The vicar of Wakefield and other works

CHAPTER I. — The description of the Family of Wakefield, in ivhich a kindted

likeness prevails^ as well of minds as of persons ...... 3

CHAPTER II. — Family misfortunes. — The loss of fortune only seri'e^ to increase

the pride of the luorthy ........... 7

CHAPTER III. — A mii^ration. — The fortunate circwnstances of our lives are generally found at last to be of our ow.i procuring . . . . . . . 1 1

CHAPTER IV.— yi proof that even the humblest fortune may grant happiness,

which depends not on circtimstances but constittttion ...... 19

CHAPTER Y.—A new and great acgiiaititancc introduced. — What we place most

hopes upon., generally proves 7nost fatal ........ 22

QWP^VIY.'^ Ml.— The happiness of a country fire-side 26

CHAPTER VII. — A town wit described. — The dullest fellows may learn to be

comical for a night or two ........... 3°

CHAPTER VIIL— .4;-t amour., which promises little good fortune, yet may be productive of Jiiuch ............. 34

CHAPTER IX. — T7V0 ladies of great distinction introduced. — Superior finery ever

seems to confer superior breeding ......... 39

CHAPTER X. — The family endeavours to cope with their betters. — The miseries of

the poor when they attempt to appear above their circutnstances .... 43

CHAPTER XI.— The fatnily still resolve to hold up their heads .... 47

CHAPTER Xll.— Fortune seetns resolved to humble the Family cf Wakefield. —

Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities 53

CHAPTER XU\.—Mr. Burchell zs found to be an enemy; for he has the confidence

to give disagreeable advice . . . . . • • • • • 5°

CHAPTER XIW— Fresh mortifications, or a demonstration that seeming calamities

may be real blessings . . .......... 61

CHAPTER XV.—All Mr. BurchclVs villany at once detected.— The folly of being

CHAPTER XNl.— The family use art, which is opposed with still greater . . 71

CHAPTER XVll.— Scarce y any virtue found to resist the power of long and

pleasing temptation . . . . . . . . • • ' • •7°

CHAPTER XVIII.— 77/^' pursuit of a father to reclaim a lost child to virtue . . 84

CHAPTER XlX.-The description of a person discontented with the present govem-

vient., and apprehensive of the loss of our liberties 88

iii

Contents

CHAPTER XX. — The history of a philosophic vagabond pursuing noveity, but losing content .............

CHAPTER XXL — The short continuance of friendship among the vicious^ which is coeval only with mutual satisfaction .........

CHAPTER XXII. — Offences are easily pardoned where there is love at bottom .

Introduction

as permanent as it is widely diffused. We may not predicate a time when it shall cease to be read, or a class or an age which it shall not instruct and delight. It charms the boy to-day, as it delighted Goethe throughout life.

It would be easy to multiply the testimony which great writers in every country have borne to the charms of this composition ; but it is needless. We can well understand how, notwithstanding the fears of Dr. Johnson, this tale stole silently upon the world without the eulogy of critics or the appreciation of wits, till it struck its roots deep into the soil of the English heart, and became perennial. Faults it has, but they are few and trifling — forgotten in the charm of style and sentiment by all save the critx. Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, command now not one reader for every hundred who read this tale of Goldsmith. This need not excite our wonder. He paints Nature as truly as any of them, but without the sententious formality and wearisome particularity of the first, or the coarseness and pruriency of the others.

" The Vicar of Wakefield " is a domestic epic. Its hero is a countryparson — simple, pious, and pure-hearted— a humorist in his way, a littfe vain of his learning, a little proud of his fine fanraly — sometimes rather sententious, never pedantic, and a dogmatist only on the one favourite topic of monogamy, which crops out now and then above the surface of his character only to give it a new charm. Its world .is a rural district, beyond whose limits the action rarely passes, and that only on great occasions. Domestic affections and joys, relieved by its cares, its foibles, and its little failings, cluster around the parsonage, till the storms from the outward world invade its holiness and trouble its peace. Then comes sorrow and suffering ; and we have the hero, like the patriarchal prince of the land of Uz, when the Lord " put forth his hand and touched all that he had," meeting each new affliction with meekness and with patience — rising from each trial with renewed reliance upon God, till the lowest depth of his earthly suffering becomes the highest elevation of his moral strength.

