ion-piece to Chaucer's "poor persoune," and
is, besides, a filial tribute to Goldsmith's father. So real are the
characters and scenes, that the poem has been a popular subject for the
artist. If in _The Traveller_ he has been philosophical and didactic, in
the _Deserted Village_ he is only descriptive and tender. In no work is
there a finer spirit of true charity, the love of man for God's
sake,--like God himself, "no respecter of persons."

While in form and versification he is like Pope and the Artificial School,
he has the sensibility to nature of Thomson, and the simplicity of feeling
and thought of Wordsworth; and thus he stands between the two great poetic
periods, partaking of the better nature of both.

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.--Between the appearance of these two poems, in
1766, came forth that nonpareil of charming stories, _The Vicar of
Wakefield_. It is so well known that we need not enter into an analysis of
it. It is the story of a good vicar, of like passions with ourselves; not
wanting in vanity and impetuosity, but shining in his Christian virtue
like a star in the midst of accumulating misfortunes,--a man of immaculate
honor and undying faith, preaching to his fellow-prisoners in the jail,
surveying death without fear, and at last, like Job, restored to
happiness, and yet maintaining his humility. It does not seem to have been
constructed according to artificial rules, but rather to have been told
extemporaneously, without effort and without ambition; and while this very
fact has been the cause of some artistic faults and some improbabilities,
it has also given it a peculiar charm, by contrast with such purely
artificial constructions as the _Rasselas_ of Johnson.

So doubtful was the publisher, who had bought the manuscript for L60, that
he held it back for two years, until the name of the author had become
known through _The Traveller_, and was thus a guarantee for its success.
The _Vicar of Wakefield_ has also an additional value in its delineation
of manners, persons, and conditions in that day, and in its strictures
upon the English penal law, in such terms and with such suggestions as
seem a prophecy of the changes which have since taken place.

HISTORIES, AND OTHER WORKS.--Of Goldsmith's various histories it may be
said that they are of value for the clear, if superficial, presentation of
facts, and for their charm of style.

The best is, without doubt, _The History of England_; but the _