families who were studying the law there had so much. But all
the wealth which Lord Clive had brought from Bengal, and Sir
Lawrence Dundas from Germany, joined together, would not have
sufficed for Goldsmith. He spent twice as much as he had. He
wore fine clothes, gave dinners of several courses, paid court to
venal beauties. He had also, it should be remembered, to the
honour of his heart, though not of his head, a guinea, or five or
ten, according to the state of his purse, ready for any tale of
distress, true or false. But it was not in dress or feasting, in
promiscuous amours or promiscuous charities, that his chief
expense lay. He had been from boyhood a gambler, and at once the
most sanguine and the most unskilful of gamblers. For a time he
put off the day of inevitable ruin by temporary expedients. He
obtained advances from booksellers, by promising to execute works
which he never began. But at length this source of supply
failed. He owed more than 2000 pounds; and he saw no hope of
extrication from his embarrassments. His spirits and health gave
way. He was attacked by a nervous fever, which he thought
himself competent to treat. It would have been happy for him if
his medical skill had been appreciated as justly by himself as by
others. Notwithstanding the degree which he pretended to have
received at Padua, he could procure no patients. "I do not
practise," he once said; "I make it a rule to prescribe only for
my friends." "Pray, dear Doctor," said Beauclerk, "alter your
rule; and prescribe only for your enemies." Goldsmith now, in
spite of this excellent advice, prescribed for himself. The
remedy aggravated the malady. The sick man was induced to call
in real physicians; and they at one time imagined that they had
cured the disease. Still his weakness and restlessness
continued. He could get no sleep. He could take no food. "You