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OLIVER CxOLDSMITH. 
By G. S. RITCHIE. March 9 th, 1909. 
None of the men in “ Boswell,” except the author and his 
hero, affords us more entertainment than does Oliver 
Goldsmith, the admired and versatile essayist, novelist, poet, 
and dramatist ; the warm hearted egoist, sensitive to affront 
and unready of speech, the butt of the least skilful in 
conversational sarcasm. 
He was born in 1728, the son of Charles Goldsmith, Rector 
of Lissoy, in Ireland, and at the age of sixteen went as a sizar 
to Trinity College, Dublin. At college he passed three 
unsuccessful years, crowned in June 1747 with an exhibition 
of the value of thirty shillings. This trifling success was 
made the occasion of rather disproportionate rejoicings at 
a supper party in his college lodgings where appeared his 
tutor, who knocked down the host and broke up the company 
in disorder. Indignant at such treatment, Goldsmith sold 
his books next morning and left with the intention of going 
to Cork and America. Straitened means compelled him 
to give up his project and he went home to his now widowed 
mother at Lissoy. He was persuaded to return to Dublin, 
where he sat for his arts degree, passing lowest on the list. 
His next two or three years were idly given to songs and cards, 
to roving and poetry, and playing the flute, by way of pre- 
paration for holy orders, on application for which in 1751 
he was rejected. His uncle, Mr. Contarine, found him a 
tutor s post, but Goldsmith, after saving thirty pounds, 
threw up his engagement, bought a horse, and started a 
second time for Cork with visions of America. After six 
weeks he appeared again at Lissoy. His next notion was 
to be a lawyer. His uncle found the necessary money and 
Goldsmith started for London, but took to gambling on the 
way, and again returned penniless home. He next proposed 
to study medicine and his uncle equipped him with means 
to go to Edinburgh. Here he appears to have studied for 
two years in earnest. He then thought it desirable to go 
abroad to study under the professors of Leyden. He went to 
Leyden in 1754, but soon spent all his means and set out to 
