"from a Chinese Philosopher in "to the meanness of personal "London, to his Friend in the "reflection."* Pity might reason"East." ably be given to men so lowered "Light, agreeable, sum- and self-abased; but Goldsmith 1760. "mer reading," observed withheld forgiveness. Private Et. 32. the British Magazine, with insults could not thus be rebut dry and laconic return for tracted; nor could imputations the Wow-wow. The Monthly Re- which sink deepest in the simview had to make return of a dif- plest and most honourable naferent kind, Mr. Griffiths now tures, be so easily purged away. decently resolving to swallow his Mr. Griffiths was left to the conleek; and his obedient Mr. Ken-solation of reflecting that he had rick, under orders not to bite or himself eaten the dirt which it even bark, but to profess ad- would have made him far hapmiration and supplicate forgive-pier to have flung at the Citizen ness, thus, after remarking that of the World. the Chinese philosopher had no- In what different language, by thing Asiatic about him, did what different men, how highly his master's miserable bidding: and justly this book has since "The public have been already been praised, for its fresh origi"made sufficiently acquainted nal perception, its delicate de"with the merit of these enter-lineation of life and manners, its "taining Letters, which were first wit and humour, its playful and "printed in The Ledger, and are diverting satire, its exhilarating "supposed to have contributed gaiety, and its clear and lively "not a little towards the success style, need not be repeated. "of that paper. They are said What is to be said of it here will "to be the work of the lively and have more relation to the charac❝ingenious Writer of An Enquiry ter than to the genius of its "into the Present State of Polite writer. The steadier direction of "Learning in Europe; a Writer his thoughts, and the changing "whom, it seems, we undesigned- aspect of his fortunes, are what I "ly offended by some Strictures would now turn back to read 'on the conduct of many of our in it. "modern Scribblers. As the ob- One marked peculiarity its "servation was entirely general best admirers have failed to ob"in its intention, we were sur- serve upon; its detection and ex"prised to hear that this Gen-posure, not simply of the foibles "tleman had imagined himself in and follies which lie upon the "any degree pointed at, as we surface, but of those more "conceive nothing can be more pregnant evils which rankle at "illiberal in a Writer, or more the heart, of society. The occa"foreign to the character of a sions were frequent in which the "Literary Journal, than to descend] * Monthly Review, XXVI. 477, June 1762, 1760. Chinese citizen so lifted his voice gloried in, the national vaunt that only in a later generation of superiority to other nations, could he find his audience; and which gave fancied freedom to they were not few, in which he the prisoner, riches to the has failed to find one even yet. beggar, and enlisted on He saw in the Russian Empire, behalf of church-and-state Æt. 32. what by the best English states- fellows who had never profited men since has not been suf- by either.* He protested earficiently guarded against, the nestly against the insufficient natural enemy of the more pretexts that availed for the western parts of Europe, "an spilling of blood, in the contest "enemy already possessed of then raging between France and great strength, and, from the England. He inveighed against "nature of the government, every the laws which meted out, in so "day threatening to become more much gold or silver, the price of "powerful."* He warned the a wife's or daughter's honour. all-credulous and too-confident He ridiculed the prevailing nosEnglish of their insecure tenure trums current in that age of of the American colonies; telling quacks; doubted the graces of them, with a truth as prophetic such betailing and bepowdering as Dean Tucker's, and which an *Who does not remember what the ticipated his vigorous reason- astonished traveller had to listen to soon ing, that England would not lose after his arrival, outside a metropolitan her vigour when those colonies gaol; where the talk (upon a threatened obtained their independence. He French invasion) is carried on between a unveiled the social pretences, porter who had stopped to rest his debtor through the grate of his prison, a which, under colour of protect-burthen, and a soldier at the window. ing female honour, are made the "For my part," cries the prisoner, "the 66 greatest of my apprehensions is for our freedom; if the French should conquer, "what would become of English liberty?' "Ay, slaves," cries the porter, "they are all slaves, fit only to carry burthens, every one of them. Before I would 66 may excuse for its violation. He de-" nounced the evil system which left the magistrate, the country justice, and the 'squire, to punish “ transgressions in which they had "stoop to slavery, may this be my poison" themselves been the guiltiest this be my poison-but I would sooner (holding up his goblet of drink), transgressors. He laughed at the "list for a soldier." To which the sordidness which makes penny soldier, taking the goblet from his friend, shows of our public temples, turns Deans and Chapters into importunate "beggars,” and stoops to pick up half-pence at the not so much our liberties as our re"ligion that would suffer by such a with much