ADVERTISEMENT.

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THERE are an hundred faults in this Thing, and an hundred things might be said to prove them beauties. But it is needless. A book may be amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity. The hero of this piece unites in himself the three greatest characters upon earth; he is a priest, an husbandman, and a father of a family. He is drawn as ready to teach, and ready to obey-as simple in affluence, and majestic in adversity. In this age of opulence and refinement, how can such a charac ter please? Such as are fond of high life, will turn with disdain from the simplicity of his country fire-side; such as mistake ribaldry for humour, will find no wit in his harmless conversation; and such as have been taught to deride religion, will laugh at one whose chief stores of comfort are drawn from futurity.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

OF

OLIVER GOLDSMITH, M. B.

FEW of the poetical and miscellaneous writers of the present age have attained more fame than.. Dr. Goldsmith; and few have better deserved it.

His life presents a series of adventures such as are seldom experienced by men of a literary turn; and if the present sketch shall appear too short to do justice to him, it must be remembered that in the novel now before the reader, he has interwoven much of his own history with that of his hero.

He was born in the year 1731, at Pallas, in the county of Longford, Ireland, and being designed by his father, who was a clergyman, for the medical profession, he was sent to the university of Edinburgh in 1751, and remained there until the beginning of 1754. His time, however, was not so much employed in medical study, as in miscellaneous reading; nor was he qualified to give deep and serious. application to any regular course.

His first frolic was a tour in Europe, which he undertook without any previous means of support, and through which he wandered on foot, trusting to casual bounty or hospitality. The series of adventures he met with are supposed to be almost literally detailed in this novel, in chapter xx.

On his arrival in London, without a penny in his pocket, he procured a recommendation to be usher at Dr. Milner's academy, Peckham; but in a short time took lodgings in London, with a view to commence author. He furnished some articles for the Monthly Review, and essays for the newspapers and Magazines, but these early productions contributed but little to his fame or fortune, nor was it until 1765, when he published his "Traveller," that he became known to the world as a poet, and intimate

with Dr. Johnson, Dr. Percy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and almost all the eminent men of his day.

The consequence of that reputation, which he gained from the publication of the Traveller, was not what might have been expected. Instead of indulging literary prospects, he began to dress like a physician, and sought for practice, but the latter came in very slowly, and he confesses that although he had plenty of patients he had but few fees. In 1766 he published the Vicar of Wakefield, of which a more particular account will be given hereafter; and successively published, "The History of England in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son," the Comedy of "the Good-natured Man," a" Roman History," in two volumes octavo, and a "History of England," in four volumes. In 1770, his poetical fame was completely established by the exquisite merit of his "Deserted Village," which has probably been oftener read and admired than any production of the last century; and in the following year his character as a dramatic writer was considerably heightened by the success of his Comedy "She Stoops to Conquer." His other publications were a "History of Greece," and a "History of the Earth and Animated Nature," a work in which he displayed such enchantments of style, as have rarely appeared in any similar production. He was concerned likewise, more or less, in preparing for the press various compilations and new editions.

By his literary labours, he acquired considerable property, and while that was passing through his hands, lived genteely in chambers in the Temple, but as he never was an economist, his distresses returned so frequently as to make him glad to undertake any literary employment that might recruit his finances. He was projecting, among other schemes, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, in which he was to be assisted by his friends of the Johnsonian school, when in March 1774, he felt the symptoms of a slow fever, and having taken a very strong