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OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AFD TIMES. [BOOK i.
1755. zeal, the pale, somewhat sad face, with its two great wrinkles
-ffl*-27. between the eyebrows, but redeemed from ugliness or contempt by its land expression of simplicity, as his own was by its wonderful intellect and look of unutterable mockery. For. though, when they met, Voltaire was upwards of sixty-one, and Goldsmith not twenty-seven, it happened that when (in 1778) the Frenchman's popularity returned, and all the fashion and intellect of Paris were again at the feet of the philosopher of Ferney; the Johnsons, Burkes, Gibbons, Wartons, Sheridans, and Reynoldses of England were discussing the inscription for the marble tomb of the author of the Vicar of Wakefield.
The lecture rooms of Germany are so often referred to
in his prose writings, that, as he passed to Switzerland, he must have taken them in his way. In the Polite Learning,* one is painted admirably: its Nego, Probo, and Distingue, growing gradually loud till denial, approval, and distinction are altogether lost; till disputants grow warm, moderator is unheard, audience take part in the debate, and the whole hall buzzes with false philosophy, sophistry, and error. Passing into Switzerland, he saw Schaffhausen frozen quite across, and the water standing in columns where the cataract had formerly fallen. His Animated Nature, in which this is noticed, contains also masterly descriptions, from Ms own experience, of the wonders that present themselves to the traveller over lofty mountains; and he adds that " nothing can be finer or more exact than " Mr. Pope's description of a traveller straining up the "• Alps."t Geneva was his resting-place in Switzerland; but he visited Basle and Berne; ate a " savoury" dinner on the top of the Alps; flushed woodcocks on Mount Jura;
* Chap. v. + Animated Nature, i, 120.
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