CHAP. iv. J THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.

and after hunting an admiral Byng to death will as eagerly
run down a dog. On a groundless cry of hydrophobia, dogs
were slaughtered wholesale, and their bodies literally blocked
up the streets. " The dear, good-natured, honest, sensible
" creatures I " exclaimed Horace Walpole. " Christ ! How
" can anybody hurt them ?" But what Horace said' only to
his friend, Goldsmith said to everybody" : publicly denouncing
the cruelty, in a series of witty stories ridiculing the motives
alleged for it, and pleading with eloquent warmth for the
honest associate of man.* Nor was this the only rnad-dog-
cry of the year. The yell of a Grub-street mob as fierce, on
a false report of the death of Yoltaire, brought Goldsmith as
warmly to the rescue. With eager admiration, he asserted
the claims of the philosopher and wit; told the world it
was its lusts of war and sycophancy which unfitted it to
receive such a friend ; set forth the independence of his
life, in a country of Pompadours and an age of venal
oppression ; declared (this was before the Galas family) the
tenderness and humanity of his nature ; and claimed
freedom of religious thought for him and all men. " I am
" not displeased with my brother because he happens to
" ask our father for favours in a different manner from
" me." As we read the Chinese Letters with this comment
of the time, those actual days come vividly back to us.

* It is pleasant to quote his most kindly speech. " Of all the beasts that graze
" the lawn, or hunt the forest, a dog is the only animal that, leaving his fellows,
" attempts to cultivate the friendship of man ; to man he looks in all his necessities
" with a speaking eye for assistance ; exerts for him all the little service in his
" ' power with cheerfulness and pleasure ; for him bears famine and fatigue with
" patience and resignation ; no injuries can abate his fidelity, no distress induce
' ' him to forsake his benefactor ; studious to please, and fearing to offend, he is
" still an humble stedfast dependant ; and in him alone fawning is not flattery.
1 ' How unkind, then, to torture this faithful creature, who has left the forest to
" claim the protection of man ! how ungrateful a return to the trusty animal for
-" all his services !" Letter Ixix. justice pronounces a wrong