left England with very little money; and being of a philofophical turn, and at that time poffeffing a body capable of fuftaining every fatigue, and a heart not eafily terrified by danger, he became an enthusiast to the defign he had formed of seeing the manners of different countries. He had fome knowledge of the French language, and of mufic; he played tolerably well on the German flute; which from an amusement, became at fome times the means of fubfiftence. His learning produced him an hofpitable reception at most of the religious houses that he visited; and his mufic made him welcome to the peafants of Flanders and Germany. "Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards night fall," he used to fay, "I played one of my most merry tunes, and that generally procured me not only a lodging, but fubfiftence for the next day but in truth" (his conftant expreffion) "I must own, when. ever I attempted to entertain perfons of a higher rank, they always thought my performance odious, and never made me any return for my endeavours to please them."

::

On his arrival at Geneva, he was recommended as a proper person for a traveling tutor to a young man, who had been unexpectedly left a confiderable fum of money by his uncle, Mr. S ******. This

youth,

tour on foot, will form very different conclufions. Haud inexpertus loquor."

Goldfmith's "Prefent State of Learning in Europe," 1759.

youth, who was articled to an attorney, on receipt. of his fortune determined to fee the world; and, on his engaging with his preceptor, made a provifo, that he fhould be permitted to govern himself; and our traveller foon found his pupil understood the art of directing in money concerns extremely well, as avarice was his prevailing paffion.

During Goldfmith's continuance in Switzerland, he affiduously cultivated his poetical talent, of which he had given some striking proofs at the college of Edinburgh. It was from hence he fent the first fketch of his delightful epiftle, called the Traveller, to his brother Henry, a clergyman in Ireland.

From Geneva Mr. Goldfmith and his pupil pro ceeded to the fouth of France, where the young man, upon fome difagreement with his preceptor, paid him the fall part of his falary which was due, and embarked at Marseilles for England. Our wanderer was left once more upon the world at large, and paffed through a number of difficulties in traverfing the greatest part of France. At length, his curiofity being gratified, he bent his course towards England, and arrived at Dover, the beginning of the winter, in the year 1759.

His finances were fo low on h's return to England, that he with difficuity got to the metropolis, his whole ftock of cash amounting to no more than a few

half-pence!

half-pence! An entire ftranger in London, his mind was filled with the moft gloomy reflections in confequence of his embarraffed fituation! He applied to feveral Apothecaries in hopes of being received in the capacity of a journeyman, but his broad Irish accent, and the uncouthness of his appearance, occafioned him to meet with infult from moft of the medicinal tribe. The next day, however, a chymift near Fishftreet, ftruck with his forlorn condition, and the fimplicity of his manner, took him into his laboratory, where he continued 'till he difcovered that his old friend Dr. Sleigh was in London. That gentle. man received him with the warmest affection, and liberally invited him to fhare his purfe 'till fome establishment could be procured for him. Goldsmith, unwilling to be a burden to his friend, a fhort time after eagerly embraced an offer which was made him to affift the late Reverend Dr. Milner, in inftru&ting the young gentlemen at the Academy at Peckham; and acquitted himfelf greatly to the Doctor's fatisfaction for a fhort time; but, having obtained fome reputation by the criticifins he had written in the Monthly Review, Mr. Griffith, the principal proprietor, engaged him in the compilation of it; and, refolving to purfue the profeffion of writing, he returned to London, as the mart where abilities of every kind were fure of meeting diftinction and reward. Here he determined to adopt a plan of the stricteft economy, and at the clofe of the year 1759,

took

took lodgings in Green-Arbour-court in the Old Bailey, where he wrote feveral ingenious pieces. The late Mr. Newbery, who, at that time gave great encouragement to men of literary abilities, became a kind of patron to our young author, and introduced him as one of the writers in the Public Ledger, in which his Citizen of the World originally appeared, under the title of "Chinese Letters." *

Fortune now seemed to take fome notice of a man fhe had long neglected. The fimplicity of his character, the integrity of his heart, and the merit of his productions, made his company very acceptable to a number of respectable persons, and, about the middle of the year 1762, he emerged from his mean apartments near the Old Bailey to the politer air of the Temple, where he took handsome chambers, and lived in a genteel ftyle. The publication of his Traveller, his Vicar of Wakefield, and his Hiftory of England, was followed by the performance of his comedy

* During this time (according to another account) he wrote for the British Magazine, of which Dr. Smollet was then Editor, most of thofe Effys and Tales, which he afterwards collected and published in a separate volume. He also wrote occafionally for the Critical Review; and it was the merit which he difcovered in criticifing a defpicable translation of Ovid's "Fafti" by a pedantic fchool-mafter, and his "Enquiry into the prefent State of Learning in Europe," which first introduced him to the acquaintance of Dr. Smollet, who recommended him to feveral literati, and to mo of the bookfellers by whom he was afterwards patronized.

comedy of The Good-natured Man at Covent Garden theatre, and placed him in the firft rank of the poets of the prefent age.

Our Doctor, as he was now universally called, had a constant levee of his diftreft countrymen, whose wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved; and he had been often known to leave himself even without a guinea, in order to fupply the neceffities of others.

Another feature in his character we cannot help laying before the reader: Previous to the publication of his Deferted Village, the bookfeller had given him a note for one hundred guineas for the copy; which the Doctor mentioned, a few hours after, to one of his friends, who obferved it was a very great fum for fo fhort a performance. "In truth," replied ↑ Goldsmith, “ I think fo too, it is much more than the honeft man can afford, or the piece is worth; I have not been easy fince I received it; I will therefore go back and return him his note :" which he actually did, and left it entirely to the bookfeller to pay him according to the profits produced by the fale of the poem, which turned out very confiderable.

During the last rehearsal of his comedy, intitled, She Stoops to Conquer, which Mr. Coleman thought would not fucceed, on the Doctor's objecting to the repetition of one of Tony Lumpkin's fpeeches,