vifited her frequently for the fole purpose to be kind to her. But the Doctor was but a bad œconomist, inattentive, and irregular; and, like honeft Charles, in the School for Scandal, he could not, for the foul of him, make juftice, keep pace with generofity.

The firit man of the age (as Mr. Davies flyles Dr. Johnfon) one, who from the extensiveness of his genius and benevolence of mind, is fuperior to the little envy so common in most "authors, took pleasure in introducing Dr. Goldsmith to his intimate friends, perfons of rank and abilities. But the Doctor's converfation did by no means correfpond with the idea formed of him from his writings.

The Duchefs of Rambouillet, being charmed with the Tragedies of Corneille, wished to have fo great an author amongst her conftant vifitors, expecting infinite entertainment from the writer of the Cid, the Horace, and Cinna. But the poet loft himself in fociety; he held no rank with the beaux efprits, who met at the hotel of this celebrated lady. His converfation was dry, unpleafant, and what the French call distrait. Like him, Dr. Goldfinith appeared in company to have no fpark of that genius which fhone fo brightly in his writings. His addrefs was aukward, his language unpolished, and interrupted by difagreeable hesitation.

Envy was indeed a striking feature in his character. He affected to defpife Thomson, who was undoubtedly bleffed with a strong and copious fancy, who hath enriched poetry with a variety of new images painted from Nature itself, and in his Seafons hath given us one of the most captivating poems in our language; and he fpoke in the most lowering terms of that fublime fpecies of compofition, Lyric Poetry, for no other reafon, perhaps, than that Mafon, Akenfide, and Gray, were contemporary poets. In the fummer feafon, when the Doctor ufed to retire to fome distance into the country, that he might pursue his studies without interruption, he would often defire a friend to accompany him into the neighbouring fields, ftrictly charging him not to lead him near any houfes. The gentleman, one Sunday evening, inattentive to this restriction, conducted the Doctor through a populous village, where every body in their holiday clothes were at their doors. The Doctor expreffed extreme difpleafore. He did not with to be feen. Dear Doctor,' anfwered the other, be not ditpleafed. I am here as great a man as yourself. The Doc

tor has not been the only one infected with the confcious importance of being a great author. When Voltaire made a voyage to England, on purpose to see Congreve, the latter defired him not to treat him as an author, but as a gentleman. If I had only confidered you in that light,' answered Voltaire, I should never have taken a voyage to see you.'

But, in the inftances which Mr. Davies has adduced of this prevailing paffion, Dr. Goldsmith feems to have carried it to a childish extreme. His jealoufy fixed a perpetual ridicule upon his character; for he was emulous of every thing, and of every body. Being with fome friends at the entertainment of the Fantoccini, in which the uncommon evolutions of the figures were much commended, he was asked how he liked thefe automatons. He answered, that he was furprized at the applause bestowed upon them, for he could have performed their exercifes much better himfeif. We need fome authority for fuch a circumstance as this; but what follows Good-nature will hardly give credit to upon any authority. When his great literary friend was praised in his hearing, in a kind of agony he exclaimed, 'No more, I de fire ; you harrow up my foul.' The Doctor, having tried his genius in feveral modes of writing, in effays, in defcriptive poetry, and history, was advised to apply himself to that fpecies of writing, which is faid to have been long the most fruitful in the courts of Parnaffus; the writer of plays having ever been fuppofed to purfue the quickest road to the temple of Plutus.

When he had finished the Good-natured Man, he offered it to Mr. Garrick. The manager was fully conscious of his merit, and perhaps too oftentatious of his own abilities to ferve a dramatic author. Goldfmith was, on his fide, as fully perfuaded of his own importance. Mr. Garrick, who had been fo fong treated with the complimentary language paid to a successful patentee, expected that the writer should esteem the patronage of his play as a favour. Goldsmith rejected all ideas of kindness in a treaty that was intended to be of mutual advantage, and in this he was certainly right. Mr. Garrick was willing indeed to accept the play, but he wifhed to be courted to it; and the Docfor was not difpofed to purchafe his friendship at the expence of his fincerity. He then applied to Mr. Colman, who accepted his comedy without hesitation.

The Good-natured Man bears ftrong L 2 maiks

marks of that happy originality, which diftinguishes the Doctor's writings. Two characters in this comedy were abfolutely . unknown before on the English ftage; a man who boasts an intimacy with perfons of high rank whose faces he never faw, and another who is almost always lamenting misfortunes he never knew. Croaker is a very highly-finished portrait of a difcontented man, who disturbs every happiness he poffelles, from apprehenfions of distant Evil.

Goldsmith never wanted literary employment. The bookfellers understood the value of his name, and did all they could to excite his industry. In a few years he wrote three Hiftories of England; the first in two pocket volumes in a Series of Letters, and another in four volumes octavo; the first an elegant Summary of British Tranfactions; and the other, an excellent Abridgement of Hume and other copious hiftorians. The last is a fhort contraction of the four volumes in one duodecimo. For writing these books be received near Sool.

Though Mr. Garrick did not act his comedy of She floops to conquer, yet, as he was then upon very friendly terms with the author, he prefented him with a very humourous prologue. This comedy, notwithstanding many improbabilities, feveral farcical fituations, and fome characters rather exaggerated, is a lively reprefentation of Nature. Genius prefides over every fcene, and the characters are either new, or varied improvements from other plays.

