CRITICISMS ON THE WORK.

["THE Vicar of Wakefield was published in March, 1766. Towards the end of May a second edition was called for, and the third appeared on the 25th of August. The work immediately secured friends among every description of readers, and has long been considered one of the most interesting Tales in our language. From the numerous testimonials which have been borne by distinguished writers to its extraordinary merits, we select the following :

Mrs. Barbauld.

"One of the most pleasing novels of a modern cast is the Vicar of Wakefield.' It is on this work that the author's talent for humor most successfully displays itself. Many of the incidents are irresistibly comic. Such are the gravity and self-importance of Moses when he produces his bargain of spectacles with silver rims; the expedition to church upon Blackberry and Dobbin; the family picture which was too large to enter the doors; the slyness of the Vicar in overturning the cosmetic, while he pretended to stir the fire; and the schemes and plottings of good notable Mrs. Primrose with her gooseberry wine. We are at once touched and diverted with the harmless vanities of the whole group, joined with innocence and benevolence. The character of the Vicar somewhat resembles Parson Adams, and perhaps still more, the author's village pastor,' A man to all the country dear! His kind feelings towards his family, the affecting tenderness with which he receives again his repentant daughter, his hospitality and flowing benevolence, with his behavior in every scene of distress, make him a pleasing and venerable character, and are evidently painted by a man, who strongly felt the enthusiasm of virtue and piety."-British Novelists, vol. xxiii.

Sir Walter Scott.

"Whatever defects occur in the tenor of the story, the admirable ease and grace of the narrative, as well as the pleasing truth with which the principal characters are designed, make 'The Vicar of Wakefield' one of the most delicious morsels of fictitious composition on which the human

mind was ever employed. The principal character, that of the simple pastor himself, with all the worth and excellency which ought to distinguish the ambassador of God to man, and yet with just so much of pedantry and literary vanity as serves to show that he is made of mortal mould, and subject to human failings, is one of the best and most pleasing pictures ever designed. It is, perhaps, impossible to place frail humanity before us in an attitude of more simple dignity than the Vicar, in his character of pastor, of parent, and of husband. His excellent helpmate, with all her motherly cunning and housewifery prudence, loving and respecting her husband, but counter-plotting his wisest schemes, at the dictates of maternal vanity, forms an excellent counterpart. Both, with their children around them, their quiet labor and domestic happiness, compose a fireside picture of such a perfect kind, as perhaps is nowhere else equalled. It is sketched indeed from common life, and is a strong contrast to the exaggerated and extraordinary characters and incidents which are the resource of those authors, who, like Bayes, make it their business to elevate and surprise; but the very simplicity of this charming book renders the pleasure it affords more permanent. We read The Vicar of Wakefield' in youth and in 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. Whether we choose the pathetic and distressing incidents of the fire, the scenes of the jail, or the lighter and humorous parts of the story, we find the best and truest sentiments enforced in the most beautiful language; and perhaps there are few characters of purer dignity have been described than that of the excellent pastor, rising above sorrow and oppression, and laboring for the conversion of those felons, into whose company he had been thrust by his villainous creditor. In too many works of this class, the critics must apologize for, or censure particular passages in the narrative, as unfit to be perused by youth and innocence. But the wreath of Goldsmith is unsullied; he wrote to exalt virtue and expose vice; and he accomplished his task in a manner which raises him to the highest rank among British authors. We close this volume with a sigh that such an author should have written so little from the stores of his own genius, and that he should have been so prematurely removed from the sphere of literature, which he so highly adorned.”Prose Works, vol. iii., p. 258, edit. 1834.

Washington Irving.

"There are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith. The fascinating ease and simplicity of his style; the benevolence that beams through every page; the whimsical yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the mellow unforced humor, blended so happily with his good feeling and good sense, throughout his writings, win their way irresistibly to the affections, and carry the author with them. While writers of greater pretensions and more sounding names are suffered to lie upon our shelves, the works of Goldsmith are cherished

and laid in our bosoms. We do not quote them with ostentation, but they mingle with our minds; they sweeten our tempers and harmonize our thoughts; they put us in good humor with ourselves and with the world; and in doing so they make us happier and better men.

