KS OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH 88
SOME WORKS OF REFERENCE 89

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
OLIVER GOLDSMITH, FROM A PAINTING BY REYNOLDS _Frontispiece_
GOLDSMITH AS A YOUNG MAN 28
DR. JOHNSON, BOSWELL, AND GOLDSMITH AT THE MITRE TAVERN 46
THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN GOLDSMITH AND DODSLEY, 1763 52
GOLDSMITH IN MIDDLE AGE 56
NO. 2, BRICK COURT, TEMPLE (WHERE GOLDSMITH DIED) 63
STATUE OF GOLDSMITH 80

CHAPTER I

"THE BEST BELOVED OF ENGLISH WRITERS"

The Goldsmith family sprang originally from Crayford, a nestling
village in Kent. This southern county, in all its loveliness, can thus
add this high honour to its other though not greater glories. "To be
the best beloved of English writers," said Thackeray, "what a title
that is for a man!" This he gave to Goldsmith. It is a title that none
will dispute. Here is a love that will never pass away from our
hearts. Of Oliver Goldsmith, as poet and novelist, essay-writer, wit
and playwright, it may be said that his distinction and celebrity are
essentially English. Erin, sweet sister island, that land of loving
hearts, gave this child of sun and shade, his birthplace, his home and
many dear delightful days, never to be forgotten. Across the
separating years, to the very end and through all, the grateful heart
of the poet looked back very fondly upon the gentle and pathetic land
of his nativity. On November 10, 1728, Oliver Goldsmith first saw the
light of that world which, to the last, he loved, and greeted that
suffering heart and seeking aspiration of humanity, that above and
beyond almost all other men he could, and did, unfailingly
compassionate. It is needless to trace and recall, the ancestral
traditions of the Goldsmith family. Of its early history in England
and later settlement in Ireland, it will suffice that its annals are
as honourable as they are obscure. It had its men of light and
learning, but their power attained neither fame nor rank, and their
virtues were rather domestic than distinguished.

The family, which flowers in the delightful novelist and playwright,
was ever famed for goodness of heart and the possession of the very
smallest possible sum total of worldly prudence. Goldsmith