"grave Man" against Party, may all be cited as examples of its style and
method. Nor should the character of Wild in the last chapter, and his
famous rules of conduct, be neglected. It must be admitted, however,
that the book is not calculated to suit the nicely-sensitive in letters;
or, it may be added, those readers for whom the evolution of a purely
intellectual conception is either unmeaning or uninteresting. Its place
in Fielding's works is immediately after his three great novels, and
this is more by reason of its subject than its workmanship, which could
hardly be excelled. When it was actually composed is doubtful. If it may
be connected with the already-quoted passage in the _Champion_, it must
be placed after March 1740, which is the date of the paper; but, from a
reference to Peter Pounce in Book ii., it might also be supposed to have
been written after _Joseph Andrews_. The Bath simile in chapter xiv.
Book i., makes it likely that some part of it was penned at that place,
where, from an epigram in the _Miscellanies_ "written _Extempore_ in the
Pump Room," it is clear that Fielding was staying in 1742. But, whenever
it was completed, we are inclined to think that it was planned and begun
before _Joseph Andrews_ was published, as it is in the highest degree
improbable that Fielding, always carefully watching the public taste,
would have followed up that fortunate adventure in a new direction by a
work so entirely different from it as _Jonathan Wild_.

A second edition of the _Miscellanies_ appeared in the same year as the
first, namely in 1743. From this date until the publication of _Tom
Jones_ in 1749, Fielding produced no work of signal importance, and his
personal history for the next few years is exceedingly obscure. We are
inclined to suspect that this must have been the most trying period of
his career. His health was shattered, and he had become a martyr to
gout, which seriously interfered with the active practice of his
profession. Again, "about this time," says Murphy vaguely, after