like to see it treated still more at large, with the addition of critical
disquisitions and the advantage of collateral facts, would do well to refer
themselves to Mr. Prior's circumstantial volumes, or to the elegant and
discursive pages of Mr. Forster.

For my own part, I can only regret my shortcomings in what to me is a labor
of love; for it is a tribute of gratitude to the memory of an author whose
writings were the delight of my childhood, and have been a source of
enjoyment to me throughout life; and to whom, of all others, I may address
the beautiful apostrophe of Dante to Virgil:

"Tu se' lo mio maestro, e 'l mio autore:
Tu se' solo colui, da cu, io tolsi
Lo bello stile, che m' ha fato onore."

W.I.

SUNNYSIDE, _Aug. 1, 1849._




CHAPTER ONE

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOLDSMITH RACE--POETICAL
BIRTHPLACE--GOBLIN HOUSE--SCENES OF BOYHOOD--LISSOY--PICTURE OF A COUNTRY
PARSON--GOLDSMITH'S SCHOOLMISTRESS--BYRNE, THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER
--GOLDSMITH'S HORNPIPE AND EPIGRAM--UNCLE CONTARINE--SCHOOL STUDIES AND
SCHOOL SPORTS--MISTAKES OF A NIGHT