CHAP, v.] FELLOWSHIP WITH JOHNSON.

and ladies of these kingdoms a Compendium of Biography, 1762.
or an history of the lives of those great personages, both JJt.34.
ancient and modem, who are most worthy of their esteem and
imitation, and most likely to inspire their minds with a love of
virtue; for which offering to the juvenile mind, beginning with
an abridgment of Plutarch, he was to pay Goldsmith at the
rate of about eight pounds a volume. The volumes were brief,
published monthly, and meant to have gone through many
months if the scheme had thriven; but it fell before Dilly's
British Plutarch, and perished with the seventh volume.

Nor did it run without danger even this ignoble career.
Illness fell upon the compiler in the middle of the fifth
volume. " Dear Sir," he wrote to Newbery, " As I have
" been out of order for some time past, and am still not
" quite recovered, the fifth volume of Plutarch's Lives
" remains unfinished. I fear I shall not be able to do it
" unless there be an actual necessity, and that none else can
" be found. If therefore you would send it to Mr. Collier,
" I should esteem it a kindness, and I will pay for whatever
" it may come to. N.B. I received twelve guineas for the
" two volumes. I am, Sir, Your obliged, humble servant,
" OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Pray let me have an answer." The
answer was not favourable. Twelve guineas had been ad-
vanced, the two volumes were due, and Mr. Collier, though
an ingenious man, was not Mr. Goldsmith. " Sir," returned
the latter coldly, " One volume is done, namely the fourth.
" When I said I should be glad Mr. Collier would do
" the fifth for me, I only demanded it as a favour; but if
" he cannot conveniently do it, though I have kept my
" chamber these three weeks, and am not quite recovered,
" yet I will do it. I send it per bearer; and if the affair
" puts you to the least inconvenience, return it, and it shaller." Of course all this can only be con-