His very
dress marked the inferiority of the "poor student" to his happier
classmates. It was a black gown of coarse stuff without sleeves, and a
plain black cloth cap without a tassel. We can conceive nothing more odious
and ill-judged than these distinctions, which attached the idea of
degradation to poverty, and placed the indigent youth of merit below the
worthless minion of fortune. They were calculated to wound and irritate the
noble mind, and to render the base mind baser.
Indeed, the galling effect of these servile tasks upon youths of proud
spirits and quick sensibilities became at length too notorious to be
disregarded. About fifty years since, on a Trinity Sunday, a number of
persons were assembled to witness the college ceremonies; and as a sizer
was carrying up a dish of meat to the fellows' table, a burly citizen in
the crowd made some sneering observation on the servility of his office.
Stung to the quick, the high-spirited youth instantly flung the dish and
its contents at the head of the sneerer. The sizer was sharply reprimanded
for this outbreak of wounded pride, but the degrading task was from that
day forward very properly consigned to menial hands.
It was with the utmost repugnance that Goldsmith entered college in this
capacity.
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