THE SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.
AMONG the various works now appearing at short intervals and at moderate prices, none is more deserving of encouragement than Mr. PICKERING'S edition of our classical poets : because, first, it is edited with great care ; next, each poet is preceded by a well- compiled biography ; and more especially because a well-selected collection of our national poetry is an essential in the library of a lover of literature. There are other cogent reasons : it may be hoped that the neatness and cheapness of such editions as these will catch the attention of readers who might otherwise throw away their time and money upon publications which do not even themselves pretend to be read twice or to deserve preservation. It is something, certainly, to have an idle hour amused ; but it is assuredly best to amuse it in a profitable manner, and by laying up not only present gratification, but materials for future reflec- tion and application. Easy writing has been said to be "cursed hard reading," but we would ask, where' can he the advantage of reading that which any body, or almost any body, can mite ? or may not the rule be further extended, by averring that that is best worth reading which requires the rarest talents to compose? If this be true, and if the truth were generally received, we should . have the world flooding out of the circulating libraries, and flow- ing in full tide into Mr. PICKERING'S shop. For there never was but one POPE ; there never was but one BURNS ; there never was but one GOLDSMITH ;—we had almost said there never will be, and we should have been right. The poems of these three men of genius are before us in six pretty volumes, and it would be per- haps impossible to match their contents in the whole round of Poetical genius : greater poets may he found, but none superior to them in that point in which each excels. The lives of these three men happen also to be particularly full of interest—not of inci- dent, but of social and intellectual. peculiarity ; and it would be vain to look for more copious sources of reflection than is to he found in their bioeraphies. They are written expressly for the ,Aldine Poets, and ''do credit to the edition. The poet for this month is GOLDSMITH his biography is by the Reverend Joule Aliesurtn, whose only fault is that of being sometimes a little too grand for the occasion. It is, however, ungrateful to say it, for we think we never enjoyed an evening of purer literary gratification than in the perusal of it, and of the collection of anecdotes at the end of it, and in refreshing our memory with the poems them- selves, which; when taken altogether in conjunction with the poet's character and life, are surely the most charming as well as the most faultless productions of the modern muse. The character of GOLDSMITH approaches nearer to the popular notion of a man of genius than perhaps any other on record. The inconsistency existing between the simplicity, and sometimes almost sillirress of his conduct, and the wisdom and beauty of his Writings, betokens something to the vulgar understanding like the supernatural, and seems to confirm the reality of inspiration. A creature that talks nonsense till a pen is put into his hand, and then transcends almost every body by the exquisiteness of his wit, by his deep knowledge of human nature, and his admirable pictures of national character or domestic life, may be compared to the priestess of Delphi before she is placed on the tripod, and after she is under the influence of the god. Then GOLDSMITH'S care- lessness of money, his good-nature, his easy charitableness, the -revolutions in.his fortune—all tend to bear out the common notion -of a man of genius. His vanity, the confusion of his ideas, in short his Irish blunders, do not derogate from his claim to the -character, when taken in conjunction with his immortal writings. Indeed, the absurdity of many of his appearances in society, cou- pled with the knowledge of what he could do at hoine, must have given a zest to his company. When he gave utterance to a platitude in place of an epigram, his friends would, bearing Retaliation " in mind, reflect, that here sits a man, who, if he .chooses but to. take up a pen, can write us down to posterity. 'When he spoke, they might, and, doubtless did, mentally speculate -whether GOLDSMITH was going io give them the saying of a So- lomon or an idiot,—an uncertainty which would assuredly save his society from dulness. The cause of GOLDSMITH'S failures in so- ciety-principally arose from his excessive anxiety to appear well, .combined with original awkwardness of manner, and a mind easily put in confusion. The train of his ideas, when in solitude, was as clear as crystal; he never blotted or ,corrected his manuscript; :but he was like some very pellucid streams, that, running on chalky lorittores,.ane rendered turbid br a pebble or a..stick. He used td ,he could-argue ,hest alone irr-a," -bulk" which masks truth. When he was arguing with any body else, he never could let his mind devote itself to its business: its attention was confirm.; ally called off to such reflections as—what are they thinking of' me ?—am I making a fool of myself?—do they account me a great man, or are they making game of me? This disposition has been called a morbid consciousness ' • he himself seems to name it in the term " an exquisite sensibility of contempt." We often hear of the distinction between vanity and pride, but there never was an example so much to the point as the character of GOLDSMITH. His vanity was such, that he wished to be thought to do any thing that could attract attention for a moment, even down to the imitation of a dancing monkey ; and he would have been mortified if his ability to equal FREDERICK the Great in the field had been doubted for an instant. But he had no pride: he never concealed the humiliating circumstances of any part of his life, and never felt ashamed of any associates, however low, provided he amused himself with them. Mr. BEST tells us in his Personal Recollections, on the authority of . GEORGE LANGTON, that one day, in good company, he began a sentence, saying, " When I lived among the beggars of Axe Lane"—and all the circle were seized with a momentary surprise. A very differ- ent man, but a man neither of naivete nor simplicity, began a sen- tence similarly, and made half a dozen crowned heads start with ill-dissembled horror. They who have read DE BAUSSET will re- member NAPOLEON'S dinner at Erfurdt, surrounded by Emperors and Kings, when he began a conversation by saying, " When I was a lieutenant in the regiment of La Fare."
We praise the judicious conduct of the biographer of GOLD'. SMITH, in arranging the anecdotes from the various publications that have spoken of him, at the end of his connected biography, The idea is good, and one to be followed. They make there an in- teresting collection of ana, and would have caused a confusion in the body of the memoir.
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