SKETCH

OF

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

OLIVER GOLDSMITH, M. B.

THIS gentleman was born at Elphin, in the county of Roscommon, in Ireland, in the year 1729. His father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, had four sons, of whom Oliver was the youngest. He studied the classics in Mr. Hughes's school, and on the 11th of June, 1744, was admitted a sizer in Trinity College, Dublin.

During his continuance at the University he made no display of those shining abilities which afterwards so distinguishedly marked his genius. In the month of February 1749, which was two years after the regular course of those things, he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the year 1751 he visited Edinburgh, having previously turned his thoughts to the profession of physic, and attended some courses of anatomy in Dublin. At Edinburgh he studied the different branches of medicine under the respective professors in that University. His thoughtless though beneficent disposition soon involved him in difficulties; and, having made himself responsible for the debt of

another person, a fellow student, he was obliged abruptly to leave Scotland in order to avoid the horrors of a prison.

In the beginning of the year 1754 he arrived at Sunderland, where, being pursued by a legal process on account of the debt we have just mentioned, he was arrested; but he was afterwards set at liberty by the friendship of M. Laughlin Maclane, and Dr. Sleigh, who were then in the college.

Having surmounted this embarrassment, he embarked on board a Dutch ship, and arrived at Rotterdam, from whence he went to Brussels; then visited great part of Flanders, and afterwards, Strasbourg and Louvain, where he continued some time, and obtained the degree of Bachelor in Physic. From thence he went to Geneva in company with an English gentleman. It is a circumstance worth recording that he had so strong a propensity to see different countries, men and manners, that even the necessity of walking on foot could not deter him from this favourite pursuit. His German flute, on which he played tolerably well, frequently supplied him with the means of subsistence, and his learning procured him a favourable reception at most of the religious houses he visited. He himself tells us that, whenever he approached a peasant's house, he played one of his most merry tunes, and that generally procured him not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day. This, however, was not the case with the rich who generally despised both him and his music.

He had not been long arrived at Geneva when he met with a young man who, by the death of an uncle, was become possessed of a considerable fortune, and to whom Mr. Goldsmith was recommended for a travelling companion - As avarice was the prevailing principle of this young man, it cannot be supposed he was long pleased with his preceptor who was of a contrary turn of mind.

Mr. Goldsmith, during his residence at the college of Edinburgh, had given marks of his rising genius for poetry which Switzerland greatly contributed to bring to maturity. It was here he wrote the first sketch of his Traveller, which he sent to his brother Henry, a clergyman in Ireland, who, despising Fame and Fortune, retired with an amiable wife on an income of only forty pounds per annum to pass a life of happiness and obscurity.

Our poet and his pupil continued together until they arrived at the south of France, where on a disagreement they parted, and our author was left to struggle with all the difficulties that a man could experience, who was in a state of poverty, in a foreign country, without friends. Yet notwithstanding all his difficulties his ardour for travelling was not abated; and he persisted in his scheme, though he was frequently obliged to be beholden to his flute and the peasants. At length, his curiosity being gratified, he bent his course towards England, and about the beginning of the winter in 1758 he arrived at Dover.

His situation was not much mended on his arrival in London, at which period the whole of

his finances were reduced to a few halfpence. What must be the gloomy apprehensions of a man in so forlorn a situation, and an utter stranger in the metropolis! He applied to several apothecaries for employment; but his aukward appearance, and his broad Irish accent, were so much against him that he met only with ridicule and contempt. At last, however, merely through motives of humanity, he was taken notice of by a chemist who employed him in his laboratory.

In this situation he continued till he was informed that his old friend Dr. Sleigh was in London. He then quitted the chemist, and lived some time upon the liberality of the Doctor; but, disliking a life of dependence on the generosity of his friend, and being unwilling to be burdensome to him, he soon accepted an offer that was made him of assisting the late Rev. Dr. Milner in the education of young gentlemen at his academy at Peckham. During the time he remained in this situation he gave much satisfaction to his employer; but, as he had obtained some reputation from criticisms he had written in the Monthly Review, he eagerly engaged in the compilation of that work with Mr. Griffith the principal proprietor. He accordingly returned to London, took a lodging in Green - Arbour Court in the Old Bailey, and commenced a professed author.

This was in the year 1759, before the close of which he produced several works, particularly a periodical publication, called The Bee, and An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning