CHAP. IV.] ESCAPE PREVENTED.

" men, and could sincerely wish that those whose greatest 1753.

" sin is, perhaps, the venial one of writing bad verses, would Jit. 30.

" regard their failure in this respect as we do, not as faults

" but foibles: they may be good and useful members of

" society, without being poets. The regions of taste can

" be travelled only by a few, and even those often find

" indifferent accommodation by the way. Let such as have

" not got a passport from nature be content with happiness,

" and leave the poet the unrivalled possession of his misery,

" his garret, and his fame.

" We have of late seen the republic of letters crowded
" with some, who have no other pretensions to applause but
" industry, who have no other merit but that of reading
" many books and making long quotations; these we have
" heard extolled by sympathetic dunces, and have seen
rt them carry off the rewards of genius; while others, who
" should have been born in better days, felt all the wants of
" poverty, and the agonies of contempt.* Who, then, that

* Critical Review, vii. 37-8, January 1759. Let me add an admirable pas-
sage from a later essay (Oitisen of t?ie World, letter xeiii) in which Goldsmith
speaks out for the profession of the writer: "For my own part, were I to
" buy a hat, I would not have it from a stocking-maker, but a hatter j were
" I to buy shoes, I should not go to the tailor's for that purpose. It is just
"so with regard to wit: did I, for my life, desire to be well served, I would
" apply only to those who made it their trade, and lived by it. You smile
" at the oddity of my opinion; but be assured, my friend, that wit is in
" some measure mechanical, and that a man long habituated to catch at even
" its resemblance, will at last be happy enough to possess ths substance. By
" a long habit of writing he acquires a justness of thinking, and a mastery
" of manner, which holiday writers, even with ten times his genius, may vainly
" attempt to equal. How then are they deceived, who expect from title,
" dignity, and exterior circumstances, an excellence, which is in some measure
"acquired by habit, and sharpened by necessity! You have seen, like me,
" many literary reputations promoted by the influence of fashion, which have
"scarcely survived the possessor; you have seen the poor hardly earn the
'' little reputation they acquired, and their merit only acknowledged when
" they were incapable of enjoying the pleasures of popularity : such, how-
'' ever, is the reputation worth possessing; that which is hardly earned isy