tested, might have put twice as much into his book as he had done, whereas Goldsmith had put into his as much as the book would hold.' This, he affirmed, was the great art: for the man who tells the world shortly what it wants to know, will, with his plain, full narrative, please again and again; while the more cumbrous writer, still interposing himself before what you wish to know, is crushed with his own weight and buried under his own ornaments. "Goldsmith's abridgment," he added, "is better than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius; and I will venture to say that if you compare him with Vertot, in the same places of the Roman History, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of compiling, and of saying everything he has to say in a pleasing manner. He is now writing a Natural History, and will make it as entertaining as a Persian tale."

For this Natural History the first agreement dates as early as the close of February in the present year, five years before it was completed and published. It is made between Griffin and Goldsmith; and stipulates that the history is to be in eight volumes, each containing "from twenty-five to

1 "BOSWELL: 'Will you not admit the superiority of Robertson, in whose History we find such penetration, such painting?' JOHNSON: 'Sir, you must consider how that penetration and that painting are employed. It is not history, it is imagination. He who describes what he never saw draws from fancy. Robertson paints minds as Sir Joshua paints faces in a history-piece: he imagines an heroic countenance. You must look upon Robertson's work as a romance, and try it by that standard. History it is not. Besides, sir, it is the great excellence of a writer to put into his book as much as his book will hold. Goldsmith has done this in his History. Now, Robertson might have put twice as much into his book. Robertson is like a man who has packed gold in wool: the wool takes up more room than the gold. No, sir; I always thought Robertson would be crushed by his own weight-would be buried under his own ornaments. Goldsmith tells you shortly all you want to know: Robertson detains you a great deal too long. No man will read Robertson's cumbrous detail a second time; but Goldsmith's plain narrative will please again and again. I would say to Robertson what an old tutor of a college said to one of his pupils: Read over your compositions, and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.""-Boswell, iii. 280-281.

twenty-seven sheets of pica print "; that for each a hundred guineas are to be paid on its delivery in manuscript; that for this consideration the author is to make over all his right and title to, and in, the copy; that “Dr. Goldsmith is to set about the work immediately, and to finish the whole as soon as he conveniently can "; and that (this is put as a rider to the agreement, with fresh signatures) "if the work makes less than eight volumes the Doctor is to be paid in proportion." Soon after the memorandum thus drawn up the book was begun, but it was worked at in occasional intervals only; for, when the first month's sale of the Roman History had established its success, Davies tempted him with an offer of five hundred pounds for a History of England, in four volumes, to be "written and compiled in the space of two years" from the date of the agreement, but not to be paid for until delivered and the printer had given his opinion that the quantity of matter stipulated for was complete; and this later labor superseded that of the earlier contract. There is no reason to believe that any money was advanced on the English History; and the preservation of the specific agreement enables us to test the truth of one of

1 The agreement, dated 13th of June, 1769, is printed in the Percy Memoir, 78, with the particular mention that both this and a subsequent one, also with Davies, for abridgment of the Roman History, "were drawn up by Dr. Goldsmith himself." This fact induces me to subjoin them, if only to preserve such examples of his business style! The first runs thus: “MEMORANDUM. Russell Street, Covent Garden. It is agreed between Oliver Goldsmith, M.B., on the one hand, and Thomas Davies, bookseller, of Russell Street, Covent Garden, on the other, that Oliver Goldsmith shall write for Thomas Davies an History of England, from the birth of the British Empire to the death of George the Second, in four volumes, octavo, of the size and the letter of the Roman History written by Oliver Goldsmith. The said History of England shall be written and compiled in the space of two years from the date hereof. And when the said history is written and delivered in manuscript, the printer giving his opinion that the quantity above mentioned is completed, that then Oliver Goldsmith shall be paid by Thomas Davies the sum of five hundred pounds sterling for having written and compiled the same. It is agreed also that Oliver Goldsmith shall print his name to the said work. In witness whereof we have set our names this thirteenth of June, 1769. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. THOMAS DAVIES." For the abridged History the subjoined was the pre