in consequence of an assignation with the wife. CHAP. XV. But at length succeeds in his at- XVI. His success begets a blind security, by XLI. One quarrel is compromised, and an- 457 awakened, she lays a snare for our adventurer, XLIII. Fathom justifies the proverb, "What's from which he is delivered by the interposition bred in the bone will never come out of the XVIII. Our hero departs from Vienna, and XLIV. Anecdotes of poverty, and experi- quits the domains of Venus for the rough fieldments for the benefit of those whom it may con- XIX. He puts himself under the guidance of his associate, and stumbles.upon the French camp, where he finishes his military career. XX. He prepares a stratagem, but finds him- self countermined; proceeds on his journey, and is overtaken by a terrible tempest. XXI. He falls upon Scylla seeking to avoid XXII. He arrives at Paris, and is pleased XXIII. Acquits himself with address in a XXIV. He overlooks the advances of his friends, and smarts severely for his neglect. XXV. He bears his fate like a philosopher; and contracts acquaintance with a very remark- XXVI. The history of the noble Castilian. XXVII. A flagrant instance of Fathom's vir- tue, in the manner of his retreat to England. XXVIII. Some account of his fellow-travel- XXIX. Another providential deliverance from the effect of the smuggler's ingenious conjecture. XXX. The singular manner of Fathom's attack and triumph over the virtue of the fair XXXI. He by accident encounters his old friend, with whom he holds a conference, and XXXII. He appears in the great world with universal applause and admiration. XXXIII. He attracts the envy and ill offices of the minor knights of his own order, over whom he obtains a complete victory. 439 XXXIV. He performs another exploit, that conveys a true idea of his gratitude and honour. XXXV. He repairs to Bristol spring, where he reigns paramount during the whole season. XXXVI. He is smitten with the charms of a female adventurer, whose allurements subject him to a new vicissitude of fortune. XLV. Renaldo's distress deepens, and Fa- XLVI. Our adventurer becomes absolute in his power over the passions of his friend, and XLVII. The art of borrowing further ex- XLVIII. Count Fathom unmasks his battery; is repulsed, and varies his operations without XLIX. Monimia's honour is protected by the LV. After divers unsuccessful efforts, he has recourse to the matrimonial noose. LVI. In which his fortune is effectually stran- LVII. Fathom being safely housed, the reader is entertained with a retrospect. 500 LVIII. Renaldo abridges the proceedings at law, and approves himself the son of his father. LIX. He is the messenger of happiness to his sister, who removes the film which had long obstructed his penetration with regard to Count LX. He recompences the attachment of his friend; and receives a letter that reduces him to the verge of death and distraction. LXI. Renaldo meets with a living monument PREFATORY MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF SMOLLETT. BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. THE life of Smollett, whose genius has raised represents the family, and possesses the estate an imperishable monument to his fame, has of Bonhill. The second son of Archibald been written, with spirit and elegance, by his Smollett is the subject of this memoir. friend and contemporary, the celebrated Dr Moore, and more lately by Dr Robert Anderson, of Edinburgh, with a careful research, which leaves us little except the task of selection and abridgement. Our author was descended from an ancient and honourable family, an advantage to which from various passages in his writings, he seems to have attached considerable weight, and the consciousness of which seems to have contributed its share in forming some of the peculiarities of his character. Sir James Smollett, of Bonhill, the grandfather of the celebrated author, was bred to the bar, became one of the commissaries (i. e. consistorial judges) of Edinburgh, represented the burgh of Dunbarton in the Scottish parliament, and lent his aid to dissolve that representative body for ever, being one of the commissioners for framing the union with England. By his lady, a daughter of Sir Aulay Mac Aulay, of Ardincaple, Sir James Smollett had four sons, of whom Archibald, the youngest, was father of the poet. Tobias Smollett (baptized Tobias-George) was born in 1721, in the old house of Dalquhurn, in the valley of Leven, in perhaps the most beautiful district in Britain. Its distinguished native has celebrated the vale of Leven, not only in the beautiful ode addressed to his parent stream, but in the expedition of Humphrey Clinker, where he mentions the home of his forefathers in the following enthusiastic, yet not exaggerated terms; "A very little above the source of the Leven, on the lake, stands the house of Cameron, belonging to Mr Smollett,* so embosomed in an oak wood that we did not see it till we were within fifty yards of the door. The lake approaches, on one side, to within six or seven yards of the window. It might have been placed in a higher situation, which would have afforded a more extensive prospect, and a drier atmosphere; but this imperfection is not chargeable on the present proprietor, who purchased it ready built, rather than be at the trouble of repairing his own family house of Bonhill, which stands two miles from hence, on the Leven, so surrounded with plantations, that it used to be known by the name of the mavis (or thrush) nest. Above that house is a romantic glen, or cleft of a mountain, covered with hanging woods, having, at bottom, a stream of fine water, that forms a number of cascades in its descent to join the Leven, so that the scene is quite enchanting. It appears that Archibald Smollett followed no profession, and that, without his father's consent, he married an amiable woman, Barbara, daughter of Mr Cunningham, of Gilbertfield. The disunion betwixt