OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. Roo(* L

Where shading elma along the margin grew,
lit. 27. And, freshen'd from the wave, the zephyr flew !

And haply, though my harsh touch, faltering still,
But mock'd all tune, and rnarr'd the daneer's skill—
Yet would the Tillage praise my wondrous power,
And dance, forgetful of the noon-tide hour.
Alike all ages: dames of ancient days
Have led their children through the mirthful maze ;
And the gay grandsire, sldll'd in. gestic lore,
Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.
So bless'd a life these thoughtless realms display;
Thus idly busy rolls their world away.
Theirs a,ra those arts that mind to mind endear,
For honour forms the social temper here:
Honour, that praise which real merit gains,
Or e'en imaginary worth obtains,
Here passes current—paid from hand to hand,
It shifts, in splendid traffic, round the land ;
From courts to camps, to cottages it strays,
And all are taught an avarice of praise—
They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem,
Till, seeming bless'd, they grow to what they seem.

Arrived in Paris, he rested some brief space, and, for
the time, a sensible improvement is to be observed in IUK
resources. This is not easily explained ; for, as will apjwitr
a little later in our history, many applications to Ireland of
this date remained altogether without answer, and a Had
fate had fallen suddenly on his best friend. But m sub-
sequent communication with his brother-in-law Hodscm, he
remarked, with that strange indifference to what was implied
in such obligations which is not the agreeable side of his
character, that there was hardly a kingdom in Europe iu
which he was not a debtor ;* and in Paris, if anywhere, tut
would find many hearts made liberal by the love of learning.
His early memoir-writers assert with confidence, that in at

* See post, Book II. Chap, 15,e,