important treaties. However, though it in some measure interrupted the general satisfaction, it no ways lessened the happiness of the youthful couple; and, by the young lady's looks, I could perceive she was not entirely displeased with this interruption.

In a few hours the whole transaction seemed entirely forgotten, and we have all since enjoyed those satisfactions which result from a consciousness of making each other happy. My son and his fair partner are fixed here for life: the man in black has given them up a small estate in the country, which, added to what I was able to bestow, will be capable of supplying all the real, but not the fictitious demands of happiness. As for myself, the world being but one city to me, I do not much care in which of the streets I happen to reside: I shall, therefore, spend the remainder my life in examining the manners of different countries, and have prevailed upon the man in black to be my companion. "They must often change," says Confucius, "who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." Adieu.1

of

carving one of the dishes effectually broke off the match between this respectable couple. The smallest accidents disappoint," &c.-ED.

66

*

To this last paragraph of the concluding Letter in the Ledger immediately succeeded the following announcement of the re-publication in two volumes, though the title Citizen of the World' is not mentioned. "** It may not be improper to inform the Public that these letters will shortly be published in two volumes of the usual Spectator' size. The numerous errors of the press are corrected, and the errors of the Writer, "still, perhaps, more numerous, are retrenched. Some new Letters are "added, and others which were remarkable only for being dull, are wholly "omitted. In short, such pains have been taken, that the Editor will, perhaps, receive more praise for his industry than the Writer for his "genius. I could be prolix upon the present occasion, but shall be silent, for when we talk of ourselves, Vanity or Resentment have always too "much to say." The threat of omitting the "dull" Letters did not take effect. Every one of the series in the Public Ledger was collected into the Citizen of the World,' and, as we have noted, a few Letters were added. The first edition of the Cititizen of the World' appears to have been published in March, 1762.—ED.

66

6

APPENDIX

6

TO THIS EDITION OF THE CITIZEN OF THE

WORLD.'

TWO ESSAYS ATTRIBUTED TO GOLDSMITH.

I. THE BRAVERY OF THE ENGLISH COMMON SOLDIERS.'

By those who have compared the military genius of the English with that of the French nation, it is remarked, that the French officers will always lead, if the soldiers will follow; and that the English soldiers will always follow, if their officers will lead.

In all pointed sentences some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness; and, in this comparison, our officers seem to lose what our soldiers gain. I know not any reason for supposing that the English officers are less willing than the French to lead; but it is, I think, universally allowed, that the English soldiers are more willing to follow. Our nation may boast, beyond any other people in the world, of a kind of epidemic bravery, diffused equally through all its ranks. We can show a peasantry of heroes, and fill our armies with clowns, whose courage may vie with that of their general.2

For the grounds on which this and the following essay are attributed to Goldsmith, see the remarks at the end of this Appendix. See also Letter CXIX. of the 'Citizen of the World,' of which the above essay on The Bravery of the Common Soldiers' is in some sort supplementary. The above essay was published in the British Magazine, No. 1, Jan. 1760, and it is now first included with the works of Goldsmith.—ED. 2 Compare Goldsmith's famous "a bold peasantry, their country's pride," &c. ( Deserted Village,' 1. 55, &c.).—ED.

There may be some pleasure in tracing the causes of this plebeian magnanimity. The qualities which commonly make an army formidable, are long habits of regularity, great exactness of discipline, and great confidence in the commander. Regularity may, in time, produce a kind of mechanical obedience to signals and commands, like that which the perverse Cartesians impute to animals; discipline may impress such an awe upon the mind, that any danger shall be less dreaded than the danger of punishment; and confidence in the wisdom or fortune of the general, may induce the soldiers to follow him blindly to the most dangerous enterprise.

What may be done by discipline and regularity, may be seen in the troops of the Russian Empress, and Prussian monarch. We find that they may be broken without confusion, and repulsed without flight.

But the English troops have none of these requisites, in any eminent degree. Regularity is by no means part of their character: they are rarely exercised, and therefore show very little dexterity in their evolutions as bodies of men, or in the manual use of their weapons as individuals: they neither are thought by others nor by themselves, more active or exact than their enemies, and therefore derive none of their courage from such imaginary superiority.

