smith, “with the ease of a cheerful companion, than Et. 29. "dictates, as other writers in this class have done, with "the affected superiority of an Author. He is the first "writer since Bickerstaffe who has been perfectly satyrical "yet perfectly goodnatured; and who never, for the sake "of declamation, represents simple folly as absolutely "criminal. He has solidity to please the grave, and "humour and wit to allure the gay.' ""* Our author by compulsion seemed here to anticipate his authorship by choice, and with indistinct yet hopeful glance beyond his dunciad and its deities, perhaps turned with better faith to Burke's essay on the beautiful. His criticism was elaborate and excellent; he objected to many parts of the theory, and especially to the materialism on which it founded the connection of objects of pleasure with a necessary relaxation of the nerves; but these objections, discreet and well considered, gave strength and relish to its praise, and Burke spoke to many of his friends of the pleasure it had given him. And now appeared, in three large quarto volumes, followed within six months by a fourth, the Complete History of England, deduced from the Descent of Julius Cæsar to the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle in 1748. Containing the Transactions of One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three Years. By T. Smollett, M.D. The wonder of this performance had been its incredibly rapid production: the author of Random and Pickle having in the space of fourteen Ibid, 473. I may add, that besides these and other detailed and important articles in this May number, he contributed also twenty-three notices of minor works to the department of the review styled the Monthly Catalogue (for which, indeed, he wrote largely every month), and a compilation of literary news from Italy, dated from Padua ! 1757. Æt. 29. months scoured through those eighteen centuries. It was a scheme of the London booksellers to thwart the success of Hume, which promised just then to be too considerable for an undertaking in which the craft had no concern. His Commonwealth volume, profiting by religious outcry against its author, was selling vigorously; people were inquiring for the preceding Stuart volume; and Paternoster Row, alarmed for its rights and properties in standard history books, resolved to take the field before the promised Tudor volumes could be brought to market. They backed their best man, and succeeded. The Complete History, we are told, "had a very disagreeable effect on Mr. Hume's performance." It had also, it would appear, a very disagreeable effect on Mr. Hume's temper. "A Frenchman "came to me," he writes to Robertson, " and spoke of translating my new volume of history: but as he also "mentioned his intention of translating Smollett, I gave "him no encouragement to proceed." It had besides, it may be added, a very disagreeable effect on the tempers of other people. Warburton heard of its swift sale while his own Divine Legation lay heavy and quiet at his publisher's; and "the vagabond Scot who writes nonsense," was the character vouchsafed to Smollett by the vehement proud priest. But it is again incumbent on me to say that Goldsmith keeps his temper: that, in this as in former instances, there is no disposition to carp at a great success or quarrel with a celebrated name. His notice has evident marks of the interpolation of Griffiths, though that worthy's more deadly hostility to Smollett had not yet begun; but even as it stands, in the Review which had so many points 66 * * "I am afraid," he writes in a letter to Millar (6th April, 1758), "the extra"ordinary run upon Dr. Smollett has a little hurt your sales; but these things are only temporary." Burton's Life, ii. 135. 1757. of personal and political opposition to the subject of it, it is manly and kind. The weak places were pointed out Et. 29. with gentleness, while Goldsmith strongly seized on what 66 he felt to be the strength of Smollett. "The style of this "Historian," he said, "is in general clear, nervous, and flowing; and we think it impossible for a Reader of taste "not to be pleased with the perspicuity and elegance of "his manner.'" For the critic's handling in lighter matters, I will mention what he said of a book by Jonas Hanway. This was the Jonas of whom Doctor Johnson affirmed that he acquired some reputation by travelling abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home: not a witticism, but a sober truth. His book about Persia was excellent, and his book about Portsmouth indifferent. But though an eccentric, he was a very benevolent and earnest man; and though he made the common mistake of thinking himself even more wise than he was good, he had too much reason to complain, which he was always doing, of a general want of earnestness and seriousness in his age. His larger schemes of benevolence have connected his name with the Marine Society and the Magdalen, both of