Joseph Andrews

And, indeed, it is not fanciful to perceive in each book a somewhat different presentment of the author's genius; though in no one of the four is any one of his masterly qualities absent. There is tenderness even in _Jonathan Wild_; there are touches in _Joseph Andrews_ of that irony of the Preacher, the last echo of which is heard amid the kindly resignation of the _Journey to Lisbon, _ in the sentence, "Whereas envy of all things most exposes us to danger from others, so contempt of all things best secures us from them." But on the whole it is safe to say that _Joseph Andrews_ best presents Fielding's mischievous and playful wit; _Jonathan Wild_ his half-Lucianic half-Swiftian irony; _Tom Jones_ his unerring knowledge of human nature, and his constructive faculty; _Amelia_ his tenderness, his _mitis sapientia, _ his observation of the details of life. And first of the first.