or, as some choose to express it, silversmith, an artist who makes vessels, utensils, and ornaments, in gold and silver.

The goldsmith's work is either performed in the mould, or beat out with the hammer or other engine. Goldsmiths All works that have raised figures are cast in a mould, and afterwards polished and finished: plates or dishes, of silver or gold, are beat out from thin flat plates; and tankards, and other vessels of that kind, are formed of plates soldered together, and their mouldings are beat, not cast. The business of the goldsmiths formerly required much more labour than it does at present; for they were obliged to hammer the metal from the ingot to the thinnest they wanted: but there are now invented flattening mills, which reduce metals to the thinness that is required, at a very small expense. The goldsmith is to make his own moulds; and for that reason ought to be a good designer, and have a taste in sculpture; he also ought to know enough of metallurgy to be able to assay mixed metals, and to mix the alloy.

The goldsmiths in London employ several hands under them for the various articles of their trade: such are the jeweller, the snuff box and toy maker, the silver-turner, the gilder, the burnisher, the chafer, the refiner, and the gold-beater.

Goldsmiths are superior tradesmen: their wares must be assayed by the wardens of the company of this name in London, and marked; and gold is to be of a certain touch. No goldsmith may take above one shilling the ounce of gold, besides what he has for the fashioning, more than the buyer may be allowed for it at the king's exchange; and here any false metal shall be seized and forfeited to the king. The cities of York, Exeter, Bristol, &c. are places appointed for the assaying wrought-plate of goldsmiths; also a duty is granted on silver-plate of sixpence an ounce, &c. Plate made by goldsmiths shall be of a particular fineness, on pain of forfeiting 10l.; and if any parcel of plate sent to the assayers is discovered to be of a coarser alloy than the respective standards, it may be broken and defaced; and the fees for assaying are particularly limited.

(Oliver), a celebrated English writer, was born at Rofecommon in Ireland in the year 1731. His father, who possessed a small estate in that county, had nine sons, of whom Oliver was the third. He was originally intended for the church; and with that view, after being well instructed in the classics, was, with his brother the Rev. Henry Goldsmith, placed in Trinity college, Dublin, about the latter end of the year 1749. In this seminary of learning he continued a few years, when he took a bachelor's degree; but his brother not being able to obtain any preferment after he left the college, Oliver, by the advice of Dean Goldsmith of Cork, turned his thoughts to the study of physic; and, after attending some courses of anatomy in Dublin, proceeded to Edinburgh in the year 1751, where he studied the several branches of medicine under the different professors in that university. His benevolent disposition soon involved him in unexpected difficulties; and he was obliged precipitately to leave Scotland, in consequence of engaging himself to pay a considerable sum of money for a fellow-student.

A few days after, about the beginning of the year 1754, he arrived at Sunderland, near Newcastle, where he was arrested at the suit of a tailor in Edinburgh, to whom he had given security for his friend. Goldsmith. By the good offices of Laughlin Maclane, Esq; and Dr Sleigh, who were then in the college, he was soon delivered out of the hands of the bailiff; and took his passage on board a Dutch ship to Rotterdam, where, after a short stay, he proceeded to Brussels; he then visited great part of Flanders; and after passing some time at Strasbourg and Louvain, where he obtained a degree of bachelor of physic, he accompanied an English gentleman to Berne and Geneva.

It is undoubtedly fact, that this ingenious unfortunate man travelled on foot most part of his tour. He had left England with very little money; and being of a philosophical turn, and at that time possessing a body capable of sustaining every fatigue, and a heart not easily terrified at danger, he became an enthusiast to the design he had formed of seeing the manners of different countries. He had some knowledge of the French language and of music, and he played tolerably well on the German flute; which, from an amusement, became at some times the means of subsistence. His learning produced him a hospitable reception at most of the religious houses; and his music made him welcome to the peasants of Flanders and other parts of Germany. "Whenever I approached," he used to say, "a peasant's house towards night-fall, I played one of my most merry tunes; and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day: but in truth (his constant expression) I must own, whenever I attempted to entertain persons of a higher rank, they always thought my performance odious, and never made me any return for my endeavours to please them."

