Oliver Goldsmith A Biography Author:Washington Irving Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: GOLDSMITH REJECTED BY THE BISHOP. 45 CHAPTER III. Goldsmith rejected by the Bishop.—Second sally to see the world.—Takes passage for America.—Ship sails wi... more »thout him.—Return on Fiddle-back.— A hospitable friend.—The Counsellor. Tiie time was now arrived for Goldsmith to apply for orders, and he presented himself accordingly before the Bishop of Elfin for ordination. We have stated his great objection to clerical life, the obligation to wear a black coat; and, whimsical as it may appear, dress seems in fact to have formed an obstacle to his entrance into the church. He had ever a passion for clothing his sturdy, but awkward little person in gay colors; and on this solemn occasion, when it was to be supposed his garb would be of suitable gravity, he appeared luminously arrayed in scarlet breeches ! He was rejected by the bishop: some say for want of sufficient studious preparation; his rambles and frolics with Bob Bryanton, and his revels with the club at Ballymahon, having been much in the way of his theological studies; others attribute his rejection to reports of his college irregularities, which the Bishop had received from his old tyrant Wilder ; but those who look into the matter with more knowing eyes, pronounce the scarlet breeches to have been the fundamental objection. " My friends," says Goldsmith, speaking through his humorous representative, the " Man in Black "—" my friends werenow perfectly satisfied I was undone ; and yet they thought it a pity for one that had not the least harm in him, and was so very good-natured." His uncle Contarine, however, still remained unwavering in his kindness, though much less sanguine in his expectations. He now looked round for a humbler sphere of action, and through his influence and exertions Oliver was received as tutor in t...« less