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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1774, April 4. Died, Oliver GoLDSMitH, who it has justly been said, was, both in verse and prose, one of the most delightful writers in the language. His verse flows like a linwid stream. His ease is unconscious. Every thing in him is spontaneous, unstudied, unaffected, yet elegant, harmonious, nearly faultless. Without the refinement of Pope, he has more natural ten- derness, a greater suavity of manner,a more genial spirit. Goldsmith never rises into sublimity, and seldom sinlcs into insipidity, or stumbles upon coarseness. His Traveller contains masterly na- tional sketches. The Deserted Village is some- times spun out into mawkish sentimentality; but the character of the village schoolmaster and the village clergyman, redeem a hundred faults. His Retaliation is a poem of exquisite spirit, humour, and freedom of style. He was the son of a clergyman, and born at Pallas, in the county of Lon^ord, in Ireland, Nov. 29, 1728, and was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and studied physic at Edinburgh. He went to Hol- land, and travelled through Flanders and part of Germany on foot. At Louvain he took the degree of bachelor of physic, the highest degree he ever attained. In 1 758 he returned to Eng- land. Being reduced to a low state, he became usher in a school at Peckham ; where, however, he did not remain long but settled in London, and subsisted by writing for periodical publica- tions. One of his first performances was an Enquiry into the state of polite learning in Eu- rope ; but he emerged from obscurity in 1766 by the publication of his poem entitled, the Tra- veller; or a Prospect of Society ; of which Dr. Johnson said, " that there had not been so fine a poem since Pope's time." The year following appeared his beautiful novel of the Vicar of' Wakefield.* His circumstances were now respect- able, and he took chambers in the Temple ; but the liberality of his temper, and a propensity to gaming, involved hira in frequent difficulties. He is said to have obtained in one year from the booksellers and by his plays the sum of £1800. In 1768 he brought out his comedy of the Goofi- Natured llfan, at Covent-garden, but its recep- tion was not equal to its merits. In 1770 he published the Deserted Village, a poem ; which, m point of description and pathos, is above all praise. As a comic poet he appeared to great ad- vantage in 1772, by the play of She Stoops to Conquer ; or, the Mistakes of a Night ; which is still a favourite with the public. Besides these performances, he produced a number of other works of merit. He died by taking an extrava-
- Mr. John Newberry w«s the forttmate pabliaher of the
Viear of Wak^eld, for which he pive £6a, partly from oompassioD. partly firom deference to Johnson's Judg- ment! hat Mr. Newberry had so little confidence in the value of his purchase, that the Yicar o/ Wat^etd remained In manosciipt until the publication of the Traeeller had established the fiune of tiie author. Another Instance of the Kenerosity of Mr. Newberry was his pressing upon Dr. Goldsmith, for his poem of the Daerted Village, ie\W, which the author inusted upon retoming, when upon com- putation he fbnnd that it came to nearly a crown a cooplet, a sum which Goldsmith conceived no poem could be worth. The sale of the poem made him ample amends for this un- usual instance of moderation.
gant da«e of James's powders, and was boned in Sie Temple church-yard. A monument was erected to his memory in Westminstrar abbey, with a beautiful latin epitaph by Dr. JohnMm.*
1774, June. It is a singular fact that die first Bible Society that ever existed was esta- blished by some 'Roman Catholic prelates, in France, about this time.
1774, iVor. 21. Mr. J. Williams, bookaeDer, sentenced in the court of king's bench, to pay a fine of £100, to pay all costs, and one monu'i imprisonment, for publishing a paragraph in the Morning Post reflecting on the character of the hoD. Charles Fox.
1774, Nov. 25. Died, Henry Baker, F.R-S. &c. a'n ingenious and eminent naturalist, tad author of the Microscope made Easy, Ewfley- mentfor the Mitroscope,axiii other learned wx>dx. He was born in London, May 8, 1698, and cs Feb. 17, 1713, was bound apprentice to Mr. Joha Parker, a bookseller in Pall Mall, to whom he served an apprenticeship. In April, 1720, he turned his attention to teaching two yomif ladies, who were born deaf and dumb, to unda- stand and speak the English language, and wis so highly successful that he was induced to per- severe in the prosecution of his valuable and difficult undertaking, and all his pupils bore the best testimony to the ability and good effect ef his instmction. On April 30, 1729 he married Sophia, youngest dau^ter of Daniel De Foe.
in 1728 Mr. Baker, under the assomed une of Henry Stonecastle, as Steele had before done under that of Isaac Bickerstaff, projected, and for nearly five years, solely conducted the Vn- versal Spectator," a periodical work, pabUsbel weekly -, during that time by far the greater put of the essays were written by him. A selectioa from these essays has been since published in four volumes, and has passed through seven! editions. In 1737 he published in two volmoes, 8vo. Medulla Poetarum Romanorvm, an ajiang- ed selection of passages fit>m the Roman poets, with translations in English verse.
Mr. Baker was a poetical writer in the eaih part of his life. His Invocation to Health g«t abroad without his knowledge, but was reprinted by himself in his " Original Poems serious mi humorous, in two parts, published in 1 725 and 1726. Among these poems are some tales as witty and as loose as Prior's. He was the aa- thor also of the Universe, a poem, intended to re- strain the Pride of Man, wnich has been ofta reprinted. It has been said of Mr. Baker, dnt " he was aphilosopher in little things."
1774. tIu Parliamentary Register. This va- luable and important work, the first of its kind, was commenced by John Almon, bookseller, who resolved to compile, and publbb himself, ia monthly numbers, a regular and fiiithful series of the whole proceedings and debates of both houses of parliament, together with all exanri-
- The Tears of Gaiiia, occasioned by tlie death of Hr.
Goldsmith, 1774. Tliis poetical bri.bute was the prndodiai of Mr. Samuel Jackson Pratt, under the narac of Comrtmey Meimvuth.
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