r of Wakefield_, but which has since been
printed separately among his poems. Of its kind and class it has no
superior. _Retaliation_ is a humorous epitaph upon his friends and
co-literati, hitting off their characteristics with truth and point; and
_The Haunch of Venison_--upon which he did not dine--is an amusing
incident which might have happened to any Londoner like himself, but which
no one could have related so well as he.

He died in 1774, at the age of forty-five; but his fame--his better
life--is more vigorous than ever. Washington Irving, whose writings are
similar in style to those of Goldsmith, has extended and perpetuated his
reputation in America by writing his Biography; a charming work, many
touches of which seem almost autobiographical, as displaying the
resemblance between the writer and his subject.

MACKENZIE.--From Sterne and Goldsmith we pass to Mackenzie, who, if not a
conscious imitator of the former, is, at least, unconsciously formed upon
the model of Sterne, without his genius, but also without his coarseness:
in the management of his narrative, he is a medium between Sterne and
Walter Scott; indeed, from his long life, he saw the period of both these
authors, and his writings partake of the characteristics of both.

Henry Mackenzie was born at Edinburgh, in August, 1745, and lived until
1831, to the ripe age of eighty-six. He was educated at the University of
Edinburgh, and afterwards studied law. He wrote some strong political
pamphlets in favor of the Pitt government, for which he was rewarded with
the office of comptroller of the taxes, which he held to the day of his
death.

THE MAN OF FEELING.--In 1771 the world was equally astonished and
delighted by the appearance of his first novel, _The Man of Feeling_. In
this there are manifest tokens of his debt to Sterne's _Sentimental
Journey_, in the journey of Harley, in the story of the beggar and his
dog, and in somewhat of the same forced sensibility in the account of
Harley's death.

In 1773 appeared his _Man of the World_ which was in some sort a sequel to
the _Man of Feeling_, but which wearies by the monotony of the plot.

In 1777 he published _Julia de Roubigne_, which, in the opinion of many,
shares the palm with his first novel: the plot is more varied than that of
the second, and the language is exceedingly harmonious--elegiac prose. The
story is plaintive and painful: virtue is extolled, but made to suffer, in
a domestic