The third volume of the _Miscellanies_ is wholly occupied with the
remarkable work entitled the _History of the Life of the late Mr.
Jonathan Wild the Great_. As in the case of the _Journey from this World
to the Next_, it is not unlikely that the first germ of this may be
found in the pages of the _Champion_. "Reputation"--says Fielding in one
of the essays in that periodical--"often courts those most who regard
her the least. Actions have sometimes been attended with Fame, which
were undertaken in Defiance of it. _Jonathan Wyld_ himself had for many
years no small Share of it in this Kingdom." The book now under
consideration is the elaboration of the idea thus casually thrown out.
Under the name of a notorious thief-taker hanged at Tyburn in 1725,
Fielding has traced the Progress of a Rogue to the Gallows, showing by
innumerable subtle touches that the (so-called) greatness of a villain
does not very materially differ from any other kind of greatness, which
is equally independent of goodness. This continually suggested affinity
between the ignoble and the pseudo-noble is the text of the book.
Against genuine worth (its author is careful to explain) his satire is
in no wise directed. He is far from considering "_Newgate_ as no other
than Human Nature with its Mask off;" but he thinks "we may be excused
for suspecting, that the splendid Palaces of the Great are often no
other than _Newgate_ with the Mask on." Thus _Jonathan Wild the Great_
is a prolonged satire upon the spurious eminence in which benevolence,
honesty, charity, and the like have no part; or, as Fielding prefers to
term it, that false or "Bombast greatness" which is so often mistaken
for the "_true Sublime_ in Human Nature"--Greatness and Goodness
combined. So thoroughly has he explained his intention in the Prefaces
to the _Miscellanies_, and to the book itself, that it is difficult to
comprehend how Scott could fail to see his drift. Possibly, like some
others, he found the subject repugnant and painful to his kindly nature.