to seem of consequence; and usher at a school, when detesting the employment; and the frequent companion of persons whom he avowedly despised, and from whose society he wished to escape. At a future period it compelled him in great measure to desist from the cultivation of poetry, in which he delighted; to become the writer of histories which however popular and excellent of their class, he never thought conducive to his fame; of other compilations he did not think proper to own; and at this moment, while condemning criticism as the bane of polite letters, forced him, in order to earn a scanty subsistence, to pursue the very occupation he stigmatised, that of a professional critic.

Among the persons connected with literature to whom he became known some time in the year 1758, was Mr. Archibald Hamilton, printer of the Critical Review, who saw so much in him to esteem as a man and to admire as a writer, that he became one of his firmest friends. He invited him to his house in the vicinity of Chelsea, where the daughter of this gentleman remembered to have seen him frequently, relieved him subsequently from occasional pecuniary difficulties, and willing to gain all the talent he could for the journal with which he was connected, is said to have been the first to introduce him to Dr. Smollett, then its principal editor. There was likewise some policy in the measure; he was known as an ally of Griffiths, and a violent hostility existing between the rival reviews, it was a means of weakening the enemy.

The precise period at which he commenced contributor to this work is uncertain; not later certainly than January, 1759, for in that month appear two of the articles traced to him, reviews of Marriott's Female Conduct, a poem, and Barrett's translation of Ovid's Epistles. These, with several others, and a variety of his unacknowledged essays, were collected by Mr. Thomas Wright, printer, to whom allusion has been made, then pursuing his business with Hamilton, and published under the superintendence of Isaac Reed. The other articles contained in this work are on Butler's Remains, by R. Thyer of Manchester; Marriott's twentieth Epistle of Horace modernized; Massinger's Works,-in July; on Goddard's Translation of Guicciardini's History of Italy; Works of Mr. W. Hawkins; Jemima and Louisa, a novel,-in August; continuation of the paper on Butler's Remains,-in September; on Dunkin's Epistle to the Earl of Chesterfield; and a rejoinder to the answer of Mr. Hawkins on the previous notice of his works,-in March, 1760.

it

In this selection, which from internal evidence is correct as far as goes, it will be observed there is a blank between the months of January and July, yet as his necessities were urgent and no other literary employment can be traced to him at this time, we may be assured he was not idle. Close examination of the Review will enable us to supply the chasm. Criticism indeed cannot always be certainly traced to the actual writer; but when he is known to have contributed to a work without fixed purpose of concealment, and where in conjunction with style generally we find his favourite

phrases, allusions and even sentiments as seen not in one but several of his writings, there will be little difficulty in fixing the authorship with a great degree of precision. Taking these for our guide, among other papers which are doubtful, and therefore not noticed here, the following appear certainly to be his: on Church's edition of Spenser, in the February number; Langhorne's translation of the Death of Adonis, and the foreign article, in March; Ward's Oratory, in April; the Orphan of China, in May; Dr. Young's Conjectures on Original Composition, Formey's Philosophical Miscellanies, Van Egmont's and Heyman's Travels through Parts of Europe and Asia Minor, Montesquieu's Miscellaneous Pieces,-in June.

It would be tedious to enumerate the minute species of evidenee serving to identify each; an editor, in the close and laborious examination incumbent upon him to make of the writing of his principal, will discover much that must escape the notice of the casual reader; but as a specimen of the identity of thought and language employed, the following passage is given from the review of Van Egmont's and Heyman's travels. It relates to a favourite project of the critic himself; that of penetrating into parts of Asia, and bringing back the knowledge of such useful arts as are familiar to its natives, though unknown in Europe. This design as we well know occupied his mind for several years, looking forward to some favourable period for its accomplishment which never occurred, or offered only when it was inexpedient to be pursued. Toward the end of 1761, or commencement of the following year as will be noticed, he drew up a memorial on the subject to government; a paper likewise containing the substance and even the words of the following passage was printed by him about the same time in the Public Ledger; he afterwards shaped it into the 108th letter of the Citizen of the World; and still retaining the same favourite idea, again republished it in the volume of Essays (No. xviii.,) in 1765.

