Without a thought of his own needs he ran in, bought a parcel of the
roots, and sent them off to Ireland; then, with a guinea in his pocket,
he started on his travels. Although his uncle may have sent him small
sums occasionally, it is not easy to see how he managed to wander as he
did from country to country. It is said that he paid his way among the
peasants by flute playing, and that he returned the hospitality of
convents by disputing on learned subjects; but these stories are
doubtless fictitious. One thing is certain, he arrived in London in
February, 1756, having reached the age of twenty-eight, with a medical
degree, but with no money in his pocket.

For two years he lived in the great city poor and unknown. He was in
turn apothecary's assistant, poor physician, proof-reader, usher in a
"classical school," and hack writer. At last, almost discouraged, he
decided to obtain if possible the position of factory surgeon on the
Coromandel coast, in India. He failed to get the place, and was also
unsuccessful in his efforts to pass the examination at Surgeon's Hall
for the humble post of hospital mate.

At this point there was a turn in the tide of his fortunes. While
seeking employment as a physician, he had been engaged upon a work
called _Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe_,
and with its publication in 1759 his career as an author began. His
essays, which appeared in numerous magazines, brought him into further
notice, especially a series collected later under the title, _The
Citizen of the World_. In 1764 he became a member of Dr. Johnson's
famous "Literary Club" that met at the "Turk's Head." It was to
Johnson that he once said, alluding to his heavy style,--"If you were
to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales." But there
was no malice in this remark, for the doctor was one of his stanch