Gold's mith, Oliver

a brilliant man of letters of the last century, was B. at Pallas, co. Long ford, Ireland, in 1728. His father, a minister of the Established Church, placed him early at school at Elphin, co. Roscommon, near which city his uncle's family-mansion and his second home, Ballyoughter, was situated. In 1745 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he gave no indications of genius or scholastic talents, and becoming involved in some youthful irregularities, quitted the university, Fig . 1176.-GOLDSMITH'S HOUSE AT LISSOY. and led for some time a sort of vagrant life. Returning to college, he graduated B. A. in 1749, after which he proceeded to Edinburgh and Leyden universities to study medicine. His views in this respect were, however, counteracted by an insatiable pa ion for gambling, which in the end utterly impoverished him, whereupon he set out on foot for a tour of the European continent, supplied with no other means than those afforded by his good spirits, his kindly nature, and a favorite flute, on which he was an adept player. After taking his degree in medicine at Padua, G. returned to England in 1756, where he commenced practice as a physician, in which he was unsucce ful. He then entered the field of letters; and after pa ing a Bohemian period of obscurity and privation as a "bookseller's hack," to use his own bitter laconism, his first work to attract attention was an Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe , published in 1759. To this succeeded The Citizen of the World, a Life of Beau Nash , and a History of England , Becoming acquainted with Dr. Johnson, in 1761, the latter introduced G. to the Literary Club. In 1764 appeared The Traveller , which at once placed G. in the front rank of English authors. Two years afterwards appeared the Vicar of Wake field , a work that has been the delight of four generations, and that will probably perish only with the language. Following in rapid succe ion, came his comedy of The Good-natured Man (1767), the History of Rome (1768), and his exquisite poem, The Deserted Village, in 1769. In 1773, his immortal comedy of She Stoops to Conquer took the public by storm. His other works are the Grecian History (1774), Retaliation , a serio-comic poem, (1774), and the History of Animated Nature , which he did not live to finish. During these latter years, G., while in the receipt of large remuneration for his works, was constantly involved in pecuniary embarra ments. The man had a large heart, a generous hand, and an indolent disposition, loved good living and fine clothes, had a penchant for the gaming-table, and spent all that these extravagances left him in profuse but unostentatious charity. G. died in April, 1774, $10,000 in debt, and more truly lamented than any literary man of his generation. The poor whom he had so oft befriended sobbed their grief on his staircase, and the brilliant coterie of wits, artists, authors, and philosophers mourned him with one entire and unaffected sorrow. Sir Joshua Reynolds, when apprised of his death, left his studio and painted no more that day. G. was buried in the Temple Church; and a monument, epitaph i zed by Dr. Johnson, was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. G. may be considered to have written the finest poem, the most exquisite novel, and, with the exception of Sheridan's School for Scandal , the most perfect polite comedy of the period he belonged to. An admirable life of G. , by John Forster, entitled The Life and Letters of Oliver Goldsmith , was published in London in 1854, and has been reproduced in this country. As an instance of the standard popularity of his She Stoops to Conquer , we may conclude by remarking that this charming comedy sustained a brilliant run of 100 nights at one of the London theatres in 1869-70. Gold Springs, or GREEN SPRINGS, in California, a mining-village of Tuolumne co., about 1 m. N.W. of Columbia.