OLIYEE GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK m.
1759. " other gentlemen to write original pieces." The Doctor, in
3&31. truth, had but lately left the " Bench/' at. the close of that
three months' imprisonment for libel into which his spirited
avowal of the authorship of a criticism, on Admiral Knowles
had betrayed him; and the king's patronage had probably
been sought as a counterpoise to the king's prison. But
the punishment had not been without its uses. In the
nature of Smollett, to the last, there were not a few of the
heedless impulses of boyhood; and from this three months'
steady gaze on the sadder side of things, he seems to have
turned with tempered and gentler thoughts. In the first
number of the British Magazine was the opening of the tale
which contained his most feminine heroine (Amelia Darnel),
and the most amiable and gentlemanly of his heroes (Sir
Launcelot Greaves); for, though Sir Launcelot is mad, wise
thoughts have made him so; and in the hope to " remedy
" evils which the law cannot reach, to detect fraud and
"treason, to abase insolence, to mortify pride, to discourage
" slander, to disgrace immodesty, and to stigmatise ingrati-
" tude," he stumbles through his odd adventures. There is
a pleasure in connecting this alliance of Smollett and Gold-
smith, with the first approach of our great humourist to that
milder humanity and more genial wisdom which shed its
mellow rays on Matthew Bramble.
1760. Nor were the services engaged from Oliver unworthy of
m.m. his friend's Six Launcelot. Side by side with the kindly
enthusiast, appeared some of the most agreeable of the
.Essays-which were afterwards re-published with their writer's
name; and many which were never connected with it, until
half a century after the writer's death. Here Mr. Kigrnarole
fell into that Boar's Head reverie in Eastcheap, since so
many times dreamt over, and so full of kindly rebuke to