Pictures from English literature . sententious at times, butnever pedantic, never dogmatical, save on the one hobby of monogamy. Amore delightful character never was drawn, a portrait more life-like never waslimned by pen or pencil ; and we feel that a living model sat for the artist,however exquisite the art that shaped it into form, and clothed and drapedit, and threw around it all the accessories that make the picture one of theloveliest and most enduring ever hung up in the gallery of literature. To tellthat story again in other words than Goldsmiths would be an impertinence, ifnot somethi
Pictures from English literature . sententious at times, butnever pedantic, never dogmatical, save on the one hobby of monogamy. Amore delightful character never was drawn, a portrait more life-like never waslimned by pen or pencil ; and we feel that a living model sat for the artist,however exquisite the art that shaped it into form, and clothed and drapedit, and threw around it all the accessories that make the picture one of theloveliest and most enduring ever hung up in the gallery of literature. To tellthat story again in other words than Goldsmiths would be an impertinence, ifnot something worse : to epitomise its main features is all that we may can but bid the characters of the vicar, his wife, and children pass in reviewbefore us like old familiar friends, the sight of whom, even though it be butfor a moment, recalls all the peculiarities that make up the individual. Charles Primrose, the good vicar (in whom we trace many fine pointsof the character of Goldsmiths brother Henry, whom he loved so tenderly,. The Vicar of Wakefield? 71 and has immortalised in the Deserted Village), when first introducedto our notice, is in easy circumstances, with all the wants of a simple natureand contented mind abundantly supplied ; SO that we see but the light andharmless eccentricities of his nature—sly quaint humour, without gall enoughto become satire, when touching upon the foibles of his wife and daughters ;benevolence, unrestrained by cold calculating prudence ; easiness of temper,that takes little domestic crosses with the sweetest philosophy, smiling themeven into an enjoyment, as sunlight makes black clouds grow bright. By-and-by we shall sec the energies of his deeper nature, that have slumbered unheeded—it may be unknown to himself—in prosperity, roused and brought to thesurface under the agitation of great trouble. Then all the lighter portions ofhis character disappear, to be replaced by virtues that make the simple manheroic: faith and hope, ay, an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondon, booksubject
