idealism; gallantry but against the background sometimes of the
modern city; a plainer style; and only such matters as seemed to
this student of Descartes and Locke to be entirely reasonable.
Fielding's chapter in _Tom Jones_ (IX, i) "Of Those Who Lawfully
May, and of Those Who May Not, Write Such Histories as This" could
be taken as an indication that he knew not only what Mlle. de
Scudéry thought were the accomplishments of the romancer but that he
had read d'Argens's words on that subject too. Both d'Argens and
Fielding believed that in addition to "Genius, Wit, and Learning"
the novelist must have a knowledge of the world and of all degrees
of men, distinguishing the style of high people from that of low.
They agreed that a writer must have felt a passion before he could
paint it successfully. Much more goes into the making of a novel,
they sarcastically pointed out, than pens, ink, and quires of paper.
D'Argens, like Fielding, relished reflective passages and could
approve, more readily than Mrs. Manley, of "an Historian that amuses
himself by Moralizing or Describing." D'Argens's list of the
features to be found in good history and good fiction shows him to
be a thoroughgoing rationalist and separates his ideal from that of
young readers, who, according to the preface to _The Adventures of
Theagenes and Chariclia_ (1717), wish to hear of "Flame and Spirit
in an Author, of fine Harangues, just Characters, moving Scenes,
delicacy of Contrivance, surprising turns of action ... indeed the
choicest Beauties of a _Romance_."

The two novels that d'Argens recommended had different fortunes in
England. D'Argens's book, _Memoires du Marquis de Mirmon, ou Le
Solitaire Philosophe_ (Amsterdam, 1736) was never translated into
English and apparently was not much read. But Claude Prosper Jolyot
de Crébillon, the younger, was extolled by Thomas Gray and Horace