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dern novel, this hero or heroine is never placed on a throne, or buried in a cottage; because to the monarch and the cottager no difficulties occur which can deeply interest the majority of readers. But among the virtuous part of the intermediate orders of society, that affection which we call love seldom fails, at some period of life, to take possession of the hearts of both sexes; and wherever it has place, it must be productive of happiness or of misery. In the proper management of this passion consists much of the difficulty of the novel-writer. He must exhibit his hero as feeling all the pangs and pleasures of love, as sometimes animated with hope, and sometimes ready to sink into despair, but always exerting himself to obtain the gratification of his wishes. In doing this, care should be taken, either that he never fransgress the laws of virtue, or at least that he never transgress them with impunity.

"It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot perceive (says the great critic already quoted) of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination. It is therefore not a sufficient vindication of a character, that it is drawn as it appears; for many characters ought never to be drawn: nor of a narrative, that the train of events is agreeable to observation; for that observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. The purpose of these writings is surely not only to show mankind, but to provide that they may be seen hereafter with less hazard; to teach the means of avoiding the snares which are laid by treachery for innocence, without insuring any wish for that superiority with which the betrayer flatters his vanity; to give the power of counteracting fraud, without the temptation to practise it; to initiate youth by meek encounters in the art of necessary de fence; and to increase prudence without im pairing virtue.

Many writers, for the sake of following nature, so mingle good and bad qualities in their principal personages, that they are both equally conspicuous; and as we accompany them through their adventures with delight, and are led by degrees to interest ourselves in their favour, we lose the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasures, or perhaps regard them with some kindness for being united with so much merit. There have been men indeed splendidly wicked, whose endowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and whom scarce any villany made perfectly detestable, because they never could be wholly divested of their excellencies: but such have been in all ages the great corruptors

of the world; and their resemblance ought no more to be preserved than the art of murdering without pain.

"In narratives where historical veracity has no place, there should be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability (for what we cannot credit we shall never imitate), but the highest and purest that humanity can reach, which exercised in such trials as the various revolutions of things shall bring upon it, may, by conquering some calamities and enduring. others, teach us what we may hope, and what we can perform. Vice (for vice is necessary to be shown) should always disgust; nor should the graces of gaiety, or the dignity of courage, be so united with it as to reconcile it to the mind. Wherever it appears, it should raise hatred by the malignity of its practices, and contempt by the meanness of its stratagems: for while it is supported by either parts or spirit, it will seldom be heartily abhorred."

If these observations be just, and to us they appear unanswerable, Richardson's Lovelace is a character which ought never to have been drawn.

The business of the novelist is to interest the heart by a display of the incidents of common life. In doing this he must exhibit scenes that are probable, and record speeches that are natural. He is not at liberty to invent, but only to select objects, and to cull from the mass of mankind those individuals upon which the attention ought most to be employed. The more closely he adheres to this rule, the more deeply does he interest us in his narrative; because every reader sees at once that it is possible he may at some time or other be in circumstances nearly resembling those of the hero of the tale. But the business of life is not transacted in pompous language, nor the speeches of real lovers made in verse either rhimed or blank. Were Tom Jones or Clarissa Harlowe to be translated into verse, we shall venture to assert that they would quickly lose their hold of the public mind; because the hero and heroine would then appear in a light which every heart must feel to be unnatural.

It is well observed by Johnson, that the task of the novel-writer "requires, together with that learning which is to be gained from books, that experience which can never be attained by solitary diligence, but must arise from general converse and accurate observation of the living world. Their performances have, as Horace expresses it, plus oneris quantum varia minus, little indulgence, and therefore more difficulty. They are engaged in portraits of which every one knows the original, and can detect any deviation from exactness of resemblance. Other writings are safe, except from the malice of learning: but these are in danger from every common reader; as the slipper ill executed was censured by a shoemaker who happened to stop in his way at the Venus of Apelles." It is in thus faithfully copying nature that the excellence of Fielding consists. No man was ever better acquainted with the

shades which diversify characters, and none ever made his personages act and speak more like real men and women in the particular circumstances which he descr.bes.

"But the fear of not being approved as a just copier of human manners, is not the most important concern that an author of this class ought to have before him. Novels are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct and introduction into life. In every such work it should therefore be carefully inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness; and that vice is the natural consequence of narrow thoughts; that it begins in mistake, and ends in ignominy: and since love must be introduced, it should be represented as leading to wretchedness, whenever it is separated from duty or from prudence.'

NOVEL, in the civil law, a term used for the constitutions of several emperors, more particularly those of Justinian. They were colled novels, either from their producing a great alteration in the face of the ancient law, or because they were made on new cases, and after the revisal of the ancient code.

