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NUMB. 4. SATURDAY, March 31, 1750.
Simul et jucunda et idonea dicere Vitae.
THE works of fiction, with which the present generation seems more parti∣cularly delighted, are such as exhibit life in its true state, diversified only by the accidents that daily happen in the world, and influenced by those passions and qualities which are really to be found in conversing with mankind.
THIS kind of writing may be termed not im∣properly the comedy of romance, and is to be conducted nearly by the rules of comic poetry Its province is to bring about natural event∣by easy means, and to keep up curiosity with∣out the help of wonder: it is therefore preclu∣ded from the machines and expedients of the heroic romance, and can neither employ giants to snatch away a lady from the nuptial rites, nor knights to bring her back from captivity; it can neither bewilder its personages in desarts, nor lodge them in imaginary castles.
I REMEMBER a remark made by Scaliger upon Pontanus, that all his writings are filled