awe fervently cries out, "It is 66 change; ay, our religion, my lads. May "the Devil sink me into flames," such but our tombs of our patriots and poets." the French should come over, was the solemnity of his adjuration, "if He laughed at, even while he "religion would be utterly undone." Citizen of the World. Letter IV. Byrom's A remark I should Tom the Porter is now forgotten, but Gold, * Letter LXXXVII. hardly make if writing now. 1870. smith evidently knew those lines. fashions as then made beauty neglect thus engendered in the hideous, and sent even lads upper clergy, he also connected cocked-hatted and wigged to with that disregard of the lower 1760. school; and had sense and which left a reverend Trulliber courage to avow his con- undisturbed among his pigs, and Æt. 32. tempt for that prevailing a parson Adams to his ale in cant of connoisseurship ("your Lady Booby's kitchen. Yet as "Raffaelles, Correggios, and little was he disposed to tolerate "Stuff") at which Reynolds any false reaction from such inshifted his trumpet. The abuses difference; and at the ascetic of church patronage did not saints of the new religious sect escape him; any more than the which had risen to put down tendency to "superstition and cheerfulness, and could find its "imposture" in the "bonzes and I confess I never read a letter of Doctor Warner's, or think of his guzzling, his telling the same story over and over again, and his indifference to any kind "and priests of all religions." "bellied justices," contemplating with He thought it a fit theme for equanimity "a fine corpse at Surgeon's"hall," or looking forward with hopeful mirth, that holy men should be vivacity to the time when he shall be a content to receive all the money, "fine grey-headed old jollocks of sixtyand let others do all the good; Fielding of exaggeration in his portrai "five." They who would hastily accuse and that preferment to the most tures taken from the church, should first sacred and exalted duties should contemplate this. Goldsmith is less severe in his exposure, but it is efficient, too; wait upon the whims of members of parliament, and the wants of younger branches of the nobility.* The incapacities and of treatment shown him or service ex*I refer the reader to George Selwyn's acted of him so long as his bumper of Correspondence if he should desire to claret is well filled, without being for study attentively one of the latest full- cibly reminded of Doctor Marrowfat. blown specimens of the breed of clergy-"As good a story,' cries he, bursting men engendered by this system, and "into a violent fit of laughter himself, would introduce himself to by no means" as ever you heard in your lives. There one of the most objectionable of the "" was a farmer in my parish who used smoking, reading, claret-drinking, toady-"to sup upon wild ducks and flummery; ing, gormandising, good-humoured par- 'so this farmer'-'Doctor Marrowfat,' sons of the time when Goldsmith lived "cries his lordship, interrupting him, and wrote. He will find Dr. Warner "give me leave to drink your health'quite an ornament to the Establishment "so being fond of wild ducks and flumthroughout that book, and only cursing,"mery'-'Doctor,' adds a gentleman flinging, stamping, or gnashing when "who sat next him, 'let me advise you to anything goes amiss with Selwyn. He 'a wing of this turkey;' -'so this will observe that the reverend doctor is "farmer being fond'-'Hob and nob, ready to wager his best cassock against a "doctor, which do you choose, white or dozen of claret any day; and that the "red?'-'so being fond of wild ducks and holy man would quote you even texts "flummery;'-'Take care of your band, with the most pious of his cloth, "if our "sir, it may dip in the gravy.' "friend the Countess had not blasted "doctor, now looking round, found not a "them." In short, at whatever page he "single ear disposed to listen: whereopens the Correspondence, he will find par- "fore, calling for a glass of wine, he son Warner in the highest possible "gulped down the disappointment and spirits, whether quizzing "canting pot- "the tale in a bumper." Letter LVIII. 66 6 66 The 1760. Æt. 32. only music in a chorus of sighs | Almost alone in that age of inand groans, he aimed the shafts difference, the Citizen of the of his wit as freely, as at the World raised his voice against over-indulging, gormandising the penal laws which then, priests of the bishop's visitation- with wanton severity, disdinner, face to face with whom, graced the statute book; gorged and groaning with ex- insisted that the sole means of cess, he brought the hungry beg-making death an efficient, was to gar, faint with want, to ask of make it an infrequent, punishthem the causes of his utter des- ment; and warned society of the titution, body and soul. Nor crime of disregarding human life did he spare that other dignified and the temptations of the miserprofession, which, in embarrass- able, by visiting petty thefts with ing what it professed to make penalties of blood.* clear, in retarding with cumbrous impediments the steps of justice, "turned my companion, 'they live by in reserving as a luxury for the "watching each other. For instance, rich what it pretended to throw the catchpole watches the man in debt, open to all, in fencing round pro-the counsellor watches the attorney, "the attorney watches the catchpole, perty with a multiplicity of laws "the solicitor the counsellor, and all and exposing poverty without a "find sufficient employment.'