Seized with a rambling spirit, he
went to the Continent, and visited Holland, France, Germany, Switzerland,
and Italy; sometimes gaining a scanty livelihood by teaching English, and
sometimes wandering without money, depending upon his flute to win a
supper and bed from the rustics who lived on the highway. He obtained, it
is said, the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Padua; and on his return to
England, he went before a board of examiners to obtain the position of
surgeon's mate in the army or navy. He was at this time so poor that he
was obliged to borrow a suit of clothes to make a proper appearance before
the examiners. He failed in his examination, and then, in despair, he
pawned the borrowed clothes, to the great anger of the publisher who had
lent them. This failure in his medical examination, unfortunate as it then
seemed, secured him to literature. From that time his pen was constantly
busy for the reviews and magazines. His first work was _An Inquiry into
the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe_, which, at least, prepared
the way for his future efforts.
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