creature bore then, 1772. Instead of books, I shall read Æt. 44. men; So lend me your assistance. And smile serene as thine, Langton; so even with Beauclerc | Then come, my friends, and try your and Reynolds. What Miss Anna skill; You can improve me if you will; Seward called "the wit and (My books are at a distance :) "aweless impoliteness of the With you I'll live and learn; and "stupendous down every one before it. His forcible spirit and impetuosity of manner, says Boswell, "may be "said to spare neither sex nor "age. I have seen even Mrs. "Thrale stunned." * Yet, if we may believe Miss Reynolds, she never said more, when she recovered, than Oh dear gooa man! ** And Dean Barnard, invoking the aid of his friends against the aweless impoliteness, and submitting himself to be taught by their better accomplishments, has told us in lively verse with what good-humour it was borne by Reynolds. I lately thought no man alive That none could controvert it. "No, sir," says Johnson, "tis not so; * * * If I have thoughts and can't express 'em, Gibbon shall teach me how to dress 'em In terms select and terse; And Beauclerc to converse. Let Johnson teach me how to place Soon after the dinner at Oglethorpe's, Goldsmith returned * Which yet perhaps I ought not to quit without mentioning the characteristic fact, that, the subject of ghosts happening to arise among other topics started at the table, and Johnson mentioning the ghost which he believed old Cave the bookseller to have seen-(very famous for the great and satisfactory particularity of description elicited by Boswell's anxiety to know all about it. "And pray, sir, what did he say was the "appearance?" 'Why, sir, something "of a shadowy being.")-"Goldsmith "told us, he was assured by his brother, "the Rev. Mr. Goldsmith, that he also "had seen one." (III. 220.) Boswell's belief in ghosts receives amusing illustration in one of Johnson's letters from the Hebrides. "The chapel is thirty-eight "feet long, and eighteen broad. Bos"well, who is very pious, went into it at "night to perform his devotions, but " came back in haste for fear of spectres." Piozzi Letters, 1. 173. 1772. to his Edgeware lodging, and not only useful to young minds, was some time busied with the but entertaining to those who Animated Nature. It was a task understand the subject, which he worked at best in the the writer certainly did not, country, with Nature wide- there is little doubt that he reEt. 44. spread around him: for flects pretty nearly what Johnson though a severe criticism may thought and said. He appears point it out as the defect of the to be repeating Johnson, too, book, that, taken as a whole, it when he adds that "everything has too many of the charac-"of Goldsmith seems to bear the teristics of a mere compilation, "magical touch of an enchanter: into which he appears disposed, "no man took less pains, and as we have seen, to admit as "yet produced so powerful an freely the credulous romance of "effect: the great beauty of his the early naturalists and tra- "composition consists in a clear, vellers, as the scientific sober-"copious, and expressive style." ness of the great Frenchman All this is true to a certain exhis contemporary whose labours tent; but it is also not less cerwere still unfinished while he tain that it is not by "not taking wrote,―there are yet, as I have "pains" such a style can be ever lately said, with many evidences mastered. The pains has been of very careful study of the best taken at some time or other, the of the scanty authorities then reader may be sure, and the skill extant, also many original pas- to conceal it is the secret of that sages of exquisite country ob- exquisite ease. The contrast beservation in it; and not a few in tween his MS. elaborations in which the grace of diction, the prose and in poetry has been choice of perfect and finely- remarked in a previous page,* finished imagery, the charm with but though of course there which a poet's fancy is seen would always be a distinction playing round the graver truths in this respect in every writer, of science, and an elegant clear-we must not suppose that the ness and beauty in the tone of amount of correction or interreflection, may compare with his lineation can always be taken best original compositions, in to express the presence or abpoetry or prose. He did not live sence of care and labour. The to see its reception from his safer inference will be that in contemporaries; but when Tom proportion as a subject has Davies, who was in the way of dwelt in the mind, and been hearing all kinds of opinions thoroughly arranged and well about it from the best authori- digested there, it will flow forth ties, characterises it as one of clearly at last. the pleasantest and most instructive books in the language,| * Ante, 128-9. True ease in writing comes from art, noting chapter on birds of the spar chance, As those move easiest who have learn'a row kind (IV. 235-7), or that walk by the sea-shore (IV. 375) in which his thoughts turn to dance. 1772. He tells us in the preface to so unaffectedly to Him the Animated Nature, most char- who is "the essence of t. 44. acteristically, that his first inten-"sublimity," or where the change tion was to have given a sort of of the grub to the butterfly is acpopular translation and com- cepted for "a strong proof that, ment on Pliny, but that the ap-"while this little animal is raised pearance of M. Buffon's great "to its greatest height, we are work induced him to depart from "as yet, in this world, only canthat design; "being convinced "didates for perfection" (IV. 66), "by his manner, that the best-may be observed another de"imitation of the ancients was to lightful feature of it, in its unob"write from our own feelings, trusive manner of blending re"and to imitate nature." And ligious aspiration with natural for proof that he honestly did description. 66 this, it might be enough to refer Nor is there any section of the to the many personal charac-book more entirely pleasing, in teristics and experiences I have this personal view, than the been able to draw from the whole treatment of the ornibook, having lately, with singular thological division of its subject. and unexpected pleasure, read With manifest delight the theme the whole of it with that view. inspires its writer as he begins There are bits of natural paint-to talk of the "beautiful and ing in every part of it as true as “loquacious race of animals that anything in the Traveller or De-" embellish our forests, amuse serted Village. You perceive at our walks, and exclude solitude once that he is as sincerely de-"from our most shady retirescribing what he has actually "ments. From these man has seen and felt, as when, in either "nothing to fear; their pleasures, of those charming poems, he lets "their desires, and even their you hear the sweet confusion "animosities, may serve to en"of village murmurs" in the "liven the general picture of nacountry air, or shows you the "ture, and give harmony to beauty that a poet and lover of "meditation. No part of nanature may see in even the flat “ture appears destitute of inlow coasts of Holland, "the yel- "habitants. The woods, the "low-blossom'd vale, the willow-"waters, the depths of the earth, "tufted bank, the gliding sail." "have their respective tenants; Many such passages have in- "while the yielding air, and cidentally enriched these pages; those tracts of seeming space and in others,—such as the open-"where man never can ascend, ... 1772. 66 "are also passed through by does not believe the reluctance "multitudes of the most beauti- with which Goldsmith describes "ful beings of the creation. ... himself quitting that most beau"The return of spring is tiful part of creation? "These "the beginning of plea- "splendid inhabitants of air Et. 44. "sure. Those vital spirits "possess all those qualities that "which seemed locked up dur- can soothe the heart and "ing the winter, then begin to "cheer the fancy. The brightest "expand; vegetables and insects "colours, the roundest forms, "supply abundance of food; and "the most active manners, and "the bird having more than a "the sweetest music. In sending "sufficiency for its own sub-"the imagination in pursuit of "sistence, is impelled to trans-"these, in following them to the "fuse life as well as to maintain "chirping grove, the screaming "it. Those warblings, which had "precipice, or the glassy deep, "been hushed during the colder "the mind naturally lost the 66 seasons, now begin to animate" 'sense of its own situation, and, "the fields; every grove and "attentive to their little sports, "bush resounds with the chal-"almost forgot the TASK of de"lenge of anger, or the call of "scribing them. Innocently to "allurement. This delightful "amuse the imagination in this "concert of the grove, which is "dream of life is wisdom "so much admired by man, is no 66 'every rank and state of man"way studied for his amusement: "kind may find something to "it is usually the call of the male "imitate in those delightful "to the female; his efforts to "songsters, and we may not only "soothe her during the times of "employ the time, but mend our "incubation: or it is a challenge "lives by the contemplation.”* "between two males, for the affec- The reader will not fail to mark ❝tions of some common favourite. a certain subdued sadness in "... We must not take our idea this passage, and to that word "of the conjugal fidelity of birds TASK will give the significance "from observing the poultry in which Goldsmith by printing it our yards, whose freedom is in capitals intended it should "abridged, and whose manners have. Infinitely might such ex"are totally corrupted by slavery. tracts, fresh as the summer fields "We must look for it in our and sunshine, be prolonged; "fields and our forests, where and let me add that Goldsmith's "nature continues in unadul- intense love for all living crea"terated simplicity.” * Who tures is but another form of his worship of nature. Nothing moves his indignation so strongly as any cruelty practised against *Anim. Nat. IV. 426-7. * Anim. Nat. IV. 1-17, and see 238-243245; especially, on the latter page, some prettily-translated lines from the Spectator. 1772. Æt. 44. them. His remarks in this sec-|so taught, "be an admirable obtion of his book, on artificial "ject for human curiosity, but is moulting (IV. 14), on the manner "very little advanced by all its of training hawks (94), on the "learning in the road to sadness of caged birds (261), "its own felicity" (III. 289). simply express the spirit which Nor is his pity or symrouses him always against every pathy less strongly moved for form of cruelty or pain. There poor little human children subis a touching passage (II. 203-6)jected prematurely to an intelon that "humble useful crea- lectual torture for which their "ture," the ass, which might faculties are equally unprepared. have been written by my uncle "I have seen many a little phiToby himself. And who may "losophical martyr whom I resist the quaint kindly humour "wished, but was unable, to rewith which he celebrates another "lieve" (I. 396). domestic creature equally ser- Were it but for the humanity viceable and equally despised? and beauty of such passages Winding up a laughable state-alone, then, this Animated Nature ment of the absurdities of the must surely always be considered gander with the sly remark that as a surprising specimen of task"it is probable there is not a work, and a most happy piece "more respectable animal on of imitation of nature; allowance "earth-to a goose," he thus con- being made for the circumtinues of the latter: "I feel my stances in which its drudgery was "obligations to this animal every undergone, and which the course "word I write; for, however de- his necessities now obliged him "ficient a man's head may be, to take did not tend to relieve. "his pen is nimble enough upon "I have taxed my scanty cirevery occasion: it is happy in- "cumstances in procuring books "deed for us, that it requires no "which are on the subject of all great effort to put it in motion" "others the most expensive," (IV. 408). Very touching, too, is was a touching confession he did the anecdote he relates of the not scruple to make in the preshe-fox and her cub (III. 49), face he did not live to see prewhich "happened while I was fixed to the work. Pressed and "writing this history," and to hunted in other ways already by which he again refers in another such "scanty circumstances," he passage. And it is the same now induced Griffin to advance humane feeling which elicits his him what remained to be paid disapproval of all efforts, how-upon the copyright; acknowever ingenious or laborious, to ledged the receipt and executed bring animals "under the tram- the assignment in June; and had "mels of human education. It then received and paid away the "may," he admits of the animal whole eight hundred guineas, 66 |