-'I conguard to whatever threatened or each other: but it is the client that "'ceive you,' interrupted I, 'they watch assailed it, countenanced and "pays them all for watching.'" practised no less a falsehood.*ter xcvIII. The reader is to remember that this was written a hundred years ago, 66 He who does not read for Let "When a The simple notions of the Chinese and that we are only at this hour becitizen on this subject appear very alarm-stirring ourselves to provide something ing to his friend, who uses precisely the of a remedy. 1850. defensiv e argument with which the ab- *Is there anything better reasoned than surdity has been upheld ever since. "I this in Romilly or Bentham? see,' cries my friend, 'that you are for "law, enacted to make theft punishable aspeedy administration of justice; but "with death, happens to be equitably all the world will grant, that the more 66 executed, it can at best only guard our "time there is taken up in considering possessions; but when, by favour or any subject, the better it will be "ignorance, justice pronounces a wrong understood. Besides, it is the boast "verdict, it then attacks our lives, since of an Englishman, that his property is "in such a case the whole community secure, and all the world will grant "suffers with the innocent victim: if, that a deliberate administration of "therefore, in order to secure the effects justice is the best way to secure his "of one man, I should make a law which property? Why have we 66 so many may take away the life of another, in lawyers, but to secure our property?| "such a case, to attain a smaller good, I why so many formalities, but to secure "am guilty of a greater evil; to secure Our property? Not less than one hun- "society in the possession of a bauble, I dred thousand families live in opulence, "render a real and valuable possession elegance, and ease, merely by secur(6 precarious. Since punishments are "ing our property?'. 66 .... 'But bless me,' sometimes necessary, let them at least "returned I, what numbers do I see here "be rendered terrible, by being executed all in black-how is it possible that "but seldom, and let justice lift her half this multitude find employment?" "sword rather to terrify than revenge." "Nothing so easily conceived, re- Letter LXXX. Oliver Goldsmith's Life and Times. 1. .... 13 1760. amusement only, may also find mad-dog-cry of the year. The in these delightful letters, thus yell of a Grub-street mob as published from week to week, a fierce, on a false report of the comment of special worth death of Voltaire, brought Goldon casual incidents of the smith as warmly to the rescue. Et. 32. time. There was in this With eager admiration, he asyear a city-campaign of peculiar serted the claims of the phicruelty. A mob has indis-losopher and wit; told the world criminate tastes for blood, and it was its lusts of war and after hunting an Admiral Byng sycophancy which unfitted it to to death will as eagerly run down receive such a friend; set forth a dog. On a groundless cry of the independence of his life, in a hydrophobia, dogs were slaugh-country of Pompadours and an tered wholesale, and their bodies age of venal oppression; declared literally blocked up the streets. (this was before the Calas family) "The dear, good-natured, honest, the tenderness and humanity of "sensible creatures!" exclaimed his nature; and claimed freedom Horace Walpole. "Christ! How of religious thought for him and "can anybody hurt them?" But all men. "I am not displeased what Horace said only to his "with my brother because he friend, Goldsmith said to every-"happens to ask our father for body: publicly denouncing the "favours in a different manner cruelty, in a series of witty stories "from me." As we read the ridiculing the motives alleged Chinese Letters with this comfor it, and pleading with eloquent ment of the time, those actual warmth for the honest associate days come vividly back to us. of man. * Nor was this the only Earl Ferrers glides through them *It is pleasant to quote his kindly again, with his horrible passion speech. "Of all the beasts that graze the and yet more ghastly composure. "lawn, or hunt the forest, a dog is the The theatres again contend with only animal that, leaving his fellows, their Pollys and Macheaths, and “man; to man he looks in all his neces-tire the town with perpetual Beg"sities with a speaking eye for as gars' Operas. Merry and fashion"sistance; exerts for him all the little able crowds repeople White"service in his power with cheerfulness 66 66 attempts to cultivate the friendship of and pleasure; for him bears famine and conduit and Vauxhall. We get "fatigue with patience and resignation; occasional glimpses of even the "no injuries can abate his fidelity, no "distress induce him to forsake his bene stately commoner and his unfactor; studious to please, and fearing stately ducal associate. Old "to offend, he is still an humble stedfast George the Second dies, and "dependant; and in him alone fawning "is not flattery. How unkind, then, to young George the Third ascends "torture this faithful creature, who has the throne. Churchill makes his "left the forest to claim the protection hit with the Rosciad; and Sterne, 66 'of man! how ungrateful a return to "the trusty animal for all his services!" having startled the town with the humour and extravagance of his Letter LXIX. |