plied funds for the purpose. By some misadventure he lost his money before reaching London, and returned home. Some months later Uncle Contarine, hearing an esteemed friend say that Oliver would make a good doctor, again found funds to send the boy to Edinburgh. Having failed to make connection with the church and the bar, Goldsmith was now to try the last of the "learned professions."

that

you should think

I am extremes for
at our last meeting, your judgement castanak ongi.

to be free expecially in a matter which must

measure conern your

thes

Ser i have no inposition to sifter with you or any other account, but am with an weigh dinion of

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Travel on the Continent. After a year and a half in Edinburgh, he decided that it would be better to continue his medical studies on the Continent, and wrote his generous uncle to that effect. The uncle again filled his purse, and Goldsmith spent a year in travel, returning to England with (according to his own unsupported assertion) a medical degree. It is very generally believed that the travels of George Primrose, in Chapter XX of The Vicar of Wakefield, represent not inaccurately the author's own experiences.

Exarnin

Goldsr

Presen

TWO

rapidly

of the

and th

Golden

one morning an urgent call from his young friend, Johnson went to his rooms and found him under arrest for non-payment of rent. The manuscript of The Vicar of Wakefield was produced as a possible asset, Johnson saw its merit at a glance, and succeeded in selling it for sixty pounds. The Vicar was not published, however, until the poem called The Traveller had made the author's fame secure.

Last Years. Goldsmith lived but ten years after the publication of The Traveller, dying at the age of forty-six. They were busy years; they were well-paid years; they brought many happy experiences to Goldsmith; but they were not peaceful, contented years. Still like the preacher in his Deserted Village, he was

"More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise."

Of Goldsmith it might also be said:

"The long-remembered beggar was his guest.

Pleased with his guests, the good man learned to glow,
And quite forgot their vices in their woe.

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,

Deserted

Good-N

been st

Hung

T D Byrne; father, Many f ted

George

strong

Dr. Pri preache

In T

Stumpe 1

drew di

verse

and set

arcused

upon hi

under t

And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side."

If he had a guinea in his pocket, and was solicited by an apparently deserving person, he was likely to give the whole, though it left him without provision for his next meal. After his death, we are told, the stairway to his lodging was filled with weeping poor folk whom he had befriended.

Five Chief Works.

self wit

Gold

smith's

he had

scanty

was al

spent 1

better

ford. T

Goldsmith's fame as a man of letters rests on five works written in the last decade of his life. Three of these have been mentioned

showed no hard feelings toward him, and that nearly all expressed belief in his honesty and integrity. Two sisters to whom he was indebted, on hearing of his financial troubles, said: "Sooner persuade him to let us work for him gratis than apply to any other; we are sure he will pay us when he can."

may ha TO SUC "That

and it

people.

Burk

cation;

GOLDSMITH'S GRAVE.

"Let not his frailties be remembered," said Johnson; "he was a very great man." To this it should be added that probably no other English author is so often described as lovable.

EDMUND BURKE, 1729-1797

A Contrast with Goldsmith. There could scarcely be found a greater contrast between personalities than between Goldsmith and Burke. No one thinks of calling Burke "lovable;" his "frailties" are not apparent; while there

Publi public 1 Parliam

of Fore

great qu

ment in

ing the to be a

disheart

not und

bo cou