The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-04-05
OLIVER GOLDSMITH.


l12S. He may be said TO have had cleri-
cal origin, for his father, great GRANDPA
ther and great great grandfather were cler-
gymen, and two of them married clergy
mems daughters
When Oliver was two years old, his ia
ther removed TO Dissoy, in the County
Westmeath, and there the family Of eight
children were reared in poverty. but sur
rounded by the happiest and holiest do
mestic influences. The first education the
boy received was from an old woman in
the village, who found such difficulty in
teaching him the alphabet thst she pro-
nounCed him an incorrigible Ounce, and
was glad TO be rid of the little stupid az
any price Then Paddy Byrne, hedge
schoolmaster, took him in hand, and while
the pupil was slowly mastering the rudi-
ments of learning, he was seized with Vi
rulent smallpox, and narrowly escaped
death, bearing the marks of that fearful
disease until the end of life. On his re.
covery he was put under charge of cler
gyman at Elphin and from thence went
10 several other establishments, at all of
which he distinguished himself more by
his tondness for play and robbing or
chards than by an appetite for books. He,
however, had made considerable progress
in learning, when his uncle, Rev. Thomas
Contarine, adapted him, so to speak, by
volunteering 10 pay the expenses of his
future tuition. In June, 1745, through the
instrumentality of this kind relative,
Goldsmith entered Trinity College, Dub
lin, where he had Edmund Burke for a
fellow student but his idle habits fol-
lowed him, and he spent most of his time
in writing ballads for street singers az the
rate of a crown each, and would frequent
ly steal out at night TO hear his produc-
tons sung on the corners.
After trying and giving up both theology
aud law, he went to Edinburgh TO study
medicine. Here he stayed eighteen months,
but left without gaining his degree, and
set out for the Continent What he did
there cannot be exactly ascertained, but
il seems tolerably certain that he was
rather TOO fond of gambling did not have
very good luck nj 'hc business, and al last
left Leydeu, with a scanty wardrobe, a
thin purse and German flute, 10 travel
on foot through Europe The magic ilute
smoothed his path frightened his lonely
rambles made him hosts Of friends among
the poorer classes everywhere, and finally
brought him TO Padua, where he resumed
his medical studies. IN that city or az
Louvain he obtained the decree OK B NJ,
and in 100 returned 20 England where
he commenced 70 practice His success
was so Indifferent thai lie abandoned med
icine in disgust, but after acting as usher
in an academy AT Peckham for d time, was
compelled TO apply for an appointment as
surgeon on the coast OF Coromandel. The
examining board rejected him, and having
no means Of support whatever, lie was in
imminent danger OF going 10 Jail for pal
try debt but the darkest hour is Just be-
fore day, and a splendid day it was which
now began 10 dawn on GOLDSMITH
In April, l;j9 he published An Inquiry
into the Present State OF Polite Learning
in Europe which Immediately attracted
attention and procured him literary EN-
ployment sufficient % relieve his pressing
necessities.
In 1860 the celebrated Chinese Letters"
now known as the Citizen of tho
World appeared and these were soon
followed by Life OF B7au Nash and
other familiar works 1861, placed Gold
smith in the front rank Of English authors,
and henceforth his fame was secure,
although pecuniarily he was not much
richer than before.
This chronic impecuniosity which haun-
cd him to his deathbed, was not due only
TO scanty pay for his labors; for Goldsmith
was hopelessly improvident. Aside from
occasional visits to the card table, which
he never could abandon, he had no bad
habits, and certainly spent no money n
what is usually denominatei riotous liv.
ing His two besettng weaknesses, which
would have kept him poor had he enjoyed
the income Of q prince, were fondness for
fine clothes and soft heart that never
could resist call for aid from any quarter
whether the object was worthy or the
reverse.
Goldsmith's introduction to Johnson >,
soon after he had made his mark in the
literary world, was OF immense advantage
to him in many respects The burly Doc
tor was then the Colossus of letters in
England, having a reputation so vast that
we can scarcely understand IL al this
distant day, when, but for Boswell's bio
graphy, few would remember him at all
Through johnson, Goldsmith was made a
member of the famous club, and there
thrown in intimate contact with Gibbon,
Garrick, Reynolds, Beauclerk and the rest
of that brilliant coterie with whom the
garrulous Scotchman has brought US into
such delightful familiarity. All these great
men loved Goldsmith devotedly.
The "V car of Wakefield" manu-
script of which beggarly publisher kept
in his drawer two years-was printed in
1866, and recognized at once as the finest
story of its kind ever written in any Ian
guage -Four generations have gone since
then. and that story is still without rival,
L. "A Ia