PREFACE.

THIS book is prepared more especially for the use of students in academies and high schools, but it is hoped that it may not be unwelcome to any who find enjoyment in this masterpiece of Goldsmith's authorship. The text is that of the fifth edition, printed in 1774, and contains Goldsmith's modifications of the language of the first edition. Some of the more valuable comments which otherwise might not be easily accessible are introduced. It is not intended that the notes shall be so full as to take from the teacher or pupil a due share of work, but rather to offer aid and suggestion on points which are more or less obscure. Where Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, which gives the usage of Goldsmith's time, could furnish a definition, it has been inserted.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Warren Fenno Gregory, A.M., for the Biographical Sketch and Literary Productions of Oliver Goldsmith, which appear in his edition of the Traveller and Deserted Village, in this series of publications; and to Professor John F. Genung of Amherst College for reading the manuscript of the notes.

"Innocently to amuse the imagination in this dream. of life is wisdom," wrote Goldsmith. If this form of his Vicar of Wakefield shall facilitate the healthy play of the reader's imagination, the purpose of the book is accomplished.

JAMES GILBERT RIGGS.

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., October, 1896.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

(1728-1774.)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

THE life of "POOR GOLDSMITH," as he has been familiarly and affectionately called, illustrates to a singular degree the force of family traits. He inherited a combination of goodness of heart, simplicity of mind, and faculty for enjoying the present in a spirit of abandon; blended with much shrewdness of observation, a rollicking Irish sense of humor, and a proverbial gift for blundering in conversation. This being the case, the conditions were right for producing one of the most helpless, thriftless, disappointing, and at the same time brilliant and lovable of all our authors.

The place of his birth is usually given as Pallas, County Longford, Ireland, the date being Nov. 10, 1728; and he was the fifth of the eight children of Charles and Ann Goldsmith. His father was at this time curate to the rector of Kilkenny West, with an income of not over £40 annually. In 1730 he succeeded his wife's uncle as rector, and settled in the pretty village of Lissoy, having now £200 a year. Little Oliver was sent to a "dame's school" at the age of three, and impressed the mistress as being one of the dullest boys she had ever met with. At six he was sent to the village school, kept by Thomas Byrne, an old soldier who had more fondness for fairy