OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. !»<«•« '•
" flowery pasture along the banks of the Rtraam, they «rc
M. 27. « furnished with sweets before unrifled j and thus n single
" floating beo-houso yields the proprietor a considerable
" income. Why a method similar to this him never been
" adopted in England, where we have more gentle riven*,
" and more flowery banks, than any other part of the world,
" 1 know not." After this, proofs of his having neon Florewts
Verona, Mantua, and Milan,are apparent; and in Cnrmthm
the incident occurred with which his famous couplet
has too hastily reproached a people, when, milking with
fatigue, after a long day's toilsome walk, ho was turned frum
a peasant's hut at which he implored a lodging. At i*udua
he is supposed to have stayed some little time j and here, it
has been asserted, though in this case also the offlctn!
records are lost, he received his degree, Here, or at Lou vain,
or at some other of these foreign universities where* ho alwnyH
boasted himself hero in. the disputations to which his philo-
sophic vagabond refers, there can hardly be a question that
the degree, a very simple and accessible matter at nny of
thorn,* was actually conferred. "Sir," said Bcmwc'll to
Johnson, " he disputed MB passage through Europe."* Of
his Laving also taken a somewhat close survey of thoHe count-
less academic institutions of Italy, in the midst of which
Italian learning at this time withered, evidence is* not
wanting; and he always thoroughly discriminated the
character of that country and its people,
But small the bliss that sense alon©
And senatial bliss is all the nation know*;
la florid beauty groves and fields appear—-
Man seems the only growth that dwindles here !
* Life, \l 189.