The earlier and later days of in his career, to one who could Edmund Burke were neverthe-pierce through the over-refinless in closer sympathy than ings of his intellect to its uneither friends or enemies have availing and unpractical 1771. thought. He was too honest as issues. Was it strange Æt. 43. well as great to be a renegade, that Goldsmith should though not to avoid self-decep- have been that one? Was it tion; or effectually to resist those strange that, among all the men influences which all English in familiar intercourse with him, society sanctioned, which hung or belonging to the society of around and depressed him in which he was the leading ornaevery step of his progress, which ment, he should first have heard only at times he was able to the truth from that member of thrust thoroughly aside, and the circle whose opinions on which at last almost wholly over- such a theme perhaps all would shadowed him. Let us mea- have hailed with laughter? sure by the uses to which the Burke was only upon the practical philosophy of his poli-threshold of his troubled though tics is still available, the nobler great career; he had yet to live political uses to which, while he twenty-seven years of successes lived, he might have applied in every means employed, and of such genius. Its limited service failures in every object sought; is surely the proof of its mis-when Goldsmith conceived and direction. If he had not made wrote his imaginary epitaph. himself the sport of his fancy and But its truth was prophetic. * mere plaything of his imagina-Through the exquisite levity of tion, instead of sovereign ruler its tone appeared a weight and over both, he could never have seriousness of thought, which ministered throughout life, as he was found applicable to every did, to the aristocratic require-later movement in Burke's subments of these Rockinghams and sequent life; and which now conRichmonds. He consented to firms, as by the judgment of his do this, and the end was but a time, the unsparing verdicts of part of the beginning. Already history. As yet, however, it it was manifest, even thus early "We then spoke of Retaliation, and 66 out of their country for the sake of their "praised the character of Burke in par"religion, or sent to row in the galleys "ticular as a masterpiece. Nothing that "for selling salt against law; when the "he had ever said or done but what was "liberty of every individual is at the "foretold in it; nor was he painted as mercy of every prostitute, pimp, or "the principal figure in the foreground "parasite, that has access to the hand of "with the partiality of a friend, or as "power, or to any of its basest sub-"the great man of the day, but with a "stitutes; my mind, I own, is not at once" back-ground of history, showing both "prepared to be satisfied with gentle pal-"what he was and what he might have "liatives for such disorders." Corre-"been." Hazlitt's Conversations of Northspondence, III. 168-9. cote, 169-70. 1771. Æt. 43. the was Goldsmith's alone. What and again Burke had remained hitherto had fallen from Johnson silent, leaving his friend's deshowed no such perception as fence this time to Wedderburne, this; and it may be doubt-a recent deserter from ful if the rest knew much whigs.* And yet Burke might more of the likeness fairly enough, if less anxious at than that the statesman's long the moment for Townshend's gospeeches did detain him sadly between service, have spurned from his dinner, and that he the charge against the great too often arrived at table when pamphleteer, that his pension his mutton was cold. It was had lately been increased to renot until after many years he ward a hireling advocacy. Johnobtained the name of the dinner-son laughed at it himself when bell. Boswell named it to him, and said (justly enough) that Lord North had no such friendly disposition that way. But he added a curious illustration of the temper of the time. A certain "airy lady" (Peg Woffington's sister, formerly named as one of Goldsmith's personal critics, and who had married the honourable and reverend George Cholmondeley), had given him (Johnson) proof that even the private visitings of members of parliament were now watched; and when he went himself to the prime minister whose Here lies our good Edmund, his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind. Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote; Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, thought of dining. And thought of convincing, while they unfit: Too nice for a statesman; too proud for a wit; obedient; And too fond of the right, to pursue the expedient. In short, 'twas his fate, unemploy'd, or in place, sir, To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor. though he went after dark and with all possible secrecy, he was quietly told in a day or two, "Well! you have been with Lord "North." ** Some such suspicion against even poor Goldsmith, unpensioned as he was, broke out on *Sir James Mackintosh alleges another cause of offence in the fact of his Tommy Townshend had confirmed in the last session the claim he formerly put forward to such mention here. Again he had attacked Johnson, with al- having persisted in clearing the gallery lusion to his pamphlet on the of the House, against Burke's and Fox's Falkland Islands, as a pensioner sent. Boswell, v. 214. remonstrance, when] Garrick was prepaid to abuse the opposition; ** Boswell, IV. 271-2.; of very 1771. Et. 43. the appearance of his English | theless, passages of very harmHistory in August. Yet a more less narrative were displayed in innocent production could hardly the party papers as have been imagined. It was questionable tendency; he simply a compilation, in his easy was asked if he meant to flowing style, from four his- be the tool of a minister, torians whom he impartially "tend to relieve us; and they have efcharacterised in his preface; and "fectually embarrassed that road which with as little of the feeling of "they laboured to shorten. As the prebeing influenced by any, his book throughout had been written. "They have each," he says, speaking of Rapin, Carte, Smol-"none seems possessed of any share of lett, and Hume, "their peculiar "merit or reputation; some have been "admirers, in proportion as the "reader is studious of political "antiquities, fond of minute "anecdote, a warm partizan, or a "deliberate reasoner."