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OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. I«O«K i.
Frederick of Prussia. The fact is alleged, it in quite true,
on Goldsmith's own authority; but the passage is looHoiy written, does not appear in a work which bore the writer » name, and may either have been tampered with by others* or even mistakenly set down by himself iu confusion of memory. The error does not vitiate the statement in an integral point, since it can hardly be doubted, 1 think, that the meeting actually took place. The time when Goldsmith passed through the Genevese territory, is th« time when Voltaire had settled himself, in greater quiet than he had known for years, in his newly-purchased house of Lea l)flice«t Ms first residence in Geneva. He in, in a certain nort, admitted president of the European intellectual republic ; and, from his president's chair, is laughing at IUB own follies, laughing heartily at the kings of his acquaintances particularly and loudly laughing at Frederick and hin *' (Euwes cles Poenhies." It is the time of all others when, according to his own letters, he is resolved to have, on every occasion and in every shape, " the society of agroeablts *uul " clever people."* Goldsmith, flute; iu hand, 01* Goldsmith, learned and poor companion to a rich young fool,— Goldsmith, in whatever character, yearning to literature, it« fame, and its awe-inspiring professors,—-would not find himself near Les Dfilices without finding also easy passage to its illustrious owner. By whatever chance or design, there at any rate he seems to have been. A large party wits prtment, and conversation turned upon the English; of whom, an he afterwards observed in a letter to the Public Ledger* Goldsmith recollected Voltaire to have remarked, that at the battle of Dettingen they exhibited prodigies of valour,
* See the delightful and entertaining fragment of Meimin written at lM« time
in explain liis quarrel with fritz. |
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