CHAPTER II,

MAKING- SHIFT TO EXIST.

1757—1758.

WITH the iiumber of the Monthly Review which completed 1757.
the fifth month of Goldsmith's engagement with Mr. and jBt~29.
Mrs. Griffiths, his labours suddenly closed. The circum-
stances were never clearly explained; but that a serious
quarrel had arisen with his employer, there is no reason
to doubt. Griffiths accused him of idleness; said he affected
an independence which did not become his condition, and
left Ms desk before the day was done;—nor would the
reproach a.ppear to be groundless, if the amount of his
labour for Griffiths were to be measured by those portions
only •which have been traced; but this would be simply
absurd, for the mass of it undoubtedly has perished. For
himself Goldsmith retorted, that from the bookseller he had
suffered impertinence, and from his wife privation.; that
Mr. Griffiths withheld common respect, and Mrs. Griffiths
the most ordinary comforts ; * that they both tampered with

* In MB extreme desire to work out and complete Ms favourable view of
tlio Griffi.tlm lease or agreement, Mr. Do Quincey thus philosophises the probable
effect for good exerted over Goldsmith even by the "antiquated female critic"her-
self. The paNHiigo is supplementary to that which I have quoted ante, 102-4.
'' Wo see little to have altered in the lease-—that was fair enough; only as regarded
"the execution of tho loose, we really must have pi-otested, xinder any ciroum-ituia