1

West Indies; and his guardians, to qualify him for the management of it, had bound him apprentice to an attorney. Thus avarice was his prevailing passion: all his questions on the road were how much money could be saved. . . . Such curiosities on the way as could be seen for nothing, he was ready enough to look at; but if the sight was to be paid for, he usually asserted that he had been told it was not worth seeing. He never paid a bill, that he would not observe, how amazingly expensive travelling was." But whether this is autobiographical, or not, Goldsmith must, in some way or other, have procured money, since without it, he could not have gone to the play, and seen the famous Mdlle. Clairon, of whom he afterwards wrote so sympathetically in The Bee. From the French capital he passed to Germany; thence to Switzerland. It is at Geneva at Voltaire's recently purchased residence of "Les Délices"-that Mr. Forster conjecturally places an incident which Goldsmith afterwards described in his memoirs of the philosopher of Ferney. "The person who writes this Memoir," he says, "who had the honour and pleasure of being his [Voltaire's] acquaintance, remembers to have seen him in a select company of wits of both sexes at Paris, when the subject 1 Vicar of Wakefield, 1766, ii, 29, 30.

happened to turn upon English taste and learning. Fontenelle, who was of the party, and who being unacquainted with the language or authors of the country he undertook to condemn, with a spirit truly vulgar began to revile both. Diderot, who liked the English, and knew something of their literary pretensions, attempted to vindicate their poetry and learning, but with unequal abilities. The company quickly perceived that Fontenelle was superior in the dispute, and were surprised at the silence which Voltaire had preserved all the former part of the night, particularly as the conversation happened to turn upon one of his favourite topics. Fontenelle continued his triumph till about twelve o'clock, when Voltaire appeared at last roused from his reverie. His whole frame seemed animated. He began his defence with the utmost elegance mixed with spirit, and now and then let fall the finest strokes of raillery upon his antagonist; and his harangue lasted till three in the morning. I must confess that, whether from national partiality, or from the elegant sensibility of his manner, I never was so much charmed, nor did I ever remember so absolute a victory as he gained in this dispute." Goldsmith, it will be seen, places this occurrence at Paris, and, as one of his later 1 Gibbs's Goldsmith's Works, 1885, iv, 24, 25.

editors, Mr. Gibbs, pertinently enough points out, the transference of the scene to "Les Délices" involves the not very explicable presence in Switzerland of Diderot and Fontenelle, to say nothing of the "select company of wits of both sexes." But these discrepancies, due to haste, to confusion, or perhaps to the habit, already referred to, of "loading" his narrative, do not make it necessary to conclude that Goldsmith had not seen and heard Voltaire.

In Switzerland Goldsmith remained some time, chiefly at Geneva, visiting from thence Basle, Berne, and other places. He speaks, in the "Animated Nature," of woodcocks flushed on Mount Jura, of a frozen cataract seen at Schaffhausen, of a "very savoury dinner" eaten on the Alps. Later, he passed into Piedmont, and makes reference to its floating bee-houses. Florence, Verona, Mantua, Milan, Venice, were next journeyed to, and Padua, for which city is also claimed the credit of his medical degree.1 In Italy, where every peasant was a musician, his flute had lost its charm, and he seems to have subsisted, if we again accept him as the prototype of George Primrose, chiefly by disputation. "In all the foreign universities

1 It is now known that he did not obtain it there (Athenæum, 21 July, 1894).

and convents, there are upon certain days philosophical theses maintained against every adventitious disputant; for which, if the champion opposes with any dexterity, he can claim a gratuity in money, a dinner, and a bed for one night."1 Thus he fought his way from city to city until, at the end of 1755, he turned his steps homewards. On the 1st of February, 1756, he landed at Dover, "his whole stock of cash," says William Glover," amounting to no more than a few half-pence." His wanderings had occupied exactly one year."

1 Vicar of Wakefield, 1766, ii, 31.

2 Life prefixed to Poems and Plays, 1777, p. iv. This Life is based upon "Anecdotes of the late Dr. Goldsmith," Annual Register, 1774, pp. 29–34, by “G.”

CHAPTER III

Prospect and retrospect; first struggles on reaching England; comedian, apothecary's journeyman, poor physician, presscorrector to Richardson; writes a tragedy; projects of Eastern exploration; assistant at Peckham Academy; miseries of an usher; Peckham memories; bound to Griffiths the bookseller, April, 1757; literature of all work; criticism of Gray; quarrels with Griffiths; "Memoirs of a Protestant" published, February, 1758; returns to Peckham; new hopes; meditating "Enquiry into Polite Learning;" letters to Mills, Bryanton, Mrs. Lawder (Jane Contarine); obtains and loses appointment as medical officer at Coromandel; rejected at Surgeons' Hall as a hospital mate, December 21, 1758.

AT

T the time of Goldsmith's second arrival in England, for, as will be remembered, he had already paid an unpremeditated visit to Newcastle a year earlier, his previous career could certainly not be described as a success. If his schooldays had been but moderately promising, his college life might almost be called discreditable. He had tried many things and failed. He had estranged his sole remaining parent; he had sorely taxed the patience of the rest of his relations; and he had, latterly, been living as a wanderer on the face of the earth.