that?" Pfhaw! Doctor," (replied Colman,) in a farcaftic tone," don't be terrified at fquibs, when we have been fitting thefe two hours upon a barrel of gunpowder." Goldfmith's pride was fo hurt by the poignancy of this remark, that the friendship which had before fubfifted between the Manager and the Author was diffolved for life. The fuccefs of the comedy of She Stoops to Conquer produced a moft illiberal perfonal attack on the author in one of the public prints. Enraged at this abufive pub. lication, Dr. Goldímith repaired to the house of the publither, and, after remonftrating on the malignity of this attack on his character, began to apply his cane to the fhoulders of the publifher, who, making a powerful refiftance, from being the defenfive foon became the offenfive combatant. Dr. Kenrick, who was fitting in a private room of the publisher's, hearing a noife in the fhop, came in, put an end to the fight, and conveyed the Doctor to a coach. The papers inftantly teemed with fresh abu on the impropriety of the Doctor's attempting to beat a perfon in his own house, on which, in the Daily Advertiser of Wednesday, March 31, 1773, he inferted the following addrefs. "To the Public. Left it may be fuppofed that I have been willing to correct in others an abuse of which I have been guilty myfelf, I beg leave to declare, that, in all my life, I never wrote, or dictated, a single paragraph, letter, or ellay, in a newspaper, except a few moral effays, under the character of a Chinefe, about ten years ago, in the Ledger; and a letter, to which I figned my name, in the St. James's Chronicle. If the liberty of the press therefore has been abufed, I have had no hand in it. I have always confidered the prefs as the protector of our freedom, as a watchful guardian, capable of uniting the weak against the encroachments of power. What concerns the public moft properly admits of a public difcuffion. But of late, the prefs has turned from defending public intereft, to making inroads upon private life; from combating the ftrong, to overwhelming the Ba feeble, feeble. No condition is now too obfcure for its abuse, and the protector is become the tyrant of the people In this manner the freedom of the prefs is beginning to fow the feeds of its own diffolution; the great muft oppofe it from principle, and the weak from fear; till, at laft, every rank of mankind fhall be found to give up its benefits, content with fecurity from its infults. How to put a stop to this licentioufness, by which all are indifcriminately abused, and by which vice confequently efcapes in the general cenfure, I am unable to tell; all I could wifh is, that, as the law gives us no protection against the injury, fo it thould give calumniators no fhelter after having provoked correction. The infults which we receive before the public, by being more open, are the more diftreffing: by treating them with filent contempt, we do not pay a fufficient deference to the opinion of the world. By recurring to legal redrefs, we too often expofe the weakness of the law, which only ferves to increase our mortification by failing to relieve us. In short, every man fhould fingly confider himfelf as a guardian of the liberty of the prefs, and, as far as his influence can extend, fhould endeavour to prevent its licentiousness becoming at last the grave of its freedom. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. The profits arifing from his two comedies where eftimated at 1300l. rating the Good natured Man, at 500l. and She Stoops to Conquer at Șool. which, with the product of other works, amounted, as is afferted upon a good authority, to 1800l. but, through a profufe liberality to indigent authors, and particularly thofe of his own country, who played on his credulity, together with the effects of an habit he had contracted for gaming, he found himself, at the clofe of that very year, not in a state of enjoyment of a pleafing profpect before him, but enveloped in the gloom of defpondency, and all the perplexities of debt, accumulated by his own indifcretion. It is remarkable, that, about this time, our Author altered his mode of addrefs; he rejected the title of Doctor, and affumed that of plain Mr. Goldsmith. This innovation has been attributed to various causes. Şome Some fuppofed he then formed a resolution never to engage as a practical profeffor in the healing art; others imagined that he conceived the important appellation of Doctor, and the grave deportment attached to the cha racter, incompatible with the man of fashion, to which he had the vanity to aspire; but, whatever might be his motive, he could not throw off the title, which the world impofed on him to the day of his death, and which is annexed to his memory at the prefent day; though he never obtained a degree fuperior to that of Bachelor of Phyfic. Though Goldfmith was indifcreet, he was, at the fame time, induftrious; and, though his genius was Jively and fertile, he frequently fubmitted