[Some of the most pleasant of Goldsmith's writing is to be found in his Prefaces and Introductions. Dr. Johnson was likewise very apt in this kind of work, and of his Prefaces it has been said, that though he did not always know what the book prefaced would contain, he always knew what it should contain, and wrote his preface accordingly. Precisely the same, it seems to us, might be said of Goldsmith and his Prefaces. Bishop Percy recognized the value of the Prefaces, and included seven of them in his 1801 edition of our author's works, viz., the Prefaces to Brookes's Natural History,' the History of the World,' the Roman History, the History of England,' the History of the Earth and Animated Nature,' the Beauties of English Poesy,' and the 'Collection of Poems for Young Ladies.' The Preface to Brookes's 'Natural History' appeared there without the five Introductions to the chief departments of the science (which duly appear in the present edition); but the omission was against Percy's wishes. Indeed, he quarrelled with his working editor, Samuel Rose, and his publishers, chiefly over the omission of the Brookes Introductions, and refused in consequence of the omission to formally revise or be responsible for the entire edition (see the Percy correspondence, in vol. vi., p. 583, of Nichols' 'Literary Illustrations,' which is extracted from at pp. 56, 57). Hence, no doubt, some of the manifest faults of that edition of Goldsmith, which, otherwise, coming from the author's personal friend and literary executor, should have been the most valuable of our editions. Dr. Johnson was also charmed with the Brookes Introductions. It must have been these which elicited from him the memorable prediction with regard to the after-coming and larger work in the same field-the 'Animated Nature':-" He [Goldsmith] is now writing a Natural History, and will make it as interesting as a Persian tale" (Boswell's Johnson,' Standard Library edition, 1884, vol. ii., p. 223). The excellence of the Brookes Introductions, too, led, as Percy expressly tells us, to Goldsmith's important engagement to produce that same History of the Earth and Animated Nature'-a work that engrossed a large portion of the last years of his life, and brought him no less than eight hundred pounds. There can hardly be a doubt of the genuineness of the seven Prefaces first collected by Percy. Prior added several to those given in the Percy edition. The remainder given in the present edition have been collected since Prior wrote. Only two of the additions seem at all doubtful. The Introduction to the sixth volume of Brookes's Natural History' (Botany) we have remarked upon at pp. 119, 128. Its genuineness may be doubted, but we think the preponderance of the evidence favours the supposition that Goldsmith wrote it at least in its first form. Concerning the Experimental Philosophy' Introduction, which has only once before been reprinted, see pp. 143 and 150. ་ The prefaces to the 'History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son,' and the History of the Earth and Animated Nature' are omitted from the following collection, because we have thought it best to give them with the Extracts from those two works which we add to the present volume.-ED.] |