GOLDSMITH, or, as some choose to express it, silversmith, an artist who makes vessels, utensils, and ornaments, in gold and silver.

The goldsmith’s work is either performed in the mould, or beat out with the hammer or other instrument. All works which have raised figures are cast in a mould, and afterwards polished and finished; plates or dishes of silver or gold are beaten out from thin flat plates; and tankards, and other vessels of the kind, are formed of plates soldered together, their mouldings being beaten put, not cast The business of the goldsmiths formerly required much more labour than it does at present; for they were then obliged to hammer the metal from the ingot to the thinness they wanted; but the flattening mills which have been latterly invented reduce metals to the thinness required, at a very moderate expense. The goldsmith makes his own moulds, and, for that reason, should be a good designer, and have a taste in sculpture; he ought also to know enough of metallurgy to be able to assay mixed metals, and to mix the alloy.

Goldsmith, Oliver, an eminent English poet and general writer, was born on the 29th of November 1728, at a place called Pallas, in the parish of Forney and county of Longford, in Ireland. His father, the Reverend Charles Goldsmith, was a clergyman of the established church, who had been educated at Dublin, and afterwards held the living of Kilkenny West, in the county of Westmeath. By his wife, Anne, daughter of the Reverend Mr Jones, master of the diocesan school of Elphin, he had five sons and two daughters. His eldest son Henry entered the church, and to him the Traveller is dedicated; the second was Oli- [7:10:607]ver, who is supposed to have faithfully represented his father in the character of the village preacher in the poem of the Deserted Village. Oliver was originally intended for some mercantile employment, and with this view he was instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, at a common school; but, as he had shown an early predilection for poetry, and betrayed some inequalities of temper and conduct which seemed to indicate a disposition more favourable to the pursuits of genius than the regularity of business, he was put to a school of reputation to qualify him for entering the university with the advantage of suitable preparation. In June 1744, being then in his fifteenth year, he was entered as a sizer at Trinity College, Dublin; and in this seminary 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 a relation, turned his thoughts to the study of physic; and, after attending some courses of anatomy in Dublin, proceeded, in the year 1752, to Edinburgh, where he studied the several branches of medicine under the different professors in that university. But his thoughtless disposition soon involved him in difficulties; and he was obliged to leave Scotland precipitately, in consequence of engaging to pay a considerable sum of money for a fellow student. A few days afterwards, about the beginning of the year 1754⅛ he arrived at Sunderland, near Newcastle, where he was arrested at the suit of a tailor in Edinburgh, to whom he had given security for his friend. But by the good offices of Mr Laughlan Maclane and Dr Sleigh, he was soon delivered out of the hands of the bailiff, and took his passage on board a Dutch ship to Rotterdam, where, after a short stay, he proceeded to Brussels. He then visited the greater part of Flanders; and, after passing some time at Strasburg and Louvain, where he obtained the degree of bachelor of physic, he accompanied an English gentleman to Berne and Geneva, in Switzerland.

It is undoubted that this ingenious but unfortunate person travelled on foot during the greater part of his tour. 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 appalled at danger, he became an enthusiast in the design he had formed of seeing the manners of different countries. He had some knowledge of the French language and of music, and he played tolerably well on the German flute; which, from an amusement, became at some times his only means of subsistence. His learning produced him a hospitable reception at most of the religious houses; and his music made him welcome to the peasants of Flanders and other parts of Germany. “Whenever I approached a peasant’s house towards night-fell,” said he, “I played one of my most merry tunes, and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day; but in truth I must own, whenever I attempted to entertain persons of a higher rank, they always thought my performance odious, and never made me any return for my endeavours to please them.”

On Goldsmith s arrivai at Geneva, he was recommended as a proper person for a travelling tutor to a young man who had been unexpectedly left a considerable sum of money by his uncle, formerlyan eminent pa wnbroker near Holborn. Inis youth, who had been articled to an attorney, determined, on receipt of his fortune, to see the world; and, on his engaging with his preceptor, made a provision that he should be permitted to govern himself; but Goldsmith soon found his pupil understood extremely well the art of managing his money concerns, avarice being, in fact, his ruling passion. His questions were usually how money might be saved, which was the least expensive course of travelling, and whether any thing could be bought that would turn to account when disposed of again in London. Such curiosities on the way as could be seen for nothing he was ready enough to look at; but if the sight of them required to be paid for, he usually asserted that he had been told they were not worth seeing. A companion of this turn could not be much to Goldsmith’s taste, and in truth must have been intolerable to any one. During his continuance in Switzerland he assiduously cultivated his poetical talent, of which he had given some proofs even whilst at Edinburgh. It was from this country that he sent the first sketch of his poem called the Traveller to his brother the clergyman in Ireland, who, giving up fame and fortune, had retired with an amiable wife, to happiness and obscurity, on an income of only L.40 a year. From Geneva Mr Goldsmith and his pupil visited the south of France, where the young man, upon some disagreement with his preceptor, paid him the small part of his salary which was due, and embarked at Marseilles for England. Our wanderer was thus left once more at large in the wide world, and passed through a variety of difficulties in traversing the greater part of France. At length his curiosity being satiated, he bent his course towards England, and arrived at Dover in the year 1756.

