CHAPTER XII.
_A very delightful adventure, as well to the persons concerned as to
the good-natured reader_

CHAPTER XIII.
_A dissertation concerning high people and low people, with Mrs
Slipslop's departure in no very good temper of mind, and the evil
plight in which she left Adams and his company_


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


PORTRAIT OF FIELDING, FROM BUST IN THE SHIRE HALL, TAUNTON
"JOSEPH, I AM SORRY TO HEAR SUCH COMPLAINTS AGAINST YOU"
THE HOSTLER PRESENTED HIM A BILL
JOSEPH THANKED HER ON HIS KNEES




GENERAL INTRODUCTION.


There are few amusements more dangerous for an author than the
indulgence in ironic descriptions of his own work. If the irony is
depreciatory, posterity is but too likely to say, "Many a true word is
spoken in jest;" if it is encomiastic, the same ruthless and ungrateful
critic is but too likely to take it as an involuntary confession of
folly and vanity. But when Fielding, in one of his serio-comic