work are undoubtedly his own, founded on personal observation, during his peregrinations on the Continent. In his 'Deserted Village'-Lissoy is the village of Auburn.

"The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,

The never-failing brook, the busy mill,

The decent church that topped the neighbouring hill,
The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,

For talking age and whispering lovers made."

This is a true picture of the actual scene. And not less true is that of the village preacher, "passing rich with forty pounds a year," his modest mansion and its hospitality. The depopulation of Auburn also appears not to have been an imaginary circumstance. General Naper, it is said, on his return with a great fortune from Spain, purchased a large estate at Lissoy, and, in order to create an extensive park, ejected most of the inhabitants of the village, and pulled down their cottages.

In like manner he drew upon his recollection for the Primrose family in the 'Vicar of Wakefield.' The pastor was his father. His own adventures are related in those of George Primrose; the private marriages of two of his own sisters, which gave some uneasiness to their parents, are supposed to have supplied the incident of Olivia's elopement, and the name of Burchell was that of one of his connexions by marriage. The adventure which gave rise to She stoops to Conquer' has been already related.

Goldsmith was buried in the Temple burial ground on the evening of Saturday, the 9th of April. It had been proposed to give him a public funeral in Westminster Abbey; but when it was ascertained that he had died considerably in debt, this design was abandoned, and a subscription entered into among his friends to erect there a monument to his memory. This was fulfilled. Nollekins executed a medallion likeness of the poet, and Johnson added a Latin epitaph, from which the following is translated: "OLIVER GOLDSMITH, Poet, Natural Philosopher, Historian, who left no species of writing untouched, or unadorned by his pen; whether to move laughter or draw tears, he was a powerful yet gentle master over the affections; of a genius sublime, lively and versatile; in expression noble, pure and elegant. His memory will last while Society retains affection, Friendship is not void of truth, and Reading is held in esteem."

A word only need be added. Goldsmith throughout his life worked and studied hard; and owed to his perseverance and the artistical skill which he acquired thereby, not less than to his genius, the graces of his inimitable style, and hence no small share of his reputation. His personal peculiarities, how characteristic soever of the man, had no part in raising him to the eminence he attained; but his moral rectitude, purity of heart, and superiority to those meannesses which, in the estimation of many, would have seemed venial in his circumstances, added to a courage and endurance which enabled him to overlook and surmount the most formidable obstacles, rendered him great, in spite of his peculiarities. This view-especially in perusing the biography of a favourite poet, who has passed on to Fame through the ordeal of povertyis apt to be overlooked by young readers and young writers ; and some mischief has resulted to both classes in consequence. To omit all consideration of so essential a circumstance here, would be absolute injustice to the name and unquestionable merits of OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

G. MOIR BUSSEY.

N the Memoirs of Voltaire we read the history of the terrible causes which produced the French Revolution. Men have supposed that it was the writings of the chief of Deniers which brought about the overthrow of the long-descended monarchy of France; but Voltaire was not an hour in advance of the times in which he lived He expressed, in language which no man could rival, the opinions which no man could deny. Every assertion obtained credence; every brilliant faculty found its enthusiastic admirers, for the reason, that the public mind had become full, and needed an organ of utterance. Great souls are always specially missioned either directly from heaven, as teachers of new truths; or indirectly by universal nature, as destroyers of falsehood. It was the lot of Voltaire to be born into the latter class. He saw the false, but failed to discover the true.

The father of Voltaire was treasurer to the Chamber of Accounts at Paris, and his mother was descended from a noble family. He was born on the 20th of February, 1694, and assumed the name of Voltaire after he had arrived at manhood. Born to the inheritance of a competent fortune, young Arouet was sent to the Jesuits' College, at that time the fashionable seminary for youth of distinction, where his proficiency in all studies speedily attracted the attention of the seniors of the establishment. On leaving the college, his god-father, the Abbé de Chateauneuf, introduced him to the friendship of the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos, with whom he speedily became a favourite. This extraordinary woman, who boasted of her lovers at eighty, and preserved in extreme old age the beauty and the vices of her youth, was still the admired of the fashionable world, and had, it was said, been offered an introduction to court, and the friendship of Madame Maintenon, on condition of her turning devotee, the usual transformation, at that period, of ladies whose early career had not exactly fitted them to fulfil the austere duties of a convent. Thus befriended by a priest whose creed he despised, and patronised by a courtesan whose character he could hardly respect, the future opponent of religion made his entrance upon life. At her death, Ninon left him the sum of two thousand livres, (about eighty guineas,) having previously introduced him into the best circles.

