Ol"^. I.] SCHOOLDAYS AND HOLIDAYS.

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

i _ . •

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. •d's biographer ; and some were