The manner in which they are dispersed in quarters over the country, during times of peace, naturally produces laxity of discipline; they are very little in sight of their officers; and when they are not engaged in the slight duty of the guard, are suffered to live every man his own way.

The equality of English privileges, the impartiality of our laws, the freedom of our tenures, and the prosperity of our trade, dispose us very little to reverence of superiors. It is not to any great esteem of the officers that the English soldier is indebted for his spirit in the hour of battle for perhaps it does not often happen that he thinks much better of his leader than of himself. The French Count who has lately published the Art of War,'' remarks how

1 Marshal Count de Saxe. Griffiths' own marked copy of the Monthly Review, now in the Bodleian Library, shows that one of Goldsmith's earliest articles in that review was upon Saxe's 'Art of War:' see 'Criticisms,' in our vol. iv.-Ed.

much soldiers are animated when they see all their dangers shared by those who were born to be their masters, and whom they consider as beings of a different rank. The Englishman despises such motives of courage: he was born without a master; and looks not on any man, however dignified by lace or titles, as deriving from nature any claims to his respect, or inheriting any qualities superior to his

own.

There are some, perhaps, who would imagine that every Englishman fights better than the subjects of absolute governments because he has more to defend. But what has the English more than the French soldier? Property they are both commonly without. Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of working or starving; and this choice is, I suppose, equally allowed in every country. The English soldier seldom has his head very full of the constitution; nor has there been, for more than a century, any war that put the property or liberty of a single Englishman in danger.

Whence then is the courage of the English vulgar? It proceeds, in my opinion, from that dissolution of dependence which obliges every man to regard his own character.1 While every man is fed by his own hands, he has no need of any servile arts: he may always have wages for his labour; and is no less necessary to his employer than his employer is to him. While he looks for no protection from others, he is naturally roused to be his own protector; and having nothing to abate his esteem of himself, he consequently aspires to the esteem of others. Thus every man that crowds our streets is a man of honour, disdainful of obligation, impatient of reproach, and desirous of extending his reputation among those of his own rank; and as courage is in most frequent use, the fame of courage is most eagerly pursued. From this neglect of subordination I do not deny that some inconveniences may from time to time proceed the power of the law does not always sufficiently

1 Compare with the last six lines of the Deserted Village.' To be sure, four of these lines might be cited as favouring the idea that Johnson wrote this essay; but then, as we have said before (vol. ii., pp. 19, 141, &c.), there is, we think, only Boswell's word for the theory that Johnson wrote the last four lines of the 'Deserted Village.'-ED.

supply the want of reverence, or maintain the proper distinction between different ranks: but good and evil will grow up in this world together; and they who complain, in peace, of the insolence of the populace, must remember that their insolence in peace is bravery in war.

II. ON THE CHARACTER OF ENGLISH OFFICERS.1

I am one of those who conceive the highest expectations from the effects of that universal contempt which the public, at present, seem to entertain of our land officers, should any great occasion again call them to action. The sense of shame may perform what the sense of duty failed in, and emulation may yet bring them back to the virtues of their ancestors.2

When the great orator of Rome was complimenting the dictator on his victories, he put him in mind that they were in a great measure owing to the courage of his officers. But where is the English officer who could make such an harangue to George II.? The only two military actions of his long reign that have not been memorable by misfortune, or stained by disgrace, were the two actions in which he and his son commanded in person; those of Dettingen and Culloden. Can it be believed in future times, that generals at the head of armies as brave as those that Cæsar commanded, and better appointed than those that Marlborough led to the field—but here I must check my pen in pity-let me say in justice to the parties, their

1 From the Literary Magazine, March, 1758, where it has, in letter fashion, the heading "To the Author: Sir," and the signature—“ I am, your constant Reader, BRITO." The title heading is as above, but over the article in the succeeding pages of the magazine runs-" A Review of English Courage from the Conquest."-ED.

2 These remarks, and more to the same effect at the end of the essay, seem to show that the occasion of writing had to do with the scandal prevailing at the time consequent upon the trials by Court Martial of Admiral Byng and General Sir John Mordaunt. The trial of Byng resulted in his execution on March 14, 1757; that of Mordaunt ended in an acquittal, Dec. 1757.-ED.