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 not the least), the men of Goldsmith's day were indebted for liberty to use an Umbrella. Gay's pleasant poem of Trivia commemorates 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 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 use of the umbrella, made a less successful move when he would have written down the use of tea. 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: but 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 'shews 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 shews. 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 resent'ment; and the view of a company of soldiers furnishes 'out materials for an essay on war.' As to the antisouchong 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 so dangerous a 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 'large acquaintance I know only of Mrs. . . . whose 'name ought to be written out in letters of gold.' Thus 'are. we see,' rejoins Goldsmith, how fortunate some folks Mrs. . . . is praised for confining luxury to her own 'table: she earns fame, and saves something in domestic 'expenses!' In subsequent serious expostulation with Mr. Hanway on some medical assumptions in his book, the reviewer lays aside his humble patched velvet of Bankside, and speaks as though with nothing less invested than the President's gold-headed cane: with this piece of quiet good-sense. after which he closes Yet after all, why so 'violent an outcry against this devoted article of modern 'luxury? Every nation that is rich hath had, and will 'have, its favourite luxuries. Abridge the people in one, they generally run into another. And the reader may 'judge which will be most conducive to either mental or 'bodily health the watery beverage of a modern fine 'lady, or the strong beer, and stronger waters, of her great'grandmother?' : : This paper had appeared in July: in which number there was also a clever notice from the same hand of Dobson's translation of the First Book of Cardinal de Polignac's Latin poem of Anti-Lucretius: the poem whose ill success stopped Gray in what he playfully called his Tommy Lucretius (De Principiis Cogitandi'). The Cardinal's work I may mention as a huge monument of vanity the talk of the world in those days, now forgotten. It was the work of a life; could boast of having been corrected by Boileau and altered by Louis the Fourteenth; and was kept in manuscript so long, and so often, with inordinate self-complacency, publicly recited from by the author in kind earnest of what the world was to expect, that some listeners with good memories (Le Clerc among them) stole its best passages, and published them for the world's earlier benefit as their own. This drove the poor Cardinal to premature delivery, and an instalment of thirteen thousand lines appeared; of which perhaps one line (Eripuitque Jovi fulmen, Phoboque sagittas), having since suggested Franklin's epitaph (Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis), has a chance to live. To the by Mr. Gray, I find opinions which place in lively contrast the obscure Oliver and the brilliant Horace. Walpole called himself a Whig, in compliment to his father; but except in his rarer humours he hated, while he envied, all things popular. I am more humbled,' was his cry, when thirsting for every kind of notoriety, 'I am 'more humbled by any applause in the present age, than 'by hosts of such critics as Dean Miller.' He was very steady in his fondness for Gray, both because Gray was master of some secrets of their earlier life that a little affected him, and because there was that real indifference to popular influences in the poet, which the wit and fine gentleman was anxious to have credit for. Six years before the present, he proclaimed this liking to the world as loudly as he could, by a Strawberry Hill edition of the Eton College Ode and Churchyard Elegy; and when he heard, in the July of this year, that Gray had left his loved Pembroke Hall for a visit to Dodsley the bookseller, he hurried to London, as he says himself, to 'snatch' away the new Odes for another pet publication at Strawberry Hill. These were the Bard and the Progress of Poesy; two noble productions, it must surely be admitted, whatever of cavil can be urged against them: though not to be admired as Walpole admired. Their weaknesses were to him their strength; he treasured every obscure allusion; would have had the remoteness and violent effort even more remote and violent; would have closed the page, if he could, to all but the circles he moved in; and cherished most those too fastidious fears, which checked Gray's otherwise certain flight into the highest poetic heaven. On the other hand I find no evidence that the pathos and sublimity of his friend had rightly affected him that he could sympathise with the grand tone of melancholy, or discover the deep and touching human reference, which prevail over every minor fault in those remarkable poems. He never praises without shewing his dislike of others, much more than his love of Gray. You are very parti'cular,' he says to Montague, 'in liking Gray's Odes: but |