£800, and he is supposed to have realized, this year, from his productions about £1800; but a fatally returning passion for the gaming table, and some artful 56 and needy authors who surrounded him, so exhausted his means, that he was soon involved in all the embarrassments of debt.

About this time our Poet, who was anxious to be in the world of fashion, and who was not averse to those gaieties and amusements of life, in which learned doctors are not wont to enter, dropt his title, and assumed the plain name of Mr. Goldsmith. This however would not do! The world would not let him lose his degree, and though only a bachelor in physic, he was called Doctor to the day of his death.

was performed for Quick's benefit on the 8th May, but was never printed. I am obliged for the perusal of it to the kindness of Mr. J. P. Collier, whose learned and accurate History of the English Stage is a great accession to that branch of our literature.

56 Purdon, Pilkington, and Hifferman, are mentioned by name, and particularly some of his own countrymen. His biographer, T. Evans, says, that Goldsmith was subject to loud fits of passion, and that his servants have been known upon these occasions purposely to throw themselves in his way, that they might profit by it immediately after, for he who had the good fortune to be reproved was certain of being rewarded for it.' He had two or three poor authors always as pensioners, besides several widows and poor housekeepers, and when he had no money to give the latter he sent them away with shirts, or old clothes, and sometimes with the whole contents of his breakfast table, saying, 'Now let me suppose I have eat a heartier breakfast than usual, and am nothing out of pocket.'

6

In 1774, his History 57 of the Earth and Animated Nature' appeared, and closed his literary labours. He received for it, and the recompense certainly was not too great, £850. It would be wrong to speak of it as a work that did honour to science, or extended the boundaries of knowledge; and yet it is the production of no common mind. The descriptions and definitions are often loose and inaccurate, and the chief defect of the work arises from its being a mere compilation from books. It has therefore none of the freshness of personal observation; nothing which awakens the curiosity and inspires the confidence of the reader, as in the delightful pages of White, Montagu, or Rennie. His obligations to Buffon are willingly acknowledged; but the work of that great naturalist was then unfinished, and Goldsmith in many parts of his History had to search for other guides. He is also too fond of embellishing and adorning his narrative with wild and marvellous narrations from the inaccurate pages of the elder 58 travellers; for it was thought ne

57 His elegant style in prose flowed from him with such facility, that in whole quires of his Histories, Animated Nature, &c. he had seldom occasion to correct, or alter a single word.

58 Such as the story of the dolphin caught in the Red Sea, and known by a mark to have been in the Mediterranean of horses that lived on oysters: of apes who watch the male population out of the villages to work, in order to seize on their undefended wives: of their keeping the females against their wilis in the forests for the pleasure of their company, and feeding them plentifully of their regular oratori

cessary to break occasionally through the dryness of detail, and allure his readers by the variety of the entertainment. Still it is but justice to observe, that the book appears to be written with labour and care, and composed after a reference to the most authentic authorities which he could command. The state of science was comparatively imperfect and undeveloped; and a work that professed to be so comprehensive in its outline, and so minute in its details, required all the powers and knowledge of an experienced philosopher. The never-failing grace, however, of Goldsmith's style is seen throughout, and the fancy of the Poet sometimes throws its glittering theories over the solid and venerable basis of science. The manner of narration, though occasionally careless, is elegant and clear, and the reflections are often justly and beautifully made.

cal debates, conducted with more than the order of the British senate of monkeys, who when they feel a desire to eat a crab, put their tails in the water, and the crab catching hold of them is drawn out with a jerk; of their passing their vacant hours in imposing on the gravity of cats: of the Boa Constrictor seizing a buffalo; when at every twist the bones of the buffalo are heard to crack, as loud as the report of a cannon: the story from Gesner of two nightingales, who were distinctly heard discoursing together of some village scandal: the drunken host and his scolding wife and of the impending war between the emperor and the protestants. I shall say nothing of his theories of breeding zebras for our use as large as cart horses, or his hopes of seeing the next generation mounted on ostriches; because more wonderful things are daily coming to pass.

More than once I have been reminded of those fine moral contemplations, and calm dignified thoughts, with which Pliny 59 closes his scientific chapters, and ends his instructive commentaries with a touching appeal to the language of the heart. Goldsmith, it must be recollected, brought no stores of knowledge to his subject, but acquired information as he wrote; and his History, superficial and inaccurate as it sometimes is, bears no weak testimony to the variety of his attainments, the flexibility of his powers, and the quickness of his discernment.

The last production which remains to notice, is the poem of Retaliation; a full and interesting account of the occasion that introduced it will be found in Cumberland's Memoirs; the characters

59 Goldsmith at one time intended to translate Pliny's Natural History, with notes and observations. Traces of his having read the Roman naturalist may be found in his work. See vol. i. p. 54; see a beautiful passage on birds, vol. vi. p. 144, and vol. v. p. 333, which I shall transcribe. • The music of every bird in captivity produces no very pleasing sensations. It is but the mirth of a little animal insensible of its unfortunate situation: it is the landscape, the grove, the golden break of day, the contest upon the hawthorn, the fluttering from branch to branch, the soaring in the air, and the answering of its young that gives the bird's song its true relish. These united, improve each other, and raise the mind to a state of the highest, yet most harmless exultation. Nothing can in this situation of mind be more pleasing than to see the lark warbling on the wing; raising its note as it soars, until it seems lost in the immense heights above us; the note continuing, the bird itself unseen; to see it then descending with a swell, as it comes from the clouds, yet

of Goldsmith's friends are all touched off with wonderful spirit, cleverness, and humour; the portraits of Burke and Garrick are preeminently fine.60 Though it was much admired when read at the club, the prevailing sentiment was entirely hostile to its publication, it therefore remained in manuscript till Goldsmith's death. He kept it (he said) as a rod in pickle for any future occasion that might occur.' Mrs. Piozzi says that the character of Cumberland is ironically drawn, and that the commendation consequently is not serious.

To relieve himself, it is supposed, from his large pecuniary difficulties, he proposed to publish

sinking by degrees, as it approaches its nest; the spot where all its affections are centred; the spot that has prompted all this joy.' How fine the selection of images in this charming passage, how exquisite the language! I shall now lay before the reader a passage of a different kind. Every one knows how sympathetic yawning is, and that for one person to yawn, is sufficient to set all the rest of the company a yawning. A ridiculous instance of this was commonly practised on the famous M'Laurin, one of the professors at Edinburgh. He was very subject to have his jaw dislocated; so that when he opened his mouth wider than ordinary, or when he yawned, he could not shut it again. In the midst of his harangues, therefore, if any of his pupils began to be tired of his lecture, he had only to gape, or yawn, and the professor instantly caught the sympathetic affection, so that he thus continued to stand speechless, with his mouth wide open, till his servant, from the next room, was called in to set his jaw again.'

60 Why is there no portrait of Johnson given in Retaliation? was it affection or fear that withheld the Poet's hand?