SIR,—I send you a small production of the late Dr. _Goldsmith_, which has never been published, and which might perhaps have been totally lost had I not secured it. He intended it as a song in the character of Miss _ Hardcastle_, in his admirable comedy, _She stoops to conquer_; but it was left out, as Mrs. _Bulkley_ who played the part did not sing. He sung it himself in private companies very agreeably. The tune is a pretty Irish air, called _The Humours of Balamagairy_, to which, he told me, he found it very difficult to adapt words; but he has succeeded happily in these few lines. As I could sing the tune, and was fond of them, he was so good as to give me them about a year ago, just as I was leaving London, and bidding him adieu for that season, little apprehending that it was a last farewell. I preserve this little relick in his own handwriting with an affectionate care. I am, Sir, Your humble Servant, JAMES BOSWELL.’ When, seventeen years later, Boswell published his _Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, he gave an account of his dining at General Oglethorpe’s in April, 1773, with Johnson and Goldsmith; and he says that the latter sang the _Three Jolly Pigeons_, and this song, to the ladies in the tea-room. Croker, in a note, adds that the younger Colman more appropriately employed the ‘essentially low comic’ air for Looney Mactwolter in the [_Review; or the_] _Wags of Windsor_, 1808 [i.e. in that character’s song beginning—‘Oh, whack! Cupid’s a mannikin’], and that Moore tried to bring it into good company in the ninth number of the _Irish Melodies_. But Croker did not admire the tune, and thought poorly of Goldsmith’s words. Yet they are certainly fresher than Colman’s or Moore’s:— Sing—sing—Music was given, To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving; Souls here, like planets in Heaven, By harmony’s laws alone are kept moving, etc. TRANSLATION.