tility of temper; the same enjoyment of the present and disregard of the future; the same desire "to please and be pleased" with all around them; and even that vanity, or "beggar pride" as he terms it, to appear to others something greater or better than they really are. Nor did the peculiarity probably escape him, that both nations so joyous and generous in their quiet state, should exhibit when excited the extremes of fierceness and cruelty.

While marking the social peculiarities of the people, their political condition was not forgotten; he appears to have clearly observed the slow and almost silent operation of a new and formidable principle at that time taking root in the public mind of France. The prophecy as to the probable results is singular, and proved much nearer its accomplishment than he believed:-" As the Swedes are making concealed approaches to despotism, the French, on the other hand, are imperceptibly vindicating themselves into freedom. When I consider that these Parliaments, the members of which are all created by the Court (the Presidents of which can only act by immediate direction), presume even to mention privileges and freedom, who till of late received directions from the throne with implicit humility; when this is considered, I cannot help fancying that the genius of freedom has entered that kingdom in disguise. If they have but three weak

monarchs more successively on the throne, the mask will be laid aside, and the country will certainly once more be free."*

* It is remarkable that Burke was impressed with the same idea; first in 1768, in his pamphlet in reply to one of Mr. George Grenville; and again in 1771 on his return from a visit to that country. If the coincidence of opinion be accidental, it is curious; but as Goldsmith was prior in time, Burke may have been led to consider the subject by hearing his observations.

CHAP. VI.

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.- -EARLY STRUGGLES IN LONDON. BECOMES USHER IN THE SCHOOL OF DR. MILNER AT PECKHAM.-ENGAGES IN THE MONTHLY REVIEW.-DR. JAMES

GRAINGER.

EARLY in the year 1756 he reached England, having spent about two years on the Continent; and London, as the general resort of talent and necessity, became his first objeet. Here his prospects were of the most discouraging nature. Whatever advances he had made in learning, or in the knowledge of mankind in the abstract, he had made none in what is more commonly considered the practical business of life. It was doubtful what course to pursue for a livelihood; he was in, to him, a strange land; he possessed neither friends nor money; and laboured under the disadvantage of being an Irishman, which at that period, as he says in one of his letters, formed of itself an obstacle to gaining employment.

Some obscurity exists as to the exact incidents of his life on revisiting England, of the order in which they preceded each other, or whether his first attempt to obtain a livelihood was in the medical or scholastic profession. Much of his earlier career, of what was known to many acquaintance

during his life is now forgotten, although in this and other details he may not have thought it necessary to be explicit to such as were likely to record them; unwilling to disclose struggles which were unsuccessful or involving details distressing to his pride. Yet we know that hints and allusions fell from him in conversation, casting partial light on parts of his history, which it would have been indelicate nevertheless to pursue by direct questions further than he thought proper to go. After his death, an anonymous contributor to the newspaper stated, that the Poet having been bred to pharmacy had attempted to practise as an apothecary in a country town, but failing of success, proceeded to London and accepted the situation of usher to Dr. Milner. A contradiction to the former part of this account soon appeared, which brought forth the following rejoinder: it must be remembered that the authority is anonymous, although there seems no inducement for wilful misstatement or that the writer had not sufficient authority for what he says:-" A writer in a daily paper pretends to contradict some part of our account of the late Dr. Goldsmith. He says, the Doctor was not bred to pharmacy, and that he did not set up as an apothecary in a country town in Ireland. We never said that he set up in Ireland. The country town alluded to is an English town, the name of which is forgotten. But the writer of this and the former paragraph assures the public, that he had the anecdote from the Doctor's own mouth.

As to what the writer mentions of the Doctor having been a student in Edinburgh after he left Ireland, and then travelling into Germany and other parts of Europe, it is very true, and to that circumstance the public is probably indebted for his pretty poem of the Traveller.' "#

A rumour (mentioned by Mr. English who conducted the Annual Register for twenty years after Burke relinquished it) prevailed about the year 1766, of his having once attempted the stage in the line of low comedy, in a country town, when pressed for the means of subsistence. Whether this story was circulated in jest or earnest, may be doubted; want makes us familiar with strange pursuits as with strange acquaintance; and as the scheme may have seemed to him to require little preliminary knowledge and no introduction, it is just possible some such resource was tried in making his way from the coast to London, destitute as he avowedly was of money. The greater probability indeed is, that like some other stories told of him it had no foundation, or was conjectured from the seeming knowledge of such a life shown. in the "Adventures of a Strolling Player," printed in the British Magazine, where the scene is placed in Kent; or from the conclusion of the story of George Primrose. It is however true that he was afterwards known to express desire to play as a piece of admirable low comedy, the character of Scrub in "The Beaux Stratagem."

* St. James's Chronicle, April 12—14. 1774.