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  • Audiet Pugnas vitio Parentum / Rara Juventus. Hor: Young men—the few who are left after the crimes of their fathers—will hear of battles. [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Bonae leges ex malis moribus proveniunt: Good laws spring from bad habits [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Malos tueri haud tutum: Save a thief from the gallows and he’ll cut your throat [School and College Latin Exercises]
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  • Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae: Kind Athens Added a Little More Skill [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Mea nec Falernae Temperant Vites, neque Formiani Pocula Colles: Neither Falernian vines nor Formian hills mellow my cups [School and College Latin Exercises]
  • Scheme for the Classes of a Grammar School
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  • Review of Charles Lucas, An Essay on Waters (1756)
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  • Review of A Scheme for Preventing a Further Increase of the National Debt (1756)
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  • Review of Richard Lovett, The Subtil Medium Prov’d (1756)
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  • Review of Johann Georg Keyssler, Travels (1756)
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  • To The Public in the Public Ledger (1760)
  • The Weekly Correspondent Number I [Public Ledger]
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  • Preface to J. Elmer, Tables of Weights and Prices
  • From The Italian Library Containing an Account of the Lives and Works of the most valuable authors of Italy (1757)
  • Proposals for Printing by Subscription, Le Poesie di Giuseppe Baretti (1758)
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  • Advertisement [For The World Displayed]
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  • Review of William Tytler, Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Evidence Produced … Against Mary Queen of Scots
  • Contributions to John Kennedy, A Complete System of Astronomical Chronology, Unfolding the Scriptures
  • Proposals and Advertisement [for Anna Williams, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse] (1762)
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  • Dedication to Jerusalem Delivered (1763)
  • Dedication to The Works of Metastasio (1767)
  • Dedication to Cyrus: A Tragedy (1768)
  • Review of Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller
  • Dedication for Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
  • 23 Sept. 1765 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 1–4 Oct. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 20 Nov. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 19 Dec. 1765. [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 3 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 23 March 1768 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 13 March 1769 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 1 October 1774 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • 4 September 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
  • 4 September 1780 [Political Writing for Henry Thrale]
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  • Dedication for George Adams, A Treatise Describing and Explaining the Construction and Use of New Celestial and Terrestrial Globes
  • Dedication to John Gwynn, London and Westminster Improved
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  • Meditation on a Pudding
  • Hereford Infirmary Appeal
  • Dedication for A General History of Music (1776)
  • From A General History of Music, Vol. II (1782)
  • Dedication to An Account of the Musical Performance . . . in Commemoration of Handel (1785)
  • Advertisement for the Spectator
  • Dedication to Zachary Pearce, A Commentary, with Notes, on the Four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles
  • Letter of 16 May 1777
  • The Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council Assembled, Friday 6 June 1777
  • Letter to Lord Bathurst, the Lord Chancellor, 8 June 1777
  • Letter to William Murray, First Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, Wednesday, 11 June 1777
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  • Dodd’s Letter to the King, Sunday, 22 June 1777
  • Petition of William Dodd to the King, Monday, 23 June 1777
  • Dodd’s Last Solemn Declaration, Wednesday, 25 June 1777
  • Johnson’s Observations on the Propriety of Pardoning William Dodd, Wednesday, 25 June 1777
  • Introduction and Conclusion to Occasional Papers (1777)
  • Proposal for Printing William Shaw, An Analysis of the Scotch Celtic Language
  • Dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Seven Discourses
  • Preface to Thomas Maurice, Oedipus Tyrannus
  • The Case of Collier v. Flint
  • Translation of Sallust, De Bello Catilinario
  • General Rules of the Essex Head Club
  • On the Character and Duty of an Academick
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© 2023
Review of Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller
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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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REVIEW OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH, THE TRAVELLER (1764)
[Editorial Introduction]
Johnson’s review of Goldsmith’s poem The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society appeared in the Critical Review for December 1764 (XVIII.458–62). Not only had Johnson welcomed Goldsmith into his circle of friends, making him a charter member of The Club in 1764, he had helped in his literary endeavors in various ways. Most famously he had sold for him the copyright to The Vicar of Wakefield in 1762. He also read Goldsmith’s poems in manuscript and suggested or made changes to some of them before publication. One of the poems to which Johnson contributed is The Traveller. Lines 420, 429–34, and 436–38 are generally agreed to be Johnson’s.1 Johnson later contributed the prologue to Goldsmith’s play The Good-Natur’d Man (1768), and he twice composed epitaphs for Goldsmith after his death in 1774.2
XII. The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society. A Poem. Inscribed to the Rev. Mr. Henry Goldsmith. By Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.14to. Pr. 1s. 6d. Newbery.2
The author has, in an elegant dedication to his brother, a country clergyman, given the design of his poem:—“Without espousing the cause of any party, I have attempted to moderate the rage of all. I have endeavoured to shew, that there may be equal happiness in other states, though differently governed


