6

to leave little room for after emendation.1 This extreme fastidiousness with regard to his poetry, made it necessary for him to have recourse to less congenial employment for his immediate support: and when the Earl of Lisburn once lamented to him, that he who was sure of charming every reader by his poetry should neglect the Muses, and bestow so much of his time upon mere compilations, he replied, "My Lord, by courting the Muses I shall starve; but by my other labours, I eat, drink, have good clothes, and enjoy the luxuries of life." He accordingly, in the interval between the appearance of the GoodNatured Man' and the publication of the 'Deserted Village,' resumed his labours for the booksellers, and compiled for Thomas Davies, his Roman History, two volumes, octavo, chiefly extracted from Livy, and afterwards an abridgment of it in one volume duodecimo; also a History of England,' four volumes, octavo, published in 1771, which, like the former work, he afterwards abridged for the use of schools. Of these abridgments, it is sufficient praise, that they are still standard works read in our schools, and the hitherto unequalled models of other historical compilations for the use of the young. For his Histories of England, namely, that formerly published in Letters, and the two just mentioned, he received, according to Davies,2 the publisher of the latter, £750 or £800; and probably half that sum for his Roman Histories. He also compiled a 'History of Greece' on the same plan. His biographer, Percy, indeed affects to doubt whether he had anything to do with this last work but upon this subject we have the positive authority of Davies, which is satisfactory. Goldsmith's Histories have been severely criticized as hasty compilations, but apparently with no great justice. His avowed object was, to present the more prominent events in a clear and interesting form; and he did not pretend to consult, for this purpose, any other but the ordinary sources of information. He has perhaps done more than any other writer to promote a general acquaintance with history. The politician may wish to consult minuter and more

See our variorum readings of 'The Traveller' and 'Edwin and Angelina' also the notes about Dr. Johnson's emendations at pp. 19 and 45, and in the Appendix to the Poems, vol. ii.—Ed.

2 See Davies's Life of Garrick.' Also the contracts with Davies, with our edition of the Letters, at the end of the present vol.-Ed.

3 Life of Garrick' again. See also Goldsmith's receipt for the £250 paid for the work by Griffin, Letters, &c., at the end of this vol.-ED.

...

critical narratives, but the generality of readers will find, in the simple and elegant pages of Goldsmith, as much of the record of past events as is necessary or profitable for them to know. The following estimate of his merits in this department of literature by Dr. Johnson, may be confidently opposed to the sneers of his detractors: "As an historian, he (Goldsmith) stands in the first class. . . It is the great excellence of a writer, to put into his work as much as his book will hold. Goldsmith has done this in his History-he tells you shortly all you want to know . . . No man will read Robertson's cumbrous detail a second time; but Goldsmith's plain narrative will please again and again . . . His abridgment (of the Roman History) is better than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius; and I will venture to say that if you compare him with Vertot in the same places of the Roman History, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of compiling, and of saying everything he has to say, in a pleasing manner.' In the course of this year (1768) he drew up his 'Life of Parnell,' which was prefixed to an edition of that poet's works. This life is written with great elegance, but the materials were too scanty to admit of its being made very interesting. He also wrote a 'Life of Lord Bolingbroke,' originally prefixed to the 'Dissertation on Parties,' in 1770, and afterwards to the large edition of Bolingbroke's Works, in 1777.

In another of his undertakings for the trade, he was less fortunate than usual. According to Dr. Percy, he had been desired by Griffin the bookseller, "to make a selection of elegant poems from the best English classics for the use of boarding schools, and to prefix to it one of his captivating prefaces. He carelessly, without reading it, marked for the printer one of the most indecent tales of Prior. This, as might be supposed, prevented the sale of the book, which had been produced in 2 vols. 12mo. Of this production the late ingenious Mr. Headley says, ‘Dr. Goldsmith-who was only unhappy, amidst all the works he undertook, in his 'Beauties of English Poetry,' disgraced himself by a very superficial and hasty production of this kind.' There is a slight mistake here: our author made two different selections of English Poetry, both published in the same year, 1767. The one, the Beauties of English Poetry,' alluded to, and justly

1 Boswell's 'Life of Johnson,' vol. iii., p. 281.

2 Percy's biography, p. 85.

characterized by Headley, does indeed contain Prior's 'Hans Carvel,' the poem apparently meant by Dr. Percy; but this selection was not meant for boarding schools, but, as Goldsmith mentions in his preface, " designed chiefly for such as either want leisure, skill, or fortune to choose for themselves." Neither, probably, was the poem admitted through inadvertence, “without reading it," for Goldsmith introduces it with a special criticism; nor is it perhaps more indecent than some parts of Gay's Shepherd's Week,' and other poems in the same collection." The other selection, which was really intended for the use of boarding schools, and which is entitled A Collection of Poems for Young Ladies, Devotional, Moral, and Entertaining,' does not contain anything by Prior. It may be a question, whether the wit of Prior's bagatelle so counterbalances its indecency, as to excuse its insertion in any collection; but Goldsmith does not appear to have deserved the additional imputation of having, either through carelessness or design, admitted it into a work designed exclusively for cultivating the taste of the young and the innocent.

