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Each nobler aim represt by strong control,
Now sinks at last, or feebly warms the soul,
While low

In that noble and animated passage, in which the character of the Briton is described, a great improvement is made by the transposition of a line; for one of the finest couplets originally stood,

I see the lords of human kind pass by

Pride in their port, defiance in their eye.

to the great loss of its beauty.

First ed.:

Yet think not thus, when Freedom's ills I state,
I mean to flatter kings, or court the great :-
Perish the wish! for, only satisfied,

Above their pomps I hold my ragged pride.

This poor couplet is exchanged for a much better, and followed up by the insertion of several additional lines.

The defect, if defect we must find, in these charming and fascinating poems, is to be seen alone in some vagueness or incorrectness in the reasoning. The object of the Traveller is to shew, 1. that there may be equal happiness in states that are differently governed from our own; 2. that every state has a particular principle of happiness ;-3. that this principle in each may be carried to a mischievous excess. (v. Dedication.) Now the first that is drawn under the Poet's observation is Italy. Of that he observes, 1. that Nature has been bountiful to her ;-2. that the natives are not worthy of their country ;-3. that they have the vices of departed opulence; that the loss of wealth is supplied by the arts which are the wrecks of their former pride. The second country is Switzerland: there, 1. Nature is barren and cold;-2. the inhabitants are contented with their poverty, because it is equally diffused;-3. but their pleasures and joys are few, as their morals low. The next country is France; which is described as gay and thoughtless; honour and the desire of esteem their moving principle: but this love of praise, growing indiscriminate, enfeebles the mind. Next we meet with Holland, whose characteristic is industry: but industry begets a love of gain, and this love of gain leads to slavery. Lastly, Britain is painted as the Land of Liberty; but excess of liberty produces faction; and

as Nature's ties decay, As duty, love, and honour fail to sway, Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law,

Still gather strength and force unwilling awe.

But this freedom is not to be found in popular faction; nor can it survive under the dominion of an Oligarchy; for wealth and the ambition of the great have depopulated the country, and led to emigration of the inhabitants. At length the Poet ends by saying, that the happiness of mankind is little affected by the government, bad or good, under which they live, but resides and centres in the mind;

In every government, though terrors reign,
Though tyrant kings or tyrant laws restrain,
How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure ;
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity we make or find;

With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel,

Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel,
To men remote from power but rarely known,

Leave reason, faith, and conscience all our own.

The fact however is, as we think Gibbon somewhere observes, that the obscure millions of an empire have not to dread the cruelty of their master, the lifted axe, or agonizing wheel,' but his avarice; and thus the smooth current of domestic joy, under a wicked and tyrannical Government, will, contrary to the Poet's assertion, be assuredly disturbed or destroyed by the weight of taxation which descends on the meanest and most indigent classes of society with doubly accelerated weight, and without a power of escape. The Poet's argument is true only in the one poetical light in which he has viewed it. As regards the Deserted Village,' the argument is based on an hypothesis which cannot be reasonably granted, and of the existence of which we have no experience:

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
When wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Nor is the second proposition to be granted:

A time there was, ere England's griefs began,
When every rood of ground maintain'd its man.

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For, the further we should go back in the pages of English history, the thinner we should find the population; and that property was not then subdivided, is clear, from the account given by historians of the armies of vagrants and sturdy beggars who, like a pestilence, infested the country, who were sometimes fed by the religious houses, sometimes falling victims to the injured laws of the land, were hanged in masses, and who at length yielded to the effect of a charitable enactment. The Poet then proceeds to say, that trade has driven away the people, or dispossessed the swain,' and that the rich have acted like the Norman king, laid waste the cultivated country to extend their barren parks and manors for the chase. believe the chief part of this picture to be lighted up by the false gleams of poetic fiction. As population cannot remain stationary in a state of plenty, each rood of ground could not for successive generations maintain its man:-2ndly, Agriculture never has been found to flourish without the assistance of trade and manufactures :-3dly, the wealth of the manufacturer, instead of depopulating countries to form a domain for his princely solitude, without difficulty can purchase the estates of those, a too numerous class, who have been unable to meet the heavy pressure of taxes and rising prices consequent on increasing wealth. His corollary is just enough, that there may be great difference between a wealthy and happy land: but it is not deduced from his problem. Wealth will no inore produce happiness in a state, than it will in an individual, but in both it is the most powerful means of happiness; and a poor nation, whose Arcadian happiness the Poet has so beautifully described, would probably be the most wretched; for the greatest of all evils to a nation, yea, the only great and real evil is, being without resources and strength, and therefore too feeble to defend itself. This poor free country of peasants, which Goldsmith describes, would preserve its independence till some neighbouring power overwhelmed them, which it would do the moment that the invasion was necessary to its own interest. Success in commerce is founded on the very same virtues as in agriculture;-on industry, on probity, on care and moderation.

