THE DESERTED VILLAGE. " THIS poem was published in May, 1770, and before the end of August a fifth edition was issued, so that its sale was even more rapid than that of The Traveller," a circumstance which a comparison of the two poems sufficiently explains. The manner in which the subject of the earlier one was treated was hardly adapted to render it immediately popular, and the subject itself required more thought than the average reader is always ready to bestow; but even children could comprehend and enjoy the descriptions of the village preacher and the village schoolmaster, and the least reflective mind found it easy to sympathize with the real or imaginary wrongs of the exiled inhabitants of Auburn. With reference to the general subject of The Deserted Village," Macaulay has written as follows: "What would be thought of a painter who should mix August and January in one landscape-who should introduce a frozen river into a harvest scene? Would it be a sufficient defence of such a picture to say that every part was exquisitely coloured, that the green hedges, the apple-trees loaded with fruit, the wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves, and the sun-burned reapers wiping their foreheads, were very fine, and that the ice and the boys sliding were also very fine? To such a picture The Deserted Village' bears a great resemblance. It is made up of incongruous parts. The village in its happy days is a true English village. The village in its decay is an Irish village. The felicity and the misery which Goldsmith has brought close together belong to two different countries, and to two different stages in the progress of society. He had assuredly never seen in his native island such a rural paradise, such a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity, as his Auburn. He had assuredly never seen in England all the inhabitants of such a paradise turned out of their homes in one day, and forced to emigrate in a body to America. The hamlet he had probably seen in Kent; the ejectment he had probably seen in Munster; but, by joining the two, he has produced something which never was and never will be seen in any part of the world." The criticism is, in the main, true; but in justice to Goldsmith it should be remembered that he is here professing to describe the locality in which his youth was passed, and which he had not since revisited. Memory is wont to colour the scenes and occupations of childhood and early life with its brightest hues, to soften the hardships then endured, to refine coarseness and heighten pleasures, and to invest the whole picture of the distant past with a tender and romantic interest. We cannot doubt that when "The Deserted Village" first took form in the poet's imagination, its general features were derived from the recollections of his boyhood, and that these mingled with his later experiences and derived a new character from them. To Lissoy, therefore, whither, when Oliver was two years old, his father removed, the admirers of the poem have made pilgrimages from the time of its first publication. Information has been diligently collected about the former condition and inhabitants of the little village, which is situated in Westmeath, midway between Ballymahon and Athlone. Almost every detail of the scenery so vividly depicted has, it is alleged, been identified, and the names of the persons referred to have been recovered. The church, the brook, the mill, the hawthorn, the pool, the parsonage, the straggling fence, the alehouse-all have been described with fond enthusiasm; and Paddy Byrne, the schoolmaster, and Catherine Geraghty, the cress-gatherer, have come in for a share of reflected glory. Little stress can be laid on these details, but it seems beyond a question that a circumstance connected with Lissoy furnished Goldsmith with the central idea of the poem. In 1738 a considerable tract of land in that neighbourhood was purchased by a General Napier, Lieutenant-General of his Majesty's forces in Ireland;" a large house was built by the new proprietor, and in order that a suitable park might be formed around it, the tenants of the small farms on the estate were compelled to leave. The indignant complaints which these evictions called forth must have been familiar to the ears of the poet in his boyish days, and upon these he engrafted his later reflections on the evils which commercial prosperity and the increase of luxury too often bring in their train. It is recorded that two years were occupied in the composition of "The Deserted Village," but during that period much other literary work was also accomplished. Goldsmith was a slow and laborious writer. He first sketched out his design in prose; then he put down all the ideas which thought and reading suggested; his first verses he wrote with intervals between the lines for future emendations, and he frequently revised all that he had written. Ten lines he considered a fair morning's task, and even these were critically reviewed and polished afterwards. To this unsparing labour may be attributed the great smoothness and accuracy of his diction and severe as the toil was, it has been justified by the public appreciation of its results. "The Deserted Village" was read to Gray in the last summer of his life, and won from him the emphatic praise: "That man is a poet." Burke ranked it above the pastorals of Pope, and even Spenser. The great German, Goethe, tells us that in his youth he read it with transport, and at once zealously set to work to translate it into his own language. Several French versions of it have appeared from time to time, and imitations in English have been published almost without number. THE DEDICATION. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, to whom "The Deserted Village" was dedicated, was the son of a clergyman, and was born in Devonshire in 1723. From his earliest years he showed a remarkable talent for painting, and in the cultivation of this every advantage that his friends could secure was afforded him. At the age of twenty-three he commenced to practise as an artist in London; but shortly afterwards, deeming his education still imperfect, he quitted this country for the Continent. Three years' travel, in the course of which he visited Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, and all the great repositories of Italian art, corrected his taste and extended his knowledge; and when, in 1752, he returned to England, his studio was besieged by persons of rank and wealth, anxious to have their portraits painted by him. Ten years later the income which he derived from his profession was estimated by Dr. Johnson at six thousand pounds a year. When the Royal Academy was founded Reynolds was unanimously chosen president, and the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him. For twenty-four years after this, until his death in 1792, he continued to work with indefatigable zeal at his profession; and upwards of three hundred important pictures by his hand are said to be still in existence. He has been called with justice the Founder of the British School of Painting. His private life was very unassuming, and he seems to have possessed in a singular degree the power of making and retaining friends. With Goldsmith he long lived on terms of the closest intimacy, and, in addition to the present Dedication, the poet has recorded his sense of the painter's goodness in the closing lines of "Retaliation." The admiration and affection thus exhibited were fully reciprocated; the picture of "Resignation "2 was a public acknowledgment of the esteem with which Rey1 See page 36. ge." "1 2 See note on line 110 of "The Deserted Vill nolds regarded his friend; and when tidings of the death of Goldsmith reached him at his easel, he threw aside his brush, left his painting-room, and did not re-enter it that day. He is since dead-the Rev. Henry Goldsmith died in May, 1768, at which time the composition of "The Deserted Village" was already commenced. mere mechanical parts-explain this. depopulation-define the word. I can scarcely, etc.-to a friend who called upon him shortly after he began the poem, Goldsmith expressed himself to the same effect. "Some of my friends differ with me on this plan," he said, after describing the scheme, "and think this depopulation of villages does not exist; but I am myself satisfied of the fact. I remember it in my own country, and have seen it in this." display derive this word, and give its original meaning. What other derivative from the same root exists in the language? politician-what do you mean by politics, political, politician? the increase of our luxuries-Goldsmith's theory about riches and luxury is not in accordance with the views of political economists, and has often been censured. But though the theory is not strictly true, the lesson which the poet wished to convey must not be hastily rejected. The accumulation of wealth has not overwhelmed the land with ruin, and the proud empire of trade shows as yet no signs of "swift decay;" but in the eager pursuit of commercial success many attendant evils are often overlooked, or, if recognized, are too lightly disregarded. "No material prosperity can be so great, that underneath it, and indeed because of it, will not still be found much suffering and sadness; much to remember that is commonly forgotten, much to attend to that is almost always neglected. Trade would not thrive the less, though shortened somewhat of its unfeeling train; nor wealth enjoy fewer blessings, if its unwieldy pomp less often spurned the cottage from the green."-(Forster's "Life of Goldsmith.") Illustrate from any circumstances that have come under your own observation the first part of the foregoing quotation. all the wisdom of antiquity-what wise men among the ancients taught that luxury was an evil? Mention any attempts that were made to restrain it. I must remain, etc.-Goldsmith himself had, however, held different language in the " Citizen of the World," (Letter xi.) "Certainly, those philosophers who declaim against luxury have but little understood its benefits; they seem insensible that to luxury we owe not only the greatest part of our knowledge, but even of our virtues. In whatsoever light therefore, we consider luxury, whether as employing a number of hands, naturally too feeble for more laborious employment; as finding a variety of occupation for others who might be totally idle; or as furnishing out new inlets to happiness, without encroaching on mutual property; in whatever light we regard it, we shall have reason to stand up in its defence, and the sentiment of Confucius still remains unshaken, That we should enjoy as many of the luxuries of life as are consistent with our own safety and the prosperity of others; and that he who finds out a new pleasure is one of the most useful members of society." THE DESERTED VILLAGE. I Auburn-this name is thought by some commentators to have been borrowed by Goldsmith from a village in Wiltshire. Probably his only motive in choosing it was its poetic sound. Besides the village of Lissoy (see Introduction above), which has been renamed Auburn as a compliment to the poet, there are at least three places so called in North America. Of these the most important is in the State of New York, at the outlet of the Owasco Lake, but its present condition is a practical refutation of some of Goldsmith's opinions. It is described as a busy, thriving town, with a population already numbering over nine thousand, and rapidly increasing; and it owes its prosperity wholly to its manufactures. 2 swain-in what sense is this word used by Goldsmith? (See line 64, etc.) 12 decent-i.e., neat, and adapted to the purpose for which it was built, without pretension to splendour. 13 the hawthorn bush- all the hawthorns in the neighbourhood of Lissoy have suffered severely from the desire for relics which almost invariably possesses pilgrims to celebrated spots. A tree, which was thought to have some claim to be considered the very one here described, was gradually cut to pieces and carried away to furnish memorials of the locality, and at last even its roots were dug up. But the residents in the district have prudently planted new bushes in the place of the old ones, and the curiosity of visitors is still amply gratified. 15 the coming day, etc.-this has been supposed to refer to the numerous Saints' days, usually kept as holidays in Roman Catholic countries. 17 train-connect together the various uses of the word trainthe train of a lady's dress, a train of gunpowder, a train |