OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born in 1728 and died 1774. He was an Irishman, and his parents were quite poor. At the age of seventeen, Oliver went to Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar. In this school he had to pay nothing for food and tuition, but he had to perform some menial service. He obtained his bachelor's degree, and left the university. Goldsmith was not a brilliant and attentive student. He became the common butt of boys and master, and was flogged as a dunce in school-room. He tried several professions, but all without success. Eighteen months were spent in studying medicine at Edinburgh, then some time pretending to be studying physic at Leyden. At the age of twenty-seven he left school, with a mere smattering of medical knowledge, and with no property but his clothes and flute.

Next, Goldsmith commenced his wanderings. He rambled on foot through Flanders, France, Switzerland, Italy, "playing tunes which everywhere set the peasantry dancing." His flute frequently gained him meals and bed. Upon his return to England, he obtained a medical appointment in

the service of the East India Company, but the appointment was speedily revoked. At last he took a garret, and at thirty commenced to toil like a galley slave.

"Goldsmith's fame as a poet is secured by the Traveler, and the Deserted Village." He wrote the Vicar of Wakefield, a novel of much merit. Good-natured Man, She Stoops to Conquer, and many other good plays were written by him, for the stage. He also wrote for the use of schools, a History of Rome, History of England, of Greece, and a Natural History. His knowledge, however, was not accurate enough to make his histories very valuable. Dr. Johnson says of his Natural History: "If he can tell a horse from a cow, that is the extent of his knowledge of zoology." But his ability to select and condense, enabled him to make histories that are models of arrangement and condensation, and in this respect they are valuable.

Although a sloven in his dress and life, yet he has a grace and beauty of style that is chaste and musical and fascinating. Goldsmith is one of the most beloved and brilliant of English writers,-full of tenderness and affection.

The Deserted Village.

WEET Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,

Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain

Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,

And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed.
Dear, lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o'er thy green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene!
How often have I paused on every charm,-

The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,

The never-failing brook, the busy mill,

The decent church that topped the neighboring hill,
The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade
For talking age, and whispering lovers made!

How often have I blessed the coming day,
When toil remitting lent its aid to play,
And all the village train, from labor free,

Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree,
While many a pastime circled in the shade,-
The young contending, as the old surveyed;
And many a gambol frolicked o'er the ground,
And sleights of art and feats of strength went round.
Sweet, smiling village, loveliest of the lawn;

Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn;

Amid thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen,