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RANSFER FROM

FEB

1924

THE

LIFE

OF

OLIVER GOLDSMITH, M. B.

FAME, the only inflexible friend of Genius, has been singularly kind to the Author whose life I with much pleasure sit down to give some account of. She has sounded the praises of her favourite to the extremities cf taste and literary refinement. The Court and the Cottage share with equal felicity the invaluable fruits of his elegant studies! The smallest memorial is a beacon for the incautious heart of virtue and simplicity, or a balm for the wounded soul of the comfortless! Hence the lovers of human excellence have been sedulous in establishing our writer's reputation on the basis of immortality.

Goldsmith's biographers have been many; their opinions, in some measure, different; but they all agree that he was a man of elevated genius unbounded philanthropy, and possessing the milk of human kindness in a supereminent degree. I have their several accounts before me;

and, upon an impartial survey, Dr. Glover's stands highest in my estimation. He was Goldamith's intimate friend, a companion in many of his literary pursuits, and his enthusiastic admirer! What such a writer says, as far as relates to facts, must be listened to with more pleasure than mere work of fiction, however elaborate, or splendidly set off. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the obligations I lie under to this ingenious and excellent companion, for many particulars relative to Dr. Goldsmith. I shall give his account entire, marked with double com

mas.

"OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born at Roscommon, in Ireland, in the year 1731, His father, who possessed a small estate in that country, had nine sons, of which Oliver was the third. He was originally intended for the church; and with that view, after being well instructed in the classics, was, with his brother the Rev. Henry Goldsmith, placed in Trinity college, Dublin, about the latter end of the year 1749. In this seminary of learning he continued a few years, when he took a Bachelor's degree; but his brother not being able to obtain any preferment after he left the college, Oliver, by the advice of Dean Goldsmith, of Cork, turned his thoughts to the profession of physic, and after attending some courses of anatomy in Dublin, proceeded to Edinburgh in the year, 1751, where he studied the several branches of medi

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cine under the different Professors in that university, which was deservedly ranked among the first schools of physic in Europe. His beneficent disposition soon involved him in unexpected difficulties, and he was obliged precipitately to leave Scotland, in consequence of engaging himself to pay a considerable sum of money for a fellow-student.

"A few days after, about the beginning of the year 1754, he arrived at Sunderland, near Newcastle, where he was arrested at the suit of one Barclay, a taylor in Edinburgh, to whom he had given security for his friend. By the good graces of Taughlin Maclane, Esq. and Dr. Sleigh, who were then in the college, he was soon delivered out of the hands of the bailiff, and took his passage on board a Dutch ship to Rotterdam, whence, after a short stay, he proceeded to Brussels. He then visited a great part of Flanders, and, after passing some time at Strasbourg and Lovain, where he obtained a degree of Bachelor in Physic, he accompanied an English gentleman to Geneva.

"It is undoubtedly fact, that this ingenious, unfortunate man, made most part of his tour on foot! He had left England with very little money; and, being of a philosophical turn, and at that time possessing a body capable of sustaining every fatigue, and a heart not easily terrified at danger he became an enthusiast to the design he had formed of seeing the manners of different

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countries. He had some knowledge of the French language, and of music; he played tolerably well on the German flute; which, from an amusement, became at some times the means of subsistence. His learning produced him an hospitable reception at most of the religious houses, and his music made him welcome to the peasants of Flanders and Germany. 'Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards night-fall,' he used to say, 'I played one of my most merry tunes, and that generally procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day: but in truth, (his constant expression) 'I must own, whenever I attempted to entertain persons of higher rank, they always thought my performance odious, and never made me any return for my endeavours to please them.'

"On his arrival at Geneva, he was recommended as a proper person for a travelling tutor to a young man, who had been unexpected. ly left a considerable sum of money by his uncle, Mr. S This youth, who was articled to an attorney, on receipt of his fortune, detetmined to see the world; and, on his engaging with his preceptor, made a proviso, that he should be permitted to govern himself; and our traveller soon found his pupil understood the art of directing in money concerns extremely well, as avarice was his prevailing passion.

“During Goldsmith's continuance in Switzerland, he assiduously cultivated his poetical ta

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