the son and father, to which this act of imprudence gave rise, did not prevent Sir James Smollett from assigning to him, for his support, the house and farm of "I have seen the Lago di Gardi, Albano de Dalquburn, near his own mansion of Bonhill. Vico, Bolsena, and Geneva, and I prefer LochArchibald Smollett died early, leaving two sons Lomond to them all; a preference which is cerand a daughter wholly dependent on the kind-tainly owing to the verdant islands that seem to ness of his grandfather. The eldest son embraced the military life, and perished by the shipwreck of a transport. The daughter, Jane, married Mr Telfer, of Leadhills, and her descendant Captain John Smollett, R. N., now float upon its surface, affording the most enchanting objects of repose to the excursive view. Nor are the banks destitute of beauties, which * The late Commissary Smollett 12 On this side they | studies, but which, though it evinces in particular passages the genius of the author, cannot be termed with justice a performance suited for the stage. even partake of the sublime. Lord Lyttleton, as a patron-Garrick and Lacy, as managers-gave the youthful author some encouragement, which perhaps, the sanguine temper of Smollett overrated; for, in the story of Mr Melopoyn where he gives the history of his attempts to bring the Regicide on the stage, the patron and the manager are not spared; and, in Peregrine Pickle, the personage of Gosling Scrag, which occurs in the first edition only, is meant to represent Lord LyttleThe story is more briefly told in the pre A poet, bred up amongst such scenes, must become doubly attached to his art, and, accord-ton. ingly, it appears that Smollett was, in the high-face to the first edition of the Regicide, where est degree, sensible of the beauties of nature, the author informs us that his tragedy "was although his fame has chiefly risen upon his taken into the protection of one of those little He ob- fellows who are sometimes called great men, power of delineating human character. tained the rudiments of classical knowledge at and, like other orphans, neglected accordingly. the Dunbarton grammar-school, then taught by Stung with resentment, which I mistook for conMr John Love, the scarce less learned antago- tempt, I resolved to punish this barbarous inFrom thence he difference, and actually discarded my patron; nist of the learned Ruddiman. removed to Glasgow, where he pursued his consoling myself with the barren praise of a studies with diligence and success, and was few associates, who, in the most indefatigable manner, employed their time and influence in finally bound apprentice to Mr John Gordon, an eminent surgeon. This destination was con- collecting from all quarters observations on my trary to young Smollett's wishes, which strongly piece, which, in consequence of those suggesdetermined him to a military life, and he is sup- tions, put on a new appearance almost every day, posed to have avenged himself both of his until my occasion called me out of the kingdom. Disappointed in the hopes he had founded on grandfather, who contradicted his inclinations, and of his master, by describing the former un-his theatrical attempt, Smollett accepted the der the unamiable character of the old judge, and the latter as Mr Potion, the first master of Roderick Random. At a later period, he did Mr Gordon justice by mentioning him in the following terms: "I was introduced to Mr Gordon," says Matthew Bramble, "a patriot of a truly noble spirit, who is father of the linen manufactory in that place, and was the great promoter of the city work-house, infirmary, and other works of public utility. Had he lived in ancient Rome, he would have been honoured with a statue at the public expense." situation of a surgeon's mate on board of a ship Our author quitted During his apprenticeship, Smollett's conduct indicated that love of frolic, practical jest, and playful mischief, of which his works show many proofs, and the young novelist gave also several proofs of his talents and propensity to satire. It is said, that his master expressed his conviction of Smollett's future eminence in very homely, but expressive terms, when some of his neighbours were boasting the superior decorum and pro-dies, and after a residence of some time in the priety of their young pupils. "It may be all very true," said the keen-sighted Mr Gordon; "but give me, before them all, my own bubblynosed callant, with the stane in his pouch." island of Jamaica, returned to England in 1746. It was at this time, when, incensed at the brutal severities exercised by the government's troops in the Highlands, to which romantic In the eighteenth year of Smollett's life, his regions he was a neighbour by birth, Smollett grandfather, Sir James, died, and made no provi-wrote the pathetic, spirited, and patriotic verses sion by his will for the children of his youngest son, a neglect which, joined to other circum- | stances already mentioned, procured him, from his irritable descendant, the painful distinction which the old judge holds in the narrative of Roderick Random. Without efficient patronage of any kind, Smollett, in his nineteenth year, went to London, to seek his fortune wherever he might find it. He carried with him the Regicide, a tragedy, written during the progress of his The late entitled The Tears of Caledonia. Robert Graham, Esq. of Gartmore, a particular friend and trustee of Smollett, has recorded the manner in which this effusion was poured forth. "Some gentlemen having met at a tavern were amusing themselves before supper, with a game at cards; while Smollett, not choosing to play, sat down to write. One of the company, who also was nominated by him one of his trustees (Gartmore himself), observing his earnestness, and supposing he was writing verses, asked him if it was not so. He accordingly read them the|ing, but forming no connected plot or story, the first sketch of his Tears of