* Never 66 sent compiler starts with such humble competitors, it will scarcely be thought "vanity in him if he boasts himself their superior. Of the many abridgments of our own history, hitherto published, 66 66 66. "written in dialogue, or merely in the "stiffness of an index, and some to an'swer the purposes of a party. A very "small share of taste, therefore, was suf "ficient to keep the compiler from the "defects of the one, and a very small "share of philosophy from the misrepre"sentations of the other. It is not easy, "however, to satisfy the different expectations of mankind in a work of this "kind, calculated for every apprehen"sion, and on which all are consequently "capable of forming some judgment. "Some may say that it is too long to pass "under the denomination of an abridg"ment; and others, that it is too dry to 66 He adds that he had particularly taken Hume for his guide, as far as Hume went; and that wherever he had abridged any passages from him, he had done it with reluctance, as he scarcely cut out a single line that did not contain a beauty. In the same preface he expresses with such charming grace and ease the principle that guided him in be admitted as a history: it may be obthese abridged histories, and which "jected that reflection is almost entirely renders them still so delightful, in spite "banished to make room for facts, and of errors corrected and information ex-". 'yet that many facts are wholly omitted tended since their first publication, that "which might be necessary to be known. the reader will thank me for transferring "It must be confessed that all those obsome sentences to this place. After "jections are partly true; for it is imposmentioning the favourable reception of "sible in the same work at once to athis Roman History, and that the book-"tain contrary advantages. The comsellers had told him how much they "piler, who is stinted in room, must wanted an English History of the same "often sacrifice interest to brevity; and kind, where the narrative, though very on the other hand, while he endeavours concise, should be not totally without in-" to amuse, must frequently transgress the terest, and the facts, though crowded, be "limits to which his plan should confine yet distinctly seen, he proceeds: "The "him. Thus, all such as desire only "business of abridging the works of "amusement may be disgusted with his "others has hitherto fallen to the lot of "brevity; and such as seek for informa"very dull men; and the art of blotting, "tion may object to his displacing facts "which an eminent critic calls the most "for empty description. To attain the "difficult of all others, has been usually "greatest number of advantages with the 'practised by those who found them-"fewest inconveniences, is all that can "selves unable to write. Hence our "be attained in an abridgment, the name "abridgments are generally more tedious "of which implies imperfection. It will "than the works from which they pre-"be sufficient, therefore, to satisfy the as well as the drudge of a book- and he finally was warned against seller; he was reminded that the betraying his country "for base favour of a generous public (so "and scandalous pay." The 1771. generous always at other poor publisher became alarmed, people's cost) was better and a formal defence of the book t. 43. than the best of pensions; appeared in the Public Advertiser. writer's wishes, if the present work be Tom was himself a critic, and "found a plain, unaffected narrative of had taken the field full-armed "facts, with just ornament enough to for his friend (and his "keep attention awake, and with reflec-"Have you seen," he says in a property). "tion barely sufficient to set the reader upon thinking. Very moderate abili- letter to Granger,*"; 'an impartial "ties were equal to such an undertak "matter of the slightest moment." 1852. "ing." The art of compilation and "printed from the last editions published abridgment, as thus described and prac-"during the author's life-time" (the tised by Goldsmith, may be called an ex- Grecian History was a posthumous publitinet art now, though never was there a cation, but he had left it nearly ready for time when so great a need existed for it. the press) "word for word. I should say Our scholars, whether native or Ger- "the same of the Animated Nature; man, give us too much information, and "though whether a cow has two horns too little knowledge, about everything."or three, or whether an elephant is Everything is heaped upon us, whether "oviparous or viviparous, is not to me a of argument or research, in detail; and till a Goldsmith arises for our Grotes *Granger, an industrious but not very and Niebuhrs, we shall never profit by brilliant person (whom Boswell tried their labour and their learning as we hard to exhibit to Johnson as untainted might do. As