two years about it. Soon after its publication, Griffin declared that it had 'discharged the whole of his debt.

His poems are replete with fine moral sentiment, and bespeak a great dignity of mind; yet he had no sense of the shame, nor dread of the evils, of poverty.

In the latter he was at one time so involved, that, for the clamours of a woman to whom he was indebted for lodging, and for bailiffs that waited to arrest him, he was equally unable, till he had made himself drunk, to stay within doors, or go abroad to hawk among the booksellers a piece of his writing, the title whereof my author does not remember. In this distress he sent for Johnson, who immediately went to one of them, and brought back money for his relief.

In his dealings with the booksellers, he is said to have acted very dishonestly, never fulfilling his engagements. In one year he got of them, and by his plays, the sum of £1,800, which he dissipated by gaming and extravagance. and died poor, in 1774.

He that can account for the inconsistencies of character above noted, otherwise than by showing that wit and wisdom are seldom found to meet in the same mind, will do more than any of Goldsmith's friends were ever able to do. He was buried in the Temple churchyard. A monument was erected for him in the Poet's Corner, in Westminster Abbey, by a subscription of his friends, and is placed over the entrance into St. Blase's Chapel. The inscription thereon was written by Johnson. This I am able to say with certainty, for he showed it to me in manuscript.

APPENDIXES,

CONTAINING ADDITIONAL NOTES.

APPENDIX I.

LIFE, AND ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Page xxx. 1. 16.

Forgot at home, became for hire

A travelling tutor to a squire.'

Vide Swift, Misc. v. 129. Page xl. 1. 10. Mrs. Collier informed me that an acquaintance of hers had mentioned to her that he had been flogged by Goldsmith, when the latter was usher at Peckham.

Page xliv. To last line of note, add, 'There is one in the Athenæum. March, 1832.'

Page Ix. 1. 31.

See Piozzi's Letters, i. 247.

Page Ixiv. 1. 28. He is, as the variation of the subject requires, alternately ornamented or plain; sublime, without rising by painful or constrained effort; simple, without descending into vulgarity. In philosophical reflection, in description, or in sentiment, he is always master of his subject, and consequently moves with ease.

Page lxix. 1. 16. See A. Brown's Sketches, i. 80.

Page lxx. On Johnson's prologue to the Good-natured Man.' In this prologue, after the fourth line,

"And social sorrow loses half its pain,'

the following couplet was inserted:

'Amidst the toils of this returning year,

When senators and nobles learn to fear,
Our little bard,' &c.

These lines were omitted lest they should give offence, and 'little' altered to anxious.'

Page lxxxi. 1. 9. See Tremaine, vol. iii. pp. 316-334, sketch by Lord Chesterfield.

Page lxxxi. 1. 1 of note. Dele from Whether' to 'say.'

n

Page lxxxii. last line of note. Add, after 'p. 45," "and yet Hans Carvel not over decent."" See Johnson's Life of Prior, p. 174.

Page xcvii. Epitaph. Had Goldsmith outlived Johnson, he probably would have written his life. He once asked Mrs. Piozzi, Who will be my biographer, do you think?' 'Goldsmith, no doubt,' she replied; and he will do it best among us.' The dog would write it best, to be sure,' replied he; 'but his particular malice towards me, and general disregard of truth, would make the book useless to all, and injurious to my character." Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 24. I find the ladies are rather bitter against poor Goldsmith in their Recollections. These words of Johnson are very strong, and, I trust, not correctly repeated; besides, it must be considered, that they were thrown off in the heat and hurry of conversation, and might be contrasted with some declarations of a different nature.

Ed.

Some observations on Goldsmith's character and writings may be seen in Prior's Life of Burke, p. 86.

Page xcix. 1. 10.

See Warton's edit. of Pope, i. 105.

See Mélanges de Littérature par d'Alem

After 'were,' add simple and concise. Neatness of arrangement and chastity of expression were always desired.'

Page ci. 1. 32. See Anecdotes Littér. iii. p. 201, on La Motte's style. Dans Houdart souvent un âne raisonne en Académicien, &c.

Page ciii. 1. 2. See Crabbe's Poems, (Tales.)

And he, the sweetest poet of the day,' &c. Page cxxxiii. 1. 22. See Cradock's Memoirs, iv. 336.

On Goldsmith's genius, see Payne Knight's 'Progress of Civil Society.' P. xiv. 119.

'How frail, alas, are all human pleasures!' I was witness to an entire separation between Percy and Goldsmith, about Rowley's Poems. Cradock's Mem. i. 206.

It ought to be stated, that when the great moralist in an evening was giving a serious lecture to the company, no one paid more respect, or was more attentive, than Goldsmith. Cradock's Mem. iv. 304.

I little thought what I should have to boast, when Goldsmith taught me to play Jack and Gill by two bits of paper on his fingers. Miss Hawkins's Anecd. ii. 7.