entered into engagements for writing his histories of Rome, Greece, and England. Two years after, he appeared the second time as a dramatic author, and with very great success. Dr. Johnson said of "She Stoops to Conquer," that he knew of no comedy for many years that had so much exhilarated an audience, and had answered the great end of comedy-making an audience merry. One of his last publications was a " History of the Earth, and Animated Nature," which appeared in 1774, and for which he received the sum of eight hundred and fifty pounds; but such was his improvidence that his money was gone almost as soon as received. A tale of distress would take from him his last penny. His affairs, in consequence, became very much deranged; and his circumstances, preying upon his mind, are supposed to have accelerated his death, which occurred on the 4th of April, 1774. "Thus terminated the life of an admirable writer and estimable man at the early age of forty-five, when his powers were in full vigor, and much was to be expected from their exertion. The shock to his friends appears to have been great from the unexpected loss of one whose substantial virtues, with all his foibles and singularities, they had learned to value. Burke, on hearing it, burst into tears; Sir Joshua Reynolds relinquished painting for the day,-a very unusual forbearance; and Dr. Johnson, though little prone to exhibit strong emotions of grief, felt most sincerely on this occasion." Three months afterward he thus wrote to Boswell: "Of poor dear Dr. Goldsmith there is little to be told more than the papers have made public. He died of a fever, I am afraid more violent from uneasiness of mind. He had raised money and squandered it, by every artifice of acquisition and folly of expense. But let not his frailties be remembered: he was a very great man."2 To the merits of Goldsmith, as a writer, the testimony of critics almost innumerable might be adduced. But the following few lines from an admirable article by Sir Walter Scott, will suffice: "The wreath of Goldsmith is unsullied; he wrote to exalt virtue and expose vice; and he accomplished his task in a manner which raises him to the highest rank among British authors. We close his volume with a sigh, that such an author should have written so little from the stores of his own genius, and that he should have so prematurely been removed from the sphere of literature which he so highly adorned."3 1 Prior, vol. ll. p. 519. 2 "Here Fancy's favorite, Goldsmith, sleeps; St. James's Chronicle, April 7, 1774. 3 Read-the article on Goldsmith in the 3d vol. of Scott's Prose Works: also, another in the 57th vol. of Quarterly Review: also life, in Mrs. Barbauld's "Lives of the British Novelists:" also, Life and Works by Prior, 6 vols., one of the most valuable contributions to English literature of the present century. In Boswell's Johnson, Goldsmith is frequently mentioned, but not in such a manner as to do any justice to his character. How could it be expected from such a man? When the work was first published, Burke, much displeased that Goldsmith should be so undervalued in it, remarked to a lady: "What rational opinion, my dear madam, could you expect a lawyer to give of a poet?' Wilkes improved upon this, and remarked at a dinner, "A Scotch lawyer and an Irish poet I hold to be about as opposite as the antipodes." Sir Joshua Reynolds also expressed his decided dissent from Boswell's opinions; and George Stevens, in his usual sarcastic spirit, remarked, "Why, sir, it is not unusual for a man who has much genius to be censured by one who has none." And Sir Walter Scott remarked, "I wonder why Boswell so often displays a malevolent feeling towards Goldsmith. Rivalry for Johnson's good graces, perhaps." That Johnson's opinion was most favorable to Goldsmith, Boswell's own book testifies. Hear him: "Goldsmith was a man who, whatever ae wrote, did it better than any other man could do. He deserved a place in Westminster Abbey; and every ITALY. Far to the right where Apennine ascends, Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side, While oft some temple's mouldering tops between Could nature's bounty satisfy the breast, The sons of Italy were surely blest. Whatever fruits in different climes were found, But small the bliss that sense alone bestows, That opulence departed leaves behind; For wealth was theirs, nor far removed the date, Yet, still the loss of wealth is here supplied A mistress or a saint in every grove. By sports like these are all their cares beguiled, year he lived he would have deserved it more." Again: "Whether, indeed, we take him as a poet, as a comic writer, or as an historian, he stands in the first class." 1 Either Sir Joshua Reynolds, or some other friend who communicated the story to him, calling one Each nobler aim, represt by long control, As in those domes, where Caesars once bore sway, The Traveller. FRANCE. To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, With tuneless pipe, beside the murmuring Loire! Alike all ages. So blest a life these thoughtless realms display, Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear, Or e'en imaginary worth obtains, Here passes current; paid from hand to hand, day at Goldsmith's lodgings, opened the door without ceremony, and discovered him, not in meditation, or in the throes of poetic birth, but in the boyish office of teaching a favorite dog to sit upright upon its launches, or, as it is commonly said, to beg. Occasionally he glanced his eyes over his desk, and occasionally shook his finger at the unwilling pupil, in order to make him retain his position; while on the page before him was written that couplet, with the ink of the second line still wet, from the description of Italy: "By sports like these are all their cares beguiled, The sports of children satisfy the child." The sentiment seemed so appropriate to the employment, that the visitor could not refrain from giving vent to his surprise in a strain of banter, which was received with characteristic good humor, and the admission at once made, that the amusement in which he had been engaged had given birth to the idea. 1 "I had some knowledge of music," says George Primrose, in the Vicar of Wakefield,' " with a tolerable voice, and now turned what was my amusement into a present means of subsistence. I passed among the harmless peasants of Flanders, and among such of the French as were poor enough to be very merry; for I ever found them sprightly in proportion to their wants. Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards nightfall, I played one of my most merry tunes; and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day." From courts, to camps, to cottages it strays, They please, are pleased, they give to get esteem, For praise too dearly loved, or warmly sought, The Traveller. BRITAIN. My genius spreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring; By forms unfashion'd fresh from Nature's hand; True to imagined right above control, While e'en the peasant boasts these rights to scan, Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictured here, Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown; 1 There is, perhaps, no couplet in English rhyme more perspicuously condensed than those two Unes of The Traveller,' in which the author describes the at once flattering, vain, and happy cha racter of the French "-Campbell. 2" We talked of Goldsmith's Traveller,' of which Dr. Johnson spoke highly; and, while I was helping him on with his greatcoat, he repeatedly quoted from it the character of the British nation which he did with suc nergy that the tear started in his eye."--Boswell's Johnson. Ferments arise, imprison'd factions roar, Nor this the worst. As nature's ties decay, And scholars, soldiers, kings, unhonor'd die. The Traveller. THE VILLAGE PREACHER. Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, And still where many a garden flower grows wild; There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, The village preacher's modest mansion rose. A man he was to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year; Nor e'er had changed, nor wish'd to change his place; By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour; Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away; Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done, Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won Pleased with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow, And quite forgot their vices in their woe; Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all. Beside the bed where parting life was laid, |