OLIYEE GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK m.
1763. the composition by asserting that he was most religious when
Si. 35. most mad; but Goldsmith and Johnson were nevertheless
now exerting themselves for his release. " Sir," said the
latter to Boswell, at one of their recent interviews, " my
" poor friend Smart showed the disturbance of his mind,
" by falling upon his knees and saying his prayers in the
" street, or in any other unusual place. Now although,
" rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray
" at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are
" so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not
"called in question." "I did not think," he remarked to
Burney, " he ought to be shut up. His infirmities were
" not noxious to society. He insisted on people praying
" with him; and I'd as lief pray with Kit Smart as any one
" else. Another charge was, that he did not love clean
" linen; and, sir, I have no passion for it."
1764. Their exertions were successful. Smart was again at
Jit. 36. iarge at the close of the year, and on the 3rd of the fol-
lowing April (1764) a sacred composition named Hannah,
with his name as its author, and music by Mr. Worgan,
was produced at the king's theatre. The effort connects
itself with a similar one by Goldsmith, made at the
same time. He wrote the words of an Oratorio in three
acts, on the subject of the Captivity in Babylon. But
it is easier to help a friend than oneself; and his own
Oratorio lay unrepresented in his desk. All he received
for it was ten guineas, paid by Dodsley for his right to
publish it, in which Newbery was to share; and all of
* Life, ii. 170-71. Johnson said another -whimsical thing to Burney, -when, having
observed that poor Kit -was getting fat in the madhouse, the latter suggested
want of exercise as the probable cause ; "No, sir ; he has partly as much exercise
" as he used to have, for he digs in the garden. Indeed, before his confinement, he
" used for exercise to -walk to the ale-house ; but he was ccvrried back again."