The wit of Voltaire, which spared nothing, however sacred, and was levelled alike at friend and foe, had by this time earned for him considerable notoriety. He was upon intimate terms with that portion of the nobility which aspired to the honours of authorship, and the reputation of being at all times ready to patronise genius. But his father wished him to make choice of a profession;

and on his refusal sent him to Holland, under the care of the ambassador to that court. Here he formed an intrigue with a young lady, whose parents interfered, and complained to the ambassador, and the result was that Voltaire was sent back to Paris in disgrace. His father now withdrew all countenance or support from him, and gave him the choice of adopting at once the profession of an attorney, or depending upon his own resources for the means of existence. He requested permission to depart for America; but whilst these family troubles were brooding, a friend of the family interceded, and invited him to take up his residence at St. Ange. M. Crumantin, his new protector, had been a courtier in the reign of Louis XIV, and his conversation suggested to Voltaire the idea of the "Henriade," and the " Age of Louis XIV." began to test his faculties for the task by writing a satire upon the deceased monarch, for which he was sent to the Bastille, there with leisure to make the most of his "thick-coming fancies." His case was not hopeless, and his spirits therefore suffered no diminution, as proofs of which he sketched the plan of the "League," and corrected his poem of "Edipus." He was soon after liberated by the Regent Duke of Orleans, to whom he expressed his gratitude for the food which he had received, but hoped that his royal highness would not hereafter trouble himself by providing him with a lodging.

He

After some difficulty, Voltaire got his play accepted at the theatre, where its success was instant and great. The liveliness of the thoughts, and the daring freedom of its opinions, attracted the attention not only of the literary men, but seemed to point him out to the multitude as the true censor of the time. In some of his after works, his attacks upon religion were more open, and the peculiar bent of his genius more strongly defined; but the lines in the play,-"Nos pretres ne sont pas ce qu'eur vain peuple pense; Notre credulité fait toute leur science-(Our priests are not what the foolish people suppose; their whole knowledge is derived from our credulity)-were the first-fruits of a warfare which ceased only with the death of their author.

The next employment of Voltaire was to fall in love with the Marchioness de Villars, who rejected him—a mortification which he was not prepared for, as the lady though married, had evinced her estimation of his genius. Some political friendships, which procured him an order from the Regent to quit Paris, and the composition of the tragedy of " Artemise," were the occupations of the intervening period, till 1722, when, in the society of Madame Russelmonde, he went to Holland. At Brussels he met with Jean Jacques Rousseau; and if the twin poets had given the world any occasion to doubt the reality of the esteem which they professed to feel for each other in absence, the manner of their parting left no room to question the sincerity of their hatred. They could not endure the thought of each other's eminence, and for the remainder of his life, Rousseau lavished upon his rival all the abuse of a mind fertile beyond all others in its capacity of expressing sentiments of dislike. The immediate cause of quarrel is said to have been a jest uttered by Voltaire, upon hearing his friend recite his "Ode to Posterity," which he said would never reach those to whom it was addressed. A less grave offence has ere now been visited by a worse punishment.

The "Epistle to Urania," for such was the poetic name of Madame Russelmonde, was the next exercise of his pen. In this poem he treated with the utmost freedom the subjects of religion and government, and professed the utmost contempt for revealed doctrines and secular dogmas. It was a happy thought to address such a work to a lady who had cast aside what we deem the essential virtue of her sex; but it was the good fortune of Voltaire,