and fixes a stronger hold upon the imagination of those who would win or influence: we seem then in the nature of acquaintance; we meet and part with the hope if agreeable of meeting again; and a series of papers so noted will be read with more interest than without such clew to guide us to the author. The "Spectator," published among other essays without appropriating a specific name, would not have been so attractive as with it.

A plan being matured, he assumed the character of a Chinese philosopher, who in travelling to Europe from the laudable motive of examining mankind at large, and acquiring wisdom by experience, had fixed his residence for a time in England, and aimed at describing the manners of its people. The idea was not new: the Turkish Spy, and the Persian and Peruvian Letters, and similar productions, had sought and secured much public attention in France. Swift had formed some such design, though not wholly the same, from the greater rudeness of the people who were to be introduced as giving the fruits of their observation, in making the Indian chiefs who were in London during the reign of Queen Anne tell the story of their travels; a project which by communicating to Steele, the latter marred by a paper or two in the "Tatier" and "Spectator."*

Works of this kind were executed with tolerable spirit and skill, insure considerable popularity in almost all countries. Human nature is pleased to see images of itself multiplied; and nations no less than individuals like to be portrayed when the portrait is drawn with a certain portion of good nature. Vanity may have something to do with this feeling, yet it is not without utility. We are desirous to know what others think, and even what fictitious characters may be supposed to think, of our conduct and habits; a species of mental mirror is thus held up to general view, reflecting back faults and follies that from their familiarity pass unnoticed, or pass with less of reproof than they deserve, but which by being paraded before us are in time corrected. Even peculiarities which are objectionable yet possess no portion of positive evil often become by being pointed out divested of their more disagreeable features; and when this kind of weeding is diligently exercised, foreigners are left without excuse for overlooking in accidental variations of manners the virtues of a rival nation.

It may gratify curiosity to know that his first design according to accounts of his friends was to make his hero a native of Morocco or Fez; but, reflecting on the rude nature of the people of Barbary, this idea was dropped. A Chinese was then chosen as offering more novelty of character than a Turk or Persian; and being equally advanced in the scale of civilisation, could pass an opinion

* He writes to Stella, April 28, 1711,-"The 'Spectator' is written by Steele, with Addison's help; 'tis often very pretty. Yesterday it was made of a noble hint I gave him long ago for his Tatlers, about an Indian supposed to write his travels into England. I repent he ever had it: I intended to have written a book on that subject. I believe he has spent it all in one paper, and all the under hints there are mine too." This paper, however, is marked as Addison's, to whom Steele no doubt communicated it.

on all he saw better than the native of a more barbarous country. From a passage in one of his letters to Bryanton in a foregoing page, it seems certain that Goldsmith viewed that people with considerable interest. China, by its distance, its reputed antiquity, its disinclination to receive or to visit strangers, its arts, its science and general knowledge however imperfect, and the long submission of its people to an exclusive and jealous policy of the governing power, has always been an object of curiosity to the nations of Europe. Du Halde's history had rather increased than diminished this feeling: the novelty of that work had not yet passed away among the learned, though from its voluminous nature the contents continued in a great degree unknown to the body of general readers. An opportunity therefore offered, while commenting upon English habits and opinions, to introduce allusions to those of a people who claiming for themselves the highest degree of civilisation, by stigmatizing all Europeans as barbarians, yet exhibit many traces of imperfect advancement of mind.

The first number of the letters, including the short introductory one, appeared on the 24th January 1760; the second on the 29th; the third on the 31st. In the month of February there were ten letters, in March ten, in April eight, in May ten, in June eleven, in July eight, in August nine, in September ten, in October ten, in November six, and in December three: making together ninety-eight letters within the year although marked in the newspaper ninety-seven; an error arising from the number twenty-five being twice used in continuing the same subject. These with the three papers already quoted, give nearly his stated proportion, from the 12th of January, of two each week. But there is little doubt that he furnished others, though possibly less finished and therefore more difficult to trace; such as on the encouragement of Opera Singers and Operas, (Sept. 16th,) and on the Institution of Amateur Concerts for the benefit of the Poor, November 3d. Several of his papers from the British Magazine were likewise transferred to the columns of the Ledger, in return for many of the Chinese Letters being embodied in the pages of the former.

