will contribute to assign it to neglect. Thus, for instance, it cannot be recommended as a grateful entertainment to the numerous readers of reigning romance, as it is strictly true. No events are here to astonish; no unexpected incidents to surprise; no such high-finished pictures, as captivate the imagination and have made fiction fashionable. Our reader must be content with the simple exhibition of truth, and consequently of nature; he must be satisfied to see vice triumphant and virtue in distress; to see men punished or rewarded, not as his wishes, but as Providence has thought proper to direct; for all here wears the face of sincerity.

His keeping himself concealed may probably to some appear suspicious; yet let it be considered, that were this the work of fiction, nothing could have been easier than to invent fictitious names also; a practice almost universally adopted by those who are indebted to invention alone for their materials: but such the author chose to imitate in nothing; and his conduct in the present case is a proof of the authenticity of his performance.

As there are little hopes of pleasing those who delight in improbabilities, so there is another class of readers whom it is as little expected to satisfy. Those who upon hearing that the author suffered persecution with constancy, may expect also to find him talk upon all occasions like our enthusiasts; who attach formal phrase and disgusting ejaculation to their ideas of religion; and imagine that every part of history which serves to amuse, is certainly an infringement on piety. Such he cannot expect to have for his admirers; so that, between the lovers of an idle tale and the partizans of cant and formality, the translator almost trembles for his author's reception.

As he has expressed his fears, permit him to express his hopes also and if there be any reader who can for a moment lay aside romance for history; who can prefer a

picture taken from nature to the more glaring colourings of fancy if there be any who can be pleased with a narrative inspired by truth, and perhaps executed with modesty; and if we cannot deserve the approbation of such readers, we shall contentedly acquiesce in their censure.

The present Memoir commences where the historians of those times discontinue their accounts. It carries on the relation of a national persecution, almost too shocking for belief, though too well attested not to be a lasting monument of disgrace to humanity.

Louis XIV. of France, induced by some pretended conversions, and incited by those who took care of the Royal conscience, revoked the Edict of Nantes. This charter was settled by Henry IV., and was the great bulwark of Protestant security against ecclesiastical persecution. The revocation of this edict gave Popery a full power to tyrannize; and its unpitying tribunals were erected over all the kingdom. The miseries of that period are pathetically described, even by their own historians. Protestants were dragged from their families; exposed to all the insults of unguided zeal; emaciated in dungeons; denied the consolation of friendship; brought to the rack; turning their eyes to take a last farewell of their children, but only meeting an odious priest; the executioner, bathed in the blood of their expiring friends, chiding their delay; their carcasses blackening in the sun, or exposed to rot on dunghills!

Such was a part of the accumulated miseries of the times; while Louis, surnamed the great, was feasting at Versailles, fed with the incense of flattery, or sunk in the lewd embraces of a prostitute! Can an Englishman hear this, and not burn with indignation against those foes to religion, to liberty, and his country? And should not every attempt to promote this generous indignation meet at least indulgence, though it should not deserve applause. Could the present

performance teach one individual to value his religion, by contrasting it with the furious spirit of Popery; could it contribute to make him enamoured with liberty, by shewing their unhappy situation, whose possessions are held by so precarious a tenure as tyrannical caprice; could it promote his zeal in the cause of humanity, or give him a wish to imitate the virtues of the sufferer, or redress the injuries of oppression; then, indeed, the author will not have wrote in vain. A convert of this kind is worth a thousand admirers; and to attain these ends was probably his design; and not to gratify idle curiosity, or erect himself into the minute hero of his own Memoir.

PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION

TO

THE HISTORY OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR.

[THE following pieces, now for the first time included in Goldsmith's Works, form the Preface and Introduction to a detail of the events of the War commencing in 1757, down to the period at which they were written; which, from the internal evidence, would seem to be 1761. Whether they were ever published is uncertain; the book which they were intended to introduce not having been discovered. The MS., still extant, belonged to Mr. Isaac Reed, who has written on a blank leaf-" This MS. is one of the productions of, and in the hand-writing of, Dr. Goldsmith. It was given to me by Mr. Steevens, who received it from Hamilton, the printer." On the sale of Mr. Reed's collection, it passed into the hands of the late Mr. Heber; who, with his usual liberality, gave it unsolicited for the present edition. See Life, ch. viii.]

PREFACE.

In whatever light we regard the present war which has disturbed all Europe, we shall find it the most important of any recorded in modern history. Whether we consider the power of the nations at variance, the number of the

forces employed, or the skill of the generals conducting, we shall equally find matter for improvement and admiration. We shall see small kingdoms forced by the prudence of one man into an astonishing degree of power, and extensive countries scarcely able to support their own rights or repel the invader.

In

But whatever these contentions may be thought of by others, they will never be regarded by Britons but as instances of her power, her bravery, and her successes. this war England will appear in greater splendour than in any period of the most boasted antiquity; it will be seen to poize the fates of Europe, and bring its most potent and most ambitious states into the lowest degree of humiliation. This is a glory which should excite every lover of his country to celebrate as well as to share in.

The desolation of war, the insolent severity of victors, and the servitude of those who happen to be overcome, have been often the topics of declamatory complaint, and employed the reasoner as well as the rhetorician: but still I should doubt whether even wars have not their benefits; whether they do not serve, as motion to waters, to depurate states of all, or a great number of vices, contracted by long habits of peace. If we attentively examine the records of history, we shall ever find that long indolence in any country was only productive of mischief; and that those very arts which were brought to perfection in peace, often served to introduce new vices with new luxury. The Roman state stood firm until Italy had no longer any enemies to fear: contented with enjoying the fruits of victory they no more desired to obtain it; their wars were carried on by mercenary soldiers, their armies were levied in distant provinces, and those very provinces at length became their masters.

But to what purpose is it to cite ancient history, when we have so recent and so near an instance in the Dutch?

That

people, once brave, enthusiasts in the cause of freedom, and able to make their state formidable to their neighbours, are, by a long continuance of peace, divided into faction, set upon private interest, and neither able nor willing to usurp its rights or revenge oppression. This may serve as a memorable instance of what may be the result of a total inattention to war, and an utter extirpation of martial ar dour. Insulted by the French, threatened by the English, and almost universally despised by the rest of Europehow unlike the brave peasants their ancestors, who spread terror into either India, and always declared themselves the allies of those who drew the sword in defence of freedom !(1)

The friendship between the English and the Dutch was at first conceived to be inseparable; they were termed, in the style of politicians, faithful friends, natural allies, protestant confederates, and by many other names of national endearment. Both had the same interest as opposed to France, and some resemblance of religion as opposed to popery; yet these were but slight ties with a nation whose only views were commerce. A rivalry in that will serve to destroy with them every connection. No merely mercantile man or mercantile nation has any friendship but for money; and an alliance between them will last no longer than their common safety or common profit is endangered; no longer than they have an enemy ready to deprive them of more than they can be able to steal from each other.

A long continuance of property in the same channel is also very prejudicial to a nation: in such a state, emulation is in some measure destroyed, fortune seems to stand still with those who are already in possession of it, they who are rich have no need of an exertion of their abilities in order

(1) [Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires of old!

Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold," &c,-Traveller.]