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to the Doctor's fatisfaction for a fhort time; but, having obtained fome reputation by the criticifins he had written in the Monthly Review, Mr. Griffith, the principal proprietor, engaged him in the compilation of it; and, refolving to pursue the profeffion of writing, he returned to London, as the mart where abilities of every kind were fure of meeting diftinction and reward. Here he determined to adopt a plan of the strictest oeconomy, and, at the close of the year 1759, took lodgings in Green-Arbour-court in the Old Bailey, where he wrote feveral ingenious pieces. The late Mr. Newbery, who, at that time gave great encouragement to men of literary abilities, became a kind of patron to our young author, and introduced him as one of the writers in the Public Ledger, in which his Citizen of the World originally appeared, under the title of Chinese Letters.' *

FORTUNE now seemed to take fome notice of a man' she had long neglected. The fimplicity of his character, the integrity of his heart, and the merit of his productions, made his company very acceptable to a number of refpectable perfons; and, about the middle of the year

During this time, (according to another account) he wrote for the British Magazine; of which Dr. Smollet was then Editor, most of those Essays and Tales, which he afterwards collected and published in a feparate volume. He also wrote occafionally, for the Critical Review; and it was the merit which he discovered in criticising a despicable tranflation of Ovid's Fafti by a pedantic school-mafter, and his Enquiry into the prefent ftate of learning in Europe, which first introduced him to the acquaintance of Dr. Smollet, who recommended him to fe veral literati, and to most of the bookfellers by whom he was afterwards patronized.

1762, he emerged from his mean apartments near the Old Bailey to the politer air of the Temple, where he took handfome chambers, and lived in a genteel flyle. The publication of his Traveller, his Vicar of Wakefield, and his Hiftory of England, was followed by the performance of his comedy of the Good-natured Man at Covent Garden theatre, and placed him in the first rank of the poets of the prefent age.

OUR Doctor, as he was now univerfally called, had a conftant levee of his diftreft countrymen, whose wants, as far as he was able, he always relieved; and he has been often known to leave himself even without a guinea, in order to fupply the neceflities of others.

ANOTHER feature in his character we cannot help laying before the reader. Previous to the publication of his Deferted Village, the book feller had given him a note for one hundred guineas for the copy, which the Doctor mentioned, a few hours after, to one of his friends, who obferved it was a very great fum for fo fhort a performance. In truth,' replied Goldfmith, I think fo too,

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it is much more than the honeft man can afford, or the 'piece is worth; I have not been eafy fince I received

it; I will therefore go back and return him his note:* which he actually did, and left it entirely to the bookfeller to pay him according to the profits produced by the fale of the poem, which turned out very confiderable.

DURING the laft rehearsal of his comedy, intitled, She Stoops to Conquer, which Mr. Coleman thought would not fucceed, on the Doctor's objecting to the repetition of one of Tony Lumpkin's fpeeches, being apprehenfive it might injure the play, the Manager, with great keenefs:

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replied, Píha, my dear Doctor, do not be fearful of fquibs, when we have been fitting almoft these two hours upon a barrel of gunpowder.' The piece, however, contrary to Mr. Coleman's expectation, was received with uncommon applaufe by the audience; and Goldfmith's pride was fo hurt by the feverity of the above obfervation, that it entirely put an end to his friendship for the gentleman who made it.

NOTWITHSTANDING the great fuccefs of his pieces, by fome of which, it is afferted, upon good authority, he cleared 1800l. in one year, his circumftances were by no means in a profperous fituation! partly owing to the liberality of his difpofition, and partly to an unfortunate habit he had contracted of gaming, with thearts of which he was very little acquainted, and confequently became the prey of those who were unprincipled enough to take advantage of his ignorance.

Just before his death he had formed a defign for executing an univerfal dictionary of arts and fciences, the prospectus of which he actually printed and diftributed among his acquaintance. In this work feveral of his literary friends (particularly Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnfon, Mr. Beauclerc, and Mr. Garrick) had promised to affift, and to furnish him with articles upon different subjects. He had entertained the most fanguine expectations from the fuccefs of it. The undertaking, however, did not meet with that encouragement from the bookfellers which he had imagined it would undoubtedly receive; and he used to lament this circumftance almoft to the laft hour of his existence.

He had been for fome years afflicted, at different times, with a violent ftrangury, which contributed not a little to imbitter the latter part of his life; and which, united with the vexations he fuffered upon other occafions, brought on a kind of habitual defpondency. In this unhappy condition he was attacked by a nervous fever, which being improperly treated, terminated in his diffolution on the 4th day of April, 1774, in the forty-fifth year of his age. His friends, who were very numerous and refpectable, had determined to bury him in Weftminfter-abbey, where a tablet was to have been erected to his memory. His pall was to have been fupported by Lord Shelburne, Lord Louth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Hon. Mr. Beauclerc, Mr. Edmund Burke, and Mr. Garrick; but from fome unaccountable circumftances this defign was dropped, and his remains were privately depofited in the Temple burial-ground. *

As to his character, it is ftrongly illuftrated by Mr. Pope's line,

• In wit a man, fimplicity a child.”

THE learned leifure he loved to enjoy was too often interrupted by diftreffes which arofe from the openness of his temper, and which fometimes threw him into loud fits of paffion; but this impetuofity was corrected upon a moment's reflection, and his fervants have been known, upon thefe occafions, purpofely to throw themfelves in his way, that they might profit by it immediately after;

* A fubfcription, however, has fince been raised by his friends, to defray the expence of a marble monument which is now executed by Mr. Nollikens, an eminent Statuary in

for he who had the good fortune to be reproved was certain of being rewarded for it. His difappointments at other times, made him peevish and fullen, and he has often left a party of convivial friends abruptly in the evening, in order to go home, and brood over his misfor.

tunes.

THE universal efteem in which his poems are held, and the repeated pleasure they give in the perufal, are ftriking proofs of their merit. He was a ftudious and correct observer of nature, happy in the selection of his images, in the choice of his fubjects, and in the harmony of his versification; and, though his embarrassed fituation prevented him from putting the laft hand to many of his productions, his Hermit, his Traveller, and his

London, and is fhortly to be placed in Westminster-abbey, with the following infcription, written by Doctor Samuel Johnson :

OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,

POETA, PHYSICI, HISTORICI,

QUI NULLUM FERE SCRIBENDI GENUS
NON TETIGIT,

NULLUM QUOD TETIGIT NON ORNAVIT :
SIVE RISUS ESSENT MOVENDI,

SIVE LACRIME,

AFFECTUUM POTENS AT LENIS DOMINATOR:
INGENIO SUBLIMIS, VIVIDUS, VERSATILIS,
ORATIONE GRANDIS, NITIDUS, VENUSTUS:
HOC MONUMENTO MEMORIAM COLUIT
SODALIUM AMOR,
AMICORUM FIDES,

LECTORUM VENERATIO.

ELFINIE IN HIBERNIA NATUS MDCCXXIX.

EBLANE LITERIS INSTITUTUS:

LONDINI OBIIT MDCCLXXIV.

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