Oliver next turned his attention to medicine, and his family supporting him, he went to Edinburgh, where immediately occurred a ludicrous instance of his forgetfulness. He hired a room, deposited his trunks, &c., went out for a walk, and when at a late hour he thought of returning home, he found that he had neglected to ascertain either the name or address of his landlady. Fortunately

he met the porter whom he had employed in the morning, and was soon freed from his dilemma. He remained two winters at Edinburgh, and then drew on his uncle Contarine for funds to enable him to travel for the purpose of finishing his medical studies. After various adventures (including imprisonment on suspicion of being in the French service) he arrived at Leyden, where he studied one year, and then set out on foot for Paris, and in fine, travelled so through the greater part of France and Italy. His mode of life was doubtless that depicted in the "philosophic vagabond," in the Vicar of Wakefield. He reached Dover in 1756, penniless. His uncle could no more assist him, for he was dead. The stage seemed the only resource open to him, and he turned strolling player. For an amusing account of this portion of his career, the reader is referred to the best life of Goldsmith-his works.

After some time thus spent he came to London, and supported himself as usher in a school, and afterwards as physician to the poor; and at length we find his talents asserting themselves in the humble capacity of corrector of the press to Richardson, the novelist and bookseller! The proprietor of the Monthly Review next engaged him, and he took up his abode with "illiterate Griffiths," as his friends very naturally loved to call him, but finding neither the society nor the work pleasant, and the remuneration by no means compensating for the tedium, he relinquished the engagement after about five months.

His old friend Dr. Milner, master of the school where he had been usher, now managed to have him appointed physician to one of the Coromandel factories, a poor post of only £100 a year, but

with great advantages in the shape of additional practice. In order to defray the necessary expenses of equipment, he wrote the Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe, and published it by subscription. For once the funds were applied to their proper purpose, which was no sooner done, than, for some reason never explained, the appointment was set aside, at some considerable loss to Goldsmith and disgust to his friends.

His next engagement was on the Literary Magazine, and other periodicals, including his own publication The Bee, and the worldfamous Chinese letters, the Citizen of the World. These enabled him to quit the melancholy Green Arbour Court where he had been living, and take more commodious rooms in Wine Office Court. Shortly afterwards he removed to Garden Court, Temple.

Although not properly appreciated by the public, it is evident that Goldsmith was more thought of by literary men. He had now gained the friendship of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the toleration, possibly envy, of Boswell. The Literary Club, established about this time, made him acquainted with Bennet Langton, Topham Beauclerc, and Edmund Burke, with whom he had been at college. The rest of the members thought and knew but little about him until the appearance of his beautiful poem The Traveller, in 1764. This entirely altered the opinion of him, and when shortly afterwards the Vicar of Wakefield was produced (it having been sold to a bookseller two years before, to relieve the author's distress) the previous state of things was quite changed, and Goldsmith's genius was acknowledged by all the club, with the exception of Boswell, who never admitted the presence of any luminary but Johnson. This favourable impression was not removed by the doubtful success of his comedy of The Good Natured Man, which was performed at Covent Garden in 1768. Although it had no great run he managed to clear about £500 by it, which enabled him to move to Brick Court, No. 2, where, in most luxurious apartments, he entertained constant parties of friends, to the great annoyance of Blackstone, who was diligently preparing his Commentaries in the

rooms beneath. These dissipations were expensive, and the success of his History of Rome soon afterwards was of great importance.

All this time, however, he was not idle. He was slowly proceeding with his History of the Earth and Animated Nature, and in May, 1770, The Deserted Village appeared. Five editions were exhausted in three months, and with the proceeds of them he started for Paris, in company with a delightful party of friends, the Hornecks, to one of whom he had been long attached, though unavowedly. On his return he published biographies of Bolingbroke and Parnell, and an abridgement of the Roman history.

The History of England next appeared, and though decidedly successful, occasioned a great deal of discussion and ill will. Goldsmith, however, in a letter to Bennet Langton, apologising for not visiting him, owing to press of business, declared that his aim was "to make up a book of a decent size, that, as 'Squire Richard says, "would do no harm to nobody."

Press of business did not prevent him from paying a visit to the country house of Mr. Bunbury, who had married the sister of his favourite Miss Horneck, "the Jessamy Bride," as he used to call her. She was there too, which perhaps accounts for this singular pliability of circumstances. We have amusing accounts from various members of the family, of Goldsmith romping with the children, and of the good-nature with which he bore the coarse practical jokes of impertinent people who did not understand his fine nature.

Goldsmith's position was now well established, but his natural inactivity and love of pleasure prevented him from ever being free of his literary engagements. He had received a large sum of money for the Natural History, and but little of it was written. To escape from the dissipations of town, he took lodgings near Edgeware; Boswell visited him there, and found the walls covered with pencil descriptions of animals. Washington Irving gives the following records preserved of him.

"Sometimes he strolled about the fields, or was to be seen loitering, and reading, and musing under the hedges. He was subject to fits of wakefulness, and read much in bed; if not disposed to read, he still kept the candle burning; if he wished to extinguish it, he flung his slipper at it, which would be found in the morning near the overturned candlestick, and daubed with grease. He was noted here, as everywhere else, for his charitable feelings. No beggar applied to him in vain, and he evinced on all occasions, great commiseration for the poor." *** "He would sing Irish songs, and the Scotch ballad of Johnny Armstrong. He took the lead in the children's sports of blind man's buff, hunt the slipper, &c., or in their games at cards, and was the most noisy of the party; affecting to cheat, and to be excessively eager to win; while with children of smaller size, he would turn the hind part of his wig before, and play all kinds of tricks to amuse them." " I little thought," says Miss Hawkins, "what I should have to boast, when Goldsmith taught me to play Jack and Jill, by two bits of paper on his fingers."

***

But all his time was not occupied in these childish amusements. Indeed, so closely did he attend to his work, that confinement brought on a severe illness when he returned to town in the summer of 1772, and beset with anxieties and annoyances, he plunged into dissipations which only served to increase them, and to fix in his undermined constitution, the seeds of death.

The envy and malice of Colman prevented the comedy She Stoops to Conquer, from being acted until the following March, and it was only then done through the kind remonstrances of Johnson. It met with the most perfect and deserved success, but very little was obtained from Newbery for the copyright.

A plan which he had formed for a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, to which Johnson, Burke, Reynolds, Garrick, and Burney, had agreed to contribute, fell to the ground through want of confidence on the part of the booksellers towards the author, who was

known to have much work still in hand. He was also disappointed of receiving a pension, which he had hoped to obtain. Washington Irving considers this attributable to his having once refused to become "a ministerial hack."

Ill-health and low spirits came fast upon him. Embarrassed with work, and hard pressed for money, his gaiety forsook him, and he once promised to dine with a friend, upon condition that he should be asked to eat nothing-nor did he. Perhaps his last moments of real happiness were passed in the society of Miss Horneck, on a Christmas invitation to the house of her sister; and even to contrive this, he had to increase a debt of £40 to Garrick, the actor, to £100, for which sum he gave his note of hand.

We have arrived at the period of Goldsmith's last literary performance, a satire called Retaliation. On one occasion when he happened to be behind time at an entertainment, some of the company facetiously called him "the late Dr. Goldsmith," and some epitaphs were thrown off upon him. The only one remembered is by Garrick :

"Here lies Poet Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,

Who wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll."

This somewhat annoyed Goldsmith, who determined to fight on his adversary's ground, and accordingly, a severe and clever sketch of Garrick was given in Retaliation, which also called for its reply. An unfinished epitaph, praising the goodness of Sir Joshua Reynolds, was the last act of friendship which the poet performed, and he died, leaving the picture incomplete. No precise malady is mentioned, but his death is attributed to general weakness and fever, heightened by a persevering use of improper medicine. His death took place, April 4, 1774.

In the same year appeared the History of Greece with the following advertisement prefixed:-" The applause bestowed on the Roman History, written by Doctor Goldsmith, induced that gentleman to