THE LIFE 



r f* 

 L HE life of a Scholar," Dr. Goldsmith has remarked, "seldom abounds with adventure: 



" his fame is acquired in solitude ; and the historian, who only views him at a distance, must 

 " be content with a dry detail of actions by which he is scarce distinguished from the rest of 

 " mankind : but we are fond of talking of those who have given us pleasure ; not that we have 

 * any thing important to say, but because the subject is pleasing." 



Oliver Goldsmith, son of the Reverend Charles Goldsmith, was born at Elphin, in the coun- 

 ty of Roscommon, in Ireland, in the year 1729. His father had four sons, of whom Oliver 

 was the third. After being well instructed in the classics, at the school of Mr. Hughes, he 

 was admitted a sizer in Trinity College, Dublin, on the llth of June, 1744. While he re- 

 sided there, he exhibited no specimens of that genius, which, in maturer years, raised his 

 character so high. On the 27th of February, 1749, O. S. (two years after the regular time,) 

 he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon after he turned his thoughts to the pro- 

 fession of physic ; and, after attending some courses of anatomy in Dublin, proceeded to 

 Edinburgh, in the year 1751, where he studied the several branches of medicine under the 

 different professors in that university. His beneficent disposition soon involved him in unex- 

 pected difficulties ; and he was obliged precipitately to leave Scotland, in consequence of 

 having engaged himself to pay a considerable sum of money for a fellow student. 



The beginning of the year 1754, he arrived at Sunderlaud, near Newcastle, where he was 

 arrested at the suit of one Barclay, a taylor in Edinburgh, to whom he had given security for 

 his friend. By the good offices of Laughlin Maclane, Esq. and Dr. Sleigh, who were then in 