The success of his labors imparted the first assurance of that literary reputation we have seen him adverting to in jest and ardently hoping in earnest; an enlarged circulation according to all contemporary testimony was thus insured to the journal in which they appeared, and the foundation laid for its permanency; for among innumerable candidates for public favour it still continues to be one. The lucubrations of the Chinese Philosopher were generally read, admired, and reprinted: they regularly formed after the third or fourth number the first article in the newspaper, one of the evidences of popularity and merit; they became also what was perhaps very flattering though not very profitable to the writer, a mine which the periodical publications of the day thought themselves at liberty freely to work and appreciate.

Viewed as a production of genius, it is not necessary to characterize what has long taken its stand among the list of English Clas

sics. Our manners, peculiarities, and character, are sketched by a discriminating but not unfriendly hand; we find in all its essential features English life; not of the higher, nor always even of the middling class, but furnishing a familiar view of that mass emphatically termed the people. If his delineations be occasionally homely, there is in them, at least, truth and distinctness, nature, vigour, and observation. Writing not as a moral essayist, and less as a reasoner than describer, his topics even when not new present an air of novelty; for a very unnecessary apprehension seems always to have influenced him which appears in many of his remarks, of his papers being thought too grave, or what he considered nearly synonymous with seriousness, dull. He aims therefore to be on whatever topic he touches almost always sprightly, always ready with an anecdote to tell or a character to describe illustrative of his remarks or argument; his humour flows without effort; his wit without a tinge of ill-nature; and even folly is treated with a forbearance and good humour which her errors do not always receive at the hands of wisdom. The character of Beau Tibbs is remembered by every reader of the work: frivolous and self-important, impudent yet good humoured, a pretender to fashion although utterly obscure, meetingthe exposures to which this pretension subjects him with complacency or ready excuse, and assuming the airs of wealth when possessing scarcely the common comforts of life, he forms an amusing specimen of a class sometimes found in a great metropolis. The original is said to have been a person named Thornton, one of his acquaintance, and once in the army: the humour is so happy and the sketch so well given that we are willing perhaps to believe it from the life, heightened in some degree but essentially true in its leading features. It will remind the reader of the familiar acquaintance described in the Haunch of Venison.

The objections urged against the Letters were such as criticism is fond of displaying, yet conscious they are scarcely just: the sentiments and observations were not considered appropriate to the assumed writer; the mask was supposed to fall off too often, and we discovered not a foreigner but a native. Books of this kind however are understood to be works not of fact but of fiction; not travels to instruct but essays to amuse: every reader who takes them up knows that they were not written, and could not well be written, by a Chinese, and that were such even possible the descriptions would be neither so correct nor amusing as they are. As in the case of theatrical representation, we are not deceived by what is passing before us, or the deception exists but for an instant. All that we really require at the hands of either is the pleasure derived from good imitation, and when this is sufficiently natural, amusing, and vigorous, the purpose is answered. That the Poet thought the objection frivolous may be inferred from what seems to be meant for a sneering reply to correspondents of this class: it is prefixed to the thirtysecond letter in the newspaper (May 2d): "The editor on this and every other occasion has endeavoured to translate the letter writer in such a manner as he himself, had he understood English, would have written. The reader is requested also to impute all the nonsense and dulness he may happen to find in this and every other letter to errors of the press."

Toward the end of the year they ceased to appear so frequently, partly from the design being nearly completed, partly perhaps from the author resuming his connexion, either as editor or contributor, with the Lady's Magazine. Several pieces in the latter work at this time bear traces of his manner; and selections from such as he had published through other channels were freely reprinted. In the number for November 1760, we find, exclusive of what may be considered original contributions, one of the Chinese letters; in December another, besides a paper on popular preaching afterwards republished in his Essays; in January a Chinese letter; and in February, to spare himself perhaps the trouble of original composition, he commenced giving the life of Voltaire, already mentioned, which thence continued the first article in every month till its conclusion in November 1761. The number for April is almost all from his writings: we have for the first article a portion of Voltaire's memoir, a paper from the Bee, on the dress of the English ladies; a Chinese letter; Zemin and Galhinda, an eastern tale, the authorship of which is pretty certain; besides thoughts on the English Poets from the Literary Magazine; and others less certain, though probable.

