fame was the goal of so many writers. The result, he 
     feared, might be that nothing would be remembered of 
     the literary works of his time.
          We have observed that Goldsmith, in his endeavor 
     to come to grips with the dilemma of the writer, 
     represented a variety of sometimes conflicting views. We 
     have seen, however, that it was likely to be Goldsmith in 
     his optimistic rather than in his pessimistic vein who set 
     the tone for what was to come. So, too, his view of the 
     “ideal” critic, of his function as one of mediation between 
     the audience and the writer, was to prevail. Critics, 
     writers, and philosophers—Johnson, Burke, Hume, 
     Reynolds, Kames, and the Whartons—all adopted 
     Goldsmith’s premise as they began to analyze the 
     experience of the reader.