CHAP. IL] COLLEGE.

not to strike him to the ground again; for certainly no
other improvement is on record. The insults, the merciless •*•20<
jests, the " Oliver Goldsmith turned downs'—continue as
before.* We still trace him less by his fame in the class-room
than by his fines in the buttery-books. The only change is
in that greater submission of the victim which marks unsuc-
cessful rebellion. He offers no resistance; makes no effort
of any kind; sits, for the most part, indulging day-dreams.
A Greek Scapula has been identified t which he used at
this time, scrawled over with his writing. " Free. Oliver
" Goldsmith;" " I promise to pay, &c. Oliver Goldsmith ;"f
are among the autograph's musing shapes. Perhaps one
half the day he was with Steele or Addison in parlia-
ment; perhaps the other half in prison with Collins or
with Fielding. "We should be thankful, as I have said, that
a time so dreary and dark bore no worse fruit than that.
The shadow cast over his spirit, the uneasy sense of disad-
vantage which obscured his manners in later years, affected
himself singly; but how many they are, whom such suffer-
ing, and such idleness, would have wholly and for ever
corrupted.! The spirit hardly less generous, cheerful, or

* An anecdote, '' often told in conversation to Bishop Percy," obtained one of these
turnings down for the rebellious sizar. Wilder called on Goldsmith, at a lecture,
to explain the centre of gravity ; which, on getting no answer, he proceeded him-
self to explain : calling out harshly to Oliver at the close, '' Now, blockhead,
" where is your centre of gravity ?" The answer—which was delivered in a slow,
hollow, stammering voice, and began '' Why, Doctor, by your definition, I think it
" must be "—disturbed every one's centre of gravity in the lecture room; and,
turning the laugh against Wilder, turned down poor Oliver. Mr. Prior found the
latter brief record duly entered under the date of May 9, 1748, on consulting the
senior lecturer's book in Dublin University, i. 90. *\' Prior, i. 94.

J Who can possibly doubt the original from whom the man in black's experiences
were taken. Citizen of the World, xxvii. '' The first opportunity he [my father]
" had of finding his expectations disappointed, was in the middling figure I made at
'' the university : he had flattered himself that he should soon see me rising into
'' the foremost rank in literary reputation, but was mortified to find me utterly
" iinnoticed and unknown. His disappointment might have been partly ascribedAccount, iii, 357. "I well remember, " vw!