THE TRAVELER.' First published in December, 1764; and now printed from the sixth edition, dated in 1770. The improvements, successively introduced, are very considerable. — Dedication. Henry Goldsmith, the senior brother, gave promise of distinction; but an early marriage impeded 3 his advancement. He died curate of Kilkenny-west, with no increase of stipend, about the year 1768.-Line 2. Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po. The embouchures of these rivers are the extreme points of the travels described; but, as the author was six months at Padua, he may have visited Carinthia. Line 5. Campania. Intended to denote La campagna di Roma. The portion of it which extends from Rome to Terracina is scarcely habitable. Line 34. Here, as elsewhere, the author uses the indefinite article an before h aspirated. Line 84. On Idra's cliffs as Arno's shelvy side. We have Idra, a town in Sweden; Idria, a town in Carniola, noted for its mines; and Hydra, a rocky island of the Grecian Archipelago: I believe the author intended Idria. He had visited the shelvy side of the Arno. Line 105. Far to the right, where Apennine ascends. The Apennine chain of mountains. Line 319. Where lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride. Arcadia, a province of the Morea, is the traditional type of pastoral felicity. Line 320. And brighter streams than fam'd Hydaspes glide. A river of India, now called Jelum. It is celebrated by Lucan, the elder Pliny, Arrian, etc. Line 405, etc. Have we not This appears to be a first sketch of The deserted village. Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around. A river of North America. It flows into the lake Ontario. Line 412. And Niagara stuns with thundering sound. The celebrated falls of that part of the river St. Lawrence which is called Niagara. Burke had before applied to them the epithet thundering. Line 420. To stop too fearful, and too faint to go. This impressive line was the friendly contribution of Samuel Johnson. Line 428. Though tyrant-kings or tyrant-laws restrain. The following lines, the penultimate couplet excepted, were also contributed by Johnson. Line 436. Zeck's iron crown, and Damiens' bed of steel. Zeck-hitherto printed Luke. George and Luke Zeck, brothers, headed an insurrection in Hungary, A D. 1514; and George, who had usurped the sovereignty, received the punishment of the red-hot iron crown. Robert-François Damiens, who attempted to assassinate Louis XV. of France in 1757, was put to death with revolting barbarity seen, etc. Line 411. TO THE REV. HENRY GOLDSMITH. DEAR SIR, I AM sensible that the friendship between us can acquire no new force from the ceremonies of a dedication; and perhaps it demands an excuse thus to prefix your name to my attempts, which you decline giving with your own. But as a part of this poem was formerly written to you from Switzerland, the whole can now, with propriety, be only inscribed to you. It will also throw a light upon many parts of it, when the reader understands that it is addressed to a man, who, despising fame and fortune, has retired early to happiness and obscurity with an income of forty pounds a-year. I now perceive, my dear brother, the wisdom of your |