probably to his intemperate application at times, for several weeks together, without exercise, to some of his compilations; on the completion of which he used to give himself up to all the gaieties of the metropolis. His indisposition, being in the present instance aggravated by mental distress, terminated in an alarming fever. Contrary to the advice of the medical gentlemen whom he called in, he had recourse to James's Fever Powder, from which he had in a similar attack received benefit. From this time the progress of the disease was as unfavourable as possible; the symptoms became daily more alarming; and on Monday, April 4th, he expired, in the forty-sixth year of his age. It was at first proposed by his friends to honour him with a public funeral; but this idea was abandoned, probably from the embarrassed circumstances in which he died, and he was privately interred in the Temple burial ground, at five o'clock in the evening of the Saturday following his departure. A marble monument was subsequently raised, by means of a subscription among his friends, which is placed between those of Gay and of the Duke of Argyle, in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey. It is impossible to peruse the memoirs of Goldsmith, without participating, in some degree, in those mixed feelings of admiration and regret, of friendly esteem and compassion, with which he appears to have been regarded by his contemporaries,-feelings corresponding with the contrarieties that met in his character. The social and literary attractions of that man must have been considerable, who was admitted as the friend and compeer of Johnson and Burke, of Reynolds and Percy, of Garrick and Beauclerk. Yet this same individual, from his vanity and his blunders, together with a misplaced ambition of being a wit, often made himself in conversation ridiculous. "Nothing could be more amiable," we are told," than the general features of his mind." He was generous in the extreme, too often sacrificing prudence and justice to the impulse of his feelings, and continually becoming the dupe of imposition. But his conduct was too much at variance with any settled religious principles. Garrick describes him, in a line, as a most heterogeneous compound of qualities. "This scholar, rake, Christian, dupe, gamester, and poet." Dr. Johnson, who took every opportunity of eulogizing the genius and vindicating the fame of Goldsmith, for whom he seems to have had a sincere friendship, observed on one occasion, "Dr. Goldsmith is one of the first men we have as an author, and he is a very worthy man too. He has been loose in his principles, but is coming right." This candid sentence upon his character, does credit to Johnson's feelings; it is melancholy to reflect that Goldsmith did not survive long enough to realize the hope of his friend. While his works will never fail to awaken emotions of tender delight and admiration, by the genius which adorns them, and the generous sentiments with which they abound, that example which the " poor wandering uncle" besought his brother to place before the eyes of his son, as a beacon, will continue to speak still more impressively the language of admonition and instruction. How far do the dangers of going wrong preponderate over the chances of" coming right!" |