The chief employment of their literati is to criticise, or answer, the new performances which appear elsewhere.
"A dearth of wit in France or England naturally produces a scarcity in Holland.

What Ovid says of Echo may be applied here, -- --'nec reticere loquenti, Nec prior ipsa loqui didicit'---- they wait till something new comes out from others; examine its merits and reject it, or make it reverberate through the rest of Europe.
"After all, I know not whether they should be allowed any national character for polite learning.

All their taste is derived to them from neighbouring nations, and that in a language not their own.

They somewhat resemble their brokers, who trade for immense sums without having any capital." Goldsmith did not finish there.

His observations on the Continent served him, with a frugality that he did not otherwise practise, at least thrice.