Scotland, consisting several parts of which hold connection with, or only of six stanzas: and, on their remarking that bear proportion to, each other. It was the sethe termination of the poem, being too strongly cond example of the minor romance, or English expressed, might give offence to the persons novel. Fielding had, shortly before, set the whose political opinions were different, he sat example in his Tom Jones, and a rival of almost down, without reply, and with an air of great equal eminence, in 1748, brought forth The indignation, subjoined the concluding stanza: Adventures of Roderick Random, a work which was eagerly received by the public, and brought both reputation and profit to the author. "While the warm blood bedews my veins, Smollet was now settled in London, and commenced his career as a professional man. He was not successful as a physician, probably because his independent and haughty spirit neglected the by-paths which lead to fame in that profession. One account says, that he failed to render himself agreeable to his female patients, certainly not for want of address or figure, for both were remarkably pleasing, but more probably by a hasty impatience of listening to petty complaints, and a want of sympathy with those who laboured under no real indisposition. It is remarkable, that although very many, perhaps the greatest number of successful medical men, have assumed a despotic authority over their tients after their character was established, few or none have risen to pre-eminence in practice who used the same want of ceremony in the commencement of their career. Perhaps, however, Dr Smollett was too soon discouraged, and abandoned prematurely a profession in which success is proverbially slow. pa It was generally believed that Smollett painted some of his own early adventures under the veil of fiction; but the public carried the spirit of applying the characters of a work of fiction to living personages much farther, perhaps, than the author intended. Gawkey, Crabbe, and Potion, were assigned to individuals in the west of Scotland; Mrs Smollett was supposed to be Narcissa; the author himself represented Roderick' Random (of which there can be little doubt); a book-binder and barber, the early acquaintances of Doctor Smollett, contended for the character of the attached, amiable, simple-hearted Strap; and the two naval officers, under whom Smollett had served, were stigmatized under the names of Oakum and Whiffle. Certain it is that the contempt with which his unfortunate play had been treated forms the basis of Mr Melopoyn's story, in which Garrick and Lyttleton are roughly treated under the characters of Marmozet and Sheerwit. The public did not taste less keenly the real merits of this interesting and humorous work, because they conceived it to possess the zest arising from personal allusion; and the sale of the work exceeded greatly the expectations of all concerned. Having now the ear of the public, Smollett published, by subscription, his unfortunate traSmollett, who must have felt his own powers, gedy, The Regicide, in order to shame those had naturally recourse to his pen; and besides who had barred his access to the stage. The repeated attempts to get his tragedy acted, sent preface is filled with complaints, which are neiforth, in 1746 Advice, and, in 1747 Reproof, ther just nor manly, and with strictures upon both poetical satires possessed of considerable Garrick and Lyttleton, which amount almost to ⚫ merit, but which only influenced the fate of the abuse. The merits of the piece by no means author, as they increased the number of his per-vindicate this extreme resentment on the part sonal enemies. Rich, the manager, was particularly satirized in Reproof. Smollett had written, for the Covent-Garden theatre, an opera called Alceste which was not acted in consequence of some quarrel betwixt the author and manager, which Smollet thus avenged. About 1747, Smollet was married to Miss Lascelles, a beautiful and accomplished woman, to whom he had become attached in the West Indies. Instead of an expected fortune of £3000, he gained, by this connexion, only a lawsuit, and the increased expense of housekeeping, which he was still less able to afford, and which again obliged him to have recourse to his literary talents. of the author, and of this Smollett himself became at length sensible. He was impetuous, but not sullen in his resentment, and generously allowed, in his History of England, the full merit to those whom, in the first impulse of passion and disappointment, he had treated with injustice.* In 1750, Smollett made a tour to Paris, where he gleaned materials for future works of fiction, besides enlarging his acquaintance with life and manners. A coxcomb painter whom he met on * Desirous " of doing justice in a work of truth for wrongs done in a work of fiction," (to use his own expression) in giving a sketch of the liberal arts in his Necessity is the mother of invention in liter- of the stage were improved, to the most exquisite enHistory of England, he remarked, "the exhibitions ature as well as in the arts, and the necessity of tertainment, by the talents and management of GarSmollett brought him forth in his pre-eminent rick, who greatly surpassed all his predecessors of character of a novelist. Roderick Random may this, and perhaps every other nation, in his genius for be considered as an imitation of Le Sage, as the acting, in the sweetness and variety of his tones, the hero flits through almost every scene of public his action, the elegance of attitude, and the whole irresistible magic of his eye, the fire and vivacity of and private life, recording, as he paints his own pathos of expression. Candidates for literary fame adventures, the manners of the times, with all appeared even in the higher sphere of life, embeltheir various shades and diversities of colour-lished by the nervous sense and extensive erudition |