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complished courtier, the perfect gentleman, and the able senator, we are in duty bound to add, that he did not pay a proper regard to those private obligations between man and man, which are the bonds of it's happiness and tranquillity. His 'Letters to his Son,' which were published by that gentleman's widow after his Lordship's death, and have been almost universally read with avidity, however able in several respects,* afford but too many proofs of his profligate

Then drest by thee, more amiably fair,

Truth the soft robe of mild Persuasion wears:
Thou to assenting Reason givest again

Her own enlighten'd thoughts: call'd from the heart,
Th' obedient Passions on thy voice attend;

And even reluctant Party feels awhile

Thy boasted power, as through the varied maze
Of eloquence, now smooth, now quick, now strong,
Profound and clear, you roll the copious flood.'

* It should be remembered that these Letters, never intended for publication, were specially adapted to an individual of a particular disposition. In some parts however, whatever may be said of the necessity of simulation and dissimulation to a diplomatic character, they are wholly indefensible: though in others, through the medium of the purest stile, they furnish valuable lessons for the early cultivation of the understanding, and the formation of the temper and manners, especially in higher life.

Cowper's nervous Muse, in her noble reprobation of vice, has perhaps, too entirely forgotten the brighter features of the portrait: • Petronius! all the Muses weep for thee; But every tear shall stain thy memory. The Graces too, while Virtue at their shrine Lay bleeding under that soft hand of thine, Felt each a mortal stab in her own breast, Abhorr'd the sacrifice, and cursed the priest. Thou polish'd and high-finish'd foe to truth, Gray-beard corrupter of our listening youth! To purge and skim away the filth of vice, That so refined it might the more entice,

principles and his will, drawn up at the close of his career, strongly evinces that his faculties had been for some time upon the decline. Inconsistent, partial, and peevish, it contains only one clause worthy of being quoted:

"Satiated with the pompous follies of this life, of which I have had an uncommon share, I would have no posthumous ones displayed at my funeral, and therefore desire to be buried in the next buryingplace to the place where I shall die." This order was punctually obeyed, for he was interred privately in the vault under South Audley Chapel.

Then pour it on the morals of thy son

To taint his heart-was worthy of thine own!
Now, while the poison all high life pervades,
Write if thou canʼst, one Letter from the shades ;
One, and one only, charged with deep regret,
That thy worst part, thy principles, live yet.
One sad Epistle thence may cure mankind
Of the plague spread by bundles left behind.'

(The Progress of Error.')

232

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.*

[1729-1774.]

OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born on the twenty ninth of November, 1728, at Pallas in the parish of Forney and county of Longford in Ireland. His father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a native of the county of Roscommon, beside two daughters, had five sons, of whom Oliver was the second. After having been initiated in the classics at the school of Mr. Hughes at Edgeworthstown,† he was admitted a sizar at Trinity College, Dublin, June 11, 1744. During his residence there, he exhibited no specimens of that genius, which he displayed in his maturer years. In February 1749, two years after the re

* AUTHORITIES. Memoirs of Goldsmith, prefixed to his Miscellaneous Works in 5 volumes 12mo., 1806; Boswell's Life of Johnson; and Biographia Dramatica.

+ He had previously acquired the rudiments of learning from a village-teacher, who had been a Quarter-Master in Queen Anne's wars; and having travelled much, and possessing a romantic turn of mind, is supposed to have given to his pupil the first tincture of that wandering and unsettled description, which so strikingly characterised his subsequent life.

Under the unremitting persecutions of his savage tutor, the Rev. Theaker Wilder, he fell into habitual despondency, and it's natural concomitant, idleness. He even ran away from col

gular time, he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Shortly afterward, his father died; and finding himself equally disinclined to take orders, and to continue as tutor in a private family to which he had been recommended, after some whimsical rambles and adventures (in which he figured, chiefly, either as prodigal or as dupe) he turned his thoughts to the profession of physic; and by the kind and continued assistance of the Rev. Thomas Contarine (a learned and generous man, who had married his aunt) proceeding to Edinburgh in 1752 studied, with little regularity however or perseverance the several branches of medicine under the Professors of that University. But his beneficent disposition speedily involved him in unexpected difficulties; and in 1754 he was obliged, it is said, to leave Scotland precipitately, in consequence of having engaged himself to pay a considerable sum of money for a fellowstudent. Having embarked on board a ship for Bourdeaux, with some Scotchmen who had been enlisting soldiers for the French service, and being driven by a storm into Newcastle, he was arrested

lege (after having received from his inhuman persecutor personal castigation) almost without money, or clothes; and suffered such extremity of hunger during his flight, that a handful of gray peas, given him by a girl at a wake, appeared to him a luxurious meal. His brother, however, clothed him afresh, and procured him to be received again. One of his contemporaries describes him, as "perpetually lounging about the college-gate." The very same is recorded by Boswell of Johnson, and shows that these two distinguished writers rose to their eminence in literature from the most unpromising beginnings. Yet occasional flashes of his genius pervaded the gloom; and some of his translations, in particular, are still remembered with applause.

along with his party, and only after a fortnight's imprisonment through the friendly offices of Mr. Laughlin Maclane and Dr. Sleigh procured his release. This eventually proved to be a signal interposition of Providence in his favour; for the ship, proceeding during his confinement on her voyage to Bourdeaux, was wrecked at the mouth of the Garonne, and every one on board perished. Upon his liberation, he took his passage on board a Dutch ship to Rotterdam, proceeded thence by land to Leyden, and resided at the latter place about a year; studying chemistry under Gaubius, and anatomy under the celebrated Albinus. His taste for gaming however, which he appears to have caught very early, coupled with his constitutional extravagance, fre quently plunged him into difficulties. The very money, which he had borrowed, in order to enable him to leave Holland was expended on some costly flowers at a Dutch florist's as a present to his uncle! He, next, visited great part of Flanders; and after passing some time at Strasburg and Louvain, where he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Physic, proceeded to Geneva.

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It appears, that Goldsmith traversed a considerable part of Europe on foot. In his Present State of Learning in Europe,' he says, "Countries wear different appearances to travellers of different circumstances. A man who is whirled through Europe in a post-chaise, and the pilgrim who walks the grand tour on foot, will form very different conclusions. Haud inexpertus loquor." He had left England with very little money; and being of a philoso phical turn, and at that time possessing a body capable of sustaining every fatigue and a heart not easily

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