Page 497

from our own; that each state has a peculiar principle of happiness; and that this principle in each state, particularly in our own, may be carried to a mischievous excess.”3
That he may illustrate and enforce this important position, the author places himself on a summit of the Alps, and, turning his eyes around, in all directions, upon the different regions that lie before him, compares, not merely their situation or policy, but those social and domestic manners which, after a very few deductions, make the sum total of human life.
Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheld, or wandering Po; Or onward, where the rude Carinthian boor Against the houseless stranger shuts the door; Or where Campania’s plain forsaken lies, A weary waste expanded to the skies. Where’er I roam, whatever realms to see, My heart untravell’d fondly turns to thee; Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.—4 Even now, where alpine solitudes ascend, I sit me down a pensive hour to spend; And, plac’d on high above the storm’s career, Look downward where an hundred realms appear; Lakes, forests, cities, plains extended wide, The pomp of kings, the shepherd’s humbler pride. When thus creation’s charms around combine, Amidst the store, ’twere thankless to repine. ‘Twere affectation all, and school-taught pride, To spurn the splendid things by heaven supply’d. Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can,


Page 498

These little things are great to little man; And wiser he, whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all mankind.5
The author already appears, by his numbers, to be a versifier;6 and by his scenery, to be a poet; it therefore only remains that his sentiments discover him to be a just estimator of comparative happiness.
The goods of life are either given by nature, or procured by ourselves. Nature has distributed her gifts in very different proportions, yet all her children are content;7 but the acquisitions of art are such as terminate in good or evil, as they are differently regulated or combined.8
Yet, where to find that happiest spot below, Who can direct, when all pretend to know? The shudd’ring tenant of the frigid zone Boldly asserts that country for his own, Extols the treasures of his stormy seas, And live-long nights of revelry and ease; The naked negro, panting at the line, Boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine, Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave, And thanks his gods for all the good they gave.—9 Nature, a mother kind alike to all, Still grants her bliss at labour’s earnest call; And though rough rocks or gloomy summits frown, These rocks, by custom, turn to beds of down. From art more various are the blessings sent; Wealth, splendours, honor, liberty, content: Yet these each other’s power so strong contest, That either seems destructive of the rest. Hence every state, to one lov’d blessing prone, Conforms and models life to that alone.


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Each to the favourite happiness attends, And spurns the plan that aims at other ends; Till, carried to excess in each domain, This favourite good begets peculiar pain.1
This is the position which he conducts through Italy, Swisserland, France, Holland, and England; and which he endeavours to confirm by remarking the manners of every country.
Having censured the degeneracy of the modern Italians, he proceeds thus:
My soul turn from them, turn we to survey Where rougher climes a nobler race display, Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread, And force a churlish soil for scanty bread; No product here the barren hills afford, But man and steel, the soldier and his sword. No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array, But winter lingering chills the lap of May; No zephyr fondly sooths the mountain’s breast, But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest. Yet still, even here, content can spread a charm, Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm. Though poor the peasant’s hut, his feasts though small, He sees his little lot, the lot of all; Sees no contiguous palace rear its head To shame the meanness of his humble shed; No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal To make him loath his vegetable meal; But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil, Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.2
But having found that the rural life of a Swiss has its evils as well as comforts, he turns to France.
To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, We turn; and France displays her bright domain. Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease,


