thunders of our
press. I think (though I made no assertion of the kind) that the
world has grown wiser; and the reviewer admits as much when he says
that his supposititious widow "may escape the ungenerous public
attacks which poor Mrs. Piozzi earned by her connexion with literary
men." But where do I recommend unequal marriages, or dispute the
claims of birth and fashion, or maintain that a fiddler should be
rated higher than a duke without accomplishments, and a carpenter
_far_ higher than either? All this is utterly beside the purpose; and
surely there is nothing reprehensible in the suggestion that, before
harshly reproving another, we should do our best to test the justice
of the reproof by trying to make the case our own. Goethe proposed to
extend the self-same rule to criticism. One of his favourite canons
was that a critic should always endeavour to place himself
temporarily in the author's point of view. If the reviewer had done
so, he might have avoided several material misapprehensions and
misstatements, which it is difficult to reconcile with the friendly
tone of the article or the known ability of the writer.

Envy at Piozzi's good fortune sharpened the animosity of assailants
like Baretti, and the loss of a pleasant house may have had a good
deal to do with the sorrowing indignation of her set. Her meditated
social extinction amongst them might have been commemorated in the
words of the French epitaph:

"Ci git une de qui la vertu
Etait moins que la table encensee;
On ne plaint point la femme abattue,
Mais bien la table renversee."

Which may be freely rendered:

"Here lies one who adulation
By dinners more than virtues earn'd;
Whose friends mourned not her reputation--
But her table--overturned."

Madame D'Arblay has recorded what took place between Mrs. Piozzi and
herself on the occasion:

_Miss F. Burney to Mrs. Piozzi_.

"Norbury Park, Aug. 10, 1784.

"When my wondering eyes first looked over the letter I received last
night, my mind instantly dictated a high-spirited vindication of the
consistency, integrity, and faithfulness of the friendship thus
abruptly reproached and cast away. But a sleepless night gave me
leisure to recollect that you were ever as generous as precipitate,
and that your own heart would do justice to mine, in the cooler
judgment of future reflection. Committing myself, therefore, to that
period, I determined simply to assure you, that if my last lett