Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey.

  • Oliver Goldsmith
Date:
[18??]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/860
    LIFE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH. « Thb chequered life of the author of the “Vicar of Wakefield,*’ unlike the lives of professional literary men in general, abounds in incident, and is replete with entertainment and instruction. It is a chapter in the history of English litera- ture, which the student will peruse and re-peruse with feelings of mingled delight and pain; but which he must needs linger over, if he desires to under- stand the character of the age which the writings of Goldsmith contributed so greatly to enlighten, refine and amuse. Oliver was the fifth child of the Reverend Charles Goldsmith, at that time Curate of Forney, in the County of Longford, and Kingdom of Ireland. He was bom on the lOth November, 1728, at a place caUed Pallas, in the parish of Forney. The income of his father was exceedingly limited, and, as he had seven children, he was reduced to considerable straits to maintain his &mily‘ with any show of respectability. Henry, the eldest son, was destined for church, and consequently a good education was to him indispensable. To obtain this, the other branches of the family were compelled to be comparatively neglected. It was proposed Irom his biilih to bring up Oliver to some mercantile profession, which at that period was supposed to require little learning or accom- plishments. Reading, writing and arithmetic were deemed as much as men of the ledger could digest with ease; and these were set down as the sum of know- ledge the future painter of life and manners was to derive from his tutor. His first school was one kept by a dame at Lissoy, in the parish of KQkenny West, County Westmeath, to the rectory of which Charles Goldsmith was inducted in 1730. The characteristics of the child’s mind appeared anything but pro- mising. Mrs. Delap, his schoolmistress, admitted that he was one of the dullest boys ever placed under her charge, and doubted for some time whether anything could be made of him. In the words of a Mr. Handcock, who supplied hir. Prior, his biographer, with some of his information, he seemed “ impene- trably stupid !’’ or as Dr. Strean ascertained, “he was considered by his contem- poraries and schoolfellows as a heavy blockhead, little better than a fool, whom every body made fun of.’’ Hut though in all this there were some indications of the superficial man, there was little to reveal the spirit of genius which was strugghng for birth tvithin him. He plodded on with his “ impenetrable stupidity,’’ and picked up some knowledge of the horn-book, a facility at pot-hooks, and, it may be, a smat- tering oi figures. He at the same time read and learned by rote many of the wild ballads common among the peasantry; and took great delight in listening to the fairy tales and superstitions with which eveiw hiU and valley—every stream and thicket, was rendered classical. But among his associatoi he was still fiiade fun of, and misunderstood. It was while at the day-school at Lissoy, when Goldsmith was eight or nine years old, that he was attacked by the small-pox, the ravages of which left indelible traces upon a countenance which had always been uncommonly plain. On his recovery he was sent to a superior school kept by a clergyman, at Elphin, in Roscommon; in the neighbourhood of which lived one of his uncles, Mr. John Goldsmith, with whom he spent much of his time, and who was the first to notice the indications of talent which he exhibited. His trials of temper and buffetings with the world had already commenced. He was scoffed and jeered by his schoolmates, as being ugly; and was nick- named .d5sop in derision. His sensitive nature felt these ribald taunts keenly;
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