PREFACE
by dignity of sentiment and practice, distinguished them by their
bodily strength, activity, and extravagance of behaviour. Although
nothing could be more ludicrous and unnatural than the figures
they drew, they did not want patrons and admirers; and the world
actually began to be infected with the spirit of knight-errantry,
when Cervantes, by an inimitable piece of ridicule, reformed the
taste of mankind, representing chivalry in the right point of view,
and converting romance to purposes far more useful and entertaining,
by making it assume the sock, and point out the follies of ordinary
life.
The same method has been practised by other Spanish and French
authors, and by none more successfully than by Monsieur Le Sage,
who, in his Adventures of Gil Blas, has described the knavery and
foibles of life, with infinite humour and sagacity. The following
sheets I have modelled on his plan, taking me liberty, however, to
differ from him in the execution, where I thought his particular
situations were uncommon, extravagant, or peculiar to the country
in which the scene is laid. The disgraces of Gil Blas are, for the
most part, such as rather excite mirth than compassion; he himself
laughs at them; and his transitions from distress to happiness, or
at least ease, are so sudden, that neither the reader has time to
pity him, nor himself to be acquainted with affliction. This conduct,
in my opinion, not only deviates from probability, but prevents
that generous indignation, which ought to animate the reader against
the sordid and vicious disposition of the world. I have attempted
to represent modest merit struggling with every difficulty to which
a friendless orphan is exposed, from his own want of experience, as
well as from the selfishness, envy, malice, and base indifference
of mankind. To secure a favourable prepossession, I have allowed
him the advantages of birth and education, which in the series of
his misfortunes will, I hope, engage the ingenuous more warmly in
his behalf; and though I foresee, that some people will be offended
at the mean scenes in which he is involved, I persuade myself that
the judicious will not only perceive the necessity of describing
those situations to which he must of course be confined, in his
low estate, but also find entertainment in viewing those parts of
life, where the humours and passions are undisguised by affectation,
ceremony, or education; and the whimsical peculiarities
of disposition appear as nature has implanted them. But I believe
I need not trouble myself in vindicating a practice authorized by
the best writers in this way, some of whom I have already named.
Every intelligent reader will, at first sight, perceive I have not
deviated from nature in the facts, which are all true in the main,
although the circumstances are altered and disguised, to avoid
personal satire.
It now remains to give my reasons for making the chief personage of
this work a North Briton, which are chiefly these: I could, at a
small expense, bestow on him such education as I thought the dignity
of his birth and character required, which could not possibly be
obtained in England, by such slender means as the nature of my plan
would afford. lit the next place, I could represent simplicity of
manners in a remote part of the kingdom, with more propriety than