OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 
435 
College, Dublin, about the end of 1749. In this seminary he took 
the degree of B. D. but his brother not being able to obtain prefer- 
ment, Oliver turned to the study of physic, and after attending some 
courses of anatomy in Dublin, proceeded to Edinburgh in 1751, where 
he studied medicine under the professors of that university. His 
benevolent disposition soon involved him in difficulties ; and he was 
obliged precipitately to leave Scotland, in consequence of having 
engaged to pay a considerable sum for a fellow student. A few days 
after, about the beginning of 1754, he arrived in Sunderland, near 
Newcastle, where he was arrested, at the suit of a tailor in Edinburgh, 
to whom he had given security for his friend. By the good offices of 
Lachlan Maclaire, Esq. and Dr. Sleigh, then in the college, he was 
delivered out of the hands of the bailiff, and took his passage on 
board a Dutch ship to Rotterdam, where, after a short stay, he pro- 
ceeded to Brussels. He then visited great part of Flanders, and, 
after passing some time at Strasburg and Louvain, where he took the 
degree of M. B., he accompanied an English gentleman to Bern and 
Geneva. He travelled on foot most part of his tour, having left Eng- 
land with very little money. Being of a philosophical turn, capable 
of sustaining fatigue, and not easily terrified at danger, he became 
enthusiastically fond of seeing different countries. He had some 
knowledge of French and of music, and played tolerably well on the 
German flute ; which, from an amusement, became the means of sub- 
sistence. His learning procured him a hospitable reception at 
most of the religious houses ; and his music made him welcome to 
the peasants of Flanders and Germany. 
“ Whenever I approached,” he used to say, “a peasant’s house 
towards night-fall, I played one of my most merry tunes ; and that 
procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day ; 
but in truth, I must own, whenever I attempted to entertain persons 
of a higher rank, they always thought my performance odious, and 
never made me any return for my endeavours to please them.” 
On his arrival at Geneva, he was recommended as a travelling 
tutor to a young man, who had inherited a considerable sum of money 
by his uncle, a pawnbroker near Holborn. This youth, who had been 
articled to an attorney, on receipt of his fortune, determined to see 
the world ; and on engaging w'ith his preceptor, made a proviso, that 
he should be permitted to govern himself ; and Goldsmith soon found 
his pupil understood the art of directing in money concerns extremely 
well, as avarice was his prevailing passion. Such curiosities on the 
way as could be seen for nothing he was ready to look at; but if the 
sight of them was to be paid for, he usually asserted, that he had 
been told they were not worth seeing. He never paid a bill without 
observing how^ amazingly expensive travelling was ; and all this, 
though he was not yet 21 ! 
During Goldsmith’s continuance in Switzerland, he assiduously 
cultivated his poeticalptalent, of which he gave some proofs while at 
Edinburgh. From this place he sent the first sketch of his delightful 
poem called The Traveller, to his brother the clergyman in Ireland, 
who lived with an amiable wife on an income of only 401. a year. 
From Geneva Mr. Goldsmith and his pupil visited the south of France, 
