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Book IX, with merely seven chapters, is one of the shortest books of the novel. It focuses on Tom's rescue of Mrs. Waters from Northerton. The reappearance of Northerton, who enlisted to the army with Tom in Book VIII, reflects Fielding's interwoven structure. Fielding explains his philosophy of history and of characterization in Chapter I. He sets out the criteria for historians as genius, learning, conversation, and humanity. These principles in turn shape Fielding's method of characterization—although critical, he seems to scold his characters lovingly rather than to condemn them. For instance, his description in Chapter II of Tom and Mrs. Waters' attraction for each other is humorous. With Tom's first liaison on the road, Fielding's sexual innuendo unleashes itself. When Mrs. Waters tells Tom in Chapter III that she wants "to thank him a thousand Times more," we have no doubt that these thanks are intended to sound sexual. Much of Fielding's humor resides in burlesque ribaldry, and although this offended some critics, Partridge and Susan's speedy reconciliation after their fist-fight indicates that Fielding intends for us to laugh at such incidents rather than take them seriously. It could be argued that much of Tom Jones is a reaction to the idea of virtue put forward by Samuel Richardson in Pamela, in which to be virtuous simply means to be chaste. Although Sophia's chastity is important to her status as heroine, Fielding does not censure men and women as "un-virtuous" if they give in to their sexual desires. Moreover, Fielding suggests that perfect abstinence is unnatural. In Chapter V, the narrator reminds the reader that this is an epic of mortal rather than immortal characters, and of "wars" of love rather than military battles. Fielding relies on delay to magnify the sense of the epic in his novel and then deflate it—for instance, at the end of Book IX we learn that what seemed like the horrendous rape and assault of Mrs. Waters is in fact a common robbery.