OF HUMAN LIFE. BY THE AUTHOR OF "TREMAINE" AND "DE VERE." "I can truly say, that of all the papers I have blotted, which have been a IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. FIELDING; OR, SOCIETY. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET MDCCCXXXVII. FIELDING; OR, SOCIETY. PART I. MOTIVES. be I WAS born in one of the British Isles, of a family sufficiently high to enable me to be an aristocrat if I had pleased, but not so high as to keep me at a distance from those lower ranks in which as much, if not more, of what may called nature is exhibited. Vastly convenient this, for one of the turn I at last took, of being an observer of men and things, without belonging to any particular order. Some people are remarkable for having every sense but common sense. I had nothing else: if I had that (which I much doubt): I was not accomplished; and, though expensively educated, had little learning. But from childhood I was very observant; and my spirit of investigation sometimes cost me dear; as my aunt Penelope VOL. II. B |