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180 FIELDING but he also gave himself up to such pleasures as the country afforded, and was soon insol- vent, and compelled to return to London to retrieve his fortunes. At the age of 30 he en- tered himself a student at the Inner Temple, studied diligently, and in due course was ad- mitted to the bar. But repeated attacks of the gout compelling him to abandon legal practice, he again had recourse to his pen. He renewed his connection with the theatre, and wrote essays, poems, satires, and whatever else the taste of the day demanded, for literary periodicals. Though he could no longer travel his circuit, he turned his legal acquirements to account by preparing a work on crown law, which evinced his remarkable capacity for pa- tient drudgery. Failing to obtain from these sources the income requisite for his daily wants, he wrote nearly the whole of the liter- ary contents of the "Champion," a periodical which is now only known from his contribu- tions. But now his genius was first attracted to that sphere for which it was best adapted, and in which he was destined to secure an en- during fame. His first novel, "Joseph An- drews" (1742), professedly in the manner of Cervantes, was begun as a burlesque on Rich- ardson's " Pamela," which was then the most popular novel of the time. Fielding's work is infinitely better than the author intended to make it, and, if his fame rested upon that work alone, he would be remembered while the language in which it is written endures. In 1743 he published three volumes of " Mis- cellanies," including the "Journey from this World to the Next," a work which, though incomplete, and seemingly without any special plan, exhibits much imagination and satirical power. "The History of Jonathan Wild," which appeared about the same time, is a store- house of wit, profound thought, serious satire, and benevolence so genuine, that even under the guise of the greatest villains we are made to love our brother man. The Newgate or- dinary in this great prose satire is the repre- sentative of the whole class of worldly-minded ecclesiastics, as much so as Macbeth is the type of unscrupulous ambition, or Othello of noble jealousy. Shortly after the publication of "Joseph Andrews," amid an accumulation of illness, broken fortunes, and constant disap- pointments, he lost his wife, whom he tender- ly loved and most sincerely mourned ; though in a few months after her death he married her maid, an act curiously apologized for by his relative, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Though he had faithfully served the whig party with his pen, the only reward he received was his appointment, in his 42d year, when his consti- tution was completely broken, as an acting magistrate for Westminster. He was not con- tent to confine himself to his official duties, but published several tracts on the causes of crime and pauperism in the metropolis, one of which may be regarded as the first temperance tract ever published ; it was " An Inquiry into the Increase of Thieves and Robbers." Robbery was then frightfully prevalent, and he attrib- uted it to the great consumption of gin. Amid all these avocations he found time to write that greatest of all compositions of its class, " Tom Jones, or the History of a Foundling " (1749). His third novel, "The History of Amelia," wherein he portrays the virtues of his first wife and the reckless conduct of his own earlier years, and on which he probably bestowed more careful labor than on any of his other productions, was published in 1752. To eke out his inconsiderable income from his official position and from the sale of his writings, he started in this year another literary underta- king, " The Co vent Garden Journal, by Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knight, Censor Gene- ral of Great Britain." He noSv undertook as magistrate, at the request of the duke of New- castle, the prime minister, to extirpate several gangs of ruffians which infested London ; and in this, amid great bodily suffering, and with very meagre pecuniary aid, he completely suc- ceeded. But at length his bodily strength would no longer sustain the burden imposed upon it ; the dropsy with which he had long been troubled had alarmingly increased, and he was induced to try the influence of a change of climate, Lisbon being selected as the most desirable place for the purpose. He left Eng- land June 26, 1754. The journal which he kept of his voyage gives a most touching proof of his affectionate and noble nature in detail- ing the events of his parting with his family. Though suffering great pain, being hardly capa- ble of moving himself, and forced to be continu- ally tapped, his intellect retained all its activity ; he made a record of all the incidents of his voy- age, and he furnishes us in his journal the best account we have of the condition of shipping in the last century, and of the inconveniences, troubles, and delays to which those were sub- jected who made passages by sea. The climate of Lisbon did not agree with him, and he died two months after his arrival, leaving behind him his second wife and four children, all of whom were generously provided for by his brother Sir John Fielding, aided by his friend Allen, the original of Squire Allworthy, to whom he dedicated "Tom Jones," and in allu- sion to whom he had said, if a letter were in- scribed simply Detur Optimo, there would be few persons who would think it needed any other direction. Great as were the literary labors of Fielding, they were hardly more im- portant than those which he rendered as a police magistrate, in reforming the laws, and in introducing measures for the extirpation of thieves and desperadoes. The works of Field- ing have passed through very many editions, the principal of which are those of 1762 (4 vols. 4to and 8 vols. 8vo, London), with a life of the author ; 1784 (10 vols. 8vo), with an essay on his life and genius by Arthur Murphy; 1821 (10 vols. 8vo), edited by Alexander Chalmers; 1840 (imp. 8vo), with a life and notice of his