1773. Et. 45. custom of eating dogs at Otaheite, which Goldsmith named as also existing in China, adding that a dog butcher was as common there as any other butcher, and that when he walked abroad (he quite believed this, and stated it in his Natural History) all the dogs fell on him. Johnson did not contradict it, but explained it by the "smell of carnage." "Yes," repeated Goldsmith, "there is a general abhorrence "in animals at the signs of massacre. If you put a tub full "of blood into a stable, the horses are like to go mad." "I doubt that," said Johnson. "Nay, sir," Goldsmith gravely assured him, "it is a fact well authenticated." "You "had better prove it," Thrale quietly interposed, “before you put it into your book on natural history. You may "do it in my stable if you will.” But Johnson would have him do no such thing; for the very sensible reason that he had better, taking his information from others as he must, leave others responsible for such errors as he might make in so comprehensive a book as his Animated Nature, than assume responsibility himself by the arduous task of experiment,* and expose himself to blame for not making 66 * And this, it must be confessed, he very largely did. The pity of it was, however, that he was not sufficiently careful, even in mentioning the names of his authorities, to keep himself clear from the suspicion of believing them. Thus, when he gravely relates the story of the Arabian Caliph who marked with an iron ring a dolphin caught in the Mediterranean, and so identified it for the self-same dolphin caught afterwards in the Red Sea (i. 220)--when he gives Margrave's account of the orderly deliberations and debates of the Ouarines (iii. 307)—when he transcribes from a letter in the German Ephemerides the details of a fight between an enormous serpent and a buffalo, wherein the bones of the latter, as the folds of his enemy entwine him, are heard to crack as loud as the report of a cannon (v. 337)-when he tells what he has found in Father Labat of the monkey's mode of managing an oyster in the tropics, how he will pick up a stone and clap it between the opening shells, and then return at leisure to eat the fish up at his ease (iii. 308)—when he relates the not less marvellous manner in which the same sort of intelligent monkey manages at his pleasure to enjoy a fine crab, by putting his tail in the water, letting it be seized, and drawing out with a violent jerk the victim of his appetite (Ibid)—when he repeats what he has heard of Patagonian 1773. experiments as to every particular." From this the conversation passed to literary subjects, and Goldsmith spoke Et. 45. slightingly of the character of Mallet. "Why, sir,” remarked Johnson, "Mallet had talents enough to keep his literary horses not more than fourteen hands high, carrying men nine feet high (ii. 109) -when he tells Gesner's story of the hungry pike seizing the mule's nose (v. 153), or the more marvellous story in which Gesner celebrates the two nightingales who were heard repeating what they had over-heard of a long and not remarkably decent conversation between a drunken tapster and his wife, as well as of the talk of two travellers about an impending war against the Protestants (iv. 257-60),—in all these, and many other cases, it is too manifest that for his own part he sees nothing that may not be believed. To other marvellous matters for which he himself vouches I have already briefly referred (ante, 336), and it is impossible not to smile at the gravity with which, after reporting the Munchausen relation, to which I refer in my text, about all the dogs of a Chinese village turning out for pursuit and attack when they happen to see a man walking out whose trade it is to kill and dress them, he adds: "This I should hardly have believed but that "I have seen more than one instance of it among ourselves. I have seen a poor fellow "who made a practice of stealing and killing dogs for their skins, pursued in full cry "for three or four streets together by all the bolder breed of dogs, while the weaker "flew from his presence with affright.. such is the fact" (ii. 213-14). Nevertheless perhaps the cautious reader will be as little disposed to accept it for a fact as to believe that other marvel, which "as it comes from a variety of the most "credible witnesses, we cannot refuse our assent" to (iii. 295), about the baboons who have such a love for women that they will attack a village when they know the men are engaged in their rice-harvest, assail the poor deserted wives in a body, force them into the woods, keep them there against their wills, and kill them when refractory! * Boswell, iii. 276. Cooke relates an amusing instance of one practical experiment by which Goldsmith proposed to test a theory thrown out in his book. "The Doctor was at times very absent, and showed such an inconsistency of "mind, that if a person was to judge of his literary knowledge from some parti"cular instances, they must think very meanly of his information or talents. He 66 66 66 " was once engaged in a violent dispute with George Bellas, the proctor (at the very time he was writing his History of Animated Nature), about the motion of "the upper jaw; and, when Bellas laughed at him on the absurdity of his "assertion, the Doctor very seriously, but warmly, desired him to put his finger "in his mouth, and he'd convince him. Being soon after desired by a friend to "recollect what he had asserted, he paused for some time, and said, 'In truth 'I had forgot myself, but any way I ought not to have given up the victory to "such an antagonist." Europ. Mag. xxiv. 261. The passage in the Animated Nature to which Cooke alludes as connected with this odd experimental test, I am not acquainted with; unless it be that equally singular illustration he offers, from the recollection of his own student days at Edinburgh, on the subject of yawning, which would seem to have reference rather to the lower than the upper jaw. See ante, p. 337. I take this opportunity of subjoining one or two other passages that 1773. Et. 45. 