THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.

He lost caste because he conld not acquire it, and could as little
assume the habit of indifference, as trade upon the gravity of the
• repute he had won. " Admirers in a room/' said Northcote,
repeating what had been told him by Keynolds, "whom his
•" entrance had struck with awe, might be seen riding out upon
" his back." It was hard, he said himself to Sir Joshua, that
fame and its dignities should intercept people's liking and fond-
ness ; and. for his love of the latter, no doubt he forfeited riot
a little of the former. " He is an inspired idiot/' cried Walpolo;—•*
" he does not know the difference of a turkey from a goose,"
said Cumberland;—" sir," shouted Johnson, " he knows nothing,
" he has made up his mind about nothing." Few cared to think
or speak of him but as little Qoldy, honest Goldy; and every
one laughed at Mm for the oddity of his blunders, and the
awkwardness of his manners.

But I invite the reader to his life and adventures, and the
times wherein they were cast. No iminstractive explanation of
all this may possibly await us there, if together we review the
scene, and move among its actors as they play their parts. spared to him : but they found,, and left him, gentle aittl