himself, his appeal to the public, were the
_Traveller_, the _Vicar of Wakefield_, the _Deserted Village_; but
these came at long intervals; and in the meantime he had to bear with
the anonymous malignity that pursued him as best he might. No doubt,
when Burke was entertaining him at dinner; and when Johnson was openly
deferring to him in conversation at the Club; and when Reynolds was
painting his portrait, he could afford to forget Mr. Kenrick and the
rest of the libelling clan.

The occasions on which Johnson deferred to Goldsmith in conversation
were no doubt few; but at all events the bludgeon of the great Cham
would appear to have come down less frequently on "honest Goldy" than on
the other members of that famous coterie. It could come down heavily
enough. "Sir," said an incautious person, "drinking drives away care,
and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would not you allow a man
to drink for that reason?" "Yes, sir," was the reply, "if he sat next
_you_." Johnson, however, was considerate towards Goldsmith, partly
because of his affection for him, and partly because he saw under what
disadvantages Goldsmith entered the lists. For one thing, the
conversation of those evenings would seem to have drifted continually
into the mere definition of phrases. Now Johnson had spent years of his
life, during the compilation of his Dictionary, in doing nothing else
but defining; and, whenever the dispute took a phraseological turn, he
had it all his own way. Goldsmith, on the other hand, was apt to become
confused in his eager self-consciousness. "Goldsmith," said Johnson to
Boswell, "should not be for ever attempting to shine in conversation; he
has not temper for it, he is so much mortified when he fails.... When he
contends, if he gets the better, it is a very little addition to a man
of his literary reputation: if he does not get the better, he is
miserably vexed." Boswell, nevertheless, admits that Goldsmith was
"often very fortunate in his witty contests, even when he entered the
lists with Johnson himself," and goes on to tell how Goldsmith, relating
the fable of the little fishes who petitioned Jupiter, and perceiving
that Johnson was laughing at him, immediately said, "Why, Dr. Johnson,
this is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little
fishes talk, they would talk like WHALES." Who but Goldsmith would have
dared to play jokes on the sage? At supper they have rumps and kidneys.
The sage