"chell with his 'Fudge' have caused as much harmless "mirth as has ever been caused by matter packed into so "small a number of pages. The latter part of the tale is

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unworthy of the beginning: as we approach the catas"trophe, the absurdities lie thicker and thicker, and the gleams of pleasantry become rarer and rarer.”

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Suppose this best effort of the unfortunate Irishman of genius had just been published, and this criticism had just been pronounced, what would have been the general impression left upon the reader's mind by such a review? That the book was the production of an incoherent extravagant writer, who possessed some ability in describing scenes of pastoral life and in drawing character; whose absurdities grew thicker and thicker as he approached the conclusion ; and whose dulness reached the climax at the close. Is that a just representation of the Vicar of Wakefield? And we may well inquire, what would have been the criticism of Macaulay, if he had written his critique before seventy years of unbounded popularity had stamped the approval of the European public on the book. But is this criticism true, is the "fable" one of the worst that ever was constructed? So far as respects the characters of the family of the Wakefields, there is nothing to warrant objection; it is the conformity of these characters to nature, which makes their portraiture charming. There is an adherence to what is probable in every trait drawn, and we sometimes imagine we have met the persons described in real life; nor is it improbable that an innocent family should be reduced to poverty by the schemes of others, or that the arts of the seducer should prevail. The other characters-those of the dupe-the swindler -the rake-the philosophic vagabond, are equally natural. Goldsmith, in fact, was describing characters he had seen, and by whom he had suffered.

What was the design of the book? To give to the world not merely the amusing adventures of an innocent family imposed upon through their credulity, but a grand moral lesson of Christian piety tried by affliction, yet through faith rising superior to the ills of fortune; ever resigned, but always active in works of charity and love; deriving from every calamity cause for thankfulness, and motive to exertion; in fact the object of the book is to educate the heart— and who is the hero of "the fable," let Goldsmith answer: "The hero of this piece unites in himself the three greatest characters upon earth-he is a priest, an husbandman, the father of a family. He is drawn as ready to teach, and ready to obey, as simple in affluence and majestic in adversity. In this age of affluence and refinement, whom shall such a character please; such as are fond of high life will turn with disdain from the simplicity of his country fire-side; such as mistake ribaldry for humour will find no wit in his harmless conversation; and such as have been taught to deride religion will laugh at one whose chief stores of comfort are drawn from futurity."

But if the Vicar of Wakefield was in design so objectionable, if it was wanting in the consistency which ought to be found in the wildest fiction about witches, giants, and fairies -if its absurdities thickened as he approached the catastrophe-how wonderful the genius of the writer must be to produce, notwithstanding blunders so enormous, a result so grand. Of the moral of the tale Macaulay says nothing. Is it not surprising the objections taken by Macaulay should have escaped the notice of many great critics and greater authors?

Sir Walter Scott, the master of all the avenues to the human heart, has said, "We read the Vicar of Wakefield in youth and age, we return to it again and again, and bless the

memory of an author who contrives so well to reconcile us to human nature." Goethe, the greatest of modern Germans, declared in his eighty-first year, that it had been his delight at twenty; that it had formed part of his education, and influenced his taste and feelings throughout life: that he had recently read it over again with renewed delight. And Schlegel, the celebrated German critic and scholar recorded his opinion, that "the gem of European works of fiction is the Vicar of Wakefield." Rogers feelingly observed to Mr. Forster, that "of all the books which through the fitful changes of three generations, he had seen rise and fall, the charms of the Vicar of Wakefield had alone continued as at first; and that could he revisit the world, after an interval of many more generations, he should as surely look to find it undiminished." In the Revue des Deux Mondes," published in Paris in 1857, is a review of the life and works of Oliver Goldsmith, in which the French criticism to the same effect is given. Better still than the judgment of these famous men, is the testimony of the people of all countries confessing their delight as they enjoy their favourite volume, and acknowledging with one consent that the discourses of the Vicar of Wakefield have reached, and warmed, and consoled their hearts. The fable may be the worst ever constructed—the absurdities may lie thick over his pages-his gleams of pleasantry may be rare, and yet the blundering author has produced a matchless and imperishable work.

The account given by Mr. Boswell of the circumstances connected with the sale of the "Vicar of Wakefield," is accurate, as coming directly from the lips of Dr. Johnson. What a picture of a struggling author's life, and of the state of literature at the time Dr. Johnson speaks!

"I received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith,

"that he was in great distress, and as it was not in his

power

"to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon

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as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to "him directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was drest, "and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, "at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that he "had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle of "Madeira and a glass before him, I put the cork into the "bottle, and desired he would be calm, and began to talk to "him of the means by which he might be extricated. He "then told that he had a novel ready for the press, which he "produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told "the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a “bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith "the money, and discharged his rent-not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill." It is evident Goldsmith had considered long and deeply his subject, and had elaborated the work with much care; he must have accomplished this labour of love in intervals snatched from more irksome occupation; and what a miserable remuneration he received. The bookseller reaped a rich harvest, for the work ran through six editions before the death of Goldsmith; yet, when he subsequently to these gains drew a bill for thirteen guineas upon that same bookseller, the bill was dishonoured. We have lingered too long on this portion of our author's career; but ere I take my leave of Dr. Primrose, I must return to him my best thanks for his logical and philosophical argument against unnecessary capital punishments. At the time Goldsmith published this masterly condemnation of indiscriminate penal laws and cruel executions, men and women were hanged almost daily for petty thefts, and our criminal code was stained with blood. argued as ably as did Romilly thirty years later.

Goldsmith

I have no

doubt Dr. Primrose counselled many a statesman and jurist who afterwards used his arguments but did not acknowledge them; we have happily lived to see the theories of our author adopted by an enlightened legislature.

Amongst the most remunerative of Goldsmith's prose publications were his abridgments of English, Roman, and Grecian history, and his Animated Nature. All these works were undertaken for mere pay. Even a poet must live, and the balance out of sixty guineas, after paying the termagant landlady, the milk bill, and the tailor for a purple velvet coat and silk breeches, must have been small, and in Goldsmith's hands must have vanished quickly. Lord Macaulay affords unqualified praise to the historical compositions of Goldsmith; he thinks our blundering countryman was 66 a great, perhaps unequalled, master of the arts of selection and condensation." In his preface to his history of England our author aptly says "The business of abridging the works of others has hitherto fallen to the lot of very dull men; and the art of blotting, which an ancient critic calls the most difficult of all others, has been usually practised by those who found themselves unable to write. Hence, our abridgments are generally more tedious than the works from whence they pretend to relieve us; and they have effectually embarrassed that road which they profess to shorten." His idea of an abridged history was therefore excellent. I would mention that his narrative of the reign of Henry II., including an account of Ireland before the invasion, and of that event-contained in about forty pages-affords a good specimen of his admirable taste in selection, and clearness in narration. Throughout the book his sketches of character are drawn with great elegance and brevity-for example, those of William III., of the brilliant but perfidious Bolingbroke, and of Queen Elizabeth.