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ADVERTISEMENT.

It is certainly remarkable that, during a period of more than sixty years, only one attempt, and that anonymous and confessedly imperfect, should have been made to collect together the Miscellaneous Works of a writer who has long taken his stand, both in verse and prose, as an English classic-"a man," to use the expressions of Dr. Johnson, " of such variety of powers, and such felicity of performance, that he always seemed to do best that which he was doing; a man who had the art of being minute without tediousness, and general without confusion; whose language was copious without exuberance, exact without constraint, and easy without weakness." This neglect is mainly to be attributed to the obscurity in which all Goldsmith's earlier, and many of his later labors, were long involved; but which, it is hoped, the researches of the present Editor have, in a great measure, removed.

The pieces now for the first time collected are numerous; but the Editor has said so much on most of them, in his recent Life of Goldsmith, that any detailed account of them here will not he required. Some of them will, in his opinion, be found of high merit; and to the rest, the language of Goldsmith himself, in reviewing a collection of pieces, by Montesquieu, put forth under similar circumstances, is strikingly applicable:-"There is," he says, a pleasure arising from the perusal of the very bagatelles

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* See Vol. iii. p. 48€.

of men renowned for their knowledge and genius; and we receive with veneration those pieces after they are dead, which would lessen them in our estimation while living: sensible that we shall enjoy them no more, we treasure up, as precious relics, every saying and word that has escaped them; but their writings, of every kind, we deem inestimable. Cicero observes, that we behold with transport and enthusiasm the little barren spot, or ruins of a house, in which a person celebrated for his wisdom, his valor, or his learning, lived. When he coasted along the shores of Greece, all the heroes, statesmen, orators, philosophers and poets of those famed republics, rose in his memory, and were present to his sight: how much more would he have been delighted with any of their posthumous works, however inferior to what he had before seen !"

Both the old and the new materials are accompanied with brief notes, clearing up the local and temporary allusions in which they abound; but which the lapse of another generation would probably have rendered it impossible for any diligence to explain.

February, 1837.

THE BEE.

[The BEE, a weekly paper, commenced October the 6th, and
terminated with the eighth number, November the 24th, 1759;
from the want, as it appears, of public support. Yet the majority
of them deserved another reception; and, though neglected at
their first appearance, when known some time after to be from the
same pen with the 'Traveller' and the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' they
were very generally read and admired.

The following is the Prospectus that first announced the Bee:
"Saturday next, October the 6th, will be published (to be continued weekly,
price threepence), neatly printed in crown octavo and on good paper, contain-
ing two sheets, or thirty-two pages, stitched in blue covers, Number I. of a new
periodical paper entitled-

"THE BEE. Consisting of a variety of Essays on the Amusements, Follies,
and Vices in fashion: particularly the most recent Topics of Conversation:
Remarks on Theatrical Exhibitions: Memoirs of Modern Literature, &c., &c.
Printed for J. Wilkie, at the Bible in St. Paul's Churchyard.

**“ The Publisher begs leave to inform the public, that every twelve num-
bers will make a handsome pocket volume, at the end of which shall be given
an emblematical frontispiece, title, and table of contents. Letters to the author
of the Bee, directed to J. Wilkie as above (post paid), will be duly regarded,"
London Chronicle, Sept. 29,-Oct. 2d, 1759.

After the first week another paragraph appeared:

"This day is published, &c., &c. Number II. of a new periodical paper
called The Bee. The public is requested to compare this with other periodical
performances which more pompously solicit their attention. If upon perusal it
be found deficient either in humor, elegance, or variety, the author will readi-
ly acquiesce in their censure. It is possible the reader may sometimes draw a
prize, and even should it turn up a blank, it costs him but threepence." Pub-
lic Advertiser, Oct. 14th, 1759.

The numbers were collected into a volume and published by
Dodsley and Wilkie in the December of the same year, under the
title of "The Bee; being Essays on the most Interesting Sub-
iects."]

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