"One who sits down to read the accounts of modern travellers into Asia, will be apt to fancy that they all travelled in the same track. Their curiosity seems repressed either by fear or indolence, and all are contented if they venture as far as others went before them. Thus, the same cities, towns, ruins, and rivers, are again described to a disgusting repetition. Thus, a man shall go a hundred miles to admire a mountain, only because it was spoken of in Scripture; yet what information can be received from hearing that Agidius Van Egmont went up such a hill only to come down again? Could we see a man set out upon this journey, not with an intent to consider rocks and rivers, but the manners and mechanic inventions, and the imperfect learning of the inhabitants, resolved to penetrate into countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets, with a heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found a man who could unite thus true courage with sound learning, from such a character we might expect much information. Even though what he should bring home was only the manner of dying red in the Turkish manner, his labours would be more bene

ficial to society, than if he had collected all the mutilated inscriptions and idle shells on the coasts of the Levant."*

Another of his supposed contributions to the Review is not so well ascertained. From a memorandum of Isaac Reed, prefixed to a manuscript of Goldsmith in the possession of the writer and hereafter to be mentioned, it appears that the latter took part with Smollett in the warfare between him and Grainger relative to the translation of Tibullus, and wrote a defence of him on that occasion. The following is the note:

"This MS. is one of the productions of, and in the hand-writing of Dr. Goldsmith. It was given to me by Mr. Steevens, who received it from Hamilton, the printer. He had also another MS. by the Doctor, a defence of Dr. Smollett against Dr. Grainger's attack on him relative to the criticism on Tibullus in the Critical Review. This last I think Mr. Steevens gave to Mr. Beauclerk."

This piece, though probably still in existence, has not been discovered. It was no doubt written for the Review, but whether published cannot be certainly known until found and compared with the article in that journal for February 1759, which forms Smollett's defence, and where Grainger's intemperate and extremely personal reply to the supposed criticism of Smollett on his translation in the previous December, is answered in a manner scarcely less vituperative.t

• A portion of the paper in the Ledger, which is merely an expansion of the above passage in the Review, is subjoined for the satisfaction of the reader:

"I have frequently been amazed at the ignorance of almost all the European travellers who have penetrated any considerable way eastward into Asia. They have all been influenced by motives of commerce or piety, and their accounts are such as might reasonably be expected from men of a very narrow or very prejudiced education, the dictates of superstition, or the result of ignorance. Is it not surprising that, in such a variety of adventurers, not one single philosopher should be found among the number?

"There is scarcely any country, how rude or uncultivated soever, where the inhabitants are not possessed of some peculiar secrets, either in nature or art, which might be transplanted with success: thus in Siberian Tartary the natives extract a strong spirit from milk, which is a secret probably unknown to the chemists of Europe. In the most savage parts of India they are possessed of the secret of dying vegetable substances scarlet; and that of refining lead into a metal which, for hardness and colour, is little inferior to silver.

"I never consider this subject without being surprised that none of those societies so laudably established in England for the promotion of arts and learning have never thought of sending one of their members into the most eastern parts of Asia, to make what discoveries he was able.

*

*

"The only difficulty would remain in choosing a proper person for so arduous an enterprise. He should be a man of philosophical turn, one apt to deduce consequences of general utility from particular occurrences; neither swoln with pride nor hardened by prejudice; neither wedded to one particular system, nor instructed only in one particular science; neither wholly a botanist nor quite an antiquarian : his mind should be tinctured with miscellaneous knowledge, and his manners humanized by an intercourse with men. He should be in some measure an enthusiast to the design; fond of travelling, from a rapid imagination and an innate love of change; furnished with a body capable of sustaining every fatigue, and a heart not easily terrified at danger."

The spirit in which this quarrel was conducted will be seen from the following extracts. The first is from the conclusion of the Review of Goldsmith's Inquiry into Polite Learning.

"N.B. We must observe that, against his own conviction, this author has indis

Sixteen pages of the Review are occupied by this paper, which from its tone and language is not likely to be wholly, if at all, from the pen of Goldsmith, or if so, it is unlike any thing else from the same source. Smollett, in return to a personal attack, would no doubt trust only to himself for a vindication. But as Goldsmith also appears from the preceding memorandum to have written something in defence of his coadjutor to whom he was probably under obligations, the former may have embodied in the reply such parts of this paper as related to the merely literary demerits of the work under consideration; errors of fact, mistranslation, omissions, and defective or inharmonious lines; for in these respects, his judgment was fully appreciated, his department in both Reviews being classical literature, poetry, the drama, and polite literature generally. There were few of his contemporaries who brought to such subjects more correct taste, or discriminating judgment.

