CHAPTER XI. In which Mr. Booth relates his return to England CHAPTER XII. In which Mr. Booth concludes his story BOOK IV. CHAPTER I. Containing very mysterious matter CHAPTER II. The latter part of which we expect will please our reader better than the former CHAPTER III. Containing wise observations of the author, and other matters CHAPTER IV. In which Amelia appears in no unamiable light CHAPTER V. Containing an eulogium upon innocence, and other grave matters CHAPTER VI. In which may appear that violence is sometimes done to the name of love CHAPTER VII. Containing a very extraordinary and pleasant incident CHAPTER VIII. Containing various matters CHAPTER IX. In which Amelia, with her friend, goes to the oratorio LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIELDING'S BIRTHPLACE, SHARPHAM PARK. _Frontispiece_ SHE THEN GAVE A LOOSE TO HER PASSION THEY OPENED THE HAMPER HE SEIZED HIM BY THE COLLAR INTRODUCTION. Fielding's third great novel has been the subject of much more discordant judgments than either of its forerunners. If we take the period since its appearance as covering four generations, we find the greatest authority in the earliest, Johnson, speaking of it with something more nearly approaching to enthusiasm than he allowed himself in reference to any other work of an author, to whom he was on the whole so unjust. The greatest man of letters of the next generation, Scott (whose attitude to Fielding was rather undecided, and seems to speak a mixture of intellectual admiration and moral dislike, or at least failure in sympathy), pronounces it "on the whole unpleasing," and regards it chiefly as a sequel to _Tom Jones_, showing what is to be expected of a libertine and thoughtless husband. But he too is enthusiastic over the heroine. Thackeray (whom in this special connection at any rate it is scarcely too much to call the greatest man of the third generation) overflows with predilection for it, but chiefly, as it would seem, because of his affection for Amelia herself, in which he practically agrees with Scott and Johnson. It would be invidious, and is noways needful, to single out any critic of our own time to place beside these great men. But it cannot be denied that the book, now as always, has incurred a considerable amount of hinted fault and hesitated dislike. Even Mr. Dobson notes some things in it as "unsatisfactory;" Mr. Gosse, with evident consciousness of temerity, ventures to ask whether it is not "a little dull." The very absence of episodes (on the ground that Miss Matthews's story is too closely connected with the main action to be fairly called an episode) and of introductory dissertations has been brought against it, as the presence of these things was brought against its forerunners.