These lines, which appear at p. 312 of vol. V of the _History of the Earth and Animated Nature_, 1774, are freely translated from some Latin verses by Addison in No 412 of the _Spectator_, where they are introduced as follows:—‘Thus we see that every different Species of sensible Creatures has its different Notions of Beauty, and that each of them is most affected with the Beauties of its own kind. This is nowhere more remarkable than in Birds of the same Shape and Proportion, where we often see the Male determined in his Courtship by the single Grain or Tincture of a Feather, and never discovering any Charms but in the Colour of its own Species.’ Addison’s lines, of which Goldsmith translated the first fourteen only, are printed from his corrected MS. at p. 4 of _Some Portions of Essays contributed to the Spectator by Mr. Joseph Addison_ [by the late J. Dykes Campbell], 1864. THE HAUNCH OF VENISON. It is supposed that this poem was written early in 1771, although it was not printed until 1776, when it was published by G. Kearsly and J. Ridley under the title of _The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to the Lord Clare. By the late Dr. Goldsmith. With a Head of the Author, Drawn by Henry Bunbury, Esq; and Etched by_ [_James_] _ Bretherton._ A second edition, the text of which is here followed, appeared in the same year ‘With considerable Additions and Corrections, Taken from the Author’s _last_ Transcript.’ The Lord Clare to whom the verses are addressed was Robert Nugent, of Carlanstown, Westmeath, M.P. for St. Mawes in 1741–54. In 1766 he was created Viscount Clare; in 1776 Earl Nugent. In his youth he had himself been an easy if not very original versifier; and there are several of his performances in the second volume of Dodsley’s _Collection of Poems by Several Hands_, 4th ed., 1755. One of the Epistles, beginning ‘Clarinda, dearly lov’d, attend The Counsels of a faithful friend,’ seems to have betrayed Goldsmith into the blunder of confusing it, in the _Poems for Young Ladies_. 1767, p. 114, with Lyttelton’s better-known _ Advice to a Lady_ (‘The counsels of a friend, Belinda, hear’), also in Dodsley’s miscellany; while another piece, an _Ode to William Pultney, Esq._, contains a stanza so good that Gibbon worked it into his character of Brutus:— What tho’ the good, the brave, the wise, With adverse force undaunted rise, To break th’ eternal doom! Tho’ CATO liv’d, tho’ TULLY spoke, Tho’ BRUTUS dealt the godlike stroke, Yet perish’d fated ROME.