CHAP. IV.] ESCAPE PRETEXTED.

•" But it shall not "be. In five or six years I hope to indulge these 1753.
" transports. I find I want constitution, and a strong steady disposi- jjt 3Q
" tion, which alone makes men great. I will however correct my faults,
" since I am conscious of them." *

"With such professions weakness continues to indulge itself,
and faults are perpetuated. But some allowances are due.
Of the Irish society he knew so well, and so often sarcastically
painted, these Irish friends were clearly very notable speci-
mens, with whom small indeed was his chance of decent con-
sideration, if a garret, shahhy clothes, and conversation with
the meanest company, were set hopelessly forth as his inex-
tricable doom. The error lay in giving faith of any kind to
such external aid, and so weakening the help that rested in
himself. When the claim of ten pounds for his appointment-
warrant came upon him, it found him less prepared because
of vague expectations raised on these letters to Mills and the
Lawders. But any delay might be fatal; and in that con-
dition of extremity, whose "wants," alas, are anything but
" capricious,", he bethought him of the Critical Review, and
went to its proprietor, Mr. Archibald Hamilton.

Soon after he left Griffiths he had written an article for
his rival, which appeared in November 1757; and as his
contributions then stopped where they began, I am disposed
'to connect both his joining at that time so suddenly, and as
suddenly quitting, the Critical Review, with a letter which
Smollett published in that same November number "To
"the Old Gentlewoman who directs the Monthly." For
though Goldsmith might not object to avenge some part of
his own quarrel under cover of, that of Smollett, he would
hardly have relished the too broad allusion in which
" goody " and " gammer " Griffiths were reminded that

* Psi'Cij Memoir, 4849.cule ; when I think thus, I