remember that if you have Johnson on your side,on mine I have Mrs.More herself,a character purer than "the consecrated snow that lies on Dian's lap."Again,we cannot believe Johnson was fair to Fielding,who had made his friend,the author of "Pamela,"very uncomfortable by his jests.
Johnson owned that he read all "Amelia"at one sitting.Could so worthy a man have been so absorbed by an unworthy book?
Once more,I am not recommending Fielding to boys and girls."Tom Jones"was one of the works that Lydia Languish hid under the sofa;even Miss Languish did not care to be caught with that humorous foundling."Fielding was the last of our writers who drew a man,"Mr.Thackeray said,"and he certainly did not study from a draped model."For these reasons,and because his language is often unpolished,and because his morality (that he is always preaching)is not for "those that eddy round and round,"I do not desire to see Fielding popular among Miss Alcott's readers.But no man who cares for books can neglect him,and many women are quite manly enough,have good sense and good taste enough,to benefit by "Amelia,"by much of "Tom Jones."I don't say by "Joseph Andrews."No man ever respected your sex more than Henry Fielding.What says his reformed rake,Mr.
Wilson,in "Joseph Andrews"?
"To say the Truth,I do not perceive that Inferiority of Understanding which the Levity of Rakes,the Dulness of Men of Business,and the Austerity of the Learned would persuade us of in Women.As for my Wife,I declare I have found none of my own Sex capable of making juster Observations on Life,or of delivering them more agreeably,nor do I believe any one possessed of a faithfuller or braver Friend."He has no other voice wherein to speak of a happy marriage.Can you find among our genteel writers of this age,a figure more beautiful,tender,devoted,and in all good ways womanly than Sophia Western's?
"Yes,"you will say;"but the man must have been a brute who could give her to Tom Jones,to 'that fellow who sold himself,'as Colonel Newcome said.""There you have me at an avail,"in the language of the old romancers.There we touch the centre of Fielding's morality,a subject ill to discuss,a morality not for everyday preaching.
Fielding distinctly takes himself for a moralist.He preaches as continually as Thackeray.And his moral is this:"Let a man be kind,generous,charitable,tolerant,brave,honest--and we may pardon him vices of young blood,and the stains of adventurous living."Fielding has no mercy on a seducer.Lovelace would have fared worse with him than with Richardson,who,I verily believe,admired that infernal (excuse me)coward and villain.The case of young Nightingale,in "Tom Jones,"will show you what Fielding thought of such gallants.Why,Tom himself preaches to Nightingale.
"Miss Nancy's Interest alone,and not yours,ought to be your sole Consideration,"cried Thomas,..."and the very best and truest Honour,which is Goodness,requires it of you,"that is,requires that Nightingale shall marry Miss Nancy.
How Tom Jones combined these sentiments,which were perfectly honest,with his own astonishing lack of retenue,and with Lady Bellaston,is just the puzzle.We cannot very well argue about it.
I only ask you to let Jones in his right mind partly excuse Jones in a number of very delicate situations.If you ask me whether Sophia had not,after her marriage,to be as forgiving as Amelia,I fear Imust admit that probably it was so.But Dr.Johnson himself thought little of that.
I am afraid our only way of dealing with Fielding's morality is to take the best of it and leave the remainder alone.Here I find that I have unconsciously agreed with that well-known philosopher,Mr.
James Boswell,the younger,of Auchinleck:
"The moral tendency of Fielding's writings ...is ever favourable to honour and honesty,and cherishes the benevolent and generous affections.He who is as good as Fielding would make him is an amiable member of society,and may be led on by more regulated instructions to a higher state of ethical perfection."Let us be as good and simple as Adams,without his vanity and his oddity,as brave and generous as Jones,without Jones's faults,and what a world of men and women it will become!Fielding did not paint that unborn world,he sketched the world he knew very well.
