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MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

THERE are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith. The fascinating ease and simplicity of his style; the benevolence that beams through every page; the whimsical yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the mellow unforced humour, blended so happily with good feeling and good sense, throughout his writings; win their way irresistibly to the affections and carry the author with them. While writers of greater pretensions and more sounding names are suffered to lie upon our shelves, the works of Goldsmith are cherished and laid in our bosoms. We do not quote them with ostentation, but they mingle with our minds; they sweeten our tempers and harmonize our thoughts; they put us in good humour with ourselves and with the world, and in so doing they make us happier and better men.

We have been curious therefore in gathering together all the heterogeneous particulars concerning poor Goldsmith that still exist; and seldom have we met with an author's life more illustrative of his works, or works more faithfully illustrative of

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that

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the author's life.' His rambling biography displays him the same kind, artless, good-humoured, excursive, sensible, whimsical, intelligent being that he appears in his writings. Scarcely page an adventure or a character is given in his be traced to his own parti-coloured story. Many of his most ludicrous scenes and ridiculous incidents have been drawn from his own blunders and mischances, and he seems really to have been buffeted into almost every maxim imparted by him for the instruction of his readers.

Oliver Goldsmith was a native of Ireland, and was born on the 29th of November, 1728. Two villages claim the honour of having given him birth: Pallas, in the county of Longford; and Elphin, in the county of Roscommon. The former is named as the place in the epitaph by Dr Johnson, inscribed on his but later investigations have monument in Westminster Abbey; decided in favour of Elphin.

mony.

He was the second son of the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a clergyman of the established church, but without any patriHis mother was daughter of the Rev. Oliver Jones, master of the diocesan school at Elphin. It was not till some time after the birth of Oliver that his father obtained the living of Kilkenny-West, in the county of Westmeath. Previous to this period he and his wife appear to have been almost entirely dependent on her relations for support.

His father was equally distinguished for his literary attainments and for the benevolence of his heart. His family consisted of five sons and two daughters. From this little world of home Goldsmith has drawn many of his domestic scenes, both whimsical and touching, which appeal so forcibly to the heart, as well as to the fancy; his father's fireside furnished of the family scenes of the Vicar of Wakefield; and it is many said that the learned simplicity and amiable peculiarities of that worthy divine have been happily illustrated in the character of Dr Primrose.

The present biography is principally taken from the Scotch edition of Goldsmith's works, published in 1821.

The Rev. Henry Goldsmith, elder brother of the poet, and born seven years before him, was a man of estimable worth and excellent talents. Great expectations were formed of him, from the promise of his youth, both when at school and at college; but he offended and disappointed his friends, by entering into matrimony at the early age of nineteen, and resigning all ambitious views for love and a curacy. If, however, we may believe the pictures drawn by the poet of his brother's domestic life, his lot, though humble, was a happy one. He is the village pastor of the « Deserted Village," so exemplary in his character, and « passing rich with forty pounds a year." It is to this brother, who was the guide and protector of Goldsmith during his childhood, and to whom he was tenderly attached, that he addresses those beautiful lines in his poem of the Traveller :

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravell'd fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain,

And drags at each remove a length'ning chain.

His family also form the ruddy and joyous group, and exercise the simple but generous rites of hospitality, which the poet so charmingly describes :

Bless'd be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,

Where all the ruddy family around

Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail,

Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale;

Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good.

The whimsical character of the Man in Black, in the « Citizen of the World,» so rich in eccentricities and in amiable failings, is said to have been likewise drawn partly from his brother, partly from his father, but in a great measure from the author himself. It is difficult, however, to assign with precision the originals of a writer's characters. They are generally composed of scattered, though accordant traits, observed in various individuals, which have been seized upon with the discriminating tact of genius and combined into one harmonious whole. Still,

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