CHAP. IT.] THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.

" never could have believed Ms friend capable of writing
" music after Mm." Sir John Hawkins tells the story with
much satisfaction. Exposure of an ignorant flute-player,
with notliing but vulgar accomplishments of " ear" to
bestow upon Ms friends, yet with an innocent conceit of
pretending to the science of music, gives great delight to
pompous Hawkins, as a learned historian of crotchets and
quavers. It seems more than probable, notwithstanding,
that there is not a syllable of truth in the story.*

So passed the thoughtless life of Goldsmith in his first
year of success: if so may be called the scanty pittance
which served to expose his foibless but not to protect Mni
from their consequence. So may his life be read in these
Letters to the Public Ledger • and still with the comment
of pleasure and instruction for others, though at the cost of
suffering to himself. His habits as well as thoughts are in
them. He is at the theatre, enjoying G-arrick's Abel D rugger
and laughing at all who call it " low; " a little tired of Polly
and Macheath; t not at all interested by the famous and

* I quote an address "to the Philological Society of London," on Sir John
Hawkins's Life of Johnson, published in May 1787. " The writer of this is
" acquainted with a gentleman who knew Goldsmith well, and has often requested
'' him to play different pieces from music which he laid before him; and this,
'' Goldsmith has done with accuracy and precision, while the gentleman, who is
'' himself musical, looked over him; a circumstance utterly impossible, if we admit
"the foolish story related by Sir John Hawkins of Boubiliae's imposition on
" Goldsmith." Nor can I help thinking that this explicit contradiction is strongly
countenanced by his essay on the different schools of music (written for Smollett's
magazine in 1760), and still more by the notes which ("in so much respect were
" his talents then held, though he had not obtained celebrity, but lived in an
" obscure lodging in Green Arbour Court," &c.) Smollett permitted him to append
to the remonstrance of a correspondent against that essay. The notes (Miscell.
Works, i. 176) possess great merit, and show a larger amount of knowledge in ready
use than Goldsmith generally was able to display.

f The allusion, however, implies no envy of the popularity of this piece of
genuine wit, as unfriendly critics have implied. The complaint expressly is that
singing women, instead of singing for the public, should be allowed to '' sing at
"each other," and nothing but the same song. "What! Polly and the Pick-ts and contrivances." European Magazine, xxiv. 259-60. possession of a bauble, I render a real and valuable possession precarious.