"The irresistible charm this novel possesses evinces how much may be done without the aid of extravagant incident, to excite the imagination and interest the feelings. Few productions of the kind afford greater amusement in the perusal, and still fewer inculcate more impressive lessons of morality. Though wit and humor abound in every page, yet in the whole volume there is not one thought injurious in its tendency, nor one sentiment that can offend the chastest ear. Its language, in the words of an elegant writer, is what' angels might have heard and virgins told.' In the delineation of his characters, in the conduct of his fable, and in the moral of the piece, the genius of the author is equally conspicuous. The hero displays with unaffected simplicity the most striking virtues that can adorn social life; sincere in his profession, humane and generous in his disposition, he is himself a pattern of the character he represents. The other personages are drawn with similar discrimination. Each is distinguished by some peculiar feature; and the general grouping of the whole has this particular excellence, that not one could be wanted without injuring the unity and beauty of the design. The drama of the tale is also managed with equal skill and effect. There are no extravagant incidents, and no forced or improbable situations; one event arises out of another in the same easy and natural manner as flows the language of the narration; the interest never flags, and is kept up to the last by the expedient of concealing the real character of Burchell. But it is the moral of the work which entitles the author to the praise of super-eminent merit in this species of writing. No writer has arrived more successfully at the great ends of a moralist. By the finest examples he inculcates the practice of benevolence, patience in suffering, and reliance on the providence of God."

Goethe.

"I found Herder's conversation very useful in making me acquainted with the most modern compositions. Amongst these productions he pointed out 'The Vicar of Wakefield' as an excellent work.

"A Protestant clergyman is perhaps the finest subject for a modern Idyl that can be found. He appears, like Melchizedec, to combine the characters of priest and king. Devoted to agriculture, the most innocent of all terrestrial conditions of man, he is almost always engaged in the same occupations, and confined to the circle of his family connecxions. He is a father, a master, and a cultivator; and by the union of these characters, a true member of society. On these worldly, but pure and noble foundations, his higher vocations rest. To him belongs the privilege of guiding man in the path of life, of conferring his spiritual education, of sanctifying all the remarkable periods of his existence, of instructing, fortifying, and consoling

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him; and when the consolations of his present state become insufficient, of revealing to him the hopes of a more favorable hereafter. Let us imagine such a man, animated by the purified sentiments of humanity, strong enough not to sink under the pressure of any event, and thus rising above the crowd, of whom neither purity nor firmness can be expected; let us ascribe to him the qualities necessary for his functions, perfect serenity, indefatigable activity, characterized by the anxious wish not to lose a moment of doing good, and we shall have the model of a good pastor.

"Add to this the necessity not only of living within a narrow circle, but of passing occasionally into a circle still inferior. Let us endow him with good humor, a forgiving temper, constancy, and all the qualities that distinguish a decided character. Let him also possess excessive indulgence, and a degree of patience in enduring the faults of others which affects the heart and yet provokes laughter; and we have a perfect representation of our excellent pastor of Wakefield.

The picture of this character in the course of the pleasures and pains of life, the still increasing interest of the fable, by the union of what is natural with what is uncommon and singular, make this romance one of the best that has ever been written. It has likewise the great advantage of being completely moral, and even Christian, in the purest sense; for it represents probity rewarded, and perseverance in virtue strengthened by perfect confidence in God. It confirms belief in the final triumph of good over evil; and all without any tincture of bigotry and pedantry. The antipathy of the author to these two vices appears from time to time in ironical passages full of sense and humor. Goldsmith unquestionably penetrated deep into the beauties as well as the deformities of the moral world; but he is also much indebted to his English birth, and to the opportunities afforded him by the manners of his nation. The family he has chosen for the subject of his descriptions is one of the inferior degrees of civil life, and is nevertheless in contact with the great. In all its poverty, it still increases, it remains connected with the wealthy. Its little bark floats amidst the stormy billows of social life in England, sometimes aided and sometimes ill-used by the immense fleet which navigates around it."-Life, p. 322.

Goethe, towards the conclusion of a long life, found the judg ment of his youth strengthened by experience, and, in 1830, thus writes to his friend Zelter :

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"Why I mention this respected name (Dr. Primrose) just at this place, and symbolize my own situation by the picture of his family, I must shortly explain. Within these few days The Vicar of Wakefield' fell accidentally into my hands; I could not help reading the little book again from beginning to end, not a little affected by the lively recollection how much I had been indebted to the author seventy years ago. It is not to be described the effect which Goldsmith had upon me just at the decisive moment of mental

development. The lofty and benevolent irony-that fair and indulgent view of all oversights-that meekness under all calamities-that equanimity under all changes and chances-and all that train of kindred virtues whatever names they bear, formed my best education; and in the end these are the thoughts and feelings which have reclaimed us from all the errors of life."

In speaking of Schlegel's "Lectures on the History of Literature," Lord Byron, in his Diary for 1821, says "I have found out where the German is right—it is about the Vicar of Wakefield: 'Of all romances in miniature (and perhaps this is the best shape in which romance can appear), the Vicar of Wakefield is, I think, the most exquisite.' HE THINKS!—he might be sure." The Tale is, perhaps, the most popular of English books on the continent of Europe. In France they enumerate seven different translations, which have passed through innumerable editions; in Germany it is little less popular; in Italy it is also familiarly known; and in these countries, as well as in the north of Europe, it is the first English book put into the hands of such as are learning our language.]