It was on Monday, April 4th, 1774, he died.

Those who had been with him hastened to tell the

news to his friends.

studio, in Leicester

Sir Joshua was at work in his
Square; hearing the news he

flung down his brush and quitted his room for the day. Burke, when told of it, burst into an agony of tears. Johnson spoke of Goldsmith's death for years as if the loss had been but yesterday's. While poor "Goldy" lay dead in the room above, the staircase to Brick Court was crowded by the poor and miserable whom the gentle creature had encouraged or befriended. They passed in, these ragged, sorrowing friends, to look at him with tears and sobs and blessings on his name. The world outside remembered his follies with a pitying smile. "Was ever a poet so trusted!" exclaimed Johnson; and he might have added, "Was ever poet so beloved!"

He was buried in the Temple churchyard, quietly, because his debts were so numerous and well-known it was thought unwise to give an air of pomp and magnificence to his funeral; but many stood sorrowing about his tomb. When all were leaving, one man who had ridiculed the poet in life, was seen to linger, weeping violently, so strongly did “Goldy's" gentleness assert itself even to the mind of one who had laughed him to scorn.

The club met at Sir Joshua's to write their friend's epitaph. It is engraved under the marble medallion portrait of Goldsmith in the Poet's Corner, Westminister Abbey, and perhaps it will be the most fitting ending to the little story I have told you:

"OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH,

POET, NATURALIST, HISTORIAN,
who left scarcely any kind of writing
untouched,

and touched nothing that he did not adorn :
Whether smiles were to be stirred
or tears,

commanding our emotions, yet a gentle master:
In genius lofty, lively, versatile,

in style weighty, clear, engaging -
The memory in this monument is cherished
by the love of Companions,

the faithfulness of Friends
the reverence of Readers.

He was born in Ireland,

at a place called Pallas,

(in the parish) of Forney (and county) of Longford,
on the 29th Nov., 1731.

Trained in letters at Dublin.

Died in London,

4th April, 1774."

*The original inscription is in Latin, and the above is Forsters' translation. The date of Goldsmith's birth is incorrectly given in Westminster Abbey it should be 1728.

FROM GOLDSMITH'S Deserted Village.

Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way,
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay,
There, in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule,
A village master taught his little school.
A man severe he was, and stern to view;
I knew him well, and every truant knew ;
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day's disaster in his morning face:
Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
Full well the busy whisper circling round
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned.
Yet he was kind; or, if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault;
The village all declared how much he knew.
'Twas certain he could write and cypher, too;
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
And e'en the story ran that he could guage;

In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,

For, e'en though vanquished, he could argue still,
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around.

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.

XIII.

DOCTOR JOHNSON AND HIS TIMES. III.

The Doctor and his lady friends -Mrs. Thrale and her guests at Streatham Fanny Burney's first novel - Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu and the "Blue-stockings' Amusements and festivities at "Thrale Hall"— Tea-parties and fashionable society in London - Favorite topics of conversation in 1780 — Doctor Johnson as a talker His whimsical household at Bolt Court His house as seen to-day - Mrs. Thrale's marriage and coldness to old friends - Last days of Dr. Johnson.

A

-

MONG Dr. Johnson's friends were several la

dies noted in that day for their wit, learning, beauty and social grace. It was the age of brilliancy in conversation, and dinner-parties at three or four in the afternoon were followed by tea-parties in the evening, or "assemblies," which were very like our "receptions" and to which numbers were invited for