Arrived in London, he was for a time an usher in a school at Peck ham, and being very speedily disgusted with this employment, next an apothecary's assistant. The liberality of an old schoolfellow, who accidentally discovered him, enabled him soon after to commence practice as a physician ; and by the joint aid of medicine and litera ture (acting as reader in the printing-office of Richardson, the author of ' Clarissa Marlowe '), ho managed for some abort time to earn a scanty subsistence. In 1758 he obtained an appointment, which might have eventually turned out lucrative, as physician to one of the factoriea in India; and some of his letters written at this time show that he was very eager to proceed in that capacity to the East. In order to meet the expenses of his outfit and voyage, ha immediately drew up and published proposals for printing by aubacription his Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Literature in Europe.' From some unexplained cause however this appointment fall to the ground; and he did not pass an examination before the College of Surgeons, for which he offered himself, whether with a view to his eastern appoint ment, or to a subsequent schema of obtainiug a post as hospital mate, is not certain. He now fell back upon literature, and renewed an engage ment with Mr. Griffiths, the proprietor and publisher of the 'Monthly Review,' to write for that journal, receiving in return a moderate salary besides board and lodging. The engagement was in the first instance to last for a year ; but at the end of seven or eight months it was given up by mutual consent. Ha published his 'Present State of Literature in Europe' in 1759. In October of the same year he commenced writing the 'Bee,' a series of light essays which was intended to appear as a weekly periodical, but the issue of which ceased with the eighth number. These were followed by contributions to Smollett's 'British Magazine,' the delightful 'Chinese Latter' in the 'Public, Ledger,' &a. In 1762 he began the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' for which Dr. Johnson, while Goldsmith was under arrest, succeeded in getting for him at once 601., but which was not published until 1766. 'The Traveller' appeared at the end of 1764, and in the same year his ballad of the ' Hermit,' In the meanwhile he had published his ' Life of Beau Nash," Letters from a Nobleman to his Son,' and other hasty works and several compilations, and done much other book sellers work, for the purpose of immediate profit.
Ilia comedy of the ' Good-Natured Man' was brought out at Covent Garden in the beginning of 1768. It had been previously declined by Garrick, and did not meet with any very decided success, though Dr. Johnson pronounced it to be the best comedy which had appeared since ' The Provoked Husband.' In 1770 ho published his ' Deserted Village ;' and in the samo year entered into engagements for writing his histories of Rome, Greece, and England. 011 the establishment of the Royal Academy of Painting, in 1770, Goldsmith was appointed pro fessor of ancient history in the institution. In 1773 he appeared a second time as a dramatlo author, and now with very great success. Dr. Johnson said of 'She Stoops to Conquer' that "ho knew of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience, that has answered so much the great end of comedy—making an audience merry." Its success was unequivocal, and it ran without intermission to the end of the season, and was resumed at the opening of the fellow lng one. One of his last publications was a' History of the Earth and
Animated Nature,' which appeared in 1774, and in which he had beau engaged for two or three years. For this work he received the large sum of 8501.; but Goldsmith's money was ever given or gambled away as soon as it was received, and very shortly he was in as great embar rassment as before. In the spring of 1774 he was taken ill with a fever, which, aggravated by mental distress consequent on poverty, and also by a wrong treatment, which his physician could not dissuade him from pursuing, terminated fatally on the 4th of.April. lie died at the age of forty-five. Ile was interred in the burial ground of the Temple church, but no memorial was set up there to indicate the place of his burial, and it is now found to be impoesible to identify the spot in which his remains were laid. His friends erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, for which a Latin inscription was written by Dr. Johnson; and in 1837 a marble slab, with an English inscription, was placed by the members of the Inner Temple, in the Temple church, to commemorate the feet of Goldsmith having died in the Temple and been buried within the Temple churchyard : this slab now stands in the vestry.
The preceding brief sketch of Goldsmith's life speaks plainly enough as to his character. He was weakness itself. Not without amiable dispositions, for indeed few men have possessed more benevolence or stronger family affections, he wanted the strength of purpose which can alone regulate them for good. At no period of his life did be resolutely pursue an object. Idle at the university, unwilling to settle down to any profession, and when he had made his choice, lazy and apathetic in its pursuit, he at last became an author, merely because authorship was necessary for subsistence, and wrote only as often and as much as the pressure of his wants required. He was ever ready to yield to the impulse of the moment, and a piteous tale would so work upon his feelings, that for the relief of an applicant ho often not only gave his all, but even involved himself iu debt. His weak ness also assumed, in a remarkable degree, the form of vanity, with instances of which failing the reader of Boswell's Life of Johnson' will be acquainted.
Of Goldsmith the author but little need bo said. The humour of the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' the pathos of the ' Traveller,' and the 'Deserted Village,' and the wit of some of his smaller poems, are known and appreciated by all. His numerous compilations, which were only written for money, are not proper objects of criticism. His histories of Greece and Rome certainly possess no critical value of any kind ; and yet they have long been read with pleasure by a large class who feel the charm of the writer's easy and lucid style, without caring or troubling themselves about the accuracy of his statements.
A life of Goldsmith was published not long after his death by Bishop Percy; and a memoir of him is to be found iu Sir Walter Scott's ' Miscellaneous Prose Works.' More recently three other lives of Goldsmith have appeared—by Prior, Forster, and Washington Irving : the largest is that by Mr. Prior; the beat is that by Mr. Forster.