which he originated, as well as with the Foundling, which he was active in improving; and to his courage and perseverance in smaller fields of usefulness (his determined contention with extravagant vails to servants f *Monthly Review, xvi. 532, June 1757. "When I sat to Hogarth," said Mr. Cole, "the custom of giving vails "to servants was not discontinued. On taking leave of the painter at the "door I offered his servant a small gratuity, but the man very politely "refused it, telling me it would be as much as the loss of his place if his master "knew it. This was so uncommon and so liberal in a man of Hogarth's profes"sion at that time of day, that it much struck me, as nothing of the kind had "happened to me before." My old friend Allan Cunningham, after quoting this in his Lives of the Painters, i. 176, adds: "Nor is it likely that such a thing would happen again. Sir Joshua Reynolds gave his servant £6 annually of wages, and 1757. not the least), the men of Goldsmith's day were indebted for At. 29. liberty to use an umbrella. Gay's pleasant poem of Trivia, and Swift's description of a city shower, commemorate its earlier use by poor women; by "tuck'd-up sempstresses and "walking maids; "* but with even this class it was a winter privilege, and woe to the woman of a better sort, or to the man, whether rich or poor, who dared at any time so to invade the rights of coachmen and chairmen. But Jonas steadily underwent the staring, laughing, jeering, hooting, and bullying; and having punished some insolent knaves who struck him with their whips as well as tongues, he finally established a privilege which, when the Journal des Débats gravely assured its readers that the king of the barricades (that king whose throne has since been burnt at the top of fresh barricades on the site of the Bastille) was to be seen walking the streets of Paris with an umbrella under his arm, had reached its culminating point and played a part in state affairs. Excellent Mr. Hanway, having settled the "offered him £100 a-year for the door!" I doubt whether this latter statement rests on good authority; for it is the defect of an otherwise pleasant book to do only scant and grudging justice to Reynolds, and too readily to believe everything said against him. The biographer took such earnest part with Hogarth, that he became unconscious how unfairly he was treating Reynolds. * "Britain in winter only knows its aid "To guard from chilly showers the walking maid." Gay's Trivia. "The tuck'd-up sempstress walks with hasty strides, "While streams run down her oil'd umbrella's sides." Swift's City Shower. Nevertheless, Mr. Bolton Corney, since this biography first appeared, has produced some lines a century earlier in date, which might seem to prove that the "umbrella" had been in use in Michael Drayton's time, even by the high-born mistress of the sempstress and the maid. "Of doves," says that old poet, "I have a dainty paire "Which, when you please to take the aier.. with their nimble wings shall fan you, "That neither cold nor heate shall tan you, And, like vmbrellas, with their feathers "Sheeld you in all sorts of weathers." Notes and Queries, ii. 523. use of the umbrella, made a less successful move when he would have written down the use of tea. 66 This is one of the prominent subjects in the Journey from Portsmouth: the book which Griffiths had now placed. in his workman's hands. Doctor Johnson's review of it for the Literary Magazine is widely known, and Goldsmith's deserved notoriety as well. It is more kindly, and as effectively, written. He saw what allowance could be made. for a writer, however mistaken, who "shows great goodness "of heart, and an earnest concern for the welfare of his country." Where the book was at its worst, the man might be at his best, he very agreeably undertakes to prove. "The appearance of an inn on the road, suggests to our Philosopher an eulogium on temperance; the confusion "of a disappointed Landlady gives rise to a Letter on "Resentment; and the view of a company of soldiers "furnishes out materials for an Essay on War." As to the anti-souchong mania, Goldsmith laughs at it; and this was doubtless the wisest way. He," exclaimed Jonas in horror, "who should be able to drive three Frenchmen "before him, or she who might be a breeder of such a race "of men, are to be seen sipping their Tea! ... What a "wild infatuation is this! ... The suppression of this 66 66 dangerous custom depends entirely on the example of Ladies of rank in this country . . . Some indeed have "resolution enough in their own houses, to confine the use "of Tea to their own table, but their number is so extremely "small, amidst a numerous acquaintance I know only of "Mrs. T. . . . whose name ought to be written out in letters "of gold." "Thus we see," is Goldsmith's comment upon this, "how fortunate some folks are. Mrs. T. . . . is praised "for confining luxury to her own table: she earns fame, and ... 1757. Æt. 29. |