When fainting nature called for aid,
And hovering death prepared the blow,
His vigorous remedy displayed

The power of art without the show.

In misery's darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh.
Where hopeless anguish poured his groan,
And lonely want retired to die.

No summons mocked by chill delay,
No petty gain disdained by pride;
The modest wants of every day,
The toil of every day supplied.

His virtues walked their narrow round,
Nor made a pause, nor left a void;
And sure the Eternal Master found
The single talent well employed.

The busy day-the peaceful night,

Unfelt, uncounted, glided by; [bright,
His frame was firm-his powers were
Though now his eightieth year was nigh.
Then with no fiery throbbing pain,

No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke at once the vital chain,
And freed his soul the nearest way.

MRS. THRALE.

MRS. THRALE is author of an interesting little moral poem, the 'Three Warnings,' which is so superior to her other compositions, that it was supposed to have been partly written, or at least corrected, by Johnson. It first appeared in a volume of Miscellanies,' published by Mrs. Anna Williams (the blind inmate of Johnson's house) in 1766. Hester Lynch Salusbury (afterwards Mrs. Thrale) was a native of Bodvel. Carnarvonshire, born in 1739. In 1763 she was married to Mr Henry Thrale, an eminent brewer, who had taste enough to appreciate the rich and varied conversation of Johnson, and whose hospitality and wealth afforded the great moralist an asylum in his house After the death of this excellent man in 1781, his widow in 1781 married Signior Piozzi, an Italian music-master, a step which Johnson never could forgive. The lively lady proceeded with her hus band on a continentai tour and they took up their abade for some time on the banks of the Arno In 1785, she published a volume of miscellaneous pieces, entitled The Florence Miscellany,' and afforded a subject for the satire of Gifford, whose 'Baviad and Mæviad,' was written to lash the Della Cruscan songsters with whom Mrs. Piozzi was associated. Returning to England, she became a rather voluminous writer In 1786 she issued Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson;' in 1788, 'Lettters to and from Dr. Johnson;' in 1789, A Journey through France, Italy, and Germany;' in 1794, British Synonymy, or an Attempt at regulating the Choice of Words in familiar Conversation;' in 1801, 'Retrospection, or a Review of the most striking and important Events, &c. which the late 1800 years have presented to the view of Mankind, &c'

In her 80th year Mrs. Piozzi had a flirtation with a young actor, William Augustus Conway, aged 27. A collection of her 'loveletters' was surreptitiously published in 1843. She died at Clifton, May 2, 1821. Mrs. Piozzi's eldest daughter, Viscountess Keith (Johnson's Queeny'), lived to the age of 95, and one of her sisters to the age of 90. The anecdotes and letters of Dr. Johnson, by Mrs. Piozzi, are the only valuable works which proceeded from her pen. She was a minute and clever observer of men and manners, but deficient

in judgment, and not particular as to the accuracy of her relations. In 1861, the Autobiography, Letters, and Literary Remains' of Mrs. Piozzi were published, with notes and memoir, by A. Hayward.

The Three Warnings.

*An allusion to the illegal warrant used against Wilkes, which was the cause of so much contention in its day.

I have been lame these four years past.'
'And no great wonder,' Death replies;
'However, you still keep your eyes;
And sure, to see one's loves and friends,
For legs and arms would make amends."

'Perhaps,' says Dodson, so it might, But latterly I've lost my sight.'

This is a shocking tale, tis true; But still there 's comfort left for you: Each strives your sadness to amuse; I warrant you hear all the news.'

There's none,' cries he; 'and if there
were,

I'm grown so deaf, I could not hear.'
'Nay, then,' the spectre stern rejoined,

These are unjustifiable yearnings:
If you are lame, and deaf, and blind,
You've had your Three sufficient
Warnings;

So come along; no more we'll part;'
He said, and touched him with his dart.
And now old Dodson, turning pale,
Yields to his fate-so ends my tale.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728-1774), whose writings range over every department of miscellaneous literature, challenges attention as a poet chiefly for the unaffected ease, grace, and tenderness of his descriptions of rural and domestic life, and for a certain vein of pensive philosophic reflection. His countryman Burke said of himself, that he had taken his ideas of liberty not too high, that they might last him through life. Goldsmith seems to have pitched his poetry in a subdued undertone, that he might luxuriate at will among those images of quiet beauty, comfort, benevolence, and simple pathos, which were most congenial to his own character, his hopes, or his experience. This popular poet was born at Pallas, a small village in the parish of Forney, county of Longford, Ireland, on the 10th of November 1728. He was the fourth of a family of seven children, and his father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, was a poor curate, who eked out the scanty funds which he derived from his profession, by renting and cultivating some land. The poet's father afterwards succeeded to the rectory of Kilkenny West, and removed to the house and farm of Lissoy, in his former parish. Here Goldsmith's youth was spent, and here he found the materials for his 'Deserted Village.' Having been taught his letters by a maid-servant, Oliver was sent to the village-school, which was kept by an old soldier named Byrne, who had been a quarter-master in the wars of Queen Anne, and was fond of relating his adventures. Byrne had also a large store of Irish traditions, fairy tales, and ghost stories, which were eagerly listened to by his pupils, and are supposed to have had some effect in giving to Goldsmith that wandering unsettled disposition which marked him through life. A severe attack of small-pox, which left traces of its ravages on his face ever after, caused his removal from school. He was, however, placed at better seminaries of education, and in his seventeeth year was sent to Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar. The expense of his education was chiefly defrayed by his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Contarine, an excellent man, son to an Italian of the Contarini family at Venice, and a clergyman of the established church. At college the poet was thoughtless and irregular. His tutor was a man of fierce and brutal passions, and having struck him on one occasion before a party of friends, the poet left college, and wandered about