Though the morey gained by this play amounted to a confiderable fum, efpecially to a man educated in adverfity, yet his neceffities became as preffing as ever. To relieve them he undertook a new Hiflory of Greece, and the Hiftory of Animated Nature. The firft was to him an eafy talk; but, as he was then unacquainted with the world of animals, his friends were anxious for the fuccefs of this laft undertaking. But, notwithstanding thefe feeming obitacles, he has compofed one of the plafanteft and moth inftructive books in our language; not only useful to young minds, but entertaining to thofe who underland the animal creation.

We have already mentioned, that the Doctor occafionally retired into the country, and it was in rural tillness and foli tude that he wrote The Defented Village; where the poet pathetically deplores the depopulation of the country, and the dif

orders attendant on all the luxuries which commerce hath introduced. Thefe did not all exift in his own imagination only. In one of his country excurfions be refided near the houfe of a great Welt-Indian, in the neighbourhood of which feveral cottages were deftroyed, in order to enlarge, or rather to polifh the profpect. This circumftance the Doctor often mentioned to evince the truth of his reafoning, and to this he particularly alludes in the following lines:

"Along the lawn, where scattered hamlets role,

Unwieldly wealth and cumbrous pomp repose.'

With whatever facility the Doctor might write in profe, or in the lighter species of poetry, his Deferted Village was a very laboured compofition. He himself declared, that he never wrote more than four lines of it a day, and the four which begin the poem have been in as many ftates of variation as would cover the fide of a halffheet of paper.

His political principles, it is well known, were not unfimilar to thofe of Dr. Smollett, whofe account of the cruelties afferted to be exercifed by the royal forces after the battle of Culloden he has followed in his Hiftory of England, with the fame warmth of exaggeration, if not of fiction. Nor could he fpare the Royal Victor in this sweet poem, in which benevolence, not party, breathes throughout. After the defcription of the pictures in the village alehoufe,

cano, called Mount Frumento, very near the confines of the fecond region of Ætna, The fire flowed from it like a river, and, entering a neighbouring valley, called Del Udfienza, it over-ran, in an inftant, the fpace of half a league in the plain del Carpintero and delle Mandre del Favo, and then precipitated itfelf into the valley del Neve, rifing to the height of a hundred feet.

At nine o'clock the mountain opened at two places lower ftill, on the land called i Scoperti Di Palermo. These two openings, being very near each other, foon formed but one, the fire taking a direction to the weft, where the firft lava flowed. They each united in the plain called de Santi, and over-ran the space of one third of a mile. The first lava again feparated itself from the others, continuing its courfe alone in the valley del Udienza, where it flowed again, although more flowly, threatening the country of la Malta, and the lands of the Cavalier, which belong to the Benedictines of Catania. The two other lavas took a direction towards Mount Parmentelli; the bafe of which, to the extent of about two miles, they quite furrounded, then flowing by the eat of Mount del Mazzo, they extended along the vineyards of Rugalira, and, after having fucceffively over-run the space of three Jeagues, they stopped on the 25th of May. The greatest breath of this branch was one mile, and its elevation about five feet.

During the night of the 26th, a new mouth opened at the foot of Mount Parmentelli, in the middle of the lava. This volcano, for more than an hour, threw out ftones of a prodigious fize, and to a

very confiderable height. The fire next opened itself a paffage, dividing into two branches, the first to the weft of the Mount del Mazzo, which it enclofed, and the other along the wood and vineyards of Rugalira for about a league.

At the end of five days the fire seemed to be diminished, and advanced but very flowly; but it was foon perceived again in a very fenfible degree; and on the 5th of this month [July] threw out fuch a prodigious quantity, that the arm of the lava, which was then only thirty feet broad, augmented to fifty, in about half an hour, and it ftill continues with the fame force +. But as it finds the first lava cooled, it runs upon it, raifing it to the height of more than thirty feet, in throwing it up forward, and on the fides; fo that if the refiftance this new lava is obliged to combat retards its progrefs, it nevertheless extends it in breadth, and produces the fame deftructive effects.

On the furface of this lava, in almost its whole extent, we obferve evaporations, or globes of fire of different colours, according to the greater or lefs quantity of bitumen, fulphur, arfenic, and vitriol, of which the mafs is compofed, and which the chymifts, who have analyzed it, say is very plentiful.

The damage already caufed by this eruption is estimated at 40,000 Sicilian crowns; but many perfons apprehend it to be more confiderable. The lava continues its course towards Palermo, from whence it is now diftant no more than eight miles; and this is the richett and best cultivated country of Mount Ætna.

H'S Maics, George the Second, was

IS Majefty, George the Second, was

his German dominions, and always took with him the greater part of the Officers of his houthold, especially thofe that belonged to the kitchen. Once on his paffage at fea his first cook was fo ill with the feafickness, that he could not hold up his head to drefs his Majefty's dinner; this being told to the King, he was exceed ingly forry for it, as he was famous for

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making a Rhenifh foup, which he was very fond of; he therefore ordered enquiry to be made among the affittant-cooks, if any of them could make the above soup, when one named Weston (father of the late Tom Welton, the player) undertook it, and fo pleafed the King, that he declared it was' full as good as that made by the first cook. Soon after the King returned to England, the firit cook died, which when the King was informed of, he faid, that his Steward

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