ADVERTISEMENT. To the Miscellaneous Works of Goldsmith, in four volumes octavo, a Memoir of his life is prefixed, written with considerable elegance, and presenting the most copious, and apparently the most authentic materials for the life of the Poet. The late Dr. Percy is supposed to be the author of it: it appears to be the source whence other biographers have drawn their information; and I am willing to confess that it has been the foundation of my own. Some characteristic anecdotes of the Poet's life and manners have appeared in subsequent publications; I should with reluctance have deprived my readers of what information might be collected from them, but I am not sufficiently satisfied of the veracity of all to authorise their reception in the narrative of the Poet's life. I have therefore collected them into an Appendix, where they appear under the sanction of the narrators' names, who are responsible for their truth. Books of anecdotes are so numerous, and many so fugitive and obscure, that some circumstances relating to the life of Goldsmith may have escaped b my diligence; "Nam quis cuncta legit, vel cuncta quæ legit, meminisse potest?" (vide Boissonade ad Holstenii Epist. p. xi.) but my omissions will be less regretted, when it is known that copious materials for a new life of our Poet are now collecting by the industrious and elegant author of the Life of Burke.1 The poems I hope will be found more complete than in any preceding edition. Benhall, Aug. 10, 1831. J. MITFORD. 1 Doctor Johnson intended to write the life of Goldsmith, and to insert his poems in his Collection: he assisted a female relation of Goldsmith, and desired her to procure authentic particulars of the life of the Poet. Malone also was employed by him in collecting materials in Ireland. The poems were omitted in consequence of some exclusive interest in some of them, vested in Mr. Carnan, a bookseller. See Boswell's Johnson, i. p. 464. 482. THE LIFE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH. BY THE REV. JOHN MITFORD. S e st 2 OLIVER GOLDSMITH, one of the most celebrated of English writers, was born on the 25th Nov. 1728, at Elphin, in the county of Roscommon. in Ireland. His father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, is described as belonging to the established church; he married Anne, the daughter of the Rev. Oliver Jones, master of the Diocesan School at Elphin, and as he possessed no private fortune, it appears that the young couple depended entirely on the kindness and bounty of their relations. The Rev. Mr. Green, her uncle, lent them a house, and at his death the father of our Poet succeeded to the vacant benefice. The Poet might with reason be proud of his Dr. Johnson's epitaph, and Dr. Percy's biographical memoir state the place of Goldsmith's birth, as Pallas, in the parish of Ferney, in the county of Longford. This has since been discovered to be a mistake. See a letter from R. J. Lloyd to Mr. Mangin on this subject. He asserts that Goldsmith was born at Smith Hill, Elphin, in his grandfather's house. His mother was contemporary with Oliver Goldsmith, and brought up with him; she pointed out the very spot where the bed stood in which Goldsmith was born. See Mangin's Essay on Light Reading, p. 147. father's name.3 He is described in the well written and elegant narrative, which passes under the authority of Dr. Percy's name, as equally distinguished for his attainments in literature and for his benevolence of disposition. It seems generally supposed that the portrait of the country pastor, in the 'Deserted Village,' was intended to delineate the character of this estimable man, and was both a fond and faithful tribute of filial affection: a more perfect model of a teacher of the gospel and a follower of Christ could hardly be designed; it reminds one of the character of those plain and simple men, the faithful guardians of their flock, who during the preceding century defended and adorned the protestant church; with whom an unwearied activity of mind, solid and extensive learning, and rich intellectual endowments, were united to the extremest simplicity of manners, the most devout feelings, and the most retired habits of private life. The family of this excellent and singlehearted man consisted of five sons and two daughters.4 away 3 Mr. T. Campbell says, there was a tradition in the family that they were descended from Juan Romeiro, a Spanish gentleman, who had settled in Ireland in the sixteenth century, and had married a woman, whose name of Goldsmith was adopted by their descendants.' v. Spec. of Br. Poets, vi. p. 251. 4 Goldsmith had three brothers: Charles, who went to America; Maurice, who was a cabinet-maker in Dublin; and Henry, the clergyman. He had two sisters; Catharine and Jane, who lived and died at Athlone. Oliver, th second son, from the bir of his paren the compar our Poet's even to the of a perso The eldest son, Henry, is said to have inherited his father's talents, and was distinguished both at school and college; but a very early, and it seems an imprudent marriage, at once closed all prospects of reasonable ambition, and he retired upon a curacy, as his only means of maintenance. It is to him that The Traveller' is dedicated; and we might infer from some passages in it, that this retirement from the world was neither regretted by himself, nor disapproved by his friends. He is there described, as one who despising fame and fortune, has retired early to happiness and obscurity, with an income of forty pounds a year. I now perceive, my dear brother, the wisdom of your humble choice; you have entered upon a sacred office, where the harvest is great and the labourers are few, while you have left the field of ambition, where the labourers are many, and the harvest not worth carrying away.' Oliver, the subject of this memoir, was the second son, born at the distance of seven years from the birth of the first. The slender resources of his parents seem to have been exhausted in the comparatively expensive education of Henry; our Poet's prospects were therefore necessarily of an humbler kind. He was sent to the village school to learn little more than those common rudiments of education which are now familiar even to the poor. The school was under the care of a person, who, to fit him for his employment, |