OLIVER GOLDSMITH S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK in.

1760. need not be repeated. "What is to be said of it here, will

JBuk have more relation to the character than to the genius of its

writer. The steadier direction of his thoughts, and the

changing aspect of his fortunes, are what I would now

turn back to read in it.

One marked peculiarity its best admirers have failed to
observe upon; its detection and exposure, not simply of
the foibles and follies which lie upon the surface, but of
those more pregnant evils which rankle at the heart, of
society. The occasions were frequent in which the Chinese
citizen so lifted his voice that only in a later generation
could he find his audience; and they were not few, in which
he has failed to find one even yet. He saw, in the Russian
Empire, what by the best English statesman since has not
been sufficiently guarded against, the natural enemy of the
more western parts of Europe, " an enemy already possessed
" of great strength, and, from the nature of the government,
" every day threatening to become more powerful." He
warned the all-credulous and too-confident English of their
insecure tenure of the American colonies ; telling them, with
a truth as prophetic, and which anticipated the vigorous
reasoning of Dean Tucker, that England would not lose her
vigour when .those colonies obtained their independence.
He unveiled the social pretences, which, under colour of
protecting female honour, are made the excuse for its
violation. He denounced that evil system which left the
magistrate, the country justice, and the squire, to punish
transgressions in which they had themselves been the
guiltiest transgressors. He laughed at the sordidness
which makes penny shows of our public temples, turns
Deans and Chapters into importunate " beggars," and stoops
to pick up half-pence at the tombs of our patriots andReview, xxvi. 477, June 1762.