Oliver Goldsmith, 1728-1774. This eccentric son of genius was an Irishman;
his father was a poor curate. Goldsmith received his education at several
preparatory schools, at Trinity College, Dublin, at Edinburgh, and at
Leyden. He was indolent and unruly as a student, often in disgrace with
his teachers; but his generosity, recklessness, and love of athletic
sports made him a favorite with his fellow-students. He spent some time in
wandering over the continent, often in poverty and want. In 1756 he
returned to England, and soon took up his abode in London. Here he made
the acquaintance and friendship of several notable men, among whom were
Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. "The Traveler" was published in 1764, and
was soon followed by the "Vicar of Wakefield." He wrote in nearly all
departments of literature, and always with purity, grace, and fluency. His
fame as a poet is secured by the "Traveler" and the "Deserted Village;" as
a dramatist, by "She Stoops to Conquer;" as a satirist, by the "Citizen of
the World;" and as a novelist by the "Vicar of Wakefield." In his later
years his writings were the source of a large income, but his gambling,
careless generosity, and reckless extravagance always kept him in
financial difficulty, and he died heavily in debt. His monument is in
Westminster Abbey.
##
Writers of every age have endeavored to show that pleasure is in us, and
not in the objects offered for our amusement. If the soul be happily
disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and
distress will almost want a name. Every occurrence passes in review, like
the figures of a procession; some may be awkward, others ill-dressed, but
none but a fool is on that account enraged with the master of ceremonies.
I remember to have once seen a slave, in a fortification in Flanders, who
appeared no way touched with his situation. He was maimed, deformed, and
chained; obliged to toil from the appearance of day till nightfall, and
condemned to this for life; yet, with all these circumstances of apparent
wretchedness, he sang, would have danced, but that he wanted a leg, and
appeared the merriest, happiest man of all the garrison. What a practical
philosopher was here! A happy constitution supplied philosophy, and though
seemingly destitute of wisdom he was really wise. No reading or study had
contributed to disenchant the fairyland around him. Everything furnished
him with an opportunity of mirth; and though some thought him, from his
insensibility, a fool, he was such an idiot as philosophers should wish to
imitate.
They who, like that slave, can place themselves all that side of the world
in which everything appears in a pleasant light, will find something in
every occurrence to excite their good humor. The most calamitous events,
either to themselves or others, can bring no new affliction; the world is
to them a theater, in which only comedies are acted. All the bustle of
heroism, or the aspirations of ambition, seem only to heighten the
absurdity of the scene, and make the humor more poignant. They feel, in
short, as little anguish at their own distress, or the complaints of
others, as the undertaker, though dressed in black, feels sorrow at a
funeral. Of all the men I ever read of, the famous Cardinal de Retz
possessed this happiness in the highest degree. When fortune wore her
angriest look, and he fell into the power of Cardinal Mazarin, his most
deadly enemy, (being confined a close prisoner in the castle of
Valenciennes,) he never attempted to support his distress by wisdom or
philosophy, for he pretended to neither. He only laughed at himself' and
his persecutor, and seemed infinitely pleased at his new situation. In
this mansion of distress, though denied all amusements, and even the
conveniences of life, and entirely cut off from all intercourse with his
friends, he still retained his good humor, laughed at the little spite of
his enemies, and carried the jest so far as to write the life of his
jailer.
All that the wisdom of the proud can teach, is to be stubborn or sullen
under misfortunes. The Cardinal's example will teach us to be good-
humored in circumstances of the highest affliction. It matters not whether
our good humor be construed by others into insensibility or idiotism,--it
is happiness to ourselves; and none but a fool could measure his
satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.
The happiest fellow I ever knew, was of the number of those good-natured
creatures that are said to do no harm to anybody but themselves. Whenever
he fell into any misery, he called it "seeing life," If his head was
broken by a chairman, or his pocket picked by a sharper, he comforted
himself by imitating the Hibernian dialect of the one, or the more
fashionable cant of the other. Nothing came amiss to him. His inattention
to money matters had concerned his father to such a degree that all
intercession of friends was fruitless. The old gentleman was on his
deathbed. The whole family (and Dick among the number) gathered around
him.
"I leave my second son, Andrew," said the expiring miser, "my whole
estate, and desire him to be frugal." Andrew, in a sorrowful tone (as is
usual on such occasions), prayed heaven to prolong his life and health to
enjoy it himself. "I recommend Simon, my third son, to the care of his
elder brother, and leave him, besides, four thousand pounds." "Ah,
father!" cried Simon (in great affliction, to be sure), "may heaven give
you life and health to enjoy it yourself!" At last, turning to poor Dick:
"As for you, you have always been a sad dog; you'll never come to good;
you'll never be rich; I leave you a shilling to buy a halter." "Ah,
father!" cries Dick, without any emotion, "may heaven give you life and
health to enjoy it yourself!"
NOTES.--Cardinal de Retz, Jean Francois Paul de Gondi (b. 1614, d. 1679),
was leader of the revolt against Jules Mazarin (b. 1602, d. 1661), the
prime minister of France during the minority of Louis XIV. This led to a
war which lasted four or five years. After peace had been concluded, and
Louis XIV. established on the throne, Mazarin was reinstated in power, and
Cardinal de Retz was imprisoned.
Flanders, formerly part of the Netherlands, is now included in Belgium,
Holland and France.