during January 1741, is advertised the poem _Of True Greatness_
afterwards included in the _Miscellanies_; and the same authority
announces the _Vernoniad_, an anonymous burlesque Epic prompted by
Admiral Vernon's popular expedition against Porto Bello in 1739, "with
six Ships only." That Fielding was the author of the latter is
sufficiently proved by his order to Mr. Nourse (printed in Roscoe's
edition), to deliver fifty copies to Mr. Chappel. Another sixpenny
pamphlet, entitled _The Opposition, a Vision_, issued in December of the
same year, is enumerated by him, in the Preface to the _Miscellanies_,
among the few works he had published "since the End of _June_ 1741;"
and, provided it can be placed before this date, he may be credited with
a political sermon called the _Crisis_ (1741), which is ascribed to him
upon the authority of a writer in Nichols's _Anecdotes_. He may also,
before "the End of _June_ 1741," have written other things; but it is
clear from his _Caveat_ in the above-mentioned "Preface," together with
his complaint that "he had been very unjustly censured, as well on
account of what he had not writ, as for what he had," that much more has
been laid to his charge than he ever deserved. Among ascriptions of this
kind may be mentioned the curious _Apology for the Life of Mr. The'
Cibber, Comedian_, 1740, which is described on its title-page as a
proper sequel to the autobiography of the Laureate, in whose "style and
manner" it is said to be written. But, although this performance is
evidently the work of some one well acquainted with the dramatic annals
of the day, it is more than doubtful whether Fielding had any hand or
part in it. Indeed, his own statement that "he never was, nor would be
the Author of _anonymous_ Scandal [the italics are ours] on the private
History or Family of any Person whatever," should be regarded as
conclusive.

During all this time he seems to have been steadily applying himself to