Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/49



sorry, that it is not in my power to spread before the admirers of Parnell, some richer stores of biographical anecdote: nor do I know where I could refer them to more copious sources of information. I am not aware that any materials were collected by his friends or contemporaries, certainly no life of him was composed. For the little knowledge of the poet which we possess, we are indebted to Goldsmith; the elegance of whose narrative, and the justice of whose criticisms has been long acknowledged; but the facts which he collected were so few, that Dr. Johnson, who went to Goldsmith's life for information, has included his account of the poet, both personal and literary, in the narrow space of four pages. Perhaps it would have been as well, in the absence of fresh information, to have republished the life written by Goldsmith, but as that was not consistent with the plan of the present work, and as I have picked up a few gleanings relating to Parnell's domestic history unnoticed by others, I shall endeavour to lay before my readers as full an Rh