s serve them but as enemies,

Goldsmith was one of those in whom their, frailties are more likely to
serve them as friends; for they were such as could scarcely fail to
assist in appeasing malevolence and conciliating kindness. Be this as it
will, he must, with all his weaknesses, be considered as one of the
chief ornaments of the age in which he lived.

Comparisons have been made between the situation of the men eminent for
literature in Queen Anne's time and at the commencement of the reign of
George the Third. In the former, beginning to be disengaged from the
court, where they were more at home during the reign of the Charleses,
they were falling under the influence of the nobility, amongst whom they
generally found their patrons, and often their associates. In the
latter, they had been insensibly shaken off alike by the court and the
nobles, and were come into the hands of the people and the booksellers.
I know not whether they were much the worse for this change. If in the
one instance they were rendered more studious of elegance and smartness;
in the other, they attained more freedom and force. In the former, they
were oftener imitators of the French. In the latter, they followed the
dictates of a better sense, and trusted more to their own resources.
They lost, indeed, the character of wits, but they aspired to that of
instructors. Yet in one respect, and that a material one, it must be
owned, that they were sufferers by this alteration in affairs. For the
quantity of their labours having become more important under their new
masters than it was under their old ones, they had less care of
selection, and their originality was weakened by diffusiveness. They
indulged themselves but sparingly in the luxury of composing verse,
which was too thriftless an occupation to be continued long. They used
it, perhaps, as the means of attracting notice to themselves at their
first entrance on the world, but not as the staple on which they were
afterwards to depend. When the song had drawn a band of hearers around
them, it had done its duty. The crowd was to be detained and increased,
by expectations of advantage rather than of pleasure. A writer consulted
Goldsmith on what subjects he might employ his pen with most profit to
himself. "It will be better," said the author of The Traveller and the
Deserted Village, laughing indeed, but in good earnest, "to relinquish
the draggle-tail muses. For my part, I have found productions