CHAPTER IX.

Residence in Green-Arbour Court.-The Bee.-Busy Body.-Lady's Magazine.Newbery the bookseller.-Notes of Dr. Johnson.-Smollett.-British Magazine.

His residence at this period was on the first floor of the house, No. 12, Green-Arbour Court, between the Old Bailey and what was lately Fleet Market. Here he took up his abode toward the end of 1758; the spot was central, in the immediate vicinity of the booksellers, now his chief or only employers, and here he became well known to his literary brethren, was visited by them, and his lodgings well remembered.

This house a few years ago formed the abode, as it appears to

criminately censured the two Reviews, confounding a work undertaken from public spirit (meaning the Critical) with one supported for the sordid purposes of a bookseller. It might not become us to say more on this subject."

"Whereas one of the owls belonging to the proprietor of the M-thly R—w which answers to the name of Grainger, hath suddenly broke from his mew, where he used to hoot in darkness and peace, and now screeches openly in the face of day, we shall take the first opportunity to chastise this troublesome owl, and drive him back to his original obscurity."

Note to the Critical Rev. Jan. 1759.

This is beneath the dignity of literary contest, if enraged authors at such moments could remember that they have something to lose in public opinion by unseemly exhibitions of temper. Smollett, however, was not without cause of complaint against the rival journal. His "Reprisal, or Tars of Old England," is thus characterized in the Monthly Review for February, 1757:—“Calculated for the meridian of Bartholomew Fair; but by some unnatural accident (as jarring elements are sometimes made to unite) exhibited eight nights at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane."

have done in his own time, of laborious indigence. The adjoining houses likewise presented every appearance of squalid poverty, every floor being occupied by the poorest class; two of the number fell down from age and delapidation; and the remainder on the same side of the court, including that in which the Poet resided standing in the right-hand corner on entering from Farringdon Street by what is called from their steepness and number Breakneck Steps, were taken down some time afterwards to avoid a similar catastrophe. They were four stories in height; the attics had casement windows, and at one time they were probably inhabited by a superior class of tenants. The site is now occupied by a large building, enclosed by a wall running through the court or square, intended for the stabling and lofts of a wagon-office.

Several intimate associates at this time remembered and repeated after his death, that while here he had formed the strictest resolutions of future economy. His letters to Ireland, and occasional essays written at this time and in these apartments, impress as we have seen in a preceding page, in the strongest manner the virtues of prudence; and the same friends stated, that for a time he permitted these lessons to influence his conduct. It may be true he had not much to spend; but imprudence may be as marked in the disbursements of a small income as a great; penury and carelessness in the majority of minds, act and re-act in producing each other; and as this seems to have been his own case, he was willing to try what could be done in shaking off two such inconvenient companions. No keen observer in human life, such as he was, could doubt the truth of his prudential maxims, though many persons, and he himself among the number, not only proud but very sensitive to the contempt which penury brings with it, fail to adopt the obvious remedy for their misfortune by becoming economical; and it is said that Goldsmith, however bent on improving his condition, could not long withstand solicitations for such small sums as he possessed, by men still poorer and more distressed than himself.

In the beginning of March, 1759, he was seen here, in one of his excursions to London, by the Rev. Mr. Percy, who frequently repeated the anecdote of the visit in conversation, though disinclined to let his name appear as the relater in print.* His situation seems to have been far from enviable; but as that gentleman justly observed, the circumstances in which he was found, so far from being discreditable in itself, furnished the best evidence of the possession of powers, the unassisted exercise of which elevated him from so

* Dr. Campbell thus writes to the Bishop, June 30, 1790:-"Your anecdotes will embellish my paper highly; and your picture of Green-Arbour Court shall be closely copied ;-as to the rest, my account of your visit to him there was almost verbatim from my recollection of your words, which you have set down in your last. But could there be any harm in letting the world know who the visitant was? Without the circumstance of the dignity of the guest, the contrast will be in a great measure lost, and the matter will lose its grand authority as to the fact. But in this, as in every thing else, your wish shall be a command."