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dining-room at Streatham, by the side of Johnson, Burke, Garrick, and others of his famous friends. The life of his celebrity is thus, as it were, beginning; and from no kinder, no worthier hand than that of Reynolds, could it receive inauguration. The great painter's restless and fidgetty sister, who used herself to paint portraits, with such exact imitation of her brother's defects and avoidance of his beauties, that, according to Northcote, they made himself cry and everybody else laugh,-thought it marvellous that so much dignity could have been given to the poet's face, and yet so strong a likeness be conveyed: for "Dr. Goldsmith's cast of "countenance," she proceeds to inform us, "and indeed his whole figure from head to foot, impressed every one at first sight with cc an idea of his being a low mechanic; particularly, I believe, a "journeyman tailor" and in proof the lively lady relates that Goldsmith came in one day, at a party at her brother's, very indignant at an insult he had received from some one in a coffee-house; and, on explaining it as "the fellow took me for a tailor," all the party present either laughed aloud, or showed they suppressed a laugh. It is a pity they were not more polite, if only for their host's sake; since it is certain that these jibes were never countenanced by Reynolds. He knew Goldsmith better; and as he knew, he had painted him. A great artist does not measure a face, tailor-fashion; it is by seizing and showing the higher aspects of character, that he puts upon his work the stamp of history. No man had seen earlier than Reynolds into Goldsmith's better qualities; no man so loved and honoured him to the last; and no man so steadily protected him, with calm, equable, kindly temper, against Johnson's careless sallies. "It is amazing," said the latter more than once, with that too emphatic habit of overcharging the characteristics of his friends which all agreed in attributing to him, "it is amazing how little Goldsmith knows, he "seldom comes where he is not more ignorant that any one else;" and on Reynolds quietly interposing "yet there is no man whose 66 company is more liked," the other, fully conceding this, would explain it by the gratification people felt, to find a man of "the "most distinguished abilities as a writer" inferior in other respects to themselves. But Reynolds had another explanation. He thought that much of Goldsmith's nonsense, as the nonsense of a man of undoubted wit and understanding, had the essence of conviviality in it. He fancied it not seldom put on for that reason, and for no other. "One should take care," says Addison, "not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter;" and some such maxim, Reynolds seems to have thought, was put in practice by Goldsmith. It was not a little, at any rate, to have given that impression to so wise as well as kind an observer;

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to one of whom Johnson said to Boswell that he had known no one who had passed through life with more observation; and the confidence between the friends, which was probably thus established, remained unbroken to the end. I can only discover one disagreement that ever came between them; and the famous dinner parties in Leicester-square were now seldom unenlivened by the good humour and gaiety of Goldsmith.

Nor is it improbable that, occasionally, those festive meetings were a little in need of both. "Well, Sir Joshua," said lawyer Dunning on arriving first at one of them, "and who have you got to "dine with you to-day? The last time I dined in your house, the company was of such a sort, that by I believe all the rest "of the world enjoyed peace for that afternoon." But though vehemence and disputation will at times usurp quieter enjoyments, where men of genius and strong character are assembled, the evidence that has survived of these celebrated dinners in no respect impairs their indestructible interest. They were the first great example that had been given in this country, of a cordial intercourse between persons of distinguished pretensions of all kinds, poets, physicians, lawyers, deans, historians, actors, temporal and spiritual peers, house of commons men, men of science, men of letters, painters, philosophers, musicians, and lovers of the arts,meeting on a ground of hearty ease, good humour, and pleasantry, which exalts my respect for the memory of Reynolds. It was no prim fine table he set them down to. There was little order or arrangement; there was more abundance than elegance; and a happy freedom thrust conventionalism aside. Often was the dinner board, prepared for seven or eight, required to accommodate itself to fifteen or sixteen; for often, on the very eve of dinner, would Sir Joshua tempt afternoon visitors with intimation that Johnson, or Garrick, or Goldsmith was to dine there. Nor was the want of seats the only difficulty. A want of knives and forks, of plates and glasses, as often succeeded. In something of the same style, too, was the attendance; the "two or three occasional domestics " were undisciplined; the kitchen had to keep pace with the visitors; and it was easy to know the guests best acquainted with the house, by their never failing to call instantly for beer, bread, or wine, that they might get them before the first course was over, and the worst confusion began. Once Sir Joshua was prevailed upon to furnish his table more amply with dinner glasses and decanters, and some saving of time they effected; yet, as these "accelerating "utensils" were demolished in the course of service, he could never be persuaded to replace them. "But such trifling embar"rassments," added Mr. Courtenay, describing them to Sir James Mackintosh, "only served to enhance the hilarity and singular