On Mr Goldsmith's arrival at Geneva, he was recommended as a proper person for a travelling tutor to a young man, who had been unexpectedly left a considerable sum of money by his uncle Mr S——, formerly an eminent pawnbroker near Holborn. This youth, who had been articled to an attorney, on receipt of his fortune determined to see the world; and, on his engaging with his preceptor, made a proviso that he should be permitted to govern himself; and Goldsmith soon found his pupil understood the art of directing in money concerns extremely well, as avarice was his prevailing passion. His questions were usually how money might be saved, and which was the least expensive course of travel; whether anything could be bought that would turn to account when disposed of again in London? Such curiosities on the way as could be seen for nothing he was ready enough to look at; but if the sight of them was to be paid for, he usually asserted that he had been told they were not worth seeing. He never paid a bill that he would not observe how amazingly expensive travelling was; and all this, though he was not yet twenty-one. During Goldsmith's continuance in Switzerland, he assiduously cultivated his poetical talent, of which he had given some striking proofs while at the college of Edinburgh. It was here he sent the first sketch of his delightful poem called the Traveller to his brother the clergyman in Ireland, who, giving up fame and fortune, had retired with an amiable wife to happiness and obscurity, on an income of only 40l. a-year.

From Geneva Mr Goldsmith and his pupil visited the south of France; where the young man, upon some disagreement with his preceptor, paid him the small part of his salary which was due, and embarked at Marseilles for England. Our wanderer was left once more upon the world at large, and passed through a variety of difficulties in traversing the greatest part of France. At length his curiosity being satiated, he bent his course towards England, and arrived at Dover the beginning of the winter 1758. When he came to London, his stock of cash did not amount to two livres. An entire stranger in this metropolis, his mind was filled with the most gloomy reflections on his embarrased situation. With some difficulty he discovered that part of the town in which his old acquaintance Dr Sleigh resided. This gentleman received him with the warmest affection, and liberally invited him to share his purse till some establishment could be procured for him. Goldsmith, unwilling to be a burden to his friend, a short time after eagerly embraced an offer which was made him to assist the late Rev. Dr Milner in instructing the young gentlemen at the academy at Peckham; and acquitted himself greatly to the Doctor's satisfaction for a short time: but having obtained some reputation by the criticisms he had written in the Monthly Review, Mr Griffith, the proprietor, engaged him in the compilation of it; and, resolving to pursue the profession of writing, he returned to London, as the mart where abilities of every kind were sure of meeting distinction and reward. As his finances were by no means in a good state, he determined to adopt a plan of the strictest economy; and took lodgings in an obscure court in the Old Bailey, where he wrote several ingenious little pieces. The late Mr Newberry, who at that time gave great encouragement to men of literary abilities, became a kind of patron to our young author; and introduced him as one of the writers in the Public Ledger, in which his Citizen of the World originally appeared, under the title of Chinese Letters.

Fortune now seemed to take some notice of a man she had long neglected. The simplicity of his character, the integrity of his heart, and the merit of his productions, made his company very acceptable to a number of respectable families; and he emerged from his shabby apartments in the Old Bailey to the politer air of the Temple, where he took handsome chambers, and lived in a genteel style. The publication of his Traveller, and his Vicar of Wakefield, was followed by the performance of his comedy of the Good-natured Man at Covent-Garden theatre, and placed him in the first rank of the poets of the present age.

Among many other persons of distinction who were desirous to know him, was the duke of Northumberland; and the circumstance that attended his introduction to that nobleman is worthy of being related, in order to show a striking trait of his character. "I was invited," said the Doctor (as he was then universally called) "by my friend Mr Piercy, to wait upon the duke, in consequence of the satisfaction he had received from the perusal of one of my productions. I dressed myself in the best manner I could; and, after studying some compliments I thought necessary on such an occasion, proceeded to Northumberland-house, and acquainted the servants that I had particular business with his Grace. They showed me into an antechamber; where, after waiting some time, a gentleman... Goldsmith, gentleman very genteely dressed made his appearance.

