view, who in vain remonstrated on the fino gularity of the application. On entering the coffee-room the bailiff paid his respects to the Doctor, and desired that he might have the honour of immediately attending him. They had scarce entered Pall-mall, in their way to his Lordship, when the bailiff produced his writ. Mr. Hamilton generously paid the money, and redeemed the Doctor from captivity.

The publication of his Traveller, his Vicar of Wakefield, and his History of England, was followed by the performance of his comedy of The Good-natured Man at Covent Garden theatre, and placed him in the first rank of the poets of the present age.

Our Doctor, as he was now universally called, had a constant levee of his distrest

coun

countrymen, whose wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved ; and he has often been known to leave himself even without a guinea, in order to supply the neceffities of others.

Another feature in his character we cannot help laying before the reader. Previous to the publication of his Deserted Village, the bookfeller had given him a note for one hundred guineas for the copy, which the Doctor mentioned, a few hours after, to one of his friends, who obferved it was a very great fum for so short a performance, “In truth," replied Goldsinith, “ I think so too; it is much

more than the honest man can afford, “ or the piece is worth; I have not been

easy since I received it; I will therefore

go back and return him his note :" which he actually did, and left it entirely

VOL. I.

b

to

to the bookseller to pay him according to the profits produced by the sale of the poem, which turned out very considerable.

The author addresses this poem to his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds. He writes in the character of a native of a country village, to which he gives the name of Auburn, and which he pathetically ad. dresses. He then proceeds to contrast the innocence and happiness of a simple and a natural state with the miseries and vices that have been introduced by polished life, and gives the following beautiful apostrophe to retirement,

“O bleft retirement, friend to life's decline, Retreats from care that never must be mine ; How bleft is he who crowns, in shades like these, A youth of labour with an age of ease;

Who

Who quits a world where strong temptations try,
And since 'tis hard to combat learns to Ay.
For him no wretches, born to work and weep,
Explore the mine, or tempt the dangerous deep;
No surly porter stands in guilty state,
To spurn imploring famine from his gate;
But on he moves to meet his latter end,
Angels around befriending virtue's friend ;
Sinks to the grave 'with unperceiv'd decay,
While resignation gently slopes the way;
And all his prospects brightning to the last,
His heaven commences ere the world be past !"

The description of the parish priest (probably intended for a character of his brother Henry) would have done honour to any poet

of
any age.

In this description the fimile of the bird teaching her young to fly, and of the mountain that rises above the storm, are not easily to be paralleled. The rest of the

poem

confifts of the character of the village school

master,

b2

master, and a description of the village alehouse, both drawn with admirable propriety and force; a descant on the mifchiefs of luxury and wealth ; the variety of artificial pleasures; the miseries of those who for want of employment at home, are driven to settle new colonies abroad, and concludes with the following beautiful apostrophe to poetry.

" And thou sweet poetry, thou loveliest maid,
Still first to fly where sensual joys invade ;
Unfit in these degenerate times of shame,
To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame;
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
My shame in crowds my folitary pride;
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,
That found me poor at first, and keep'it me fo;
Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,
Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well.”

The