OLIYEE GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK i.
1755. remembered Ms fellow-student when years had made him
#t..27. famous, and said (much, it may be confessed, in the tone
of ex-post-facto prophecy) that in all his peculiarities it
was remarked there was about him an elevation of mind,
a -philosophical tone and manner, and the language and
information of a scholar. * Being much in want of the
philosophy, it is well that his friends should have given him
credit for it; though his last known scene in Leyden
showed greatly less of the philosophic mind than of the
gentle, grateful heart. Bent upon leaving that city, where
he had now been nearly a year without an effort for ^degree,
he called upon Ellis, and asked his assistance in some
trifling sum. It was given; but, as his evil, or (some might
say) his good genius would have it, he passed a florist's
garden on Ms return, and seeing some rare and high-priced
flowers which his uncle Contarine, an enthusiast in such
tilings, had often spoken and been in search of, he ran in
without other thought than of immediate pleasure to his
kindest Mend, bought a parcel of the roots, and sent them
off to Ireland.-!- He left Leyden next clay, with a guinea in
his-pocket, one shirt to his back, and a flute in his hand.
* Prior, i. 170, f Pemy Memoir, 33, 34.