Taking him for the duke, I delivered all the fine things I had composed in order to compliment him on the honour he had done me; when, to my great astonishment, he told me I had mistaken him for his master, who would see me immediately. At that instant the duke came into the apartment; and I was so confused on the occasion, that I wanted words barely sufficient to express the sense I entertained of the duke's politeness, and went away extremely chagrined at the blunder I had committed."

Another feature of his character we cannot help laying before the reader. Previous to the publication of his Deserted Village, the bookeller had given him a note for one hundred guineas for the copy, which the Doctor mentioned a few hours after to one of his friends: who observed, it was a very great sum for so short a performance. "In truth," replied Goldsmith, "I think so too; I have not been easy since I received it; therefore I will go back and return him his note:" which he absolutely did; and left it entirely to the bookeller to pay him according to the profits produced by the sale of the piece, which turned out very considerable.

During the last rehearsal of his comedy intitled She Stoops to Conquer, which Mr Coleman had no opinion would succeed, on the Doctor's objecting to the repetition of one of Tony Lumpkin's speeches, being apprehensive it might injure the play, the manager with great keenness replied, "Psha, my dear Doctor, do not be fearful of squibs, when we have been sitting almost these two hours upon a barrel of gunpowder." The piece, however, contrary to Mr Coleman's expectation, was received with uncommon applause by the audience; and Goldsmith's pride was so hurt by the severity of the above observation, that it entirely put an end to his friendship for the gentleman that made it.

Notwithstanding the great success of his pieces, by some of which it is asserted, upon good authority, he cleared £800l. in one year, his circumstances were by no means in a prosperous situation; which was partly owing to the liberality of his disposition, and partly to an unfortunate habit he had contracted of gaming; the arts of which he knew very little of, and consequently became the prey of those who were unprincipled enough to take advantage of his simplicity.

Just before his death he had formed a design for executing an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, the prospectus of which he actually published. In this work several of his literary friends (particularly Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr Johnson, Mr Beauclerc, and Mr Garrick) had undertaken to furnish him with articles upon different subjects. He had entertained the most languid expectations from the success of it. The undertaking, however, did not meet with that encouragement from the bookellers which he had imagined it would undoubtedly receive; and he used to lament this circumstance almost to the last hour of his existence.

He had been for some years afflicted, at different times, with a violent strangury, which contributed not a little to embitter the latter part of his life; and which, united with the vexations which he suffered upon other occasions, brought on a kind of habitual despondency. In this unhappy condition he was attacked by a nervous fever, which, being improperly treated, terminated in his dissolution on the 4th of April 1774.

As to his character, it is strongly illustrated by Mr Pope's line,

"In wit a man, simplicity a child.

The learned leisure he loved to enjoy was too often interrupted by distresses which arose from the liberality of his temper, and which sometimes threw him into loud fits of passion; but this impetuosity was corrected upon a moment's reflection; and his servants have been known, upon these occasions, purposely to throw themselves in his way, that they might profit by it immediately after; for he who had the good fortune to be reproved, was certain of being rewarded for it. The universal esteem in which his poems were held, and the repeated pleasure they give in the perusal, is a striking test of their merit. He was a studious and correct observer of nature; happy in the selection of his images, in the choice of his subjects, and in the harmony of his versification; and, though his embarrassed situation prevented him from putting the last hand to many of his productions, his Hermit, his Traveller, and his deserted Village, bid fair to claim a place among the most finished pieces in the English language.

Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote, 1. History of the earth and animated nature, 6 vols 8vo. 2. History of England, 4 vols 8vo. 3. History of Rome, 2 vols. 4. Abridgements of the two last, for the use of schools. 5. A view of experimental philosophy, 3 vols 8vo.; a posthumous work, not esteemed. 6. Miscellanies, &c.