the disorder of his mind. These again he would repent and atone for on the instant; so that his laundress (one Mary Ginger) used to contend with John Eyles which of them on such occasions should first fall in his way, knowing well the profitable kindness that would follow the intemperate reproval. From such as now visited him, even men he had formerly most distrusted, he made little concealment of his affairs. I remember his showing 'me his Animated Nature in the Temple,' says Cumberland, who had called upon him there, but it was

with a sigh, such as genius draws, when hard necessity 'diverts it from its bent to drudge for bread, and to talk ' of birds and beasts and creeping things, which Pidcock's 'showmen would have done as well.' Cumberland had no such necessity. His was not the life of the author militant. He could eat his daily bread without performing some daily task to procure it. I am writing for 'while you write

money,' said Goldsmith sorrowfully; 'for fame.' His own distress, too, had made even more acute his sensibility to the distress of others. He was playing whist one evening at Sir William Chambers', when, at a critical point of the game, he flung down his cards, ran hastily from the room into the street, as hastily returned, resumed his cards, and went on with the game. He had heard an unfortunate woman attempting to sing in the street; and so did her half-singing, half-sobbing, pierce his heart, that he could not rest till he had relieved her, and sent her away. The other card-players had been

conscious of the woman's voice, but not of the wretchedness in its tone which had so affected Goldsmith.

It occurred to some friends to agitate the question of a pension for him. Wedderburne had talked somewhat largely, in his recent defence of Johnson's pension, of the resolve of the ministry no longer to restrict the bounty of the crown by political considerations, provided there was distinction in the literary world, and the prospect of 'approaching distress.' No living writer now answered those conditions better than Goldsmith; yet application on his behalf was met by firm refusal. His talent was not a marketable one. 'A late nobleman who had been a member ' of several administrations,' says poor Smollett, 'observed to me that one good writer was of more importance to 'the government than twenty placemen in the house of commons:' but the good writer must have the qualities of the placeman, to enable them to recognize his importance, or induce him to accept their livery. They had lately managed to pension Arthur Murphy, and Hugh Kelly had been some years in their pay: but Goldsmith had declined the overtures which these men accepted; such political feeling as he had shown in his English History was decidedly anti-aristocratic; and though, with this, he may have exhibited a strong leaning to the monarchy, he had not the merit which with the king was still a substitute for most other merit, of being a Scotchman. While the matter was in discussion, there had come to London the Scotch professor who had written the somewhat trumpery Essay

on Truth to which I formerly adverted; and which had eagerly been caught at with avowed exaggeration of praise, as a mere battery of assault against the Voltaire and Hume philosophy. The object, such as it was, was a good one; and though it could not make Beattie a tolerable philosopher, it made him, for the time, a very perfect social idol. He was supposed to have 'avenged' insulted Christianity. 'He is so caressed, and invited, and treated, and liked, 'and flattered by the great, that I can see nothing of him,' says Johnson. 'Every one,' says Mrs. Piozzi, 'loves 'Doctor Beattie but Goldsmith, who says he cannot bear 'the sight of so much applause as they all bestow upon ' him. Did he not tell us so himself, who could believe 'he was so exceedingly ill-natured?' Telling it, one half called him ill-natured; and the other half, absurd. certainly had the objection all to himself. 'I have been 'but once to the Club since you left England,' writes Beauclerc to Lord Charlemont: we were entertained as 'usual by Doctor Goldsmith's absurdity.' Some harangue against Beattie, very probably; for even the sarcastic Beau went with the rest of the 'ale-house in Gerrard Street,' in support of the anti-infidel philosopher. What most vexed Goldsmith, however, was the adhesion of Reynolds. It was the only grave difference that had ever been between them; and it is honourable to the poet that it should have arisen on the only incident in the painter's life which has somewhat tarnished his fame. Reynolds accompanied Beattie to Oxford; partook with him in an

He

honorary doctorship of civil law; and on his return painted his fellow doctor in Oxonian robes, with the Essay on Truth under his arm, and at his side the angel of Truth overpowering and chasing away the demons of Infidelity, Sophistry, and Falsehood: the last represented by the plump and broad-backed figure of Hume, the first by the lean and piercing face of Voltaire. It is unworthy of 'you,' said Goldsmith to Sir Joshua, and his fine rebuke will outlast the silly picture, 'to debase so high a genius " as Voltaire before so mean a writer as Beattie. Beattie ' and his book will be forgotten in ten years, while Voltaire's 'fame will last for ever. Take care it does not perpetuate 'this picture, to the shame of such a man as you.' Reynolds persisted, notwithstanding the protest; but was incapable of any poor resentment of it. He produced the same year, at Goldsmith's suggestion, his painting of Ugolino. Beattie himself, however, was full of resentment. He called his critic a poor creature, eaten up with jealousy; yet he admired his genius, he said (this was a year hence, when he had no more to fear from his criticism); and was 'to find last summer that he looked upon me as a person 'who seemed to stand between him and his interest.' The allusion was to the pension; for which it was well known that Goldsmith was an unsuccessful solicitor, and which had been granted unsolicited to Beattie. The king had sent for him, praised his Essay, and given him two hundred a-year. Johnson welcomed the news in the Hebrides with his most vehement expression of delight, Oh, brave we! Though,

sorry

seeing he had quoted his favourite Traveller but three days before, till the tear started to his eye,' he might have thought somewhat of his other unpensioned friend, and clapped his hands' less vehemently.

That the failure of hope in this direction should a little have soured and changed the unlucky petitioner, will hardly provoke surprise. He had hitherto taken little interest, and no part in politics; and his inclination, as far as it may be traced, had certainly never been to the ministerial side. But he seems no longer to have scrupled to avow a decisive present sympathy with the opposition. Lord Shelburne's member and protégé, Townshend, was at this time Lord Mayor of London; and by his fiery liberalism, and really bold resolution, quite careless of those Malagrida taunts against his patron with which the sarcasm of Junius had supplied ministerial assailants, was exasperating the Court to the last degree. Yet Goldsmith did not hesitate to praise the 'patriotic magistrate,' and to avow that he had done so. 'Goldsmith the other day,' writes Beauclerc to Lord Charlemont, 'put a paragraph 'into the newspapers, in praise of Lord Mayor Townshend. 'The same night we happened to sit next to Lord Shelburne, at Drury Lane. I mentioned the circumstance of the 'paragraph to him, and he said to Goldsmith that he hoped ' he had mentioned nothing about Malagrida in it. "Do "you know," answered Goldsmith, "that I never could ""conceive the reason why they call you Malagrida, FOR "“Malagrida was a very good sort of man. You see

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