In his _History of Eighteenth Century Literature_ Edmund Gosse says: “The flourishing period of the eighteenth century novel lasted exactly twenty-five years, during which time we have to record the publication of no less than fifteen eminent works of fiction. The fifteen are naturally divided into three groups. The first contains _Pamela_, _Joseph Andrews_, _David Simple_ (Sarah Fielding) and _Jonathan Wild_. In these books the art is still somewhat crude, and the science of fiction incompletely understood. After a silence of five years we reach the second and greatest section of this central period, during which there appeared in quick succession, _Clarissa_, _Roderick Random_, _Tom Jones_, _Peregrine Pickle_, _Amelia_ and _Sir Charles Grandison_ ... there followed another silence of five years, and then were issued each on the heels of the other, _Tristram Shandy_, _Rasselas_, _Chrysal_, _The Castle of Otranto_ and _The Vicar of Wakefield_—five years later still—_Humphrey Clinker_, and then, with one or two such exceptions as _Evelina_ and _Caleb Williams_, no great novel appeared again in England for forty years until in 1811 the new school of fiction was inaugurated by _Sense and Sensibility_.” Though we may not agree entirely with Mr. Gosse’s classification, this paragraph is suggestive. As we have seen in her brother’s record, Jane’s favourites in prose and poetry respectively were Johnson and Cowper. These two are mentioned in one sentence of hers: “We have got Boswell’s _Tour to the Hebrides_, and are to have his _Life of Johnson_; and as some money will yet remain in Burdon’s hands, it is to be laid out in the purchase of Cowper’s works.” She warmly admired Cowper, which is hardly wonderful, for, with some manifest differences, Cowper was trying to do in poetry what she did in prose. He was utterly lacking, of course, in her light vivacity of touch and sense of humour, but he did genuinely try to describe what he saw, not what he merely knew by hearing. The green fields and full rivers of the Olney country are depicted with fidelity to detail and clearness of line. Cowper was born in 1731, but his first volume of verse was not published until 1782, and it was not until _The Task_ appeared a year or two later, with _John Gilpin_ in the same volume, that he really came to his own. In 1798, Jane writes: “My father reads Cowper to us in the morning to which I listen when I can.” This implies no disparagement of the poet, but merely that her numerous household duties did not always allow her time to listen. In Morland’s picture, “Domestic Happiness,” we have a scene which helps us to realise the family group at these readings. The mother and daughter in their caps, with elbow-sleeves and white kerchiefs, are dressed as Jane and her mother must have been, and the plain simplicity of the part of the room shown is quite in accordance with the rectory environment. [Illustration: DOMESTIC HAPPINESS]