2

6

In the following year, 1768, he embarked on a more extensive undertaking than he had yet tried, and from which he eventually derived more emolument than reputation. This was his "History of the Earth and Animated Nature.' In 1763, he had written a preface and series of Introductions to Dr. Brookes's 'System of Natural History' (printed in our fourth volume), in which he recommended the study of that science with so much elegance, and displayed such acquaintance with the merits of those writers who had chiefly distinguished themselves in treating of it, as encouraged the booksellers to engage him on a new work of the same kind. His friends endeavoured to discourage him from this undertaking (the 'History of the Earth and Animated Nature'), in which he was to enter upon a part of science with which it was supposed he had not much previous acquaintance, and which was too extensive to be acquired as a new study, without more time and greater patience

It is not a little extraordinary that so many wits should have thought it worth while to repeat this silly story. Prior borrowed it from La Fontaine; La Fontaine from Rabelais; and he from the Italian novelists.

2 Another objectionable poem, likewise by Matthew Prior, was also included in this collection of 'Beauties,' viz., The Ladle. See our collection of Goldsmith's Prefaces, &c., in vol. iv.-Ed.

than he could bestow on it.1 Dr. Johnson, however, who had great confidence in our author's powers of composition, predicted truly, that he would make his Natural History as amusing as a Persian tale; and although the work has no great reputation among naturalists, it has passed through numerous editions, and is still one of the most popular books on the subject of which it treats. It is quite unjust to regard it as a mere translation of Buffon's work. No doubt, Goldsmith, like every other historian of Nature, availed himself without scruple of the observations of his predecessors, and especially of the labours of Buffon, to whom natural history owes so much; but he has also made large and important additions to the information given by that eminent zoologist; and if, as it must be confessed, he has sometimes adopted, he has still also frequently corrected, his numerous errors. The excellent reflections, too, with which the work abounds, and which constitute no inconsiderable part of its value, are entirely original. And farther, it ought not to be forgotten, what many who accuse Goldsmith of being merely the translator of Buffon seem to be ignorant of, that he is indebted to him at all only in the portion of his work which refers to quadrupeds, and, perhaps, a portion of that devoted to birds. In the greater part of his description of birds, and the whole of his description of fishes, and insects, he is left to his own resources, as only the first part of Buffon's work, which relates exclusively to quadrupeds, and a portion of the section upon birds, had been published in 1773, when the 'History of the Earth and Animated Nature,' was completed. After all, it may be right to deny to Goldsmith the credit of having contributed much to the discoveries of natural science; to this, indeed, he himself makes little pretension, and it is not the proper object of his work: what he did attempt he successfully executed, by presenting, in an intelligible and captivating form, the discoveries of those who had distinguished themselves by their successful labours in this department of science. In this respect he amply satisfied the expectations of his employers; and what was of more importance to the public, he gave his readers the best and most satisfactory general work on Natural History which had yet appeared. Yet he felt no great satisfaction in the execution of a work, which his pressing want of money alone induced him to undertake. 1 Boswell, Dr. Percy, Cumberland.

2 Boswell's Life of Johnson,' vol. iii., p. 281.

1

In a letter to his friend Bennet Langton, Esq., dated September 7, 1771, he writes, "The Natural History is about half finished. God knows, I am tired of this kind of finishing, which is but bungling work, and that not so much my fault, as the fault of my scurvy circumstances." For this work, which was not published till 1774 (eight volumes 8vo.) he received £840.2 In 1770, Goldsmith published his beautiful poem, the 'Deserted Village,' by which he sustained, and even increased, the reputation which he had already gained by the Traveller.' But his poetry only added to his fame, without greatly increasing his fortune. He therefore turned his attention once more to the drama, which has always proved one of the most lucrative departments of literature to the successful candidate for its honours ; and the success of the 'Good-Natured Man,' though not equal to its merit, was sufficiently decided to tempt the author to try his fortune in a new comedy.3 He accordingly produced, in 1773, She Stoops to Conquer.' Colman, then manager of Covent Garden, entertained no great hope of its success; but Goldsmith himself was sanguine, and his high reputation as an author, together with the powerful recommendation of his literary friends, induced the manager to give it a trial, though not without some hesitation, as may be inferred from the following letter from the impatient poet:

(No date.)4

“DEAR SIR,—I entreat you'll relieve me from that state of suspense in which I have been kept for a long time. Whatever objections you have made, or shall make, to my play, I will endeavour to remove, and not argue about them. To bring in any new judges either of its merits or faults I can never submit to. Upon a former occasion, when my other play was before Mr. Garrick, he offered to bring me before Mr. Whitehead's tribunal, but I refused the proposal with indignation. I hope I

See the 'Letters' at the end of this vol.-ED.

2 See Goldsmith's Memoranda, &c., ibid.-ED.

3 He was at this time engaged on his Natural History,' which will account for his publishing less than usual from 1768 to 1773. He also accompanied a party of ladies (the Miss Hornecks and their mother) to Paris, in 1770.

4 This letter was first published in Colman's Posthumous Letters, 1820, p. 180. Its date would be about the middle of January, 1773.-ED. 5 Mr. William Whitehead, the forgotten poet laureate of that time. -ED.