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latterly much with the great world, and was much respected, he very often fucceeded, and felt his best reward, in the gratification of doing good. Dr. Johnson knew him early, and always fpoke as refpectfully of his heart as of his talents. Goldfmith, in fome refpect, conciliated his good opinion by almost never contradicting him; and Dr. Johnson, in return, laughed at his oddities, which only ferved as little foils to his talents and moral character.

,,His perfon," fays Mr. Bofwell, „in his Life of Dr. Johnfon," was fhort, his countenance courfe and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar, awkwardly affecting the complete gentleman. No man had the art of displaying with more advantage as a writer, whatever literary acquifitions he made. His mind refembled a fertile, but thin foil; there was a quick, but not a strong vegetation of whate ver chanced to be thrown upon it. No deep root could be struck.

The oak of the forest did not grow there; but the elegant shrubbery, and the fragrant parterre appeared in gay fucceffion. It has been generally circulated and believed, that he was a mere fool in converfation. In allufion to this, Mr. Horace Walpole d), who admired his writings, faid, he was,,an inspired idiot;" and Garrick e) defcribed him as one

d) Es ift Horace Walpole (nachmaliger Earl of Oxford) geb, 1718, geft. 1797, gemeint. Das Hauptwerk diefes Mannes find feine Anecdotes of painting in England.

e) Garrick, ein berühmter Englischer Schauspieler, geb. 1718, geft. 1779.

for fhortnefs call'd Nollf),

Who wrote like an angel, and talk'd like poor
Poll g).

But in truth this has been greatly exaggerated. He had, no doubt, a more than common fhare of that hurry of ideas, which we often find in his countrymen, and which fometimes produces a laughable confusion in expreffing them. He was very much what the French call un etourdi; and from vanity, and an eager defire of being coufpicuous wherever he was, he frequently talked carelessly, without any knowledge of the subject, or even without thought. Those who were in any way diftinguifhed, excited envy in him to fo ridiculous an excels, that the inftances of it are hardly credible. He, I am told, had no fettled fyftem of any fort, fo that his conduct must not be too strictly criticised; but his affections were focial and generous, and when he had money, he gave it away liberally. His defire of imaginary confequence predominated over his attention to truth.

As a profe writer, Goldsmith must be allowed to have rivalled, and even exceeded Dr. Johnson, and his imitator, Dr. HawkeIworth h), the most celebrated profeffional profe

f) Noll, eigentlich Nol, der abgekürzte Name Oliver. g) Poll, gewöhnlich Pol, ein aus Parrot korrumpirtes Wort: Poor Poll, armes Papchen!

h) Hawkefworth, ein vor einigen Jahren verstorbener vorzüglicher Schriftsteller der Engländer. Eins feiner bekanntesten Werke ift die periodische Schrift: the Adventurer; ausserdem ist er auch als Redakteur der erften Cookfchen Reife bekannt.

writer of his time. His profe may be regarded as the model of perfection, and the ftandard of our language; to equal which, the efforts of moft would be vain, and to exceed it every expectation, folly.

,,Goldfmith," fays Dr. Johnfon, „, was a man of fuch variety of powers, and fuch felicity of performance, that he always feemed to do beft what he was doing: a man who had the art of being minute without tediousness, and general without confufion; whofe language was copious without exuberance, exact without constraint, and ealy without weakness."

Of his profe writings, his Vicar of Wakefield, Effays, Hiftory of England,, Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, Life of Parnell, and Natural Hiftory, have obtained most distinction. His Vicar of Wakefield ranks in the first class of Englifh novels. The language which,,angels might have heard, and virgins told i)," "deferves the highest praife. If we do not always admire his knowledge or extenfive philofophy, we feel the benevolence of his heart, and are charmed with the purity of its principles. If we do not follow with awful reverence the majefty of his reafon, or the dignity of the long - extended period, we at least catch a pleasing sentiment, in a natural and unaffected style.

His Effays, originally written for news papers, cannot be read without lamenting his fate (the fate of hapless genius!) while fome venal and

i) Worte, welche aus Prior's Gedicht: Henry and Emma, entlehnt find. Emma fagt darin zu Henry:

Did e'er my eye one inward thought reveal,
Which angels might not hear, and virgins tell?

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ignorant Procuftes k) of the houfe of literature, tood over him to extend or contract his elegance, till it just filled the destined space.

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It is the great excellence of a writer, fays Dr. Johnfon, to put into his book as much as it will hold. Goldfmith has done this in his Hiftory. Goldsmith tells you shortly all you wifh to know. His plain narrative will please again and again. He has the art of compiling, and saying every thing he has to fay in a plain manner. He is now writing a Natural Hif tory and will make it as intertaining as a ,,Perfian tale."

His Natural History is a compilation of unequal merit. He has adopted no methodical arrangement worthy of notice; and his defcriptions, negligent of thofe diftinguifhing peculiarities of ftructure, which enables us to dif cover the name and fpecies of each individual, are almoft wholly employed upon their more amuling properties and relations. The fecond, third, and fourth volumes, comprehending the natural hiftory of mankind and of quadrupeds, are chiefly borrowed from Buffons 1) diffusive writings, from which he has transcribed many errors. The four laft volumes, comprehending the history of birds, fishes, infects, etc.

k) Procultes oder Procruftes, ein berüchtigter Räuber, def fen die mythische Geschichte der Griechen erwähnt. Er pflegte die Fremden, welche bei ihm einkehrten, und zwar die gröfern in ein kurzeres und die kleinern in ein längeres Bett zu legen, diefe - durch angehängte Ambofse zu recken, fo wie jene etwas von den Füssen abzuhacken.

1) Bufon, ein berühmter Franzöfifcher Naturforscher, geb. 1707, geft. 1788. Sein Hauptwerk ist feine Hiftoire

naturelle.

are particularly defective probably becaufe in compofing them, he no longer derived any affiftance from Buffon, whofe volumes on birds he does not appear to have seen, The manner and ftyle in which it is written, are generally pleafing, and the entertainment which it af fords, is occafionally increafed by the interpofition of pertinent fpeculative reflections.

As a poet, he is characterised by elegance, tenderness and fimplicity. He is of the fchool of Dryden m) and Pope n), rather than that of Spencer ) or Milton p). In Sweetness and harmony, he rivals every writer of verse fince the death of Pope. It is to be regretted, that his poetical performances are not more numerous. Though he wrote profe with great facility, he was rather flow in his poetry, not from the tardiness of fancy, but the time he took in pointing the fentiment, and polishing the verlification. His manner of writing poetry, it is faid, was this: he firft fketched a part of his defign in profe, in which he threw out his ideas as they occurred to him; the then fat carefully down to verfify them, correct them, and add fuch other ideas as he thought better fitted to the fubject. He fometimes would exceed his profe defign, by writing several verses impromptu; but these he would take uncom

m) S. Kap. 5. S. 35. des Vicar.

n) f. Kap. 15. S. 103. des Vicar.

o) Spenfer, einer der älteften Englifchen Dichter, geb. um 1510, geft. 1596 oder 198. Sein berühmteftes Gedicht ift die romantische Epopoe: the Fairy - Queen.

p) Milton (John), der unsterbliche Verfaffer des Paradife loft und vieler andern fchätzbaren dichterifchen Werke, wurde 1608 geboren, und starb 1674.

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