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Pluche and Derham, New Sources of Goldsmith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Winifred Lynskey
Winifred Lynskey*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
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Extract

Goldsmith's extensive borrowings from other writers, especially from French writers, have long been known. It has been established that he was heavily indebted to Buffon, Voltaire, Marivaux, Montesquieu, D'Argens, and the Encyclopédie. To these French sources of Goldsmith should be added La Spectacle de la Nature of the Abbé Pluche, published in eight volumes in Paris between 1732 and 1751. La Spectacle de la Nature is a medley of popularized scientific knowledge, presented in dialogue form. It includes material on zoology, botany, physics, and astronomy, with a strong teleological motivation. Its popularity in England may be seen in the fact that the English translation appeared in 1733, almost immediately after the first Paris edition, and went into an eighth edition between 1754 and 1763. To the English sources of Goldsmith, moreover, should be added William Derham's Physico-Theology, first published in London in 1713, which includes astronomy, physics, and natural history, and which, like La Spectacle de la Nature, promulgates the argument from design.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 1942 , pp. 435 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1942

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References

Note 1 in page 435 The sources of a vast amount of Goldsmith's work have been determined by Mr. R. S. Crane, Mr. A. L. Sells, Mr. J. E. Brown, Mr. H. J. Smith, Mr. Arthur Friedman, Mr. J. H. Pitman, and others.

Note 2 in page 435 Mr. A. L. Sells refers briefly to Goldsmith's use of La Spectacle de la Nature for An History of the Earth and Animated Nature, 8 vols. (London, 1774). But he substantiates no borrowings and seems to base the assertion only on Goldsmith's statement. See Les Sources Françaises de Goldsmith (Paris, 1924), p. 182, n. 4.

Note 3 in page 435 Mr. J. H. Pitman includes Derham's Physico-Theology among the sources of An History of the Earth and Animated Nature. But, like Sells, he substantiates no borrowings, apparently basing his statements on Goldsmith's references. See Goldsmith's Animated Nature, Yale Studies in English, lxvi (New Haven, 1924), p. 140.

Note 4 in page 435 See the catalogue of Goldsmith's library in James Prior, The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B., 2 vols. (London, 1837), ii, Appendix, 583, 585.

Note 5 in page 435 Prior, Life, ii, Appendix, 583.

Note 6 in page 436 Repeated in An History of the Earth and Animated Nature, v, 4–5, paraphrased.

Note 7 in page 437 Introduction to R. Brookes, A New and Accurate System of Natural History, 6 vols. (London, 1763), ii, xii-xiii.

Note 8 in page 437 Nature Delineated, i, 193.

Note 9 in page 437 Introduction to Brookes, iii, xvii.

Note 10 in page 438 See A. O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (Harvard University Press, 1936), particularly chap. vii.

Note 11 in page 438 Nature Delineated, i, 264. Repeated in Animated Nature, vi, 174–175.

Note 12 in page 438 Mr. R. S. Crane has traced the recurrence of the statement in the essays, “The Sagacity of Some Insects,” and “A Comparative View of Races and Nations,” in the introduction to Volume I of Brookes's Natural History, and in An History of the Earth and Animated Nature. See New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith, ed. R. S. Crane (Chicago, 1927), p. 26, n. 1.

Note 13 in page 438 Georges Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon, “Les Animaux sauvages,” Histoire Naturelle, 52 vols. (Paris, 1785–91), ii, 11.

Note 14 in page 438 The Works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. J. W. M. Gibbs, 5 vols. (London, 1885–86), iii, 469–470.

Note 15 in page 438 Buffon, “Le Castor,” Histoire Naturelle, iii, 34–35; “L'Éléphant,” Histoire Naturelle, iv, 191; and “Discours sur la Nature des Animaux,” Histoire Naturelle, xxxv, 278–279.

Note 16 in page 439 Nature Delineated, i, 244–245.

Note 17 in page 439 See Animated Nature, iv, 161–167, from “This dike or causey” to the end of the section, which is drawn from Nature Delineated, i, 248–252.

