nd that he had no wit for conversation, but only for writing. There
is so little to support these ideas that it is surprising that they
should have arisen, and for any period, or in any mind, have
persisted. Horace Walpole, in his graceful way, called Goldsmith an
inspired idiot. Garrick told us that "Dear Noll wrote like an angel
and talked like poor Poll." Johnson said: "No man was more foolish
when he had not a pen in his hand." The charge that Goldsmith was
incapable of collected thought in conversation falls to the ground if
we recall one gentle utterance: "It must be much from you, sir, that
I take ill." These words from one who had suffered an indescribably
teasing impertinence at the hands of Johnson are the most collected
conceivable. They are not less chivalrous. In _The Retaliation_
Johnson alone is spared. To this friend nothing could shake
Goldsmith's admiring and unalterable faithfulness and affection.
There is a certain spirit in expression that must stand inevitably
associated with the collected mind. When it was wondered why Johnson
cared for some unhappy mortal who had no charm or talent, Goldsmith
said, in his quiet and reflective way: "The man is poor and honest,
which is recommendation enough for Johnson." Concerning one who was
undeserving, according to the manner of the world, who had no honour,
and had forfeited all claim to character, yet still retained Johnson's
compassion, Goldsmith rejoined: "This man has become miserable, and
that ensures the protection of Johnson." Goldsmith, who could so
readily reply to protests with answers at once as felicitous and as
reflective as these, could not have been an uncollected
conversationalist. Not merely the words, but also the manner that one
must associate with their utterance preclude the possibility.
Goldsmith is supposed to have had no learning because one day he
called upon Gibbon, who gulled him. He questioned the author of "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" upon some historic issue, and
the historian led him grotesquely astray. Who would not have accepted
anything Gibbon said without criticism? Who would have expected this
great personage capable of indulging in a school-boy prank?
Goldsmith's writings prove him well instructed and widely read, and
show his mind as curiously stored and equipped as its whole genius was
charming and gracious. If he could not talk, but could only write,
then the pen in his hand is taken as an instrument capabl