the operose labours of Johnson.
No one might be more sensible than himself, that he, according to the
happy expression of Johnson (when his rival was in his grave), "tetigit et
ornavit." Goldsmith, therefore, without any singular vanity, might have
concluded, from his own reasonings, that he was not an inferior writer to
Johnson: all this not having been considered, he has come down to
posterity as the vainest and the most jealous of writers; he whose
dispositions were the most inoffensive, whose benevolence was the most
extensive, and whose amiableness of heart has been concealed by its
artlessness, and passed over in the sarcasms and sneers of a more eloquent
rival, and his submissive partisans.

* * * * *

SELF-CHARACTERS.

There are two species of minor biography which may be discriminated;
detailing our own life and portraying our own character. The writing our
own life has been practised with various success; it is a delicate
operation, a stroke too much may destroy the effect of the whole. If once
we detect an author deceiving or deceived, it is a livid spot which
infects the entire body. To publish one's own life has sometimes been a
poor artifice to bring obscurity into notice; it is the ebriety of vanity,
and the delirium of egotism. When a great man leaves some memorial of his
days, the grave consecrates the motive. There are certain things which
relate to ourselves, which no one can know so well; a great genius obliges
posterity when he records them. But they must be composed with calmness,
with simplicity, and with sincerity; the biographic sketch of Hume,
written by himself, is a model of Attic simplicity. The Life of Lord
Herbert is a biographical curiosity. The Memoirs of Sir William Jones, of
Priestley, and of Gibbon, offer us the daily life of the student; and
those of Colley Cibber are a fine picture of the self-painter. We have
some other pieces of self-biography, precious to the philosopher.[A]

[Footnote A: One of the most interesting is that of Grifford, appended to
his translation of Juvenal; it is a most remarkable record of the
struggles of its author in early life, told with candour and simplicity.--
ED.]

The other species of minor biography, that of portraying our own
character, could only have been invented by the most refined and the
vainest nation. The French long cherished this darling egotism; and have a
collection of these self-portraits in two bul