Many of the evils which Goldsmith describes, instead of rising, as he argues, naturally from commerce, are the causes of its decline and ultimate destruction. The unequal distribution of property is the very soul and animating power of civilization and advancement. Wealth precedes science; and in their scientific acquirements a people possesses a glory which is indestructible. The Poet, however, Ruris amator-has taken that view of the subject, which was most fitted to be adorned with the playful lights and attractive embellishments of poetic decoration. He took the side of simplicity against refinement, of nature against art, and the country against the city; and we do not consider our partial observations as intended to detract in the slightest degree from the greatness of his well-merited fame. We look on Goldsmith's poetry with as fond an admiration, and we estimate it as highly, as if it were laid on the soundest and most impregnable principles of the œconomical science; and we shall now close our observations by supporting our feeble opinion, with the high authority of one, to whom the literature of England in various branches has for near a half a century been most deeply indebted : "Goldsmith (says Mr. D'Israeli, in his Miscellanies published in 1797,) might have contrasted his powers with those of Johnson, and without any perversion of intellect, or inflation of vanity, might, according to his own ideas, have considered himself as not inferior to his more celebrated and learned rival. He might have preferred the felicity of his own genius, which, like a native stream, flowed from a natural source, to the elaborate powers of Johnson, which in some respects may be compared to those artificial waters which throw their sparkling currents in the air, to fall into marble basins. He might have considered that he had embellished philosophy with poetical elegance, and have preferred the paintings of his descriptions, to the terse versification and the pointed sentences of Johnson. He might have been more pleased with the faithful representations of English manners in his Vicar of Wakefield, than with the borrowed grandeur and the exotic fancy of the oriental Rasselas. He might have believed, what many excellent critics have believed, that in this age comedy requires more genius than tragedy; and with his audience he might have infinitely more esteemed his own original humour than Johnson's rhetorical declamation. He might have thought, that with inferior literature he displayed superior genius, and with less profundity more gaiety. might have considered that the facility and vivacity of his pleasing compositions were preferable to that art, that habitual pomp, and that ostentatious eloquence, which prevail in the operose labours of Johnson. No one might be more sensible than himself, that he, according to the happy expression of Johnson, when his rival was in the grave, "tetigit et ornavit." Goldsmith, therefore, without any singular vanity, might have concluded from his own reasonings, that he was not an inferior writer to Johnson. All this not having been considered, he has come down to posterity as the vainest and the most jealous of writers; he whose dispositions were the most inoffensive, whose benevolence was the most extensive, and whose amiableness of heart has been concealed by its artlessness, and passed over in the sarcasms and sneers of a more eloquent rival, and his submissive partisans."

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We have only further to observe, that Mr. Prior has used most exemplary and patient diligence in the collection of his materials, and has probably left little for future biographers to glean. We are not able to point out many mistakes in his literary information, and the following notices are perhaps too trifling even to mention :

GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

21

Vol. i. p. 69. Instead of Gray disliking mathematical studies, we are told that he expressed regret that he had not pursued them. See Mathias, p. 68. "Mr. Gray much regretted that he had never applied his mind to the study of Mathematics, and once, rather late in life, he hinted an intention to undertake it; no one was ever more convinced of its dignity and importance," &c.

P. 283. We always understood that the scale of poetical merit here given to Goldsmith, was formed by Akenside. We think that Dr. J. Warton was our authority; or were there two?

P. 496. Mr. Campbell's mistake about Coombe and Lyttleton's Letters, arose from his confounding two distinct works: Coombe wrote some letters under the name of the younger Lord Lyttleton, and printed them in 12mo. Our copy is called a new edition, 1806. They are an agreeable jeu d'esprit, and nothing more.

Vol. ii p. 63. In the account of Nugent,' the author should have referred to Sir C. Williams's Odes, and Gray's Letters. We mentioned him, more fully in one of our late numbers on Boswell's Johnson.

P. 348. Should it not be Orange Street, Red Lion Square, and not Leicester Square? On this street, see the last volume of the Spectator, it was very fashionable.

P. 352. We have before alluded to this Review being given erroneously to Sir Walter Scott. Would he have been likely to mention the quantity of the word Arbutus?'

P. 527. We much question the correctness of the Latinity of the epitaph by Dr. Johnson. It is a most difficult species of composition. Dr. Parr prided himself on his skill in this branch of writing; but how wretchedly poor is his inscription on Johnson's monument at St. Paul's!

A work of the size of Mr. Prior's, that has no more errors than these, deserves the praise of correctness. We have no personal anecdote to add, except that we not long ago met an elderly lady at dinner since dead, who told us that an acquaintance of hers had been flogged by Goldsmith when he was usher at Peckham school.

