be attended with a few inconveniences. Therefore, as the mountain will not come to Mahomet, why Mahomet shall go to the mountain; or to speak plain English, as you cannot conveniently pay me a visit, if next summer I can contrive to be absent six weeks from London, I shall spend three of them among my friends in Ireland; but first believe me, my design is purely to visit, and neither to cut a figure, nor to levy contributions; neither to excite envy, nor to solicit favour. In fact, my circumstances are adapted to neither. I am too poor to be gazed at, and too rich to need assistance. You see, dear Dan, how long I have been talking about myself, but attribute my vanity to my affection, as every man is fond of himself, and I consider you as a second self, I imagine you will consequently be pleased with these instances of egotism. * * * * * My dear sir, these things give me real uneasiness, and I could wish to redress them. But at present there is hardly a thing done in Europe in which I am not a debtor. I have already discharged my most threatening and pressing demands, for we must be just before we can be grateful. For the rest I need not say, (you know I am) Your affectionate kinsman, Temple Exchange Coffee House, near Several of Goldsmith's fellow students were now resident in London; one who was afterwards eminent in the medical profession, used to give the following account of our author's first interview with him, in the metropolis. "From the time of Goldsmith's leaving Edinburgh in the year 1754, I never saw him till the year 1756, when I was in London, attending the hospitals, and lectures. Early in January he called upon me one morning before I was up, and on my entering the room, I recognized my old acquaintance, dressed in a rusty full brimmed black suit, with his pockets full of papers, which instantly reminded me of the poet in Garrick's farce of Lethe. After we had finished our breakfast, he drew from his pockets part of a tragedy, which he said he had brought for my correction. In vain I pleaded inability, when he began to read, and every part on which I expressed a doubt as to the propriety, was immediately blotted out. I then more earnestly pressed him not to trust to my judgment, but to take the opinions of persons better qualified to decide on dramatic compositions. He now told me that he had submitted his production, so far as he had written, to Mr. Richardson, the author of Clarissa, on which I peremptorily declined offering another criticism on the performance. The name and subject of the tragedy have unfortunately escaped my memory, neither do I recollect with exactness, how much he had written, though I am inclined to believe that he had not completed the third act. I never heard whether he afterwards finished it. In the visit, I remember his relating a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation, of going to decipher the inscriptions on the Written Mountains,1 though he was altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be supposed The salary of £300 per annum, to be written. which had been left for the purpose, was the temptation." Goldsmith's plan of a journey to decipher the characters on the Written Mountains was too absurd to be long mentioned even by him: and from this lofty and ambitious flight into the deserts of Arabia, he settled down more wisely than he was wont, into the management of a classical school at Peckham, which had become vacant by Dr. Milner's illness.3 So well did he acquit himself here, that his employer procured for him a But not On the Wady Mekatteb, and on the Djebal Serbal. 2 "Temptation, indeed! The head may be well full of projects, where the pockets are only full of papers. alas! to decipher inscriptions on the Written Mountains, but to preside over pothooks at Peckham, was doomed to be the lot of Goldsmith."-Forster. 3 It is said that on the death of Dr. Milner, in 1760, Goldsmith undertook the superintendance of the school for the widow; who allowed him £20 a year, out of which he gave so liberally to objects in distress, that his salary was spent before it became due. This induced Mrs. Milner to say to him: "You had better, Mr. Goldsmith, let me keep your money for you, as I do for some of the young gentlemen:" to which he replied with great good humour, "In truth, madam, there is equal need."—WATKINS's Literary Anecdotes, p. 515. 4" Mrs. Collier informed me that an acquaintance of hers had told her that he had been flogged by Goldsmith when the latter was usher at Peckham. "When amusing his younger companions during play medical appointment in India; and in the year 1758 Goldsmith was appointed physician to one of the factories in India. Splendid visions of the wealth to be acquired in the east now filled our author's mind; but to equip himself for so long a voyage was an effort beyond his present means. To effect this, he drew up and printed proposals for publishing by subscription his "Present State of Polite Literature in Europe:"1 the following .... hours with the flute, and expatiating on the pleasures derived from music, in addition to its advantages in society as a gentlemanlike acquirement, a pert boy (named Bishop) looking at Goldsmith's situation and present disadvantages with something of contempt, rudely replied to the effect that he surely could not consider himself a gentleman: an offence which, though followed by chastisement, disconcerted and pained him extremely.. When the despised usher was a celebrated man, young Bishop met his old teacher. Goldsmith recognized him instantly, as a lad he had been fond of at Peckham, and embraced him with delight. ... But the introduction had not unsettled the child's image in the kind man's heart. It was still the boy before him, still Master Bishop, the lad he used to cram with fruit and sweetmeats, to the judicious horror of the Milners. 'Come, my boy,' he said, as his eye fell upon a basketwoman at the corner of the street, Come, Sam, I am delighted to see you. I must treat you to something. What shall it be? Will you have some apples? Sam,' added Goldsmith, suddenly, 'have you seen my picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds? Have you seen it, Sam? Have you got an engraving?' Not to appear negligent of the rising fame of his old preceptor, Bishop replied that he had not yet procured it; he was just furnishing his house, but he had fixed upon the spot the print was to occupy, as soon as he was ready to receive it. Sam,' returned Goldsmith, with some emotion, 'if your picture had been published, I should not have waited an hour without having it."-Forster. In this very year, 1758, Goldsmith sold to Mr. Edward Dilly, for twenty guineas, "The Memoirs of a Protestant condemned to the Gallies of France for his Religion. Written letters will best explain his situation, and views at the time. TO DANIEL HODSON, ESQ. AT LISHOY, NEAR (No date, but written in the summer of 1758.) You cannot expect regularity in one who is regular in nothing. Nay, were I forced to love you by rule, I dare venture to say, I could never do it sincerely. Take me then with all my faults ; let me write when I please, for you see I say what I please, and am only thinking aloud when writing to you. I suppose you have heard of my intention of going to the East Indies. The place of my destination is one of the factories on the coast of Coromandel, and I go in the quality of physician and surgeon, for which the company has signed my warrant, which has already cost me £10. I must also pay £50 for my passage, and £10 for my sea stores, and the other incidental expenses of my equipment will amount to £60, or £70 more. The salary is but trifling, viz. £100 per annum, but the other advantages, if a person be prudent, are considerable. The practice of the place, if I am rightly informed, generally amounts to not less than £1000 per by himself." Translated from the original, just published at the Hague, by James Wilmington. Two volumes, 12mo.AIKIN'S Life of Goldsmith, p. xvi. |