moralising), Essex, Buckingham, and other likely figures. There are cuts by the "Van-somethings and Back-somethings" of the time: and the whole, though not worthy of anything better than the "fourpenny box," is an evident symptom of popular taste. The sweetmeats or _hors d'oeuvre_ of the older caterings for that taste are here collected together to form a _pièce de résistance_. It is true that _The Novelist_ is only a true title in the older sense--that the pieces are _novelle_ not "novels" proper. But they are fiction, or fact treated like fiction: and though the popular taste itself was evidently ceasing to be satisfied with these morsels and demanding a substantial joint, yet the substance was, after all, the same. We rise higher, if not very high, with the novels of Mrs. Eliza Haywood (1693-1756), one of the damned of the _Dunciad_, but, like some of her fellows in that _Inferno_, by no means deserving hopeless reprobation. Every one who has devoted any attention to the history of the novel, as well as some who have merely considered it as a part of that of English literature generally, has noticed the curious contrast between the earlier and the later novels of this writer. _Betsy Thoughtless_ (1751) and _Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy_ (1753) could, without much difficulty, be transposed into novels of to-day. _Idalia_ (1723) is of an entirely different mood and scheme. It is a pure Behnesque _nouvelle_, merely describing the plots and outrage which ruin the heroine (_The Unfortunate Mistress_ is the second title), but attempting no character-drawing (the only hint at such a thing is that Idalia, instead of being a meek and suffering victim, is said to have a violent temper), and making not the slightest effort even to complete what story there is. For the thing breaks off with a sort of "_perhaps_ to be concluded in _some_ next," about which we have not made up our minds. Very rarely do we find such a curious combination or succession of styles so early: but the novel, for pretty obvious reasons, seems to offer temptations to it and facilities for it.