Birth and parentage.-Characteristics of the Goldsmith race.-Poetical birthplace.-Goblin house.-Scenes of boyhood.-Lissoy.-Picture of a country parson.-Goldsmith's school mistress.-Byrne, the village schoolmaster.-Goldsmith's hornpipe and epigram.-Uncle Contarine.-School studies and school sports.-Mistakes of a night.
THERE are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith, for few have so eminently possessed the magic gift of identifying themselves with their writings. We read his character in every page, and grow into familiar intimacy with him as we read. The artless benevolence that beams throughout his works; the whimsical, yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the unforced humor, blending so happily with good feeling and good sense, and singularly dashed at times with a pleasing melancholy; even the very nature of his mellow, and flowing, and softly-tinted style, all seem to bespeak his moral as well as his intellectual qualities, and make us love the man at the same time that we admire the author. While the productions of writers of loftier pretension