No'vEL. a. New.

NOVELIST. s. (from novel.) 1. Innovator; assertor of novelty (Bacon). 2. A writer of novels.

NOVELLARA, a town of Italy, capital of a small district of the same name, with a castle, where the sovereign resides. It is 17 miles E. by N. of Parma, and 20 S. by W. of Mantua. Lon. 11. 4 E. Lat. 44. 48 Ň.

NOVELTY. s. (nouveauté, French.) 1. Newness; state of being unknown to former times (Hooker). 2. Freshness; recentness (South).

The pleasure of novelty is easily distinguished from that of variety: to produce the latter, a plurality of objects is necessary; the former arises from a circumstance found in a single object. Again, where objects, whether coexistent or in succession, are sufficiently diversified, the pleasure of variety is complete, though every single object of the train be familiar; but the pleasure of novelty, directly opposite to familiarity, requires no diversifica tion.

There are different degrees of novelty, and its effects are in proportion. The lowest degree is found in objects surveyed a second time after a long interval; and that in this case an object takes on some appearance of novelty, is certain from experience: a large building of many parts variously adorned, or an extensive field embellished with trees, lakes, temples, statues, and other ornaments, will appear new oftener than once: the memory of an object so complex is soon lost, of its parts at least, or of their arrangement. But experience teaches, that, even without any decay of remembrance, absence alone will give an air of novelty to a familiar object; which is not surprising, familiarity wears off gradually by abthus a person with whom we have

been intimate, returning after a long interval, appears like a new acquaintance. And dis tance of place contributes to this appearance, not less than distance of time: a friend, for example, after a short absence in a remote country, has the same air of novelty as if he had returned after a longer interval from a place nearer home: the mind forms a connection between him and the remote country, and bestows upon him the singularity of the objects he has seen. For the same reason, when two things equally new and singular are presented, the spectator balances between them; but when told that one of them is the product of a distant quarter of the world, he no longer hesitates, but clings to it as the more singular: hence the preference given to foreign luxuries, and to foreign curiosities, which appear rare in proportion to their original distance.

The next degree of novelty, mounting upward, is found in objects of which we have some information at second hand; for description, though it contribute to familiarity, cannot altogether remove the appearance of novelty when the object itself is presented: the first sight of a lion occasions some wonder, after a thorough acquaintance with the correctest pictures and statues of that animal.

A new object that bears some distant re seniblance to a known species, is an instance of a third degree of novelty: a strong resemblance among individuals of the same species prevents almost entirely the effect of novelty, unless distance of place or some other circumstance concur; but where the resemblance is faint, some degree of wonder is felt, and the emotion rises in proportion to the faintness of the resemblance.

The highest degree of wonder arises from unknown objects that have no analogy to any species we are acquainted with. Shakspeare in a simile introduces that species of novelty:

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One example of that species of novelty de serves peculiar attention; and that is, when an object altogether new is seen by one person only, and but once. These circumstances heighten remarkably the emotion: the singu larity of the spectator concurs with the singu larity of the object to inflame wonder to its highest pitch.

In explaining the effects of novelty, the place a being occupies in the scale of existence is a circumstance that must not be omitted. Novelty in the individuals of a low class is per ceived with indifference, or with a very slight emotion: thus a pebble, however singular in its appearance, scarce moves our wonder. The emotion rises with the rank of the object; and, other circumstances being equal, is strongest in the highest order of existence; a strange

insect affects us more than a strange vegetable; and a strange quadruped more than a strange insect.

However natural novelty may be, it is a matter of experience, that those who relish it the most are careful to conceal its influence. Love of novelty, it is true, prevails in children, in idlers, and in men of shallow understanding: and yet, after all, why should one be ashamed of indulging a natural propensity? A distinction will afford a satisfactory answer. No man is ashamed of curiosity when it is indulged to acquire knowledge. But to prefer any thing merely because it is new, shows a mean taste which one ought to be ashamed of: vanity is commonly at the bottom, which leads those who are deficient in taste to prefer things odd, rare, or singular, in order to distinguish themselves from others. And in fact, that appetite as above-mentioned reigns chiefly among persons of a mean taste, who are ignorant of refined and elegant pleasures.

Of this taste we have some memorable instances in men of the highest and the best education. Lucian tells the following story of Ptolemy I. which is as disgraceful to him, as honourable to his subjects. This prince had ransacked the world for two curiosities: one was a camel from Bactria all over black; the other a man, half black half white. These he presented to the people in a public theatre, thinking they would give them as much satisfaction as they did him; but the black monster, instead of delighting them, affrighted them; and the party-coloured man raised the contempt of some and the abhorrence of others. Ptolemy, finding the Egyptians preferred symmetry and beauty to the most astonishing productions of art or nature without them, wisely reinoved his two enormous trifles out of sight; the neglected camel died in a little time, and the man he gave for a song to the musician Thespis.