the country for some time in the utmost poverty. His brother Henry clothed and carried him back to college, and on the 27th of February, 1749, he was admitted to the degree of B.A. Goldsmith now gladly left the university, and returned to Lissoy. His father was dead, but he idled away two years among his relations. He afterwards became tutor in the family of a gentleman in Ireland, where he remained a year. His uncle then gave him £50 to study the law in Dublin, but he lost the whole in a gaming-house. A second contribution was raised, and the poet next proceeded to Edinburgh, where he continued a year and a half studying medicine. He then drew upon his uncle for £20, and embarked for Bordeaux. The vessel was driven into Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and whilst there, Goldsmith and his fellowpassengers were arrested and put into prison, where the poet was kept a fortnight. It appeared that his companions were Scotsmen in the French service, and had been in Scotland enlisting soldiers for the French army. Before he was released the ship sailed, and was wrecked at the mouth of the Garonne, the whole of the crew having perished. He embarked in a vessel bound for Rotterdam, and arriving there in nine days, travelled by land to Leyden. These particulars (which have a very apocryphal air) rest upon the authority of a letter written from Leyden by Goldsmith to his uncle, Contarine. At Leyden he appears to have remained, without making an effort for a degree, about a twelvemonth; and in February 1775, he set off on a continental tour, provided, it is said, with a guinea in his pocket, one shirt to his back, and a flute in his hand. He stopped some time at Louvain in Flanders, at Antwerp, and at Brussels. In France, he is said, like George Primrose in his Vicar of Wakefield,' to have occasionally earned a night's lodging and food by playing on his flute.

·

How often have I led thy sportive choir,

With tuneless pipe beside the murmuring Loire !
Where shading elms along the margin grew,
And freshened from the wave the zephyr flew;
And haply, though my harsh touch, falt'ring still,
But mocked all tune, and marred the dancer's skill,
Yet would the village praise my wondrous power,
And dance, forgetful of the noontide hour.

Traveller.

Scenes of this kind formed an appropriate school for the poet. He brooded with delight over these pictures of humble happiness, and his imagination loved to invest them with the charms of poetry. Goldsmith afterwards visited Germany and the Rhine. From Switzerland he sent the first sketch of the Traveller' to his brother. The loftier charms of nature in these Alpine scenes seem to have had no permanent effect on the character or direction of his genius. He visited Florence, Verona, Venice, and stopped at Padua some months, where he is supposed to have taken his medical degree. In 1756 the poet reached England, after one year of wandering, lonely, and in poverty, yet buoyed up by dreams of hope and fame. Many a hard struggle he had yet to encounter! He was some time assistant to a

chemist in a shop at the corner of Monument Yard on Fish Street Hill. A college-friend, Dr. Sleigh, enabled him to commence practice as a humble physician in Bankside, Southwark, but this failed; and after serving for a short time as a reader and corrector of the press to Richardson the novelist, he was engaged as usher in a school at Peckham, kept by Dr. Milner. At Milner's table he met Griffiths the bookseller, proprietor of the 'Monthly Review;' and in April 1757, Goldsmith agreed to leave Dr. Milner's, to board and lodge with Griffiths, to have a small salary, and devote himself to the 'Review.' Whatever he wrote is said to have been tampered with by Griffiths and his wife! In five months the engagement abruptly closed. For a short time he was again at Dr. Milner's as usher. In 1758 he presented himself at Surgeons' Hall for examination as an hospital mate, with the view of entering the army or navy; but he had the mortification of being rejected as unqualified. That he might appear before the examining surgeon suitably dressed, Goldsmith obtained a new suit of clothes, for which Griffiths became security. The clothes were immediately to be returned when the purpose was served, or the debt was to be discharged.

Poor Goldsmith, having failed in his object, and probably distressed by urgent want, pawned the clothes. The publisher threatened, and the poet replied: 'I know of no misery but a jail, to which my own imprudences and your letter seem to point. I have seen it inevitable these three or four weeks, and, by heavens! request it as a favour-as a favour that may prevent somewhat more fatal. I have been some years struggling with a wretched being-with all that contempt and indigence brings with it-with all those strong passions which make contempt insupportable. What, then, has a jail that is formidable?' Such was the almost hopeless condition, the deep despair, of this imprudent but amiable author, who has added to the delight of millions, and to the glory of English literature.

·

Henceforward the life of Goldsmith was that of a man of letters. He lived solely by his pen. Besides numerous contributions to the 'Monthly' and 'Critical Reviews,' the' Lady's Magazine,' the 'British Magazine,' &c. he published anonymously an Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe' (1759), his admirable 'Chinese Letters' (contributed to Newbery's Public Ledger,' and for which he was paid a guinea each), afterwards published with the title of The Citizen of the World,' a 'Life of Beau Nash,' and a ‘History of England' (1762), in a series of letters from a nobleman to his son. The latter was highly successful, and was popularly attributed to Lord Lyttelton. In December 1764 appeared his poem of the 'Traveller, or Prospect of Society,' the chief corner-stone of his fame, 'without one bad line,' as has been said; without one of Dryden's careless verses.' Charles Fox pronounced it one of the finest poems in the English language; and Dr. Johnson-then numbered among Goldsmith's friends-said that the merit of the 'Traveller' was so well