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[ROBERT SMITH]
The Microcosm, a periodical work by Geoffrey Griffin, of the College of Eton
Windsor: for C. Knight, sold by Mess. Robinsons and Mr. Debrett, 1788. No. XXXIII only, 8vo. (8 x 4½in; 207 x 117mm), bound with engraved frontispiece and title page to the second edition, red calf for Goldman, preserving contemporary drab wrappers (spine slightly torn at head and chipped at foot). Provenance: Elizabeth Gramen Blencowe (contemporary signature on front blank) -- C. J. Britton (inscription on front wrapper and signature dated 1928) -- J. W. Goldman (binding and bookplate; note of purchase for £2-12-6 in 1943 "with 11 other little vols"; part lot 21 in his 1966 sale).
This Eton magazine was originally published 6 November 1786-30 July, 1787, containing essays by a group of friends who wrote under the common pseudonym of Gregory Griffin. The present number, first printed 2 July 1787, was actually written by Robert Smith, despite being signed "C" and attributed to George Canning on the spine of this copy. It argues that the classical curriculum is only suited to certain temperaments, inhibiting other forms of talent. "A cricketer will, in pouring over a page of Horace, lose the trophies which await him as a hero of the Hampshire, and bulwark of the White Conduit; and exchange the invigorating commendations of a Small, Shock White, or Lumpy, for the dull drudgery of blundering through ten long years of scholastic labour" (p. 377). Goldman p. 136; Padwick 881.
The Microcosm, a periodical work by Geoffrey Griffin, of the College of Eton
Windsor: for C. Knight, sold by Mess. Robinsons and Mr. Debrett, 1788. No. XXXIII only, 8vo. (8 x 4½in; 207 x 117mm), bound with engraved frontispiece and title page to the second edition, red calf for Goldman, preserving contemporary drab wrappers (spine slightly torn at head and chipped at foot). Provenance: Elizabeth Gramen Blencowe (contemporary signature on front blank) -- C. J. Britton (inscription on front wrapper and signature dated 1928) -- J. W. Goldman (binding and bookplate; note of purchase for £2-12-6 in 1943 "with 11 other little vols"; part lot 21 in his 1966 sale).
This Eton magazine was originally published 6 November 1786-30 July, 1787, containing essays by a group of friends who wrote under the common pseudonym of Gregory Griffin. The present number, first printed 2 July 1787, was actually written by Robert Smith, despite being signed "C" and attributed to George Canning on the spine of this copy. It argues that the classical curriculum is only suited to certain temperaments, inhibiting other forms of talent. "A cricketer will, in pouring over a page of Horace, lose the trophies which await him as a hero of the Hampshire, and bulwark of the White Conduit; and exchange the invigorating commendations of a Small, Shock White, or Lumpy, for the dull drudgery of blundering through ten long years of scholastic labour" (p. 377). Goldman p. 136; Padwick 881.
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