OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S UFB AND TIMES,

1757. A Scottish Homer in duo time followed tho
ii29. Mr. Griffiths submitting to his boarder, in a very thick
duodecimo, The J$pigoimd,A Poem in Nhw Hook*. l>uctur
Willde's* laboured versification of MB aclwittmw of the
descendants of the Theban warriors, got into Awlpmm'H
collection, the editor being a Seotohmim: though c-tmtlld
enough to say of it, that " too antique to plwtao thcs ilulottorctl
" reader, and too modern for the scholar, it wan nogluotctl
" hy both, read by few, and soon forgotten by nil." t Yet this
not very profound editor might have been more ciuulUl, itnd
told us that his sentence was stolen and adapted from the
Monthly Beview. After discussion of the claims juatly duo at id
always conceded to a writer of genuine learning, OoldHmith
remarked : "on the contrary, if he be detected of ignorant?!*
" -when he pretends to learning, his case will dpHorvo our
" pity : too antique to please one party, and too modern for
" the other, he is deserted by both, road by few, and H<KW
" forgotten by all, except his enemies." PerliapB if lti«
friends had forgotten him, tho Doctor might have* profit**!,
" The Epigoniad" continued Goldsmith, " weoms to be one
" of those new old performances ; a work tliftt wouhl »«»
" more have pleased a peripatetic of tho academics gr«w*»
" than it will captivate the unlettered iubscriiier to ono t»f

* For a very ouriona aooount of Wilklo, who ww tho «wn «f » fcrtupf «c*r
burgli, and is said to have conceived the uttbjeot of lii« yawn *hi1t> hn» *t«<t|
as a scarecrow against tho pigeon* in «ne of liw fteter'tt fiwlilu of wfaxttv «w »
letter of Hume in, Ma Life by Burton, ii, 2S«fl. "WtJklu," tubt* llnitw mi Urn
close of Ms letter (dated 8rd July, 17B7), "i» now n, wttW fwlaister »t E«tb«»,
' within four miles of the town. Ho pomMweN akmt 480 or 4'ilO a.ymr, »bl«tt
' lie esteems exorbitant ricihoH. Formerly, when ha hiul only £10 AH Mjwr, h»
' said that lie could not ooaoaire what artiele, either of InuMtw «w«?i»»l««0 «r
1 pleasure, lie was deficient in, nor wlmb my mm oouW mmn by ileairliif mow
"' money. He possesses several bmnaheu of enulWott, \mlflm tt»t C!»«k jwwlry ;
' and particularly is a very profound geometriolan , , . Ytt tit in rnnn* wlw tea «««.
1 posed the second epic poem in our language, tmdsnt*ii4« w» Jfttte of urtbw
&o. &o. t Srititk Potttf ad. Frefctory notice t« WSIkle,rmlly nuw, if the tmwdld reatbr will