Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/161

Rh London, indulged in a style of life suitable to his own generous disposition, and the taste and education of his wife. Being disappointed, however, of the expected fortune of Mrs Smollett, which cost him an expensive and vexatious lawsuit, without ever being realized, he was obliged to have recourse to his pen for subsistence, and produced his novel of "Roderick Random," in two volumes (1748); a work founded partly upon the incidents of his own life, though in no very decided manner. The singular humour of this work, its amazing truth to nature, and the entertainment which it is calculated to afford to minds of all orders, secured it a most extensive sale, and raised both the fortune and the fame of the author. It was followed by the publication of the "Regicide," which was also profitable; and in 1750, Smollett paid a visit to Paris.

In 1751, when as yet only thirty years of age, he produced "Peregrine Pickle," in four volumes; a more regular, and perhaps more elaborate novel than "Roderick Random," but hardly so entertaining, and certainly much more obnoxious than its predecessor, to the charge of licentiousness and coarseness, in some of its passages. It is somewhat remarkable, that neither in this novel, nor in "Roderick Random," does he make his hero a perfect gentle- man: in both characters, the mixture of selfishness and want of principle, is very great. It is further remarkable, that, while the humour of the two works is beyond all parallel in the English language, there is hardly a single dash of pathos, or even of pure and virtuous feeling. It must be concluded, indeed, from these and all the other productions of Smollett, that though himself an honourable and generous man, he cherished no notions of high and abstract goodness: the fidelity and kindness of Strap and Bowling, though sometimes touching, are too evidently referable to the simplicity of their respective classes, to countervail against our observations. The fine passage, also, in Peregrine Pickle, where the exiled Jacobites bewail from the quay of Boulogne, the land they can still see, but must never again tread, is only an accidental narration of a real anecdote. The chief person alluded to, was a Mr Hunter, of Burnside, whom Smollett had met at Boulogne, under the circumstances described, when engaged in his French tour.

After a vain attempt to get into practice as a physician for which purpose he published a medical pamphlet, and obtained the degree of Doctor of Physic he assumed the character of an author by profession, and retired to a small house at Chelsea, where he lived for some years. The unmerciful manner in which he had lashed the ministry, precluded all court patronage, even if it had been the fashion of the court of George II. to extend it. He depended solely on the booksellers, for whom he wrought in the various departments of compilations, translations, criticisms, and miscellaneous essays. In 1753, he produced his novel, entitled "The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom;" a work which appears to be founded upon a mistake both in morals and metaphysics. To exhibit the details of a life spent in one uninterrupted series of base and fraudulent transactions, cannot be favourable to the morals of the world in any case; but the greatest objection is that such a work is a monstrosity, because no such character ever existed or can exist. In every view of the case it were better for the literary and moral reputation of Siaollet, that this work had never been written. In the beginning of 1755, he published his translation of Don Quixote, which, though esteemed less faithful than others previously given to the English public, conveys more perfectly, because more freely, the humour of the author. This work was very profitable to the translator.

Smollett now revisited his native country for the first time since he had first left it On arriving at Scotston, in Peebleshire where his mother resided