operating not only in our own country in the present day, but in many of the states of Europe; that restlessness in nations, and that resistance to lawful authorities which a state of peace too often engenders. On the Dutch nation the remarks, whether correct or not, are such as he has versified in the Traveller.

The project of visiting the East, which had occupied his mind for a few previous and subsequent years, acquired new strength about this period by the accession of Lord Bute to office; some channel probably appearing through which to address that minister with a prospect of success. A memorial, enlarging the views formerly taken of this subject, was therefore drawn up, pointing out the advantages of a traveller proceeding thither for purposes of utility alone; and an impression prevailed among some of his acquaintance that the Princessdowager of Wales had been prevailed upon to read and to approve of it. No favourable result ensued; the project being deemed visionary, or the name and influence of the proposer wanting sufficient weight among the public authorities to recommend him to such a mission. The Bishop of Dromore and Mr. Malone sought for this paper several years afterwards without success; and it is now probably irrecoverable.

Mr. Langton was accustomed to mention, in allusion to this scheme, that Goldsmith had long a visionary project that some time or other when his circumstances should be easier, he would go to

Aleppo in order to acquire a knowledge, as far as might be, of any arts peculiar to the East, and introduce them into Britain. When this was talked of in Dr. Johnson's company, he said, "Of all men Goldsmith is the most unfit to go out upon such an inquiry; for he is utterly ignorant of such arts as we already possess, and consequently could not know what would be accessions to our present stock of mechanical knowledge. Sir, he would bring home a grinding barrow, which you see in every street in London, and think that he had furnished a wonderful improvement."

In this sally there was more of sarcasm than of truth. The ambition of Goldsmith to profit by what he could find new in the East, could scarcely be deemed very absurd, when a contemplated scheme by Johnson to see the same country with more limited purposes was viewed with complacency by himself, and applause by his friends. "At the time when his pension was granted to him," observes Mr. Langton, "he said, with noble literary ambition,-Had this happened twenty years ago, I should have gone to Constantinople to learn Arabick as Pocock did."" Yet as the plan of Goldsmith necessarily included within its probable utility the study of the language and people without which he could not investigate their arts, it seems more like jealousy than justice in Johnson to ridicule in another, what at an earlier period of life confessedly formed a favourite wish of his own. The fact seems to have been either that Gold

smith had not thought it necessary to explain himself fully in the loose statements of conversation, or that he was imperfectly understood by his hearers. Of merely mechanical arts, his knowledge probably was not great, neither perhaps so contemptibly small as represented, for the term embraces a wide range of objects. Having long revolved the project, he was not likely to be wholly unprepared for what he knew and stated to be a laborious task, and diligent attendance upon the London Society devoted to such pursuits, implied at least a taste for, if not acquaintance with, some of the objects contemplated in the journey. It is more than probable that his design had reference chiefly to certain processes in the arts connected in some degree with chemistry, a science with which he possessed considerable acquaintance. Thus in the paper quoted on the occasion of his memorial to Lord Bute, he expressly mentions the extraction of spirit from milk, an improved mode of dying scarlet, and the refining of lead into a purer and more valuable metal, as matters for inquiry; an explanation which removes from his project that air of absurdity cast upon it by Johnson. The reputation of a man should not be at the mercy of a sarcasm; yet in the pages of Boswell as well as in the reports of others, it is obvious he did not receive credit for the information he really possessed, or the facility with which such as was necessary for his purpose was acquired.

The strongest objection to the expedition was not urged against it, namely, that however ingenious in

idea, the harvest gleaned would probably have been small. Mechanical arts publicly practised in one country soon find their way to others without an express mission to import them; while such as affect secrecy and are in the hands of a few, will be guarded still more carefully from the knowledge of one sent expressly to discover in what the secret or superiority consists. By the view taken in the extract previously quoted, of the other requisites for such a traveller,—a philosophical turn, a mind tinctured with miscellaneous knowledge, manners ameliorated by much intercourse with men, a body inured to fatigue, and a heart not easily terrified at danger, he obviously points to himself; nor if these be the chief qualifications required, was he deficient in any of them.*

*By the account of Dr. Farr in conversation with the Poet when they met in London in 1756, his idea then was a journey to the Weitten Mountains. It is rather a curious coincidence, that, at this moment, another gentleman distinguished by his eccentricities, Edward Wortley Montague, entertained and accomplished the same design. He set off from Italy toward the end of 1762, and was absent about three years, travelling through the Holy Land, Egypt, and Armenia, with the Old and New Testaments in hand, finding them, as he says, unerring guides. An account of this journey was read before the Royal Society in March, 1766, and afterwards published in their Transactions.

CHAP. XI.

VARIOUS LITERARY ENGAGEMENTS.-PAMPHLET ON THE COCK LANE GHOST. HISTORY OF MECKLENBURGH.-ART OF

POETRY.-PLUTARCH.-CITIZEN

OF THE WORLD.-ADDI

TIONS TO A HISTORY OF ENGLAND.-LIFE OF BEAU NASH. -LINES SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN AT ORPINGTON.CHRISTIAN'S MAGAZINE.- ROBIN HOOD SOCIETY.-PETER

ANNET.-LLOYD.—ROUBILIAC.

EARLY in 1762, Newbery found him variety of occupation in history, biography, the critical revision of several works, and even on a subject which, although made of importance by popular excitement and credulity, by the personal inquiries of Johnson, and by the satire of Churchill, was beneath the serious notice of either: this was the well known imposture of the Cock Lane Ghost. His receipt for the very moderate amount of copy-money in his own handwriting, now before the writer, is as follows:

"Received from Mr. Newbery three guineas for a pamphlet respecting the Cock Lane Ghost. "OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

"March 5, 1762."

None of the newspaper announcements of the day state any thing on this absorbing topic as issuing from the shop of the apparent purchaser, and the precise title of the piece has not been there