WITH FORTY WOODCUTS, AFTER DESIGNS BY C. STANFIELD, R.A., D. MACLISE, R.A., LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 102031-B TO CHARLES DICKENS. GENIUS AND ITS REWARDS ARE BRIEFLY TOLD: A LIBERAL NATURE AND A NIGGARD DOOM, A DIFFICULT JOURNEY TO A SPLENDID TOMB. NEW-WRIT, NOR LIGHTLY WEIGHED, THAT STORY OLD THRO' OTHER THAN LONE WILD OR DESERT-GLOOM, IN ITS MERE JOY AND PAIN, ITS BLIGHT AND BLOOM, ADVENTUROUS." O FRIEND WITH HEART AS GENTLE FOR DISTRESS, AS RESOLUTE WITH WISE TRUE THOUGHTS TO BIND THE HAPPIEST TO THE UNHAPPIEST OF OUR KIND, THAT THERE IS FIERCER CROWDED MISERY IN GARRET-TOIL AND LONDON LONELINESS THAN IN CRUEL ISLANDS MID THE FAR-OFF SEA. JOHN FORSTER. March, 1848. * The original title of this Biography was the Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith. Why it was altered I have explained at the close of the Preface to the Second Edition. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. IN a few words prefixed to the Third Edition of this Work, issued in the same form as the present, I stated that it was not meant to displace its immediate predecessor, in two octavo volumes, of which it was an abridgment; but that the favour extended to the book had suggested its publication at a price that might bring it within reach of a larger number of readers, and qualify it to accompany the many popular collections of those delightful writings to which its principal attraction is due. The chief omission in the volume is of matter not immediately relating to Goldsmith himself, and of that large body of illustrative notes and authorities which may be referred to in the library edition; but in the preface referring exclusively to the latter, and now reprinted because of certain charges brought against the writer, will be found a sufficient indication of the leading sources from which the facts of the biography were drawn. Mr. Carlyle having always blamed me for suppressing the woodcuts given originally, they are here restored. The library edition of this book having been for some years out of print, I take the opportunity of stating that a new impression of it will very shortly be published with additional illustrative matter. J. F. 46 MONTAGU SQUARE, December, 1862. |