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PREFACE.

final act of justice to the Percy Memoir, let me add that
the libel at p. 408-409, the unfinished fragment at p. 410,
the address to the public at p. 413-414, the amusing verses
at p. 419, and the Oglethorpe letter at p. 422-423, are all
drawn, with the same extraordinary absence of all mention
of their source, from that first, authentic record of Goldsmith's
career (103-105, 105-106, 107-108,102-103, and 95-96).
To close the ungracious task which has thus been forced
upon me. Letters quoted by Mr. Prior are never referred
to the place from which he draws them, except in the few
instances where a really original letter happens to have fallen
in his way. Whether it be at p. 390, where a letter of
Goldsmith's to Cradock (in Memoirs, i. 225) is misplaced,
and referred .to what it has no connection with; or at p.
429, where a letter of Goldsmith's to Garrick (in Memoirs
of Doctor Burney, i. 272-273), is given as though personal
communication had drawn it from Madame d'Arblay j or
at p. 470, where a letter of Beattie's (in Forbes's Life, ii. 69)
is made use of; or at pp. 369, 472, 482, 488, and 510,
where quotations are printed, and in two instances mis-
printed, from letters of Beauclerc's (in Hardy's Life of
Lord CJiarlemont, 178, 163, 177, 178, and 179); or at
p. 526, where we find a letter from Maurice Goldsmith
to Mr. Hawes (in Hawes's Account, 22),—still the reader
is left without a clue to the source of these letters, in any
single instance, and may suppose, for anything to the
contrary revealed to him by Mr. Prior, that all have pro-
ceeded from that amazing fund of private and exclusive
discovery, on which this gentleman founds his claim to
an exclusive property in their use.



	PREFACE. final act of justice to the Percy Memoir, let me add that the libel at p. 408-409, the unfinished fragment at p. 410, the address to the public at p. 413-414, the amusing verses at p. 419, and the Oglethorpe letter at p. 422-423, are all drawn, with the same extraordinary absence of all mention of their source, from that first, authentic record of Goldsmith's career (103-105, 105-106, 107-108,102-103, and 95-96). To close the ungracious task which has thus been forced upon me. Letters quoted by Mr. Prior are never referred to the place from which he draws them, except in the few instances where a really original letter happens to have fallen in his way. Whether it be at p. 390, where a letter of Goldsmith's to Cradock (in Memoirs, i. 225) is misplaced, and referred .to what it has no connection with; or at p. 429, where a letter of Goldsmith's to Garrick (in Memoirs of Doctor Burney, i. 272-273), is given as though personal communication had drawn it from Madame d'Arblay j or at p. 470, where a letter of Beattie's (in Forbes's Life, ii. 69) is made use of; or at pp. 369, 472, 482, 488, and 510, where quotations are printed, and in two instances mis- printed, from letters of Beauclerc's (in Hardy's Life of Lord CJiarlemont, 178, 163, 177, 178, and 179); or at p. 526, where we find a letter from Maurice Goldsmith to Mr. Hawes (in Hawes's Account, 22),—still the reader is left without a clue to the source of these letters, in any single instance, and may suppose, for anything to the contrary revealed to him by Mr. Prior, that all have pro- ceeded from that amazing fund of private and exclusive discovery, on which this gentleman founds his claim to an exclusive property in their use.