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 acquir ed 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

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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, 'I (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

the more extraordinary; as whenever I used in better days to play for company, when playing was my amusement, my music never failed to throw them into raptures, and the ladies especially; but as it was now my only means, it was received with contempt: a proof how ready the world is to underrate those talents by which a man is supported!' At the different monasteries in his tour, especially those of his own nation, his learning generally procured him temporary entertainment; and thus he made his way to Switzerland, in which country he first cultivated his poetical talents with any particular effect; for here we find he wrote about two hundred lines of his Traveller.'

The story which has commonly been told, of his having acted as travelling tutor to a young miser, is now thought to have been too hastily adopted from the aforesaid History of a Philosophic Vagabond, and never to have been the real situation of the author of that history. From Switzerland, Goldsmith proceeded to Padua, where he stayed six months, and is by some supposed to have taken there his degree of Bachelor of Physic; though others are of opinion, that if ever he really took any medical degree abroad, it was at Louvain.*

After visiting all the northern part of Italy, he travelled, still on foot, through France; and, embarking at Calais, landed at Dover in the summer of 1756, unknown, as he suppos ed, to a single individual, and with not a guinea in his pocket.

His first endeavors were, to procure employment as an usher in some school; but the want of a recommendation as to character and ability rendered his efforts for some time fruit

* In 1769, it is certain, he was admitted M. B. at Oxford, which university he visited in February, in company with Dr. Johnson.

less; and how he subsisted is not easy to guess. At length, however, it appears he procured an usher's place; but in what part the school was situated, or how long he continued in it, we do not learn; though we may form some idea of the uncongeniality of the place to his mind, from the following passage in the Philosophic Vagabond: I have been an usher at a boarding-school; and may I die but I would rather be an under-turnkey in Newgate. I was up early and late; I was brow-beat by the master, hated for my ugly face by my mistress, worried by the boys within, and never permitted to stir out to meet civility abroad.'

When in a fit of disgust he had quitted this academy, his pecuniary necessities soon became pressing; to relieve which he applied to several apothecaries and chemists for employment as a journeyman; but here his threadbare appearance, awkward manners, and the want of a recommendation, operated sorely to his prejudice ;* till at last a chemist near Fishstreet-hill, probably moved by compassion, gave him employment in his laboratory, where he continued till he learned that his old friend Dr. Sleigh, of Edinburgh, was in town on him (who had, as we have seen, formerly relieved him from embarrassment,) Goldsmith waited, was kindly received, and invited to share his purse during his continuance in London.

This timely assistance enabled our author to commence medical practice at Bankside, in Southwark, whence he after

* In a letter, dated Dec. 1757, he writes thus:-'At London, you may easily imagine what difficulties I had to encounter; without friends, recommendations, money or impudence; and that in a country where being born an Irishman was sufficient to keep me unemployed. Many in such circumstances would have had recourse to the friar's cord or the suicide's halter. But with all my follies I had principle to resist the one, and resolution to combat the other.

ward removed to the neighborhood of the Temple; his suc cess as a physician is not known, but his income was very small; for, as he used to say, he got very few fees, though he had abundance of patients. Some addition, however, he now began to derive from the efforts of his pen; and it appears that he was for awhile with the celebrated Samuel Richardson as corrector of the press.

About this time he renewed his acquaintance with one of the young physicians whom he had known at Edinburgh. This was a son of the Rev. Dr. John Milner, a dissenting minister, who kept a classical school of eminence at Peckham, in Surrey. Mr. Milner, observing Goldsmith's uncertain mode of living, invited him to take the charge of his father's school, the Doctor being then confined by illness: to this he consented; and Dr. Milner, in return, promised to exert his interest with the India Directors to procure for him some medical establishment in the Company's service. This promise he faithfully performed, and Goldsmith was actually appointed physician to one of the factories in India in 1758. It appears, however, that our author never availed himself of this post,* * but continued in Dr. Milner's academy; and in this very year sold to Mr. Edward Dilly, for twenty guineas, The Memoirs of a Protestant condemned to the Galleys of France for his Religion. Written by Himself. Translated from the Original, just published at the Hague, by James Willington.' 2 vols. 12mo.

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Towards the latter end of 1758, Goldsmith happened to

*Though it is certain, that, in contemplation of going to India, he circulated Proposals to print by Subscription 'An essay on the Present State of Taste and Literature in Europe,' as a means of defraying the expenses of his fitting out for the voyage.