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Ol"^. I.] SCHOOLDAYS AND HOLIDAYS.
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liig fortune was but small, he lived up to the very 1733.
of it: he had no intentions of leaving his children Mi. 10. , for that was dross; he was resolved they should
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learning, for learning, he used to observe, was better
silver or gold. For this purpose, he undertook to us llimself; and took as much pains to form our as to improve our understanding. We were told, universal benevolence was what first cemented society; -were taught to consider all the wants of mankind as owll • to regard the human face divine with affection esteem; he wound us up to be mere machines of pity, rendered us incapable of withstanding the slightest made either by real or fictitious distress: in a , we were perfectly instructed in the art of giving away "fclxoixsands, before we were taught the more necessary Cfu.alligations °f getting a farthing." * -A~o<g^uisitions highly primitive, and supporting what seems t,o ~h.a/ve been the common fame of the Goldsmith race. *** Iflae Goldsmiths were always a strange family," confessed tlxocee different branches of them, in as many different quLEtirters of Ireland, when inquiries were made by m, recent biographer of the poet. "They rarely acted ** lilce other people: their hearts were always in the right ** jplace., but their heads seemed to be doing anything but * * -wlia/t they ought." f In opinions or confessions of this Uiixcl, laowever, the heart's right place is perhaps not MO -well discriminated as it might be, or collision with the JiortcL \vould be offcener avoided. Worthy Doctor Strean t* 3C,jL>i*essed himself more correctly when Mr. Mangin was his inquiries more than forty years ago. " Several
n of the World, xxvii. t Prior, i. 101. •
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