to the dull task of compilation. He had previously written Hiftories of England, Greece, and Rome; and afterwards undertook, and finished, a work, entitled, An Hiftory of the Earth and Animated Nature; but, if a judgment may be formed of this work from the opinion of the learned, it redounded more to his emolument than his reputation. A fhort time before he paid the debt of nature, he had formed a defign of compiling an Univerfal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, and had printed, and diftributed amongst his friends and acquaintance, a profpectus of the work; but as he received very little encouragement from the bookfellers, he defifted, though reluctantly, from his defign. His laft production, Retaliation, though not intended for public view, but merely his own private amusement, and that of a few particular friends, exhibits ftrong marks of genuine humour. It originated from fome jokes of feftive merriment on the Author's perfon and dialect, in a club of literary friends, where good nature was fometimes facrificed at the fhrine of wit and farcalm; and as Goldsmith could not disguise his feelings upon the occafion, he was called upon for Retaliation, which he produced the very next club meeting. It may not be fo accurate as his other poetical productions, as he did not revife it, or live to finifh it in the the manner he intended; yet high eulogiums have been paffed on it by fome of the firft characters in the learned world, and it has obtained a place in moft of the editions of the English Poets. Our Author now approached the period of his diffolution. He had been frequently attacked for fome years with a ftrangury, and the embarraffed ftate of his affairs aggravated the violence of the disorder, which, with the agitation of his mind, brought on a nervous fever, that operated in fo great a degree, that he exhibited figns of despair, and even a difguft with life itfelf. Finding his diforder rapidly increase, he sent for Mr. Hawes, his apothecary, as well as intimate friend, to whom he related the fymptoms of his malady. He told him he had taken two ounces of ipecacuanha wine as an emetic; and expreffed a great defire of making trial of Dr. James's fever powders, which he defired him to fend him. The apothecary reprefented to his patient the impropriety of taking the medicine at that time; but no argument could prevail with him to relinquish his intention; fo that Mr. Hawes, apprehenfive of the fatal confequences of his putting this rafh refolve into execution, in order to divert him from it, requested permiffion to fend for Doctor Fordyce, who attended immediately on receiving the meffage.* The Doctor, alarmed at the dangerous fymptoms which the disorder indicated, thought it neceffary to call in the advice of another phyfician; and accordingly propofed fending for Doctor Turton, of whom he knew Goldfmith had a great opinion. The propofal was acceded to; a fervant was immediately dispatched with a meffage; and, on his arrival, the two Doctors affifted at a confultation, which they continued regularly every day till the diforder put a period to the existence of their Doctor Fordyce, of whofe medical abilities Goldfmith always expreffed the highest fente, corroborated the opinion of the apothecary, and ufed every argument to diffuade him from taking the powders; but, deaf to all the remonftrances of his phyfician and friend, he fatally perfifted in his refolution and when the apothecary vifited him the following day, and enquired of him how he did, he fetched a deep figh, and faid, in a dejected tone," He wished he had taken his friendly advice last night." patient, patient, on the fourth day of April, 1774, in the 45th year of his age. His friends, who were very numerous and refpectable, had determined to bury him in Weftminfter-abbey: his pall was to have been fupported by Lord Shelburne, Lord Louth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Honourable Mr. Beauclerc, Mr. Edmund Burke, and Mr. Garrick; but, from fome unaccountable circunftances, this defign was dropped; and his remains were privately depofited in the Temple burial-ground, on Saturday, the 9th of April; when Mr. Hugh Kelly, Meffrs. John and Robert Day, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Etherington, and Mr. Hawes, gentlemen who had been his friends in life, attended his corpfe as mourners, and paid the last tribute to his memory. A fubfcription, however, was afterwards raised by his friends, to defray the expence of a marble monument, which was placed in Westminster-abbey, between Gay's monument and the Duke of Argyle's, in the Poets' corner, with the following Latin infcription, written by his friend Dr. Samuel Johnson: OLIVARI GOLDSMITH Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit Affectuum potens at lenis Dominator Lectorum Veneratio Natus Hibernia Fornia Lonfordienfis Tranflation. This Monument is raifed Who left no fpecies of writing untouched, or Unadorned by his Pen, |