in nine days reached Rotterdam; whence he travelled by land to Leyden.

Here he resided about a year, studying anatomy under Albinus, and chymistry 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 the 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 under-rate 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 there taken 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 supposed, to a single individual, and with not a guinea in his pocket.

His first endeavours 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 fruitless; and how he subsisted is not easy to guess. At length, however, it appears,

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

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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 chymists for employment, as a journeyman; but here his threadbare appearance, aukward manners, and the want of a recommendation, operated sorely to his prejudice; till at last a chy

* 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

mist near Fish-street-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 afterwards removed to the neighbourhood of the Temple; his success 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 a while with the celebrated Samuel Richardson as corrector of the press.

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."