There is a certain resemblance between this passage and one of the later paradoxes of Smollett’s Lismahago;—‘He affirmed, the nature of commerce was such, that it could not be fixed or perpetuated, but, having flowed to a certain height, would immediately begin to ebb, and so continue till the channels should be left almost dry; but there was no instance of the tide’s rising a second time to any considerable influx in the same nation’ (_Humphry Clinker_, 1771, ii. 192. Letter of Mr. Bramble to Dr. Lewis). lines 141–2. are not in the first edition. Its former strength was but plethoric ill. Cf. _The Citizen of the World_, 1762, i. 98:—‘In short, the state resembled one of those bodies bloated with disease, whose bulk is only a symptom of its wretchedness.’ [Mitford.] Yet still the loss, etc. In the first edition:— Yet, though to fortune lost, here still abide Some splendid arts, the wrecks of former pride. The paste-board triumph and the cavalcade. ‘Happy Country [he is speaking of Italy], where the pastoral age begins to revive! Where the wits even of Rome are united into a rural groupe of nymphs and swains, under the appellation of modern Arcadians [i.e. the Bolognese Academy of the _Arcadi_]. Where in the midst of porticos, processions, and cavalcades, abbes turn’d into shepherds, and shepherdesses without sheep, indulge their innocent _ divertimenti_.’ (_Present State of Polite Learning_, 1759, pp. 50–1.) Some of the ‘paste-board triumphs’ may be studied in the plates of Jacques Callot. By sports like these, etc. A pretty and well-known story is told with regard to this couplet. Calling once on Goldsmith, Reynolds, having vainly tried to attract attention, entered unannounced. ‘His friend was at his desk, but with hand uplifted, and a look directed to another part of the room; where a little dog sat with difficulty on his haunches, looking imploringly at his teacher, whose rebuke for toppling over he had evidently just received. Reynolds advanced, and looked past Goldsmith’s shoulder at the writing on his desk. It seemed to be some portions of a poem; and looking more closely, he was able to read a couplet which had been that instant written. The ink of the second line was wet:— By sports like these are all their cares beguil’d; The sports of children satisfy the child. (Forster’s _Life_, 1871, i. pp. 347–8). The sports of children. This line, in the first edition, was followed by:— At sports like these, while foreign arms advance, In passive ease they leave the world to chance. Each nobler aim, etc. The first edition reads:— When struggling Virtue sinks by long controul,