this note is passing through with whiggery, notwithstanding the pathe press, I receive accidental proof of tronage of Horace Walpole, vr. 217), has the esteem in which men of cultivated niched Goldsmith so oddly into his Biotaste still hold these little histories and graphical History of England that I may abridgments by Goldsmith, and of the perhaps be forgiven for quoting, from suspicion with which they regard all at one of the later editions of that successtempts to adapt them to schools by ful book, the allusion here. It occurs in cramming them with modern discoveries. a note to an article on Francis Goldsmith 66 Where else," writes my friend the of Gray's Inn, who died in 1655, after Rev. Mr. Harness to me, "will any lad translating one of the minor works of "from twelve to fifteen find such a glow- Grotius. "We had lately a poet of the "ing current of attractive information as 'same name with the person just men"in Goldsmith's account of Greece and "tioned, perhaps of the same family, but "Rome? If those fellows, the Germans,"by no means of the same character. "have proved them to be all wrong, let "His writings, in general, are much "there be a note to that effect, and let "esteemed; but his poetry is greatly "them be read, like romances, for "admired. Few tragedies have been "the encouragement of generous and "read with stronger emotions of pity "patriotic feelings- -as we retain the "than the distressful scenes in the Vicar Apocryphal Books for 'instruction of "of Wakefield; yet we cannot but regret "'morals,' and not for 'proof of doc-"that the author of the Traveller (decies "trine.' Those Histories are charming" repetita placebit) should have under"books. I have just finished the Grecian "valued his genius as far as to write a "History; it must be nearly fifty years "romance." Biog. Hist. IV. 40. What "since I read it last; and I found it quite worthy Mr. Granger must have thought "delightful. In later editions (as I see of those dull dogs, Fielding and Smollett, "from the copy I have been reading) who wrote hardly anything else, the "there has been a good deal of tamper- reader may be left to imagine. Tom "ing with the text; but all of them, Davies published Granger's book, and "Greece, Rome, and England, ought to be made money by it; nor is it possible to 66 CHAPTER XII. Country Relaxations. 1771. Æt. 43. "account of Goldsmith's History violent party noises elsewhere. "of England? If you want to The farm-house still stands on a "know who was the writer of it, gentle eminence in what is called "you will find him in Russell- Hyde-lane, leading to Ken"street: but Mum!"* ton, about three hundred yards from the village of Hyde, and looking over a pretty country in the direction of Hendon; and when a biographer of the poet went in search of it MEANWHILE, indifferent enough some years since, he found still to the blustering reception vouch- living in the neighbourhood the safed to his very innocent His- son of the farmer (a Mr. Selby) tory, Goldsmith had returned to with whom the poet lodged, and his country lodging, had been in whose family the property of steadily working at his new the house and farm remained.* labour, had now nearly finished his comedy, and was too quiet Selby, as given in Prior, 11. 332-4. “Being and busy in his retirement** to "then about sixteen years old he remembe much disturbed by those 1771. I subjoin the recollections of Mr. "bers the poet perfectly, and with some " read the Letters from which I have quoted in the text without constantly recurring laughter at the amusing airs of importance displayed by Tom to his modest, inexperienced, deferential, laborious, pears that though boarding with the biographical parson. In one of the more "family, the poet had the usual repasts strict letters of business, I may add, "commonly sent to his own apartment, Goldsmith's name is introduced; and it "where his time was chiefly spent in may serve to show the estimation in "writing. Occasionally he wandered which he now stood (13th November, "into the kitchen, took his stand with 1769), that his good word in society was "his back towards the fire apparently thought worth securing by the bribe of a "absorbed in thought, till, something presentation copy. "I have," writes "seeming to occur to mind, he would Davies, "taken all the pains I can to "hurry off, to commit it, as they sup"make your book as public as possible. "posed, to paper. Sometimes he strolled "The advertisements have cost me a "about the fields, or was seen loitering great deal of money, and I have made" and musing under the hedges, or "presents of several copies printed on "perusing a book. More frequently he "one side, in order to promote the sale "visited town, and remained absent "of your book. I have given presents," many weeks at a time, or paid visits to as above, to the following gentlemen: "private friends in other parts of the "Dr. Askew; Dr. Ducarel, of the Com-"country. In the house, he usually wore 66 mons; the Rev. Mr. Bernard, a worthy "his shirt collar open in the manner re"clergyman in Cambridgeshire; Mr. "Farmer, of Cambridge, author of the "Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare; "Dr. Goldsmith; the Rev. Mr. Bowle," &c. Granger's Letters, 25-29. 66 * Nov. 5, 1771. Granger's Letters, 53-54. ** Ante, 201. "presented in the portrait by Sir Joshua. "Occasionally he read much at night "when in bed; at other times when not "disposed to read, and yet unable to sleep, which was not an unusual occurrence, the candle was kept burning, his "mode of extinguishing which when out "of immediate reach was characteristic |