What reception a poem may find which has neither abuse, party, nor blank verse to support it, I cannot tell, nor am I solicitous to know. My aims are right. Without espousing the cause of any party, I have attempted to moderate the rage of all. I have endeavoured to shew, that there may be equal happiness in states that are differently governed from our own; that every state has a particular principle of happiness, and that this principle in each may be carried to a mischievous excess. (1) There are few can judge better than yourself, how far these positions are illustrated in this poem.

I am, dear Sir,

Your most affectionate Brother,

OLIVER GOLDSMITH. (*)

(1) [“ And that this principle in each state, and in our own in particular, may be carried to a mischievous excess."-First edit.]

(2) [A feeling worthy of all praise produced this dedication to his brother. Careless of any interests of his own which might be promoted by conciliating the powerful or the wealthy, it was intended not merely as a return of respect and attention for the kindness shown to his earlier years, but to bring into notice, and perhaps preferment, should the work become popular, a worthy, though friendless clergyman. Allusions to the motive took place in conversation with his friends, and afterwards found its way into the newspapers; in a paragraph in imitation of a paper of Swift, where, among other instances of men who have acted nobly, is the following :"Dr. Goldsmith, when he dedicated his beautiful poem, the Traveller, to a man of no greater income then forty pounds a year."-See Life, ch. xiv.]

THE

TRAVELLER;

OR,

A PROSPECT OF SOCIETY.

REMOTE, unfriended, melancholy, slow,")
Or by the lazy Scheld, or wandering Po;
Or onward, where the rude Carinthian boor 2)
Against the houseless stranger shuts the door;
Or where Campania's plain forsaken lies,
A weary waste expanding to the skies;
Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravell'd fondly turns to thee :

(1) [ An anecdote connected with this poem, exhibiting that absence of mind and facility of temper in its author, which occasionally led him to make admissions which he did not mean, and which were thence sometimes turned against himself, was told by Dr. Johnson. I remember," said he, "Chamier once asked him what he meant by slow, in the first line of the Traveller. Did he mean tardiness of locomotion?" Goldsmith, who would say something without consideration, answered, 'Yes.' I was sitting by and said, 'No, Sir, you did not mean tardiness of locomotion; you mean that sluggishness of mind which comes upon a man in solitude.' He, however, was a man who, whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do: he deserved a place in Westminster Abbey, and every year he lived would have deserved it better. See Boswell, vol. vii. p. 85, ed. 1835.]

(2) [ Carinthia was visited by Goldsmith in 1755. Being questioned as to the justice of the censure passed upon a people whom other travellers praised for being as good, if not better than their neighbours, he gave as a reason his being once, after a fatiguing day's walk, obliged to quit a house he had entered for shelter, and pass part or the whole of the night in seeking another. See Life, ch. x.]

Still to my Brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.(1)

Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend,
And round his dwelling guardian saints attend;
Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair;

Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,()
Where all the ruddy family around

Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale;
Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good.(3)

But me, not destin'd such delights to share,
My prime of life in wandering spent and care
Impell'd, with steps unceasing, to pursue

Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view;(4)
That, like the circle bounding earth and skies,
Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies; (5)

(1) ["The farther I travel, I feel the pain of separation with stronger force; those ties that bind me to my native country and you, are still unbroken. By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain."-Citizen of the World. See vol. ii. p. 11.]

(2) ["Blest be those feasts where mirth and peace abound."-First edit.]

(3) [Imit." Hard was their lodging, homely was their food,
For all their luxury was doing good."-GARTH.]

(4) ["When will my wanderings be at an end? When will my restless disposition give me leave to enjoy the present hour? When at Lyons, I thought all happiness lay beyond the Alps; when in Italy, I found myself still in want of something, and expected to leave solitude behind me by going into Romelia; and now you find me turning back, still expecting ease every where but where I am."-The Bee, See vol. i. p. 18.]

(5) ["Death, the only friend of the wretched, for a little while mocks the weary traveller with the view, and like his horizon still flies before him."Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xxix.]

My fortune leads to traverse realms alone,
And find no spot of all the world my own.(1)

Ev'n now, where Alpine solitudes ascend,
I sit me down a pensive hour to spend ;
And, plac'd on high above the storm's career,
Look downward where an hundred realms appear;
Lakes, forests, cities, plains, extending wide,(2)
The pomp of kings, the shepherd's humbler pride.

When thus Creation's charms around combine,
Amidst the store, should thankless pride repine ?(3)
Say, should the philosophic mind disdain

That good which makes each humbler bosom vain ?(4)
Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can,
These little things are great to little man;

And wiser he, whose sympathetic mind
Exults in all the good of all mankind.

Ye glittering towns, with wealth and splendour crown'd ; Ye fields, where summer spreads profusion round;

Ye lakes, whose vessels catch the busy gale;

Ye bending swains, that dress the flowery vale;
For me your tributary stores combine :
Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!

As some lone miser, visiting his store,
Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er;
Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill,
Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still:

(1) [Imit." My destin'd miles I shall have gone,

By Thames or Mease, by Po or Rhone,

And found no foot of earth my own."-PRIOR.]

(2) ["Lakes, forests, cities, plains extended wide."-First edit.]
(3) ["Amidst the store, 'twere thankless to repine."-First edit.]
(4) ["Twere affectation all, and school-taught pride,

To spurn the splendid things by heaven supply'd."-First edit.]