66 reputation alive as long as he himself lived; and that, "let me tell you, is a good deal.” 66 But," persisted Gold- smith, "I cannot agree that it was so. 66 have an interest personal to the writer. It has been stated, on the authority of this book, that Goldsmith advocated entire abstinence from wine; but that inference is not supported by the passage in question (ii. 8.) which is simply a comment on the fast-days prescribed by the Roman Catholic church. "How far "it may be enjoined in the Scriptures, I will not take upon me to say; but this may be asserted, that if the utmost benefit to the individual, and the most "extensive advantage to society, serve to mark any institution one of Heaven, "this of abstinence may be reckoned among the foremost." Another passage might seem to show that he had at one time taken some part in the direction or management of the Society of Arts. Speaking (iii. 175.) of Gesner's descriptions of various traps for the catching of rats and mice, he adds, that this society had proposed a reward for the most ingenious contrivance for that purpose, "and I observed almost every candidate passing off descriptions as "inventions of his own. I thought it was cruel to detect the plagiarism, or "frustrate the humble ambition of those who would be thought the inventors of a mouse-trap." A third cleverly written passage (v. 273), in which, after pointing out the close resemblance between the frog and the toad in appearance, he stops to show that "such is the force of habit, begun in early prejudice, that "those who consider the one as a harmless, playful animal, turn from the other "with horror and disgust," has also an autobiographical interest for us. Admirably describing the revolting picture into which the imagination here colours the reality, he continues : "Yet upon my first seeing a toad, none of all those "deformities in the least affected me with sensations of loathing: born, as I was, "in a country where there are no toads, I had prepared my imagination for some "dreadful object; but there seemed nothing to me more alarming in the sight, "than in that of a common frog; and indeed, for some time, I mistook and "handled the one for the other. When first informed of my mistake, I very well "remember my sensations; I wondered how I had escaped with safety, after "handling and dissecting a toad, which I had mistaken for a frog. I then began "to lay in a fund of horror against the whole tribe, which, though convinced they 66 are harmless, I shall never get rid of. My first imaginations were too strong, "not only for my reason, but for the conviction of my senses." CHAPTER XVII. THE CLUB. 1773. He MEASURED by the test we have seen Goldsmith apply to Johnson's reputation with the booksellers, his own, though still alive, must be held as now sadly in arrear. had at this time several disputes with booksellers pending,* and his circumstances were verging to positive distress. The necessity of completing his Animated Nature, for which all the money had been received and spent, hung like a millstone upon him; his advances had been considerable upon other works, as yet not even begun; the money from his comedy was still coming in, but it could not, with the debts it had to satisfy, float his stranded fortunes; and he was now, in what leisure he could get from his larger book, working at a Grecian History, in the hope of procuring means to meet his daily liabilities. The future was thus gradually and gloomily darkening; but, while he could, he was happy and content not to look beyond the present, cheerful or * Among them one with Davies, to which Tom mysteriously refers when he mentions, as highly characteristic of Goldsmith, the difference he had with “a "bookseller," when, the matter being referred to Johnson, Johnson gave it in favour of the bookseller; and Goldsmith "was enraged to find that one author "should have so little feeling for another as to determine a dispute to his disadvantage in favour of a tradesman." Life of Garrick, ii. 158. 1773. Et. 45. 1773. * careless as it might be. He sought relief in society, and Et. 45. went more than ever to the club. The change he had himself very strongly advocated was now made in this celebrated society; the circle of its members was enlarged to twenty; and he took renewed interest in its meetings. A sort of understanding was at the same time entered into, that the limit of attendances to secure continued membership, should be at least twice in five weeks; and that more frequent attendance would be expected from all. The election of Garrick was proposed to fill the first vacancy. * Cooke here repeats the charge to which I formerly adverted, of a fondness for play; observing, after a mention of the very large sum made by She Stoops to Conquer, that "what with his liberalities to poor authors, and a passion for gambling, he found himself at the end of the year in considerable debt." And I take the opportunity of subjoining the very sensible remarks made by this writer, who always treats Goldsmith fairly within his means of judgment, on the difference in his modes and ways of living during his latter years. When," says Cooke, "he exchanged his simple habits for those of the great, he contracted their follies "without their fortunes or qualifications. Hence, when he eat or drank with "them, he contracted habits for expence which he could not individually afford; "when he squandered his time with them, he squandered part of his income; "and when he lost his money at play with them, he had not their talents to 66 recover it at another opportunity. He had discernment to see all this, but had "not the courage to break those fetters he had forged. The consequence was, he was obliged to run in debt, and his debts rendered him, at times, so very "melancholy and dejected, that I am sure he felt himself, at least the last years "of his life, a very unhappy man.' Europ. Mag. xxiv. 172-3. Substantially the same statement had been made several years before by a writer to whom Goldsmith was as intimately known, and who, shortly after his death, thus spoke of him. "While this ingenious man was in the pay of Newbery, and lived in "Green Arbour-court, he was a tolerable economist, and lived happily; but when "he emerged from obscurity, and enjoyed a great income, he had no principle or "idea of saving, or any degree of care; was dreadfully necessitous ten months of 66 every year, and never at that period was quiet, or free from demands he could "not pay. When the excess of the evil roused him, he retired at times into the country to a farm-house, where he lived for little or nothing, letting nobody "know where he was; and, employing almost the whole day in writing, did not 66 66 return to London till he was so well stocked with finished manuscripts, as to be "able to clear himself. These intervals of labour and retirement, he has declared 66 were among the happiest periods of his life. He enjoyed brilliant moments of "wit, festivity and conversation, but the bulk of all his latter days were poisoned "with want and anxiety." I copied this from a magazine to which unfortunately I have lost the reference. |