11 - To Daniel Hodson, [London, c. 31 August 1758]

Summary

This is the penultimate known letter to refer to subscriptions for An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe. Goldsmith also explains to Hodson his intention to work as a physician with the East India Company, in one of its coastal Coromandel factories in southeastern India, in which were produced silk and cotton textiles, and gunpowder.

The copy-text is the manuscript in the British Library. It was first published by Percy in 1801. It is addressed ‘To | Daniel Hodson Esq.^r at Lishoy near | Ballymahon. | Ireland’. It is postmarked 31 August. On the verso of the second page, with the address, there is a note from a family friend: ‘Killishee, Septemr 18th 1758. Mr. Piers's best Complim^ts to the his friends at Lisshoy. He is obliged to them for the Treat Noll's letter has afforded him – Every line speaks the writer and is a better picture of him than a Bindon cou’d give us of him – I shall long to see his book whatever it is – And desire I may have the honour of being among the Subscribers to it.’ It is likely that Hodson had passed the letter around among family and friends to encourage subscriptions for An Enquiry, and that in this instance Mr Piers had responded positively. The Bindon to whom Mr Piers refers in his note is Francis Bindon (c. 1690–1765), who painted several well-known likenesses of Swift, with whom he was friendly, between 1735 and 1740.

The bracketed portions are worn away in the manuscript, and are given here as suggested by Percy.

D^r. Sir

You can't expect regularity in a correspondence with one who is regular in nothing. Nay were I forc’d to love you by rule I dare venture to say I could never do it sincerely. Take me then with all my faults let me write when I please, for you see I say what I please and am only thinking aloud when writing to you. I suppose you have heard of my intention of going to the East Indies. The place of my destination is one of the factories on the coast of Coromandel and I go in quality of Physician and Surgeon for which the Company has sign’d my warrant which has already cost me ten pounds.