Page 500

Pleas’d with thyself, whom all the world can please.— Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear, For honour forms the social temper here.— From courts to camps, to cottages it strays, And all are taught an avarice of praise; They please, are pleas’d, they give to get esteem, Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.3 Yet France has its evils: For praise too dearly lov’d, or warmly sought, Enfeebles all internal strength of thought, And the weak soul, within itself unblest, Leans for all pleasure on another’s breast.— The mind still turns where shifting fashion draws, Nor weighs the solid worth of self-applause.4
Having then passed through Holland, he arrives in England, where,
Stern o’er each bosom reason holds her state, With daring aims, irregularly great, I see the lords of human kind pass by, Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, By forms unfashion’d, fresh from nature’s hand.5
With the inconveniences that harrass the sons of freedom, this extract shall be concluded.
That independence Britons prize too high, Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; See, though by circling deeps together held, Minds combat minds, repelling and repell’d; Ferments arise, imprison’d factions roar, Represt ambition struggles round her shore, Whilst, over-wrought, the general system feels Its motions stopt, or phrenzy fires the wheels. Nor this the worst. As social bonds decay,


Page 501

As duty, love, and honour fail to sway, Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law, Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe. Hence all obedience bows to these alone, And talent sinks, and merit weeps unknown; Till time may come, when, stript of all her charms, That land of scholars, and that nurse of arms; Where noble stems transmit the patriot flame, And monarchs toil, and poets pant for fame; One sink of level avarice shall lie, And scholars, soldiers, kings unhonor’d die.6
Such is the poem, on which we now congratulate the public, as on a production to which, since the death of Pope,7 it will not be easy to find any thing equal.


Page 502

Editorial Notes
1 See Bibliography, II.1062, and Yale, VI.355–56.
2 See Yale, VI.264 and XIX.512–14.
1 M.B.: Bachelor of Medicine; after earning a B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1750, Goldsmith studied medicine at Edinburgh, Leiden, and Padua, but there is no record of an advanced degree (ODNB).
2 The publisher John Newbery was one of those who purchased the copyright to The Vicar of Wakefield.
3 The dedication was just one sentence in the first issue of the poem. The textual evidence here and throughout suggests that SJ used the second issue of the first edition. See Arthur Friedman, ed., The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 5 vols. (1966), IV.247, and William B. Todd, “Quadruple Imposition: An Account of Goldsmith’s Traveller,” Studies in Bibliography, VII (1955), 103–11.
4 ll. 1–10. The dashes used in the review are not in the text; they indicate that lines have been omitted.
5 ll. 31–44.
6 Versifier: “a maker of verses with or without the spirit of poetry” (Dictionary, s.v. “versificator”). Cf. Idler 60: “Pope he was inclined to degrade from a poet to a versifier” (Yale, II.187).
7 SJ paraphrases ll. 75–80.
8 SJ paraphrases ll. 87–98.
9 ll. 63–72.
1 ll. 81–98.
2 ll. 165–84.
3 ll. 239–42; 257–58; 263–66.
4 ll. 269–72; 279–80.
5 ll. 325–30.
6 ll. 339–60.
7 Pope died in 1744.
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Document Details
Document TitleReview of Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller
AuthorJohnson, Samuel
Creation Date1764
Publ. DateN/A
Alt. TitleN/A
Contrib. AuthorN/A
ClassificationSubject: Goldsmith; Subject: Literary criticism; Subject: Pope; Genre: Review
PrinterN/A
PublisherN/A
Publ. PlaceN/A
VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand
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REVIEW OF OLIVER GOLDS...
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