...its true state, diversified only by accidents that daily happen in the world'; instead he recommends 'the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability'. Silencing the name of his nemesis, Johnson clearly would like to stem a tide; indeed, his only extended...

...advocacy of exemplary characters, where the double negative hardly indicates a ringing endorsement: "In narratives, where historical veracity has no place,...not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue." 139 And however confident Johnson may sound elsewhere in the essay, his remarks on readers of fiction...

...the reader, implicitly defines Fathom by Johnsonian prescripts. In "Rambler 4" Johnson argues: "In narratives where historical veracity has no place,...but the highest and purest that humanity can reach . . . Vice, for vice is necessary to be shewn, should always disgust."16 Smollett's 16. The Rambler,...

...settle their boundaries, mix them with so much art, that no common mind is able to disunite them. In narratives where historical veracity has no place,...idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above IO probability, for what we cannot credit, we shall never imitate, but the highest and purest that...

...principal personages, readers begin to lose abhorrence of their faults; that, as Johnson added, "in narratives, where historical veracity has no place,...not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue." Novelists like Richardson, Sarah Fielding, and Johnson himself who take this line do not ordinarily...

...private love of cMvalric stories, publicly stressed their obligation to provide a moral example: In narratives, where historical veracity has no place,...but the highest and purest that humanity can reach. 31 By these standards, Malory must fail, since for most of his knights, excluding Galahad and Perceval,...

...see of what use it may be to read the account. . . . Many characters ought never to be drawn. ... In narratives where historical veracity has no place...not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue,' like Sir Charles Grandison. \Ve ought to be taught that ' vice begins in mistake and ends in ignominy,'...

...liiltorical veracity has no place, I cannot difcover why there fhould not be exhibited the molt perfeil idea of virtue ; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability ; for what we cannot credit, we (hall never imitate ; but of the higheft and puren kind that humanity can reach, which, when exercifed...