ESSAYS OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH, M.D. SELECTED AND EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, ་ BY C. D. YONGE, M.A., AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY;' 'THE LIFE OF MARIE AND IRELAND FROM 1760-1860,' ETC. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1882. All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS. VI. NATIONAL CONCORD. Ib. No. 15 VII. ASEM THE MAN-HATER; OR, A VINDICATION OF THE 108 112 . . XX. THE EXCELLENCE OF BRITISH JUSTICE. Ib. No. 38 118 XXI. ENGLISH LIBERTY. Ib. No. 50 XXVI. FORTUNE PROVED NOT TO BE BLIND. Ib. No. 70 158 XXVIII. ENGLISH SHOPS AND SHOPKKEEPERS. Ib. No. 77 151 XXIX. THE EVIL OF INCREASING PENAL LAWS. Ib. No.80 154 XXX. THE LADIES' TRAINS RIDICULED. Ib. No. 81 . XXXI. ANECDOTES OF SEVERAL POETS WHO HAVE LIVED XXXIII. THE PEOPLE MUST BE CONTENTED TO BE JUDGED BY THOSE WHOM THEY HAVE APPOINTED TO GOVERN: A STORY TO THIS EFFECT. Ib. XXXIV. THE UTILITY AND ENTERTAINMENT THAT MIGHT INTRODUCTION. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GOLDSMITH. OLIVER GOLDSMITH, the author of the Essays from which the present volume is but a selection, was born in 1728, at Pallas, a small parish in the county of Longford, in Ireland, of which his father, a younger son of a gentleman of good family, was curate. In his childhood he was nearly cut off by a severe attack of smallpox, which not only permanently disfigured his features, but left behind it a general weakness which lasted for many years; and so greatly checked his mental, as well as his bodily progress, that his schoolmaster generally regarded him as a backward, if not a stupid boy, though at times he showed a readiness, and even brightness, that led some of his friends to form a higher opinion of him, a judgment which his subsequent career amply acquitted of undiscerning partiality. After passing some years at school, first at Athlone, and afterwards at Edgeworthstown, he was removed to Trinity College, Dublin; but, though he had by that time outgrown his early weakness, he achieved no distinction, and was contented with an ordinary degree, which he obtained in 1749. |