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I AM inclined to think that there may be some mistake about the pedigree which Mr. Prior has given our poet Goldsmith in his late excellent life of the Doctor: will you therefore allow me to transmit to Mr. Prior the following pedigree, through the medium of the Gentleman's Magazine?

By deed dated 1615, John Goldsmyth of Penshurst, Kent, husbandman, purchased for 150l. a house and land, where be then dwelt at Fordcomb Green, containing 14 acres, called Blacklands, and the deed was attested by Robert Goldsmithe.

In a deed dated 1625 the said John Goldsmyth was a party, and Edward Goldsmyth was a witness to the same.

CHARACTERS, No. XVIII.

By a deed dated 1646, Oliver Goldsmith of Penshurst, hempdresser, sold for 701. ten acres of the above estate, and his wife's name was Jane Goldsmith.

By a deed dated 1647 the said Oliver Goldsmyth sold for 511. the house and two acres of the above estate, then in his own occupation.

In a deed dated 1702 Robert Goldsmith was a witness.

By a deed dated 1702 John Goldsmith the younger of Penshurst, yeoman, purchased nine acres of land in his own occupation, adjoining the remaining part of the above-mentioned estate called Blacklands, then the property of John Goldsmith the elder, and Robert Goldsmith was a witness to the same deed. Yours, &c.

S. P. C.

LETTERS OF SIR JOHN VANBRUGH,

TO TONSON, THE BOOKSEller.
(Continued from Vol. VI. p. 376.)

Whitehall, Nov. ye 5th, 1719. I REC'D a very welcome and very kind letter from you, some time ago; and was, I do assure you, as heartily pleas'd, as any friend you have in the world, with the lucky hit you mention'd in it. The great increase of that good fortune since,' is astonishing to every body here: and I find some of our keenest men, in money matters, who went to Paris two months since, appear still as much at a loss as ever, for a good foundation to this prodigious rise of stock, and say that those who are allow'd the most skilfull in things of this nature among'st the French, stand only gazers on, but meddle with nothing. I can't however doubt, but you know well what you do, which I most truly wish, and that you may bring all your good luck, and all your usual good health, to your ancient seat at Barns, where I shall have much pleasure in talking over your adventures.

I was lately (en famille) downe at Culford, where I cannot say we drank your health, but to your memory; for we believ'd what the news said of you. I won't say what I cou'd, on the concern I felt on that occasion, lest you shou'd lessen the opinion you allways seem'd to have of my sincerity. But this I will assure you, that I have plainly seen, you wou'd not have been dropt as Mainwaring 3 was. I return'd to London, before I knew you were still among'st us. I dare say you'll believe the surprise was a pleasing one. I went the next day to Claremont, where you may imagin there was much talk about you; and I do assure you, with no small regard and affection from every body. Mr. Spence was there, who gave us a very agreeable and friendly account of you, and join'd very heartily with us, in drinking round your health and your

return.

I am much oblig'd to your good

In the Missisippi scheme.

2 The seat of Lord Cornwallis in Suffolk.

wishes, in my matrimonial state; and encourag'd by your opinion that it may possibly do me as much good, as it has mischief to many a one we know, I'll give you however no other account of it till we meet, than that, I have a good-humour'd wife, a quiet house, and find myself as much dispos'd to be a friend and servant to a good old acquaintance, as ever.

Yours entirely, J. VANBRUGH.
A Mons", Monsr Jacob Tonson, chez
Monsr Coustelier, Libraire, Quay
des Augustins, à Paris.

Whitehall, Nov. ye 29th, 1719. This is in return to a hearty kind letter from you of the 14th ins'. Every thing you said in it, was very agreeable to me, but I had one sensible pleasure from the whole, which no letter from you ever gave me before: it was from reflecting on the change, between mourning a friend's death, and afterwards receiving a living epistle from him.

I hear my L Burlington is arriv'd, and design (on what you say to his advantage) to go and wait upon him. I wish you had been enough in strength, to have accepted his offer, of a place in his coach; tho' I suppose your affairs wou'd have oblig'd you to return again to Paris in a little time.

you

:

but

One seldome hears you nam'd (since the good fortune that has attended you there), but the question is started, how it will operate upon you, in your way of living and various opinions I observe about it. What my own has been 'll hear when you come over, I observe in your letter one strong symptome of my being right, since you are so far from forgetting your old mistress Barnes that you intend to compliment her in the spring with 500l. for a new pettycoat. For my part I think she deserves it, for the pleasures she has given you, and I heartily wish her well for those she has spared me. When I have met with witty jokers, I have always supported her, as I did other disagreeables. Her charms don't lye in her beauty, but her good conditions. She feels

4 Sir John Vanbrugh married in 1719, Harriet daughter of of Yorkshire.

Arthur Maynwaring, esq. author of She survived her husband fifty years, and several pieces in prose and verse. died April 26, 1776, aged ninety years.

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