How long he continued to superintend the work if really conducted by him is uncertain, but probably till the conclusion of the sketch of Voltaire. His own labours which may pretty well be traced to about that period, consist of letters and essays on female education, manners, and general conduct: they exhibit humour and playfulness, closeness of observation, and knowledge of human nature; the admonitions are in good taste, inculcated less by formal precept than through the medium of anecdote or story; with a just estimate of the feelings, understanding, and accomplishments of those whom he addressed, he shows becoming tenderness towards their foibles. The Magazine seems to have had great success: an advertisement in August 1762, stating that in three years above 120,000 numbers, or more than three thousand three hundred per month had been sold.

During the years 1760-61, his writings were forcing their way into notice when his name continued nearly unknown. We trace the general sense entertained of their merit in the fact, that in turning over the pages of the periodical works of the day, scarcely one is to be found without several of his papers reprinted from other sources; so that without minute and careful inquiry it is difficult to trace the precise channel through which several of his papers were first introduced to public notice. Even when there were but few in a series, as in the Busy Body, these literary freebooters had the sagacity to perceive, and the assurance to select for their own advantage what they discovered to contribute most powerfully to the public amusement. Commonly the obligation was not only not acknowledged, but besides being for the moment deprived of the honours of originality, the popularity of his past labours were occasionally made to counterbalance the weight of those that occupied him at the moment. The Imperial Magazine, for instance, which started in January 1760, at the same time and in rivalry with the British in which he was engaged, contained in its first number two of his papers from the Bee as original articles; he had thus to contend in the race for public favour not only with the genius of others, but with his own. As in the case of certain outlaws in society, his progeny were seized upon wherever found; not indeed to be punished for their demerits, but to be exhibited for our applause.

It was the knowledge of the degree of esteem awarded to his merit that drew from Dr. Johnson, who seems to have known more of his labours than most others of his contemporaries, frequent encomiums on one of the modes of composition in which he excelled. "I was dining," said Dr. Farr who frequently told the anecdote, "at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, August 7th, 1773, where, amongst other company, were the Archbishop of Tuam and Mr. (now Lord) Eliot, when the latter, making use of some sarcastical reflections on Goldsmith, Johnson broke out warmly in his defence, and in the course of a spirited eulogium said, 'Is there a man, Sir, now who can pen an essay with such ease and elegance as Goldsmith?""

The possession of a more liberal income arising from the connexion with the Public Ledger, produced corresponding improvement in his situation. About the middle of the year 1760, he left Green Arbour Court, or Square, as it was once termed, for respectable lodgings in Wine-Office Court, Fleet Street, where for about two years he remained with an acquaintance or relative of the friendly bookseller, Newbery. Here he was often visited by Dr. Percy during his excursions to London, who occasionally told anecdotes of him at this time in conversation which he omitted to introduce into the memoir. One of these related to a foreign artist, a sculptor, whom the Poet had known slightly abroad, and paid as much attention to in London as his time and means permitted. Goldsmith thought he had been fortunate in the execution of two or three busts, and very elegantly and happily told him, "Sir, you live by the dead, and the dead live by you."

Here likewise if traditional notices by other old associates are to be trusted, he acquired a pretty numerous acquaintance of the literary class: some no doubt men of genius; others of that laborious, yet unsuccessful order, who after spending their lives in the drudgery of literature, quit the world without leaving behind them a trace of their occupation that is either read or remembered ;-a species of borderers upon Parnassus who heat diligently around its base, but want vigour and ingenuity to reach its summit.

Among the former were Christopher Smart, Guthrie, the Rev. Mr. Franklin, a coadjutor in the Critical Review and translator of Sophocles, Murphy, Bickerstaffe, and others. Of inferior powers, were Woty, a poet now forgotten; the Rev. William Ryder, under-master in St. Paul's School, and author of a variety of works, a History of England, a Family Bible, Translations of Voltaire, and afterwards editor of a Lady's Magazine; Collyer, known by some compilations, and a few translations from the German; Griffiths and Giles Jones;