But it is scarcely extravagant to say that it is more difficult to conceive even Scott doing what he did without Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett before him, than it is to believe that, with these predecessors, somebody like Scott was bound to come.
[6] This is said not to have been quite the case at the _very_ first: but it has been so since.
Great, however, as the three are, there is no need of any "injustice to Ireland"-- little as Ireland really has to claim in Sterne's merit or demerit.

He is not a fifth wheel to the coach by any means: he is the fourth and almost the necessary one.

In Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett the general character and possibilities of the novel had been shown, with the exception just noted: and indeed hardly with that exception, because they showed the way clearly to it.

But its almost illimitable particular capabilities remained unshown, or shown only in Fielding's half extraneous divagations, and in earlier things like the work of Swift.

Sterne took it up in the spirit of one who wished to exhibit these capabilities; and did exhibit them signally in more than one or two ways.