CHAP, v.] FELLOWSHIP WITH JOHNSON.

little, in connection with Wine Office Court, was he ever ijtn.
likely to forget that Johnson now first visited him there. M. as.

They had probably met before. I have shown how
frequently the thoughts of Goldsmith vibrated to that great
Grub-street figure of independence and manhood, which, in
an age not remarkable for either, was undoubtedly presented
in the person of the author of the English Dictionary. One
of the last Chinese Letters had again alluded to the
" Johnsons and Smolletts " as veritable poets, though they
might never have made a verse in their whole lives; and
among the earliest greetings of the new essay-writer, I suspect
that Johnson's would be found. The opinion expressed in his
generous question of a few years later (" Is there a man, sir,
" now, who can pen an essay with such ease and elegance as
" Goldsmith ? " *) he was not the man to wait for the world to
help him to. Himself connected with Newbery, and engaged
in' like occupation, the new adventurer wanted his helping
word, and would be therefore sure to have it; nor, if it had
not been a hearty one, is Mr. Percy likely to have busied
himself to bring about the present meeting. It was arranged
by that learned divine; and this was the first time, he says,
he had seen them together. The day fixed was the 31st of
May 1761, and Goldsmith gave a supper in Wine Office
Court in honour of his visitor.

Percy called to take up Johnson at Inner Temple Lane,
and found him, to his great astonishment, in a marked con-
dition of studied neatness; without his rusty brown suit or
his soiled shirt, his loose knee-breeches, his unbuckled shoes,
or his old little shrivelled unpowdered wig; and not at all

* Doctor Farr -was dining with Reynolds the year before Goldsmith's death,
when, in answer to a sneer which had fallen from Mr. (afterwards Lord) Eliot, he
heard Johnson fire up in defence of his absent friend, and use, among others,
the expression in the text. Prior, i. 367.v.nd that eating fire was the most ready way to live ; and another who