In this charming work we see the moral nature of Goldsmith more translucently than in anything else that he has written — that thorough honest, unsophisticated nature, full of truth and hope, and love and charity, unsordid and unselfish, improvident yet resilient, rising ever with elastic rebound the moment that the pressure is removed from his spirit ; and then the tale flows gracefully, easily along, as some full, clear stream wanders through a varied landscape, now calmly over the daisied meadow, now troublously between rocks and wooded hills, now in light and now in shadow, but always clear and pure, reflecting the heavens over it and the scenes around it. Here we have satire, the gentlest that ever fell from pen ; pungent, but the pungency of a pleasant acid, without one drop of gall ; humour, the quaintest, the simplest, the slyest ; wit that sparkles like dew-drops ; pathos that makes its way right to the heart ; and with all and above all, an exquisite power of delineating the foibles that make one smile, as well as the fortitude that makes the eye moist : all these render " The Vicar of Wakefield " the most readable, the most lovable, the most imperishable of novels.

Note. — The fifth edition (1773) has been adopted in the present publication.

CHAPTER I.

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMILY OF WAKEFIELD, IN WHICH A KINDRED LIKENESS PREVAILS, AS WELL OF MINDS AS OF PERSONS.

WAS ever of opinion that the honest man who mar- \J ried and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single and only talked of population. From this motive, I had scarce taken orders a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but such qualities as would wear well. To do her justice, she was a good-natured notable woman ; and as for breeding, there were few country ladies who could show more. She could read any English book without much spelling ; but for pickling, preserving, and cookery none could excel her. She prided herself also upon being an excellent contriver in housekeeping, though I could never find that we grew richer with all her contrivances.

However, we loved each other tenderly, and our fondness increased as we grew old. There was, in fact, nothing that could make us angry with the world or each other. We had an elegant house, situated in a fine country, and a good neighbourhood. The year was spent in moral or rural amusement ; in visiting our rich neighbours, and relieving such as were poor. We had no revolutions to fear, nor fatigues to undergo ; all our adventures were by the fireside, and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown.

Cassell's Illustrated Goldsmith.

As we lived near the road, we often had the traveller or stranger visit us to taste our gooseberry- wine, for which we had great reputation ; and I profess, with the veracity of an historian, that I never knew one of them find fault with it. Our cousins, too, even to the fortieth remove, all remembered their affinity, without any help from the herald's office, and came very frequently to see us. Some of them did us no great honour by these claims of kindred ; as we had the blind, the maimed, and the halt amongst the number. However, my wife always insisted that, as they were the same /lesk and blood, they should sit with us at the same table. So that if we had not very rich, we generally had very happy friends about us ; for this remark will hold good through life, that the poorer the guest the better pleased he ever is with being treated ; and as some men gaze with admiration at the colours of a tulip, or the wing of a butterfly, so I was by nature an admirer of happy human faces. However, when any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house, I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes an horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them. By thi^ the house was cleared of such as we did not like ; but never was the family of Wakefield known to turn the traveller or the poor dependent out of doors.

Thus we lived several years in a state of much happiness ; not but that we sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favours. My orchard was often robbed by school-boys, and my wife's custards plundered by the cats or the children. The Squire would sometimes fall asleep in the most pathetic parts of my sermon, or his lady return my wife's civilities at church with a mutilated courtesy. But we soon got over the imeasiness caused by such accidents, and usually in three or four days began to wonder how they vexed us.

My children, the offspring of temperance, as they were educated without softness, so they were at once well-formed and healthy : my sons hardy and active my daughters beautiful and blooming. When I stood in the midst of the little circle, which promised to be the supports of my declining age, I could not avoid repeating the famous story of Count Abensberg, who, in Henry the Second's progress through Germany, while other courtiers came with their treasures,

The Vicar of Wakefield.

