26 OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. I-BOOKI.
he had himself been a sizar, and that it had not availed
to withhold from him the friendship of the great and the
good.
His counsel prevailed. The youth went to Dublin, showed
by passing the necessary examination that his time at school
had not been altogether thrown away, and on the llth of
June 1745 was admitted, last in the list of eight who so
presented themselves, a sizar of Trinity College; *—there most
speedily to earn that experience, which, on his elder brother
afterwards consulting him. as to the education of his son,
prompted him to answer thus : " If he has ambition, strong
" passions, and an exquisite sensibility of contempt, do not
" send him to your college, unless you have no other trade
" for him except your own."t
Flood, who was then in the college, does not seem to
have noticed Goldsmith: but a greater than Flood, though
himself little notable at college, said he perfectly recollected
his old fellow-student, when they afterwards met at the
house of Mr. Eeynolds. Not that there was much for an
Edmund Burke to recollect of him. Little went well with
Goldsmith in his student course, He had a menial position,
a savage brute for tutor, and few inclinations to the study
exacted. He was not indeed, as perhaps never living
creature in this world was, without his consolations; he
could sing a song well, and, at a new insult or outrage, could
blow off excitement through his flute with a kind of des-
perate •'mechanical vehemence*" At the worst lie had, as
* Percy Memoir, 14-, 15. " His being admitted a sizar in Trinity College, Dublin,
" at that early age, denotes a remarkable proficiency. Sizars there are expected to
"come better prepared than other boys, and therefore usually apply for admission
" somewhat later in life." A sizarsMp might in other words be called an inferior
scholarship, disposed of in like manner to the best answerer,
•|- See post, Book II. Chap. v.