"pleasure of the entertainment." It was not the wine, dishes, and cookery, it was not the fish and venison, that were talked of or recommended; those social hours, that irregular convivial talk, had matter of higher relish, and fare more eagerly enjoyed. And amid all the animated bustle of his guests, the host sat perfectly composed; always attentive to what was said, never minding what was eat or drank, and leaving every one at perfect liberty to scramble for himself. Though so severe a deafness had resulted from cold caught on the continent in early life, as to compel the use of a trumpet, Reynolds profited by its use to hear or not to hear, or as he pleased to enjoy the privileges of both, and keep his own equanimity undisturbed. "He is the same all the year round," exclaimed Johnson, with honest envy.

"In illness and

"in pain, he is still the same. Sir, he is the most invulnerable man "I know; the man with whom, if you should quarrel, you will "find the most difficulty how to abuse." Nor was this praise obtained by preference of any, but by cordial respect to all; for in Reynolds there was as little of the sycophant as of the tyrant. However high the rank of the guests invited, he waited for none. His dinners were served always precisely at five o'clock. His was not the fashionable ill breeding, says Mr. Courtenay, "which "could wait an hour for two or three persons of title," and put the rest of the company out of humour by the invidious distinction.

Such were the memorable meetings, less frequent at first than they afterwards became, from which Goldsmith was now rarely absent. Here appeared the dish of peas one day that were anything but their natural colour, and which one of Beauclerc's waggish friends recommended should be sent to Hammersmith, because "that was the way to Turnham Green [turn 'em green]." It was said in a whisper to Goldsmith; and so tickled and delighted him that he resolved to pass it off for his own at the house of Burke, who had a mighty relish for a bad pun. But when the time came for repeating it, he had unluckily forgotten the point, and fell into hapless confusion. "That is the way to make 'em green," he said but no one laughed. "I mean that is the road to turn 'em 66 green; "he blundered out: but still no one laughed; and as Beauclerc tells the story, he started up disconcerted, and abruptly quitted the table. A tavern he would often quit, Hawkins tells us, if his jokes were unsuccessful; though at the same time he would generally preface them, as with an instinctive distrust of their effect, 66 now I'll tell you a story of myself, which some "people laugh at and some do not." The worthy knight adds a story something like Beauclerc's, which he says occurred at the breaking up of one of those tavern evenings, when he entreated the company to sit down, and told them if they would call for another

bottle, they should hear one of his bon-mots. It turned out to be what he had said on hearing of old Sheridan's habit of practising his stage gestures in a room hung round with ten looking-glasses, "then there were ten ugly fellows together;" whereupon, every body remaining silent, he asked why they did not laugh, "which "they not doing, he without tasting the wine left the room in anger."

