ON A PASSAGE IN GOLDSMITH

Sir,—I observe in the Athenæum of the 17th inst. a quotation from the *Life of Goldsmith* by Irving, in which the biographer seems to take credit for appropriating to Goldsmith the merit of originating the remark or maxim vulgarly ascribed to Talleyrand, that "the true end of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them." This is certainly found in No. 3. of *The Bee*, by Goldsmith, and no doubt Talleyrand acted upon the principle of dissimulation there enunciated; but the idea is much older than either of those individuals, as we learn from a note in p. 113. of vol. lxvii. *Q…