fact, he expressly mentions them, as well as the _Roman Comique_, in the
course of his story, and they doubtless exercised more or less influence
upon his plan. But in the Preface, from which we have already quoted, he
describes that plan; and this, because it is something definite, is more
interesting than any speculation as to his determining models. After
marking the division of the Epic, like the Drama, into Tragedy and
Comedy, he points out that it may exist in prose as well as verse, and
he proceeds to explain that what he has attempted in _Joseph Andrews_ is
"a comic Epic-Poem in Prose," differing from serious romance in its
substitution of a "light and ridiculous" fable for a "grave and solemn"
one, of inferior characters for those of superior rank, and of ludicrous
for sublime sentiments. Sometimes in the diction he has admitted
burlesque, but never in the sentiments and characters, where, he
contends, it would be out of place. He further defines the only source
of the ridiculous to be affectation, of which the chief causes are
vanity and hypocrisy. Whether this scheme was an after-thought it is
difficult to say; but it is certainly necessary to a proper
understanding of the author's method--a method which was to find so many
imitators. Another passage in the Preface is worthy of remark. With
reference to the pictures of vice which the book contains, he observes:
"First, That it is very difficult to pursue a Series of human Actions,
and keep clear from them. Secondly, That the Vices to be found here
[i.e. in _Joseph Andrews_] are rather the accidental Consequences of
some human Frailty, or Foible, than Causes habitually existing in the
Mind. Thirdly, That they are never set forth as the Objects of Ridicule
but Detestation. Fourthly, That they are never the principal Figure at
the Time on the Scene; and, lastly, they never produce the intended
Evil." In reading some pages of Fielding it is not always easy to see
that he has strictly adhered to these principles; but it is well to
recall them occasionally, as constituting at all events the code that he