OLIVER GOLDSMITH S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK II.
1759. against some celebrated friends of his later life: it contains
M. 31. the best existing notice known to me of Voltaire's residence
in England: and for proof of the time at which it was
written, passages might be given in exact paraphrase of the
argument of his Polite Learning; such sayings from the last-
quoted letter to his brother, as "frugality in the lower orders
" of mankind may be considered as a substitute for ambition;"
and such apophthegms from his recent sharp experience, as
" the school of misery is the school of wisdom."
The Polite Learning was now completed, and passing
through the press: the Dodsleys of Pall Mall, who gave
Johnson ten guineas for the poem of London, having taken it
under their charge. This too was the time when, being acci-
dentally in company with Grainger at the Temple Exchange-
coffee-house, he was introduced to Thomas Percy, already
busily engaged in collecting the famous JReliques;*now chap--
lain to Lord Sussex, and who became afterwards Bishop of
Dromore.f Percy, who had a great love of letters and of literary
men, was attracted to this new acquaintance; for before he
returned to his vicarage of EastonMauduit in Northampton-
shire, he discovered Goldsmith's address in Green Arbour
Court, and resolved to call upon him. "A friend of his paying
* See a letter of the poet Shenstone (to whose suggestion we owe the Eeligiies) in
Nichols's Illustrations, vii. 220-3.
>f« Percy will frequently appear in these pages ; and though, for some unexplained
reason, Johnson said harsher things to him, as well as of Mm, than was ordinarily
his haMt towards men of that calling and station, he has also in a few lines so
happily expressed Ms literary claims and character, that they will best introduce
him here : " He is a man very willing to learn, and very able to teach ; a man out
" of whose company I never go without having learned something. It is sure that
" he vexes me sometimes, but I am afraid it is by making me feel my own
" ignorance. So much extension of mind, and so much minute accuracy of
" inquiry, if you survey your whole circle of acquaintance, you will find so scarce,
" if you find it at all, that you will value Percy by comparison. . . Percy's
"attention to poetry has given grace and splendour to his studies of antiquity.
" A mere antiquarian is a rugged being." JBoswell, vii. 117..