to Daniel Hodson, Esq., of Lishoy, near Ballymahon,) relates, that one evening, when Oliver was about nine years of age, a company of young people of both sexes being assembled at his uncle's, the boy was required to dance a hornpipe, a youth undertaking to play to him on the fiddle. Being but lately out of the small-pox, which had much disfigured his countenance, and his bodily proportions being short and thick, the young musician thought to show his wit by comparing our hero to Æsop dancing; and having harped a little too long, as the caperer thought, on this bright idea, the latter suddenly stopped, and said,

Our herald hath proclaim'd this saying,

See Esop dancing,'-and his Monkey playing.

This instance of early wit, we are told, decided his fortune; for, from that time, it was determined to send him to the university; and some of his relations, who were in the church, offered to contribute towards the expense, particularly the Rev. Thomas Contarine, rector of Kilmore, near Carrick-upon-Shannon, who had married an aunt of Oliver's. The Rev. Mr. Green also, whom we have before mentioned, liberally assisted in this friendly design.

To further the purpose intended, he was now removed to Athlone, where he continued about two years under the Rev. Mr. Campbell; who being then obliged by ill-health to resign the charge, Oliver was sent to the school of the Rev. Patrick Hughes, at Edgeworthstown, in the county of Longford.*

*We are told, that in his last journey to this school, he had an adventure, which is thought to have suggested the plot of his comedy of 'She stoops to conquer.'-Some friend had given him a guinea; and in his way to Edgeworthstown, which was about twenty miles

Under this gentleman he was prepared for the university; and on the 11th of June, 1744, was admitted a Sizer of Trinity college, Dublin,* under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Wilder, one of the Fellows, who was a man of harsh temper and violent passions; and Oliver being of a thoughtless and gay turn, it cannot be surprising that they should soon be dissatisfied with each other.

Oliver, it seems, had one day imprudently invited a party of both sexes to a supper and ball in his rooms; which coming to the ears of his tutor, the latter entered the place in the midst of their jollity, abused the whole company, and inflicted manual correction on Goldsmith in their presence.

This mortification had such an effect on the mind of Oliver, that he resolved to seek his fortune in some place where he should be unknown: accordingly he sold his books and clothes, and quitted the university; but loitered about the streets,

from his father's house, he had amused himself the whole day with viewing the gentlemen's seats on the road; and at nightfall found himself in the small town of Ardagh. Here he inquired for the best house in the place, meaning the best inn; but his informant, taking the question in its literal sense, shewed him to the house of a private gentleman; where, calling for somebody to take his horse to the stable, our hero alighted, and was shown into the parlor, being supposed to have come on a visit to the master, whom he found sitting by the fire. This gentleman soon discovered Oliver's mistake; but being a man of humor, and learning from him the name of his father, (whom he knew), he favored the deception. Oliver ordered a good supper, and invited his landlord and landlady, with their daughters, to partake of it; he treated them with a bottle or two of wine, and, at going to bed, ordered a hot cake to be prepared for his breakfast: nor was it till he was about to depart, and called for his bill, that he discovered his mistake.

*The celebrated Edmund Burke was at the same time a collegian there.

considering of a destination, till his money was exhausted. With a solitary shilling in his pocket he at last left Dublin; by abstinence he made this sum last him three days, and then was obliged to part, by degrees, with the clothes off his back: in short, to such an extremity was he reduced, as to find a handful of gray-peas, given him by a girl at a wake, the most comfortable repast that he had ever made.

After numberless adventures in this vagrant state, he found his way home, and was replaced under his morose and merciless tutor; by whom he was again exposed to so many mortifications, as induced an habitual despondence of mind, and a total carelessness about his studies; the consequence of which was, that he neither obtained a scholarship, nor became a candidate for the premiums. On the 25th of May, 1747, he received a public admonition, for having assisted other collegians in a riot occasioned by a scholar having been arrested, quod seditioni favisset, et tumultuantibus opem tulisset: in this case, however, he appears to have fared better than some of his companions, who were expelled the university. On the 15th of June following he was elected one of the exhibitioners on the foundation of Erasmus Smyth; but was not admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts till February, 1749, which was two years after the usual period.

Oliver's father being now dead, his uncle Contarine undertook to supply his place, and wished him to prepare for holy orders. This proposal not meeting with the young man's inclination, Mr. Contarine next resolved on sending him to London, that he might study law in the temple. Whilst at Dublin, however, on his way to England, he fell in with a sharper, who cheated him at play of 50l., which had been provided for his carriage, etc. He returned, and received his un

cle's forgiveness: it was now finally settled that he should make physic his profession; and he departed for Edinburgh, where he settled about the latter end of the year 1752. Here he attended the lectures of Dr. Monroe and the other medical professors; but his studies were by no means regular; and an indulgence in dissipated company, with a ready hand to administer to the necessities of whoever asked him, kept him always poor.

Having, however, gone through the usual courses of physic and anatomy in the Scottish university, Goldsmith was about to remove to Leyden to complete his studies; and his departure was hastened by a debt to Mr. Barclay, a tailor in Edinburgh, which he had imprudently made his own by becoming security for a fellow student who, either from want of principle or of means, had failed to pay it: for this debt he was arrested; but was released by the kindness of Dr. Sleigh and Mr. Laughlin Maclaine, whose friendship he had acquired at the college.

He now embarked for Bourdeaux, on board a Scotch vessel called the St. Andrew's, Capt. John Wall, master. The ship made a tolerable appearance; and, as another inducement to our hero, he was informed that six agreeable passengers were to be his company. They had been but two days at sea, however, when a storm drove them into Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the passengers went ashore to refresh after the fatigue of their voyage. Seven men and I, (says Goldsmith) were on shore the following evening; but as we were all very merry, the room door burst open, and there entered a sergeant and twelve grenadiers, with their bayonets screwed, who put us all under the King's arrest. It seems, my company were Scotchmen in the French service, and had been in Scotland

to enlist soldiers for Louis XV. I endeavored all I could to prove my innocence; however, I remained in prison with the rest a fortnight, and with difficulty got off even then. But hear how Providence interposed in my favor: the ship, which had set sail for Bourdeaux before I got from prison, was wrecked at the mouth of the Garonne, and every one of the crew drowned.'-Fortunately, there was a ship now ready at Newcastle, for Holland, on board of which he embarked, and in nine days reached Rotterdam; whence he travelled by land to Leyden.

Here he resided about a year, studying anatomy under Albinus, and chemistry under Gambius; but here, as formerly, his little property was destroyed by play and dissipation; and he is actually believed to have set out on his travels with only one clean shirt, and not a guilder in his purse, trusting wholly to Providence for a subsistence.

It is generally understood, that in the history of his Philosophic Vagabond, (Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xx.) he has related many of his own adventures; and that when on his pedestrian tour through Flanders and France, as he had some knowledge of music, he turned what had formerly been his amusement into a present means of subsistence. 'I passed, (says he) among the harmless peasants of Flanders, and among such of the French as were poor enough to be very merry; for I ever found them sprightly in proportion to their wants. Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards nightfall, I played on my German flute one of my most merry tunes, and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day. I once or twice attempted to play for people of fashion; but they always thought my performance odious, and never rewarded me even with a trifle. This was to me