significancy than others upon his intercourse with the beautiful Horneck family, it is because we fancied we could detect, amid his playful attentions to one of its members, a lurking sentiment of tenderness, kept down by conscious poverty and a 5 humiliating idea of personal defects. A hopeless feeling of this kind the last a man would communicate to his friends might account for much of that fitfulness of conduct, and that gathering melancholy, remarked, but not comprehended by his associates, during the last year or two of his life; and may have 10 been one of the troubles of the mind which aggravated his last illness, and only terminated with his death. We shall conclude these desultory remarks with a few which have been used by us on a former occasion. From the general tone of Goldsmith's biography, it is evident that his faults, at 15 the worst, were but negative, while his merits were great and decided. He was no one's enemy but his own; his errors, in the main, inflicted evil on none but himself, and were so blended with humorous and even affecting circumstances, as to disarm anger and conciliate kindness. Where eminent talent 20 is united to spotless virtue, we are awed and dazzled into admiration, but our admiration is apt to be cold and reverential; while there is something in the harmless infirmities of a good and great, but erring individual, that pleads touchingly to our nature; and we turn more kindly towards the object of our 25 idolatry, when we find that, like ourselves, he is mortal and is frail. The epithet so often heard, and in such kindly tones, of "poor Goldsmith," speaks volumes. Few, who consider the real compound of admirable and whimsical qualities which form his character, would wish to prune away its eccentricities, 30 trim its grotesque luxuriance, and clip it down to the decent formalities of rigid virtue. "Let not his frailties be remembered," said Johnson; "he was a very great man." But, for our part, we rather say, "Let them be remembered," since their tendency is to endear; and we question whether he himself 35 would not feel gratified in hearing his reader, after dwelling with admiration on the proofs of his greatness, close the volume with the kind-hearted phrase, so fondly and familiarly ejaculated, of "POOR GOLDSMITH.” THE DESERTED VILLAGE SWEET AUBURN! loveliest village of the plain, And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed : Seats of my youth, when every sport could please, Where humble happiness endeared each scene! The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill, And sleights of art and feats of strength went round; The matron's glance that would those looks reprove. These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these, Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, One only master grasps the whole domain, The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, A time there was, ere England's griefs began, But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose, And every pang that folly pays to pride. Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom, Those calm desires that asked but little room, 5 Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene, Lived in each look, and brightened all the green; These, far departing, seek a kinder shore, Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour, In all my wandrings round this world of care, And keep the flame from wasting by repose. I still had hopes, for pride attends us still, Amidst the swains to show my book-learned skill, And as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue, O blest retirement, friend to life's decline, 10 15 And, since 'tis hard to combat, learns to fly! Sweet was the sound, when oft at evening's close Up yonder hill the village murmur rose; There, as I passed with careless steps and slow, The mingling notes came softened from below; The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung, The sober herd that lowed to meet their young; The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool, The playful children just let loose from school; 20 The watch-dog's voice that bayed the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind; These all in sweet confusion sought the shade, And filled each pause the nightingale had made. But now the sounds of population fail, 25 25 30 35 No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale, That feebly bends beside the plashy spring; Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, |