struction, but I do not know how to rectify it, while the metre and rhyme are preserved,
" But beauty gone, 'tis easier to be wise,
As harpers better, by the loss of eyes."
though it might be restored to its meaning, under the following alteration,
"As harpers better play, by loss of eyes."
The "Book Worm", is a translation from Beza, with modern applications.
In "The Imitation of some French verses," I am rather surprised that Pope's accuracy of ear, and correct taste, should permit such an imperfect rhyme to pass, as, "bliss and wish," especially in those light pieces whose perfect finishing forms half their merit.
The "Night Piece on Death" Goldsmith much admires; and endeavours, yet apparently against his real conviction, to prefer to Gray's immortal Elegy. His praise is pared away by his caution, for he is
"Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike;"
and "he supposes that, with very little amendment, it might be made to surpass all those night pieces and churchyard scenes that have since appeared."
Johnson's[1] love of truth, not his partiality for Gray,
- ↑ In the eighth chapter of the Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith considers Gay as having corrupted the purity of English poetry, and introducing a false taste by loading his lines with epithets. English poetry, he says, like that in the
