And inaccessible by shepherds trod, Of war's vast art, was to this hermit known. Returning homewards by Messina's port, The soldier cried, my brother! O my brother! And happy, in my mind, was he that died; Upon some nameless stream's untrodden banks, 14 THE FOREST BY MIDNIGHT. THIS is the place, the centre of the grove; Here stands the oak, the monarch of the wood. How sweet and solemn is this midnight scene! The silver moon, unclouded, holds her way, Through skies where I could count each little star. The fanning west wind scarcely stirs the leaves. The river, rushing o'er its pebbled bed, Imposes silence with a stilly sound. In such a place as this, at such an hour, If ancestry in aught can be believed, Descending spirits have convers'd with man, And told the secrets of the world unknown. STORY OF THE OLD MAN NORVAL. SOME eighteen years ago, I rented land Of brave Sir Malcolm, then Balarmo's lord ; But falling to decay, his servants seized All that I had, and then turned me and mine, (Four helpless infants and their weeping mother) Out to the mercy of the winter winds. A little hovel by the river's side Received us: there hard labour, and the skill In fishing, which was formerly my sport, Supported life. Whilst thus we poorly lived, One stormy night, as I remember well, The wind and rain beat hard upon our roof: Red came the river down, and loud and oft The angry spirit of the water shrieked. At the dead hour of night was heard the cry Of one in jeopardy. I rose and ran To where the circling eddy of a pool Beneath the ford, us'd oft to bring within My reach whatever floating thing the stream Had caught. The voice was ceased; the person lost : But looking sad and earnest on the waters, By the moon's light I saw, whirl'd round and round, A basket; soon I drew it to the bank, And nestled curious there an infant lay. Within the cradle where the infant lay That none might mark the change of our estate, We left the country, travell'd to the north, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Born 1728-Died 1774. GOLDSMITH'S father was a clergyman at Pallas, in Ireland, where the poet was born. He was educated at Dublin College, and afterwards studied the medical profession at the University of Edinburgh. His departure from this place was hastened on account of a debt contracted by becoming security for an acquaintance. He studied a year at Leyden, and then set out on foot to make the tour of Europe. After a variety of adventures, he returned to England in 1758, and for some years supported himself, though in comparative obscurity, by his prose writings. In 1765, the publication of The Traveller obtained for him a high poetical celebrity, with a circle of distinguished men of genius for his acquaintance and friends. From this period till his death, his personal history is that of his writings, which are numerous and well known. The Deserted Village was published in 1769, and the Vicar of Wakefield in 1767; his first comedy, The Goodnatured Man, in 1768, and his second, She Stoops to Conquer, in 1773. He died in his forty-sixth year. His life and character are eccentric, but interesting. Generosity, carelessness, and imprudence, are the reigning features in his disposition. "There must have been something, however," says Campbell, (who has written an extremely beautiful sketch of his life and criticism of his poetry,) "with all his peculiarities, still endearing in his personal character. Burke was known to recall his memory with tears of affection in his eyes. It cannot be believed that the better genius of his writings was always absent from his conversation. One may conceive graces of his spirit to have been drawn forth by Burke or Reynolds, which neither Johnson nor Garrick had the sensibility to appreciate." Both the poetry and prose of Goldsmith are read with a more constant, steady, heartfelt, and quiet pleasure, than any other perhaps in the English language. In the former, he captivates the feelings with a power which is mild and gentle, but not less lasting and sure, than if he had been far more sublime in his design, and more magnificent and various in invention. Sweetness of fancy and tenderness of feeling are the peculiar features of his genius, and his pensive delicacy of thought is visible even in his humorous effusions. "His descriptions and sentiments all have the pure zest of nature." His expression is natural and idiomatic, yet in the highest degree select and refined. His manner is beautifully tender and playful, possesing likewise the easy, graceful union of unaffected simplicity with dignity and elegance. He is chaste in his ornaments, and inimitably soft and sweet in the colouring of his language. His serene and contemplative sensibility, and his quiet enthusiasm for the joys of retired, rural, and domestic life, are mingled with philosophical reflection, and made to harmonize with dignified and manly sentiment. He delights the fancy and at the same time softens the heart and diffuses a purity over the moral feelings. His familiar pictures of the village life, enchant the imagination, and make us dwell fondly even on his most minute and simple recollections. His delineations of character are original and exquisite. The Parish Schoolmaster and the Village Clergyman are portraits that have no rivals; and his humorous poem of Retaliation contains many delightful and characteristic touches. The national sketches in the Traveller are all admirable, and exhibit great power of observation in seizing on the most expressive features, and conveying the general likeness in a few easy, and gracefully concise, lines. The illustrations in this poem are eminently beautiful. It would scarcely be possible to point out a simile more sweet and appropriate than that of the child at the close of his character of the Swiss. His ballad of the Hermit is written in a style of pensive and gentle pathos, which is singularly touching; while the short description of the cheerful little fireside in the hermitage, around which the cricket chirrups, and the kitten tries its tricks, is artless and captivating. His versification has all the polished elegance without the monotomy of Pope, and it flows with a spontaneous, unstudied ease, such as no other poet has ever exhibited. There are no couplets which betray ess art, and are at the same time more perfect, than those of Goldsmith. He never wrote a bad line, and yet never sacrificed sense or feeling to the harmony of sound. He has so much nature that his very rhymes might almost be said to find an answer in the heart. FROM THE TRAVELLER. REMOTE, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend, But me, not destin'd such delights to share, Even now, where Alpine solitudes ascend, When thus creation's charms around combine, |