NOVEMBER, in chronology, the 11th month of the Julian year, consisting only of thirty days: it got the name of November, as being the ninth month of Romulus's year, which began with March.

NOVENARY. s. (novenarius, Lat.) Number of nine; nine collectively (Brown). NOVERCAL. a. (novercalis, from noverca, Latin.) Having the manner of a stepmother;, beseeming a step-mother (Derham). NOUGHT. s. (ne auliz, Saxon.) 1. Not any thing; nothing (Fairfax). 2. In no degree. A kind of adverbial signification (Fairfax). 3. To set at NOUGHT. Not to value; to slight; to scorn; to disregard (Proverbs).

NOVI, a town of Italy, in the territory of Genoa. Near this place, on July 15, 1799, the Austrians and Russians defeated the French, who lost nearly 10,000 men, and their general Joubert was killed. It is 22 miles N.W. of Genoa. Lon. 8. 29 E. Lat. 44. 45 N. Novi BAZAR, a considerable town of Turkey in Europe, in Servia. In 1788, the Austrians were repulsed at this place, but they

afterward took it at a second assault. Novi is seated near the Oresco, 72 miles W. of Nissa, and 103 S. of Belgrade. Lon. 21. 1 E. Lat. 43. 35 N.

NOVICE. s. (novice, Fr. novitius, Lat.). 1. One not acquainted with any thing; a fresh man; one in the rudiments of any knowledge (Shakspeare). 2. One who has entered a religious house, but not yet taken the vow; a probationer.

NOVIGRAD, a strong town of Upper Hungary, capital of a county of the same name, with a castle. It is seated on a mountain, near the Danube, 25 miles N. of Buda. Lon. 18. 20 E. Lat. 47. 56 N.

NOVIGRAD, a strong town of Turkish Dalmatia, with a castle, seated on a lake of the same name, near the gulf of Venice, 17 miles E. of Nona, and 25 N. W. of Zara. Lon. 16. 35 E. Lat. 44. 36 N.

NOVIGRAD, a strong place of Turkey in Europe, in Servia, seated near the Danube, 35 miles N. of Nissa. Lon. 22. 32 E. Lat. 44. 6 N.

NOVIODUNUM (Cæsar), a town of the dui, commodiously seated on the Liguris : the Nivernum of Antonine. Now Nevers in the Orleannois, on the Loire.-A second Noviodunum of the Aulerci Diablintes, in Gallia Celtica, (Antonine); called Noviodunum (Ptolemy), and Nouingentum Rotrudum by the moderns: Nogente le Rotrou, capital of the duchy of Perche.-A third of the Bituriges (Cæsar): now Nueve sur Baranion; a village 15 miles to the north of Bourges, towards Orleans.A fourth, of Moesia Inferior (Ptolemy), situated on the Ister: now Nivorz, in Bessarabia.-A fifth, of Pannonia Superior (Antonine; now Gurkfeld in Carinthia.-A sixth, Noviodunum Suessionum, the same with Augusta Suessionum.-A seventh, Noviodunum of the Veromandui in Gallia Belgica, (Cæsar): now Noyon in the Isle of France, on the borders of Picardy.

NOVITIATE. s. (noviciat, French.) 1. The state of a novice; the time in which the rudiments are learned (South). 2. The time spent in a religious house, by way of trial, before the vow is taken.

NO'VITY. s. (novitas, Latin.) Newness; novelty (Brown).

NOUL. The crown of the head. See NOLL (Spenser).

NOULD. He would; would not (Spenser). NOUN. s. (noun, old French; nomen, Latin.) The name of any thing in grammar. See GRAMMAR.

NOVOGOROD, once a powerful independent republic, finally reduced by Ivan Basilowitz II, in 1570, and united to the Russian empire, of which it now forms a governiment

NOVOGOROD, one of the most ancient cities of Russia, capital of a government of the same name, and formerly called Great Novogorod, to distinguish it from other Russian towns of the same appellations. It was, for a long time, governed by its own dukes; and

ca which diversify characters, and none 4 made his personages act and speak more his real men and women in the particular cacumstances which he deser.bes.

but the tear of not being approved as a jud copier of human manners, is not the most important concern that an author of this class ought to have before him. Novels are written chicly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct and introduction into life. In every such work it should therefore be carefully inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness; and that vice is the natural consequence of narrow thoughts; that it begins in mistake, and ends in ignominy: and since love must be introduced, it should be represented as leading to wretchedness, whenever it is separated from duty or from prudence."

