fidelity. Andrews himself, and his blushing sweetheart, do not lend
themselves so readily to humorous art. Nevertheless the former, when
freed from the wiles of Lady Booby, is by no means a despicable hero,
and Fanny is a sufficiently fresh and blooming heroine. The characters
of Pamela and Mr. Booby are fairly preserved from the pages of their
original inventor. But when Fielding makes Parson Adams rebuke the pair
for laughing in church at Joseph's wedding, and puts into the lady's
mouth a sententious little speech upon her altered position in life, he
is adding some ironical touches which Richardson would certainly have
omitted.

No selection of personages, however, even of the most detailed and
particular description, can convey any real impression of the mingled
irony and insight, the wit and satire, the genial but perfectly
remorseless revelation of human springs of action, which distinguish
scene after scene of the book. Nothing, for example, can be more
admirable than the different manifestations of meanness which take place
among the travellers of the stage-coach, in the oft-quoted chapter where
Joseph, having been robbed of everything, lies naked and bleeding in the
ditch. There is Miss Grave-airs, who protests against the indecency of
his entering the vehicle, but like a certain lady in the _Rake's
Progress_, holds the sticks of her fan before her face while he does so,
and who is afterwards found to be carrying Nantes under the guise of
Hungary-water; there is the lawyer who advises that the wounded man
shall be taken in, not from any humane motive, but because he is afraid
of being involved in legal proceedings if they leave him to his fate;
there is the wit who seizes the occasion for a burst of facetious
double-meanings, chiefly designed for the discomfiture of the prude;
and, lastly, there is the coachman, whose only concern is the shilling
for his fare, and who refuses to lend either of the useless greatcoats