the close of 1763 which indicate a less cordial understanding between himself and Newbery. He had ceased writing for the British Magazine; was contemplating an extensive engagement with James Dodsley; and had attempted to open a connection with Tonson of the Strand. The engagement with Dodsley went as far as a formal signed agreement (for a Chronological History of the Lives of eminent Persons of Great Britain and Ireland), in which the title of Medical Bachelor is first assumed by him; and at the close of which another intimation of his growing importance appears, in the stipulation that 'Oliver 'Goldsmith shall print his name to the said work.' It was to be in two volumes, octavo, of the size and type of the Universal History; each volume was to contain thirtyfive sheets; Goldsmith was to be paid at the rate of three guineas a sheet; and the whole was to be delivered in the space of two years at farthest. But nothing came of it. Dodsley had inserted a cautious proviso that he was not to be required to advance anything till the book should be completed; and hence, in all probability, the book was never begun. The overture to Tonson had not even so much success. It was a proposition from Goldsmith for a new edition of Pope, which Tonson was so little disposed to entertain that he did not condescend to write his refusal. He sent a printer with a message declining it; delivered with so much insolence, that the messenger received a caning for his pains.

The desire to connect himself with Pope, seems to point

in the direction of those secret labours which are to prove such wonderment to Hawkins. He was busy at this time with his poem and his novel; and, if there be any truth in what great fat Doctor Cheyne of Bath told Thomson, that, as you put a bird's eyes out to make it sing the sweeter, you should keep poets poor to animate their genius, he was in excellent condition for such labour; though it may be, with Thomson, he might think both the birds and the poets happier in the light, and singing sweetest amid luxuriant woods, with the full spring blossoming around them. What alone seems certain as to that matter, be it light or dark, is that the song, if a true song, will make itself audible.

There is a note among Newbery's papers with the date of the 17th of December, 1763, which states Goldsmith to have received twenty-five guineas from the publisher, for which he promises to account. At this time, too, he disappears from his usual haunts; and is supposed to have been in concealment somewhere. Certainly he was in distress, and on a less secure footing with Newbery than at the commencement of the year. Yet it is also at this time we find him busied with others' distresses, and helping to relieve them. Among his own papers at his death was found the copy of an appeal to the public for poor Kit Smart, who had married Newbery's step-daughter ten years before, and had since, with his eccentricities and imprudences, wearied out all his friends but Goldsmith and Johnson. Lately, as a last resource, he had been

taken to a mad-house; and it was under this restraint, while pens and ink were denied to him, that he indented on the walls of his cell with a key, his Song to David. His friends accounted for the excellence of the composition by asserting that he was most religious when most mad; but Goldsmith and Johnson were nevertheless now exerting themselves for his release. 'Sir,' said the latter to Boswell, at one of their recent interviews, my poor friend Smart 'falls upon his knees and says his prayers in the street, and insists on people praying with him; and what of 'that? I'd as lief pray with Kit Smart as any one else. 'Rationally speaking, sir, it is greater madness not to pray at all than to pray as Smart did. Another charge is that he does not love clean linen; and, sir, I have no 'passion for it.'

Their exertions were successful. Smart was again at large at the close of the year, and on the 3rd of the following April (1764) a sacred composition named Hannah, with his name as its author, and music by Mr. Worgan, was produced at the king's theatre. The effort connects itself with a similar one by Goldsmith, made at the same time. He wrote the words of an Oratorio in three acts, on the subject of the Captivity in Babylon. But it is easier to help a friend than oneself; and his own Oratorio lay unrepresented in his desk. All of it that escaped to the public while he lived were two songs; in which his own sorrows and hope seemed as legibly written as those of the Israelitish women.

"To the last moment of his breath,
On Hope the wretch relies;
And e'en the pang preceding death
Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;

And still as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray."

The night was very dark round Goldsmith just now, yet the ray was shining steadily too. In few of the years of his life have we more decisive evidence of struggles and distress; in none did he accomplish so much for an enduring fame. But it is a year very difficult to describe with any accuracy of detail. We have little to guide us beyond the occasional memoranda of publishers and the accounts of Mrs. Elizabeth Fleming. To the Islington lodging he returned at the beginning of April (having paid 'rent' for the retention of 'the room,' meanwhile, at the rate of about three shillings a week); and his expenses to the end of June are contained in his landlady's bill. They seem to argue fewer enjoyments, and less credit with Mrs. Fleming. No dinners or teas are thrown into the bargain. The 'sixpence' for 'sassafras' (a humble decoction which the poet does not seem to have despised, now dealt in by apothecaries chiefly) is always carefully charged. The loans are only four, and of moderate amount; a shilling to pay the laundress,' and ten-pence, one and two-pence, and sixpence, in cash.' There are none of the old entries for port wine. Two-pence, twice, for a pint of ale,' and two-pence for 'opodeldock,'

express his very humble 'extras.' The impression left by this bill is borne out by Newbery's concurrent memoranda of money advanced; in sums ridiculously small, and for such work as the revision of short translations, and papers for the Christian Magazine. What were not unusual in the previous year, as cash advances of one, two, and even four and five guineas, from the publisher, have now dwindled down to 'shillings' and 'half-crowns ;' and it is matter of doubt whether Newbery, to satisfy outstanding claims, did not engage him for some part of his time in work for his juvenile library. The author of Caleb Williams, who had been a child's publisher himself, had always a strong persuasion that Goldsmith wrote Goody Two Shoes (an ingenious living critic has claimed Tom Hickathrift for Fielding); and if so, the effort belongs to the present year; for Mrs. Margery, radiant with gold and ginger-bread, and rich in pictures as extravagantly ill-drawn as they are dear and well-remembered, made her appearance at Christmas. Other aid was also sought to eke out that of Newbery; and a sum of thirteen guineas is acknowledged from Mr. Griffin (joint publisher in the Essays the following year), but without mention of the labours it rewarded.

That, in all these memoranda, the entire labours of the year cannot yet be accounted for, it is hardly necessary to add we are left to guess what other work was in progress, for which advances were not available; and in this, an anecdote told by Reynolds will be some assistance. He went out to call upon Goldsmith, he says, not having seen