service to her, in this kind of painting: she wants what some persons
call feeling, that is to say, she does not believe in the omnipotence of
love, and therefore would never have written such a book as the "Sorrows
of Werter;" and if she had possessed the same materials, she would have
produced a very different work--not so full of genius, perhaps, but an
interesting and instructive tale.

Novels are productions more easily criticised than any others: every one
may judge for himself of the truth or probability of the events, and the
accuracy of the features of character. It is impossible almost to
deceive a reader--to palm upon him fiction for truth; for the truth is
felt, if it be there, and the falsehood is palpable and revolting. There
is also an extensive light of information in them. They do not merely
give one scene, or character, or class of characters; but their
principles are generally applicable to a very wide extent--they exercise
the mind to a habit of observation, and so far from giving false views
of life, they more frequently direct us to its true estimate. To be
sure, there is sometimes a degree of improbability in some of the
incidents, which is mostly forgiven, if the whole mass be, in the main,
true and accurate. There are certain standard incidents, which are
common property--such as the discovery of relationships--the change of
children--and liberal aunts, who make nothing of presenting a young
married couple with twenty or thirty thousand pounds on their wedding
day; but, if any young lady or gentleman is silly enough to marry,
without the means of support, because they have read such things in
novels, and have also read of rich uncles all of a sudden returning from
the East or West Indies, to shower gold and pearls on all their
relations, all that must be said for them is, that they have not
sufficient sense to read "Aesop's Fables," and they might as easily be
misled into the imagination that brutes could talk. It is a very weak