NOVEL, in the civil law, a term used for the constitutions of several emperors, more particularly those of Justinian. They were

colled novels, either from their producing a great alteration in the face of the ancient law, or because they were made on new cases, and after the revisal of the ancient code.

No'VEL. a. New.

NOVELIST. s. (from novel.) 1. Innovator; assertor of novelty (Bacon). 2. A writer of novels.

NOVELLARA, a town of Italy, capital of a small district of the same name, with a castle, where the sovereign resides. It is 17 miles E. by N. of Parma, and 20 S. by W. of Mantua. Lon. 11. 4 E. Lat. 44. 48 N.

NOVELTY. s. (nouveauté, French.) 1. Newness; state of being unknown to former times (Hooker). 2. Freshness; recentness (South).

The pleasure of novelty is easily distinguished from that of variety: to produce the fatter, a plurality of objects is necessary; the

former arises from a circumstance found in a

single object. Again, where objects, whether coexistent or in succession, are sufficiently diversified, the pleasure of variety is complete, though every single object of the train be familiar; but the pleasure of novelty, directly opposite to familiarity, requires no diversifica

tion.

There are different degrees of novelty, and its effects are in proportion. The lowest degree is found in objects surveyed a second time after a long interval; and that in this case an object takes on some appearance of novelty, is certain from experience: a large building of Imany parts variously adorned, or an extensive field embellished with trees, lakes, temples, statues, and other ornaments, will appear new oftener than once: the memory of an object so complex is soon lost, of its parts at least, or of their arrangement. But experience teaches, that, even without any decay of remembrance, absence alone will give an air of novelty to a once familiar object; which is not surprising, because familiarity wears off gradually by absence: thus a person with whom we have

been intimate, returning after a long interval, appears like a new acquaintance. And dis tance of place contributes to this appearance, not less than distance of time: a friend, for example, after a short absence in a remote country, has the same air of novelty as if he had returned after a longer interval from a place nearer home: the mind forms a connection between him and the remote country, and bestows upon him the singularity of the objects he has seen. For the same reason, when two things equally new and singular are presented, the spectator balances between them; but when told that one of them is the product of a distant quarter of the world, he no longer hesitates, but clings to it as the more singular: hence the preference given to foreign luxuries, and to foreign curiosities, which appear rare in proportion to their original distance.

The next degree of novelty, mounting upward, is found in objects of which we have some information at second hand; for descrip tion, though it contribute to familiarity, can not altogether remove the appearance of novelty when the object itself is presented: the first sight of a lion occasions some wonder, after a thorough acquaintance with the cor rectest pictures and statues of that animal.

A new object that bears some distant re seniblance to a known species, is an instance of a third degree of novelty: a strong resem blance among individuals of the same species prevents almost entirely the effect of novelty, unless distance of place or some other circum stance concur; but where the resemblance is faint, some degree of wonder is felt, and the emotion rises in proportion to the faintness of the resemblance.

The highest degree of wonder arises from unknown objects that have no analogy to any species we are acquainted with. Shakspeare in a simile introduces that species of novelty:

[blocks in formation]

One example of that species of novelty de serves peculiar attention; and that is, when an object altogether new is seen by one person only, and but once. These circumstances heighten remarkably the emotion: the singu larity of the spectator concurs with the singu larity of the object to inflame wouder to its highest pitch.

In explaining the effects of novelty, the place a being occupies in the scale of existence is a circumstance that must not be omitted. Novelty in the individuals of a low class is per ceived with indifference, or with a very slight emotion: thus a pebble, however singular in its appearance, scarce moves our wonder. The emotion rises with the rank of the object; and, other circumstances being equal, is strongest in the highest order of existence; a strange

insect affects us more than a strange vegetable; and a strange quadruped more than a strange insect.

However natural novelty may be, it is a matter of experience, that those who relish it the most are careful to conceal its influence. Love of novelty, it is true, prevails in children, in idlers, and in men of shallow understanding: and yet, after all, why should one be ashamed of indulging a natural propensity? A distinction will afford a satisfactory answer. No man is ashanied of curiosity when it is indulged to acquire knowledge. But to prefer any thing merely because it is new, shows a mean taste which one ought to be ashamed of: vanity is commonly at the bottom, which leads those who are deficient in taste to prefer things odd, rare, or singular, in order to distinguish themselves from others. And in fact, that appetite as above-mentioned reigns chiefly among persons of a mean taste, who are ignorant of refined and elegant pleasures.

