Goldsmith was idle and wild, and at the end of two years he quarreled with his tutor, sold his books, and ran away to Cork.  He meant to go on board a ship, and sail away for ever from a land where he had been so unhappy.  But he had little money, and what he had was soon spent, and at last, almost starving, having lived for three days on a shilling, he turned homewards again.  Peace was made with his tutor, and Goldsmith went back to college, and stayed there until two years later when he took his degree.

His father was now dead and it was necessary for Oliver to earn his own living.  All his family wished him to be a clergyman, but he “did not deem himself good enough for it.”  However, he yielded to their persuasions, and presented himself to his bishop.  But the bishop would not ordain him—­why is not known, but it was said that he was offended with Goldsmith for coming to be ordained dressed in scarlet breeches.

After this failure Oliver tried teaching and became a tutor, but in a very short time he gave that up.  Next his uncle, thinking that he would make a lawyer of him, gave him 50 pounds and sent him off to London to study law there.  Goldsmith lost the money in Dublin, and came home penniless.  Some time after this a gentleman remarked that he would make an excellent medical man, and again his uncle gave him money and sent him off to Edinburgh, this time as a medical student.  So he said his last good-by to home and Ireland and set out.

In Scotland Goldsmith lived for a year and a half traveling about, enjoying life, and, it may be, studying.  Then, in his happy-go-lucky way, he decided it would be well to go to Holland to finish his medical studies there.  Off he started with little money in his pocket, and many debts behind him.  After not a few adventures he arrived at length in Leyden.  Here passing a florist’s shop he saw some bulbs which he knew his uncle wanted.  So in he ran to the shop, bought them, and sent them off to Ireland.  The money with which he bought the bulbs was borrowed, and now he left Leyden to make the tour of Europe burdened already with debt, with one guinea in his pocket, and one clean shirt and a flute as his luggage.

Thus on foot he wandered through Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France.  In the villages he played upon his flute to pay for his food and his night’s lodging.

    “Yet would the village praise my wondrous power,
    And dance, forgetful of the noon-tide hour. 
    Alike all ages.  Dames of ancient days
    Have led their children through the mirthful maze,
    And the gay grandsire, skill’d in gestic lore,
    Has frisk’d beneath the burthen of threescore."*

    The Traveller.

In the towns where no one listened to his flute, and in Italy where almost every peasant played better than he, he entered the colleges and disputed.  For in those days many of the colleges and monasteries on the Continent kept certain days for arguments upon subjects of philosophy “for which, if the champion opposes with any dexterity, he can gain a gratuity in money, a dinner, and a bed for one night.”