CHAP. I.J 'WRITING THE BEE.

And from tliis man, even now, there was nothing to separate 1759.
the humblest of literary workmen. Here were his words, Mb. si
as a trump et, to call them to the field; and there he was
himself, in person, to animate, the struggle. To what, then,
should he first look, who, hitherto a compelled and reluctant
dweller on the threshold of literature, was now of his own
resolute choice advancing within to try his fortune, if not
to this great, unyielding figure of Samuel Johnson, for
courage and sustainment ? There, beyond a doubt, were
the thoughts of Oliver Goldsmith now;—with poverty, not
simply endured, but made a badge of honour; with inde-
pendence, though indeed but a bookseller's servant; without
remonstrance or uneasy resistance, should even the worst
attendants of the garret continue to be his lot for ever. " He
" assured me," says the author of the Rambler of his friend
Ofellus, " that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a
" man to live in London without being contemptible. He
" allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He said a man
" might live in a garret at eighteenpence a week; few people
" would inquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was
"easy to say, Sir, I am to be found at such a place. By
" spending threepence in a coffee-house, he might be for
" some hours every day in very good company; he might
" dine for sixpence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny,
" and do without supper. On clean-shirt day, he could go
" abroad and pay visits." * Nor were these the holiday theories

" of bells, and acclamations of the people, which Ariosto talks of in his last Canto,
" or a general murnnir of dislike, I know not: whether I shall find upon the
" coast a Calypso that will court, or a Polypheme that will resist. But if
" Polypheme comes, have at his eye.'* Łoswell, ii. 28.

* Comparing this with his actual experience, one feels that Ofellus had decidedly
the advantage on the whole. It is true that when Johnson first came to London his
dinner cost him twopence more. ("I had a cut of meat for sixpence, and bread
" for a penny, and gave the waiter a penny ; so that I was quite well served, nay, •d ; and, yielding to