When he reached London, his stock of cash did not amount to a couple of shillings; and being an entire stranger in the metropolis, his mind was filled with the most gloomy reflections on his embarrassed situation. With some difficulty he discovered the part of the town in which his old acquaintance Dr Sleigh resided. This gentleman received him with the warmest affection, and liberally invited him to share his purse until some establishment could be procured for him. Unwilling, however, to be a burden to his friend, Goldsmith, a short time afterwards, embraced an offer which was made him to assist Dr Milner in instructing young gentlemen at an academy at Peckham; and for a short time he acquitted himself greatly to the doctor’s satisfaction. But having obtained some reputation by some criticisms he had written in the Monthly Review, Mr Griffith, the proprietor, engaged him in the compilation of that work; and, resolving to pursue the profession of writing, he returned to London, as the mart where abilities of every kind were sure to meet distinction and reward. As his finances were by no means in a good state, he determined to adopt a plan of the strictest economy, and took lodgings in an obscure court in the Old Bailey, where he wrote several ingenious little pieces. Mr Newberry, who was at that time a great encourager of men of literary abilities, became a patron of our author, and introduced him as a writer in the Public Ledger, in which his Citizen of the World originally appeared, under the title of Chinese Letters.

Fortune now seemed to bestow some notice on a man whom she had long neglected. The simplicity of his character, the integrity of bis heart, and the merit of his productions, made his company acceptable to a number of respectable families; and he emerged from his shabby apartments in the Old Bailey to the politer air of the Temple, where he took handsome chambers, and lived in a genteel style. The publication of his Traveller, and his Vicar of Wakefield, was followed by the performance of his comedy of the Good-Natured Man at Covent Garden Theatre; a production which placed him in the first rank of the poets of the age.

Amongst many persons of distinction who were desirous to know him was the Duke of Northumberland; and the circumstance which attended his introduction to that nobleman is worthy of being related, as showing a striking trait of his character. “I was invited,” said the doctor, as he was then universally called, “by my friend Mr Percy, to wait upon the duke, in consequence of the satisfaction he had received from the perusal of one of my [7:10:608]. productions. I dressed myself in the best manner I could, and, after studying some compliments I thought necessary on such an occasion, proceeded to Northumberland House, and acquainted the servants that I had particular business with his grace. They showed me into an antichamber; where, after waiting some time, a gentleman very genteelly dressed made his appearance. Taking him for the duke, I delivered all the fine things I had composed in order to compliment him on the honour he had done me; when, to my great astonishment, he told me I had mistaken him for his master, who would see me immediately. At that instant the duke came into the apartment, and I was so confused on the occasion, that I wanted words barely sufficient to express the sense I entertained of the duke’s politeness, and went away extremely chagrined at the blunder I had committed.” Absence, simplicity, credulity, and entire ignorance of the world, appear to have formed the principal elements in the character of this amiable but somewhat eccentric man of genius. He was indeed “in wit a man, simplicity a child.”

Previously to the publication of his Deserted Village, the bookseller had given him a note for a hundred guineas for the copyright, which the doctor mentioned a few hours afterwards to one of his friends, who observed, it was a very great sum for so short a performance. “In truth,” replied Goldsmith, “I think so too; I have not been easy since I received it, therefore I will go back and return him his note.” This he absolutely did, and left it entirely to the bookseller to pay him according to the profits produced by the sale of the piece, which, however, proved to be very considerable.

During the last rehearsal of his comedy entitled She Stoops to Conquer, which Coleman had no opinion would succeed, on the doctor’s objecting to the repetition of one of Tony Lumpkin’s speeches, being apprehensive it might injure the play, the manager with great keenness replied, “Psha, my dear doctor, do not be fearful of squibs, when we have been sitting almost these two hours upon a barrel of gunpowder.” The piece, however, contrary to Coleman’s expectation, was received with uncommon applause by the audience; and Goldsmith’s pride was so much hurt by the severity of this observation, that it entirely put an end to his friendship for Coleman.

Notwithstanding the great success of his pieces, by some of which, it has been asserted on good authority, he cleared L.1800 in one year, his circumstances were by no means in a prosperous condition. This was partly owing to the liberality of his disposition, and partly to an unfortunate habit he had contracted of gaming, the arts of which he knew very little of, and consequently became the prey of those who were unprincipled enough to take advantage of his simplicity.

Just before his death he had formed a design of executing an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, the prospectus of which he actually published. In this work several of his literary friends, particularly Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr Johnson, Mr Beauclerc, and Mr Garrick, had undertaken to furnish him with articles upon different subjects; and he entertained the most sanguine expectations of its success. The undertaking, however, did not meet with that encouragement from the booksellers which he had imagined it would undoubtedly receiye; and he used to lament this circumstance almost to the last hour of his existence.

He had been for some years afflicted, at different times, with a violent strangury, which contributed not a little to embitter the latter part of his life; and which, united with the vexations he suffered on other accounts, brought on a kind of habitual despondency. In this unhappy condition he was attacked by a nervous fever, which, being improperly treated, terminated his existence on the 4th of April 1774, at the age of forty-five.

The learned leisure which he loved to enjoy was too often interrupted by distresses which arose from the liberality of his temper, and which sometimes threw him into loud fits of passion. But this impetuosity was corrected upon a moment’s reflection; and his servants have been known upon these occasions purposely to throw themselves in his way, that they might profit by it immediately afterwards; for he who had the good fortune to be reproved was certain of being rewarded for it. The universal esteem in which his poems were held, and the never-failing pleasure which they afford in the perusal, are striking proofs of their merit. He was a studious and correct observer of nature; happy in the selection of his images, the choice of his subjects, and the harmony of his versification; and though his embarrassed situation prevented him from putting the last hand to many of his productions, his Hermit, his Traveller, and his Deserted Village, bid fair to retain their place amongst the most finished pieces in the English language.

Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote, 1. History of the Earth and Animated Nature, in 6 vols. 8vo; 2. History of England, in 4 vols. 8vo; 3. History of Rome, in 2 vols.; and, 4. Abridgments of the two last, for the use of schools. Goldsmith’s Miscellaneous Works were collected and published by Bishop Percy, who prefixed to his edition a valuable and interesting life of the author.