CHAP, x.] THE TRA VELLER AKD WHAT FOLLOWED IT.
" mend it more to general notice." Goldsmith began to 1765.
think, as he afterwards remarked to Boswell, that he had come .£*. 37.
too late into the world for any share of its poetical distinc-
tions ; that Pope and others had taken up the places in the
temple of fame; and that as but few at any one period can
possess poetical reputation, " a man of genius can now hardly
" acquire it." " That," said Johnson, when this saying was
related to him, " is one of the most sensible things I have
" ever heard of Goldsmith. It is difficult to get literary fame,
" and it is every day getting more difficult."* Nevertheless,
though slowly, the poem seems to have advanced steadily;
and, in due course, translations of it appeared in more than
one continental language. A month after the notice in the
St. James's Chronicle, a second edition was published ;
a third was more quickly called for; a fourth was issued in
August; and the ninth had appeared in the year when the
poet died. That anything more substantial than fame arose
to him out of these editions, is, however, very questionable.
The only payment that can with certainty be traced in
Newbery's papers as for " Copy of the Traveller, a poem"
leaves it more than doubtful, whether for twenty guineas
Goldsmith had not surrendered all his interest in it, except
that which, with each successive issue, still prompted
the liaise labor.t Between the first and last, thirty-six new
lin'es had been added, and fourteen of the old cancelled.
Some of the erasures would now, perhaps, raise a smile. No
honest thought disappeared, no manly word for the oppressed.
The " wanton judge " and his " penal statutes " remained;
* Life, T. 303-4. What on earth can Mr. Croker mean by the subjoined note
on that saying of Goldsmith ? " Goldsmith, who read a great deal of light French
" literature, probably borrowed this from La Bruyere. 'Les anciens ont tout dit;
" ' on vient aujourd'hui trop tard pour dire les choses nouvelles.' Vigneul-
" Marvittiana, i. 336." Where is the resemblance ?
f I subjoin from the Newbery MSS (Prior, ii. 57-8), the account in which