eynolds became his devoted friends and constant allies. Fairest of
all the bonds was that dreamy sympathy with the sweet little Jessamy
Bride. He loved the poor. In this affection it might be said that his
very life was dedicated to all who bore the burden of sad necessity,
and needed help or solace in their suffering. For the most part his
intimacies were with men, but noble women whose names have passed away
must have honoured him and found that hour a happy one that brought
the comforting and kindly and enkindling soul within the circle of the
home. He loved children and understood them. He longed to have them
for his readers. In a picturesque succession the old lady who taught
Charles Lamb his letters was patted on her curly head by Goldsmith
when she was a little child.

CHAPTER VI

THE LITERARY CLUB

Goldsmith's income accrued, not through royalties upon his few great
and immortal works, but from arduous and endless ephemeral tasks. This
ceaseless taxation of the mental faculties probably represents the
most exhausting of all the processes of gaining a decent livelihood.
Never the strongest of men, these relentless intellectual exactions
gave the brain no rest, and kept the physical frame in a condition of
constant nervous weakness. Writing from a bed of sickness, he tells
his employer almost pitifully, amid the strain of things, that he
cannot complete his translations from Plutarch. Without a pension or a
sinecure in some office of the State, literary life at that time was
fraught with such incalculable difficulties that it demanded the
maximum of prudence to achieve the minimum of subsistence. Men of
letters lived, and by some miracle enjoyed themselves. The commercial
basis of their being, and their professional and economic relationship
with both the booksellers and the public, were as unsatisfactory as
can be imagined. The sum received by Milton for "Paradise Lost"
indicates the usage of an earlier day. Things had not much improved.
Newbery gave five guineas for the copyright of _The Citizen of the
World_ and fourteen guineas for _The Life of Beau Nash_. A struggle
consequent upon the combination of very little means, and still less
practical prudence, soon began in Goldsmith's case. His mode of life,
if not luxurious, was easier than it had been. It bore the semblance
of secure prosperity. He left his chambers in Wine Office Court for a
more commodious set of apartments in Canonbury, then a delig