But surely all this, even if correctly reported, was less the sensitiveness of ill-nature than the sudden shame of exaggerated self-distrust. Poor Goldsmith! He could never acquire what it is every one's duty to learn, the making light of petty annoyances. "Consider, "Sir, how insignificant this will appear a twelvemonth hence,” was, on such occasions, the precious saying of Johnson, who, if he often inflicted the vexation, was commonly the first to suggest its remedy. But Goldsmith never lost his over sensitive nature. His very suspicions involved him in unreserved disclosures which revealed the unspoiled simplicity of his heart. Alas! that the subtle insight which is so able to teach others, should so often be powerless to guide itself! Could Goldsmith only have been as indifferent as he was earnest, as impudent as he was frank, he might have covered effectually every imperfection in his character. Could he but have practised in his person any part of the exquisite address he possessed with his pen, not an objection would have been heard against him; but when the pen was put down, the enchanter was without his wand, and an ordinary mortal like the rest of us. Rochester said of Shadwell, that if he had burnt all he wrote, and printed all he spoke, he would have left behind him more wit and humour than any other poet. It is the reverse of this we have to say of Goldsmith; yet measuring him by Shadwell, we may surely rest perfectly satisfied with the relative accomplishments and deficiencies of each. That consciousness of self which so often gives the charm and the truth to his creations, was the very thing over which he stumbled when he left the fanciful and walked into the real world. All then became patent, and a prey to critics the reverse of generous. He wore his heart upon his sleeve. "Sir, rather than "not speak, he will talk of what he knows himself to be ignorant, "which can only end in exposing him." He could not conceal what was uppermost in his mind, says Davies; he blurted it out, says Johnson, to see what became of it. Thus, when Hawkins tells us that he heard him say in company, "yesterday I heard an "excellent story, and would relate it now if I thought any of you "able to understand it," the idea conveyed is not an impertinence, but simply that the company, including Hawkins, was a very stupid one. Yet, if we would have politeness perfectly defined, we have but to turn to the writings of the man who thus imper-

fectly practised it. Never was the distinction better put than where he tells us why ceremony should be different in every country while true politeness is everywhere the same, because the former is but the artificial help which ignorance assumes to imitate the latter, which is the result of good sense and good nature. Unhappily it was the best part of his own nature which he too often laid aside, when he left the society of himself for that of his friends. "Good heavens, Mr. Foote," exclaimed a lively actress at the Haymarket, "what a humdrum kind of man Dr. Goldsmith 'appears to be in our green-room, compared with the figure he "makes in his poetry?" "The reason of that, madam," replied the manager," is, because the Muses are better companions than "the Players." Thinking his companions more stupid than his thoughts, it certainly was not his business to say so; yet he could not help awkwardly saying it. His mind relieved itself, as a necessity, of all that lay upon it. His kindly purposes, and simple desires; his sympathies to assist others, and his devices to make better appearance for himself; his innocent distrusts, and amusing vanities; the sense of his own undeserved disadvantages, and vexation at others' as undeserved success,-everything sprang to his lips, and it was only from himself he could conceal anything.

Even Burke could not spare that weakness, nor refrain from practising upon it, not very justifiably, for the amusement of his friends. He and an Irish acquaintance (who lived to be Colonel O'Moore, to tell the anecdote to Mr. Croker, and perhaps to colour it a little) were walking to dine one day with Reynolds, when, on arriving in Leicester-square, they saw Goldsmith, also on his way to the same dinner party, standing near a crowd of people who were staring and shouting at some foreign women in the windows of one of the hotels. "Observe Goldsmith," said Burke to O'Moore, "and mark what passes between him and me by-and-bye "at Sir Joshua's." They passed on, and were soon joined at Reynolds's by Goldsmith, whom Burke affected to receive very coolly. "This seemed to vex poor Goldsmith," says the teller of the story; and he begged Mr. Burke would tell him how he had had the misfortune to offend him. Burke appeared very reluctant to speak; but, after a good deal of pressing, said that "he was "really ashamed to keep up an intimacy with one who could be "guilty of such monstrous indiscretions as Goldsmith had just "exhibited in the square.' With great earnestness Goldsmith protested himself unconscious of what was meant. "Why," said Burke, "did you not exclaim, as you were looking up at those women, what stupid beasts the crowd must be for staring with "such admiration at those painted Jezebels, while a man of your "talents passed by unnoticed?" "Surely, surely, my dear friend,"