OLIYEE GOLDSMITH'S LIFI3 AND 91108. !»""« »
1786. weal must be prepared to endure. But to the reverend Mr.
aTi. Griffin's superior school of .Elphin, in Bosconnnon, it wa«
' , resolved to send him; and at the house of an miole
John* at Ballyoughter in the neighbourhood of Elpiun, he
was lodged and boarded, t The knowledge of Ovid and
Horace, introduced to him here, was the ploasantoBt aa well
as the least important, though it might bo by far tto most
difficult, of what he had now*to learn. It wae the learning of
bitter years, and not taught by the schoolmaster, but by the
school-fellows, of-this poor little, thick, pale-faced, pock-
marked boy. "He was considered by his contemporaries and
"school-fellows, with whom I have often conversed on the
"subject," said Doctor Strean, I who succeeded, oil the death
of Charles Goldsmith's curate and eldest son, to his pautoml
duty and its munificent rewards," as a stupid, heavy blockhead*
"little better than a fool, whom every one made fen of." §
It was early to trample fun out of a child; and he bore
marks of it to his dying day. It had not been his least
qualification as game for laughter, that nil confesfied Ida
nature to be land and affectionate, and know Iris temper to
be cheerful and agreeable; but feeling as well IIH luu hfl tumid
hardly be expected to supply without intermission, nn<l, pre-
cisely as in after years it was said of him that ho hud tht>
most unaccountable alternations of gaioty and gloom, awl
* His'father's brother, "who, with his family," Mr«, Hiiilwm toll* UK, 4l«m-
. " sidered him as a prodigy for his age." P&r&j Mm-ttir, (R.
f "It the age of seven or eight," says Mrs. Hodson, "lui tUmotwowd ft tifttwmJ
' turn for rhyming, and often amused his father and MM IHtmdH with early t*»ett«ml
'attempts. When he could scarcely write legibly, he \TOH nlwayw Morilihling
' whichhe burnt as he wrote them. Observing his fondness for books ami kmmlng,
'his mother, with whom he was always a favourite, plctulocl with hb fullier t<»
'give him a liberal education: but his own narrow income, Uio o,tjMni» »tt«»nriJ«g
'•the educating of his eldest son, and his numerous family, wore atnmif ofijt«lwBii,"
Percy Memoir, i, 5,
J See Appendix (A. " DB. STBBAN AND TIM KMV, BDWABJ. MAHOIN") at tiiti d<w
of this volume. _ § MangtVs &t«yt 14i»,