and all the more genuine that he himself could never
become _conscious_ of it, though unhappily never cease attempting to
become so: the author of the genuine _Vicar of Wakefield_, nill he
will he, must needs fly towards such a mass of genuine
manhood."--CARLYLE'S _Essays_ (2nd ed.), vol. iv, p. 91.

180 "At present, the few poets of England no longer depend on the great
for subsistence; they have now no other patrons but the public, and
the public, collectively considered, is a good and a generous
master. It is indeed too frequently mistaken as to the merits of
every candidate for favour; but to make amends, it is never mistaken
long. A performance indeed may be forced for a time into reputation,
but, destitute of real merit, it soon sinks; time, the touchstone of
what is truly valuable, will soon discover the fraud, and an author
should never arrogate to himself any share of success till his works
have been read at least ten years with satisfaction.

"A man of letters at present, whose works are valuable, is perfectly
sensible of their value. Every polite member of the community, by
buying what he writes, contributes to reward him. The ridicule,
therefore, of living in a garret might have been wit in the last
age, but continues such no longer, because no longer true. A writer
of real merit now may easily be rich, if his heart be set only on
fortune: and for those who have no merit, it is but fit that such
should remain in merited obscurity."--GOLDSMITH, _Citizen of the
World_, Let. 84.

181 Goldsmith attacked Sterne, obviously enough, censuring his
indecency, and slighting his wit, and ridiculing his manner, in the
53rd letter in the _Citizen of the World_.

"As in common conversation," says he, "the best way to make the
audience laugh is by first laughing yourself; so in writing, the
properest manner is to show an attempt at humour, which will pass
upon most for humour in reality. To effect this, readers must be
treated with the most perfect familiarity; in one page the author is
to make them a low bow, and in the next to pull them by the nose; he
must talk in riddles, and then send them to bed in order to dream
for the solution," &c.

Sterne's humorous _mot_ on the subject of the gravest part of the
charges,