LETTER TO THE PRINTER OF THE ST. JAMES'S CHRONICLE. INSERTED IN THAT PAPER, IN JUNE 1767. SIR, As there is nothing I dislike so much as newspaper controversy, particularly upon trifles, permit me to be as concise as possible in informing a correspondent of yours, that I recommended Blainville's Travels, because I thought the book was a good one; and I think so still. I said, I was told by the bookseller that it was then first published; but in that, it seems, I was misinformed, and my reading was not extensive enough to set me right. Another correspondent of yours accuses me of having taken a ballad, I published some time ago, from one by the ingenious Mr. Percy. I do not * The Friar of Orders Gray. "Reliq. of Anc. Poetry," vol. i. P. 243. ୧ think there is any great resemblance between the two pieces in question. If there be any, his ballad is taken from mine. I read it to Mr. Percy some years ago; and he (as we both considered these things as trifles at best) told me, with his usual good humour, the next time I saw him, that he had taken my plan to form the fragments of Shakspeare into a ballad of his own. He then read me his little Cento, if I may so call it, and I highly approved it. Such petty anecdotes as these are scarce worth printing: and, were it not for the busy disposition of some of your correspondents, the Public should never have known that he owes me the hint of his ballad, or that I am obliged to his friendship and learning for communications of a much more important nature. I am Sir, Yours, &c. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. THE HERMIT. "TURN, gentle Hermit of the dale, "And guide my lonely way "To where yon taper cheers the vale "With hospitable ray. "For here forlorn and lost I tread, "With fainting steps and slow; "Where wilds immeasurably spread, "Seem length'ning as I go." "Forbear, my son," the Hermit cries, "To tempt the dangerous gloom; For yonder faithless phantom flies, "To lure thee to thy doom. |