still with very inferior effect' attempt imitations of other animals.

But little does Goldsmith or any other man suspect as yet, that within this wine-bibbing, tavern babbler, this meddling, conceited, inquisitive, loquacious lion hunter, this bloated and vain young Scot, lie qualities of reverence, real insight, quick observation, and marvellous memory, which, strangely assorted as they are with those other meaner habits, and parasitical, self-complacent absurdities, will one day connect his name eternally with the men of genius of his time, and enable him to influence posterity in its judgments on them. They seem to have met occasionally before Boswell returned to Edinburgh; but only two of Goldsmith's answers to the other's perpetual and restless questionings, remain to indicate the nature of their intercourse. There lived at this time with Johnson, a strange, silent, grotesque companion, whom he had supported for many years, and continued to keep with him till death; and Boswell could not possibly conceive what the claim of that insignificant Robert Levet could be, on the great object of his own veneration. 'He is 'poor and honest,' was Goldsmith's answer, which is recommendation enough for Johnson.' Discovery of another object of the great man's charity, however, seemed difficult to be reconciled with this; for here was a man of whom James Boswell had heard a very bad and dishonest character, and, in almost the same breath, that Johnson had been kind to him also. 'He is now become

'miserable,' was Goldsmith's quiet explanation, and that 'ensures the protection of Johnson.'

Newbery's memoranda and account books carry us, at the close of 1762, to a country lodging in Islington, kept by a stout and elderly lady named Mrs. Elizabeth Fleming, and inhabited by Oliver Goldsmith. He is said to have moved here to be near the publisher, who had chambers at the time in Canonbury Tower; but he had doubtless a stronger inducement in thus escaping, for weeks together, from the crowded noise of Wine Office Court (where he retained a lodging for town uses), to comparative quiet and healthy air. There were still green fields and lanes in Islington. Glimpses were discernible yet, even of the old time when the Tower was Elizabeth's hunting seat, and the country all about was woodland. There were walks where houses were not, nor terraces, nor taverns; and where stolen hours might be given to precious thought, in the intervals of toilsome labour.

That he had come here with designs of labour, more constant and unremitting than ever, new and closer arrangements with Newbery would seem to indicate. The publisher made himself, with certain prudent limitations, Mrs. Fleming's paymaster; board and lodging were to be charged £50 a year (the reader has to keep in mind that this would be now nearly double that amount), and, when the state of their accounts permitted it, to be paid each quarter by Mr. Newbery; the publisher taking credit for

these payments in his literary settlements with Goldsmith. The first quarterly payment had become due on the 24th of March 1763; and on that day the landlady's claim of £12. 10s., made up to £14 by 'incidental expenses,' was discharged by Newbery. It stands as one item in an account of his cash advances for the first nine months of 1763, which characteristically exhibits the relations of bookwriter and bookseller. Mrs. Fleming's bills recur at their stated intervals; and on the 8th of September, there is a payment of £15 to William Filby the tailor. highest advance in money is one (which is not repeated) of three guineas; the rest vary, with intervals of a week or so between each, from two guineas to one guinea and half a guinea. The whole amount is little more than £96; about £60 of which Goldsmith had meanwhile satisfied by copies of different kinds,' when on settlement day he gave his note for the balance.

The

What these copies' in every case were, it is not so easy to discover. From a list of books lent to him by Newbery, a compilation on popular philosophy appears to have been contemplated; he was certainly engaged in the revision of what was meant to be a humorous recommendation of female government entitled Description of Millenium Hall, as well as in making additions to four juvenile volumes of Wonders of Nature and Art; and he had more to do with another book, the System of Natural History by Dr. Brookes (the author of the Gazetteer), which he thoroughly revised, and to which he not

only contributed a graceful preface, but several introductions to the various sections, full of picturesque animation. He was to have received for this labour eleven guineas in full,' but it was increased to nearly thirty. He had also some share in the Martial Review, or General History of the late War, the profits of which Newbery had set apart for his luckless son-in-law, Kit Smart and in a memorandum furnished by himself to the publisher, he claims three guineas for Preface to Universal History (a rival to the existing publication of that name, set on foot by Newbery and edited by Guthrie); two guineas for Preface to Rhetoric, and one for Preface to Chronicle, neither of these last now traceable; three guineas for Critical and Monthly, presumed to be contributions to Newbery's magazines ; and twenty-one pounds on account of a History of England. A subsequent receipt acknowledges another twenty-one pounds which with what I received before, is in full 'for the copy of the History of England in a series of 'Letters, two volumes in 12mo.'

This book, which was not published till the following year, claims a word of description. Such of the labours of 1763 as had yet seen the light, were not of a kind to attract much notice. 'When we write anything,' said Goldsmith, I think the public make a point of not know'ing anything about it.' So, remembering what Pope had said of the lucky lines' that had a lord to own them, the present book was issued, doubtless with Newbery's glad concurrence, as a History of England in a series of

Letters from a Nobleman to his Son. Nobleman to his Son. It had a great success in that character; passed through many editions; and was afterwards translated into French by the wife of Brissot, with notes by the Revolutionary leader himself. The nobleman was supposed to be Lord Chesterfield, so refined was the style; Lord Orrery had also the credit of it; but the persuasion at last became general that the author was Lord Lyttleton, and the name of that grave good lord (placed also, in consequence of its success in this instance, to a catchpenny Collection of Letters written by the author of Doctor Syntax) is still seen affixed to it on the bookstalls. The mistake was never corrected: it being the bookseller's interest to continue it, and not less the author's as well, when in his own name he subsequently went over the same ground. But it was not concealed from his friends; copies of the second edition of the book were sent with his autograph to both Percy and Johnson; and a zealous acquaintance, after his death, eagerly informed the Gentleman's Magazine not only that he had really written it in his lodgings at Islington, but how and in what he did so. way In the morning, says Mr. Urban's correspondent, he would study the period on which he was engaged, in Rapin, Carte, Kennett's Collection, and the recent volumes of Hume; then, having made the notes he thought necessary, he would set forth on a country walk, all the more happily if a friend accompanied him; and not till after his temperate dinner, on return, would he begin to write. If the friend stayed to partake, and