Note 18 in page 440 Introduction to Brookes, i, xxviii. Paragraph 11. From William Derham, Physico-Theology: or, a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation, 2 vols. (London, 1798), ii, 22–33 and note (11). Repeated in Animated Nature, ii, 315–316.

Note 19 in page 440 Ibid., xxviii-xxix. Paragraph 12. From Derham, ii, 215–220 and notes. Repeated in Animated Nature, ii, 316–317.

Note 20 in page 440 Ibid., xxix. Paragraph 13. From Derham, ii, 221, notes (a) and (b), and 227–230 and notes. Repeated in Animated Nature, ii, 314–315.

Note 21 in page 440 Ibid., Paragraph 14. From Derham, ii, 28–32 and notes. Repeated in Animated Nature, ii, 317–318.

Note 22 in page 440 Ibid., ii, (xi)-xii. Paragraph 2. From Derham, ii, 248 and note (d), 246, 247 and note (c). The material of this paragraph is also paralleled in the article “Aile” in the Encyclopédie, i, 211b–212a. See Arthur Friedman, “Studies in the Canon and Sources of Oliver Goldsmith” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of English, University of Chicago, 1938), p. 54. Derham is probably the source of the information in the Encyclopédie.

Note 23 in page 440 Ibid., xiii. Paragraph 4. From Derham, ii, 250 and note (f), 251. Repeated in Animated Nature, v, 8–9.

Note 24 in page 440 Ibid., xvi. Paragraph 9. From Derham, ii, 252, note (i). Repeated in Animated Nature, v,12.

Note 25 in page 440 Introduction to Brookes, iv, vii-viii. Paragraph 3. From Derham, ii, 335–336, note (a).

Note 26 in page 440 Ibid., viii. Paragraph 4. From Derham, ii, 337–338, note (e).

Note 27 in page 440 Ibid., ix-x. Paragraph 8. From Derham, ii, 285–288 and notes.

Note 28 in page 440 Ibid., x. Paragraph 9. From Derham, ii, 289–290 and notes.

Note 29 in page 440 Ibid., Paragraph 10. From Derham, ii, 292–294 and notes, especially (g) and (h).

Note 30 in page 441 Ibid., xi. Paragraph 12. From Derham, ii, 299–301 and notes.

Note 31 in page 441 Ibid., xii. Paragraph 13. From Derham, ii, 303, note (c).

Note 32 in page 441 Ibid., xii-xiv. From Derham, ii, 310–312, notes (c), (d), (e) and (f); 320–322, notes (q) and (r).

Note 33 in page 445 Four vols. (London, 1768–70).

Note 34 in page 445 Translated by Thomas Flloyd. Revised by John Hill, M.D. (London, 1758).

Note 35 in page 445 In Animated Nature, Goldsmith turned constantly to British Zoology for descriptions of and information concerning English beasts, birds, and fish. Some of the longer borrowings from British Zoology are the following:

Animated NatureBritish Zoology
Stag hunting, iii, 109–112i, 34–37
English dogs, iii, 285–290i, 49–56
The mole, iv, 93–96i, 108–111
The swallow, v, 346–353ii, 242–253
The bustard, v, 194–196i, 214–216
The gannet, vi, 69–74ii, 479–484
The pilchard, vi, 326–328iii, 291–293

Note 36 in page 445 Some of the longer borrowings from Swammerdam's Book of Nature are the following:

Animated NatureThe Book of Nature
Snails in water, vii, 28–29Part i, p. 74
Reproduction of scorpions, vii, 299–300Part i, p. 42
Dragonflies, vii, 318–320Part i, p. 98
Metamorphosis of caterpillar, viii, 27–31Part ii, 19–20
Metamorphosis of ephemera, vii, 362–365Part i, p. 105–108.

Note 37 in page 445 London, 1691. The work went through its twelfth edition in 1759.

Note 38 in page 445 Three vols. (London, 1770).

Note 39 in page 445 Four vols, in two (London, 1743–51). See the preface.

Note 40 in page 445 London, 1750.

Note 41 in page 445 Three vols. (London, 1772–82).

Note 42 in page 445 London, 1789.