Of this taste we have some memorable instances in men of the highest and the best education. Lucian tells the following story of Ptolemy I. which is as disgraceful to him, as honourable to his subjects. This prince had ransacked the world for two curiosities: one was a camel from Bactria all over black; the other a man, half black half white. These he presented to the people in a public theatre, thinking they would give them as much satisfaction as they did him; but the black monster, instead of delighting them, affrighted them; and the party-coloured man raised the contempt of some and the abhorrence of others. Ptolemy, finding the Egyptians preferred symmetry and beauty to the most astonishing productions of art or nature without them, wisely removed his two enormous trifles out of sight; the neglected camel died in a little time, and the man he gave for a song to the musician Thespis.

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NOVEMBER, in chronology, the 11th month of the Julian year, consisting only of thirty days it got the name of November, as being the ninth month of Romulus's year, which began with March.

NOVENARY. s. (novenarius, Lat.) Number of nine; nine collectively (Brown).

NOVERCAL. a. (novercalis, from nocerca, Latin.) Having the manner of a stepmother;, beseeming a step-mother (Derham). NOUGHT. s. (ne auliz, Saxon.) 1. Not any thing; nothing (Fairfax). 2. In no degree. A kind of adverbial signification (Fairfax). 3. To set at NOUGHT. Not to value; to slight; to scorn; to disregard (Proverbs).

NOVI, a town of Italy, in the territory of Genoa. Near this place, on July 15, 1799, the Austrians and Russians defeated the French, who lost nearly 10,000 men, and their general Joubert was killed. It is 22 miles N.W. of Genoa. Lon. 8. 29 E. Lat. 44. 45 N. Novi BAZAR, a considerable town of Turkey in Europe, in Servia. In 1788, the Austrians were repulsed at this place, but they

afterward took it at a second assault. Novi is seated near the Oresco, 72 miles W. of Nissa, and 103 S. of Belgrade. Lon. 21. 1 E. Lat. 43. 35 N.

NOVICE. s. (novice, Fr. novitius, Lat.). 1. One not acquainted with any thing; a fresh man; one in the rudiments of any knowledge (Shakspeare). 2. One who has entered a religious house, but not yet taken the vow; a probationer.

NOVIGRAD, a strong town of Upper Hungary, capital of a county of the same name, with a castle. It is seated on a mountain, near the Danube, 25 miles N. of Buda. Lon. 18. 20 E. Lat. 47. 56 N.

NOVIGRAD, a strong town of Turkish Dalmatia, with a castle, seated on a lake of the same name, near the gulf of Venice, 17 miles E. of Nona, and 25 N.W. of Zara. Lon. 16. 35 E. Lat. 44. 36 N.

NOVIGRAD, a strong place of Turkey in Europe, in Servia, seated near the Danube, 35 miles N. of Nissa. Lon. 22. 32 E. Lat. 44. 6 N.

NOVIODUNUM (Cæsar), a town of the dui, commodiously seated on the Liguris : the Nivernum of Antonine. Now Nevers in the Orleannois, on the Loire.-A second Noviodunum of the Aulerci Diablintes, in Gallia Celtica, (Antonine); called Noviodunum (Ptolemy), and Noningentum Rotrudum by the moderns: Nogente le Rotrou, capital of the duchy of Perche.-A third of the Bituriges (Cæsar): now Nueve sur Baranion; a village 15 miles to the north of Bourges, towards Orleans.A fourth, of Moesia Inferior (Ptolemy), situated on the Ister: now Nivorz, in Bessarabia.-A fifth, of Pannonia Superior (Antonine; now Gurkfeld in Carinthia.-A sixth, Noviodunum Suessionum, the same with Augusta Suessionum.-A seventh, Noviodunum of the Veromandui in Gallia Belgica, (Cæsar): now Noyon in the Isle of France, on the borders of Picardy.

NOVITIATE. s. (noviciat, French.) 1. The state of a novice; the time in which the rudiments are learned (South). 2. The time spent in a religious house, by way of trial, before the vow is taken.

NOVITY. s. (novitas, Latin.) Newness; novelty (Brown).

NOUL. The crown of the head. See NOLL (Spenser).

NOULD. He would; would not (Spenser). NOUN. s. (noun, old French; nomen, Latin.) The name of any thing in grammar. See GRAMMAR.

NOVOGOROD, once a powerful independent republic, finally reduced by Ivan Basilowitz II, in 1570, and united to the Russian empire, of which it now forms a governiment

NOVOGOROD, one of the most ancient cities of Russia, capital of a government of the same name, and formerly called Great Novogorod, to distinguish it from other Russian towns of the same appellations. It was, for a long time, governed by its own dukes; and

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