THE VICAR RELIEVING THE POOR.

brought his thirty-two children, and presented them to his sovereign as the most valuable offering he had to bestow. In this manner, though I had but six, I considered them as a very valuable present made to my country, and consequently looked upon it as my debtor. Our eldest son was named George, after his uncle, who left us ten thousand pounds. Our second child, a girl, I intended to call after her aunt Grissel ;- but my wife, who during her pregnancy had been reading romances, insisted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grissel should be her name ; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was, by her directions, called Sophia ; so that we had two romantic names in the family ; but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it. Moses was our next, and after an interval of twelve years we had two sons more.

It would be fruitless to deny exultation when I saw my little ones about me ; but the vanity and the satisfaction of my wife were even greater than mine. When our visitors would say, '* Well, upon my

CasselVs Illustrated Goldsmith.

word, Mrs. Primrose, you have the finest children in the whole country," — " Ay, neighbour," she would answer, " they are as Heaven made them, handsome enough, if they be good enough ; for handsome is, that handsome does." And then she would bid the girls hold up their heads ; who, to conceal nothing, were certainly very handsome. Mere outside is so very trifling a circumstance with me, that I should scarcely have remembered to mention it, had it not been a general topic of conversation in the country. Olivia, now about eighteen, had that luxuriancy of beauty, with which painters generally draw Hebe ; open, sprightly, and commanding. Sophia's features were not so striking at first, but often did more certain execution ; for they were soft, modest, and alluring. The one vanquished by a single blow, the other by efforts successfully repeated.

The temper of a woman is generally formed from the turn of her features ; at least it was so with my daughters. Olivia wished for many lovers ; Sophia to secure one. Olivia was often affected from too great a desire to please ; Sophia even repressed excellence, from her fears to offend. The one entertained me with her vivacity when I was gay, the other with her sense when I was serious. But these qualities were never carried to excess in either, and I have often seen them exchange characters for a whole day together. A suit of mourning has transformed my coquet into a prude, and a new set of ribands has given her younger sister more than natural vivacity. My eldest son, George, was bred at Oxford, as I intended him for one of the learned professions. My second boy, Moses, whom I designed for business, received a sort of miscellaneous education at home. But it is needless to attempt describing the particular characters of young people that had seen but very little of the world. In short, a family likeness prevailed through all, and, properly speaking, they had but one character— -that of being all equally generous, credulous, simple, and inoffensive.

The Vicar of Wakefield.

CHAPTER II.

FAMILY MISFORTUNES. — THE LOSS OF FORTUNE ONLY SERVES TO INCREASE THE

PRIDE OF THE WORTHY.

HE temporal concerns of our family were chiefly committed to my wife's management ; as to the spiritual, I took them entirely under my own direction. The profits of my living, which amounted to but thirty-five )unds a year, I made over to the orphans and widows of the clergy of our diocese ; for, having a fortune of my own, I was careless of temporalities, and felt a secret pleasure in doing my duty without reward. I also set a resolution of keeping no curate, and of being acquainted with every man in the parish, exhorting the married men to temperance, and the bachelors to matrimony ; so that in a few years it was a common saying, that there were three strange wants at Wakefield — a parson wanting pride, young men wanting wives, and alehouses wanting customers.

Matrimony was always one of my favourite topics, and I wrote several sermons to prove its happiness ; but there was a peculiar tenet which I made a point of supporting : for I maintained, with Whiston, that it was unlawful for a priest of the Church of England, after the death of his first wife, to take a second ; or, to express it in one word, I valued myself upon being a strict monogamist.

I was early initiated into this important dispute, on which so many laborious volumes have been written. I published some tracts upon the subject myself, which, as they never sold, I have the consolation of thinking were read only by the happy y^ay. Some of my friends called this my weak side ; but, alas ! they had not, like me, made it the subject of long contemplation. The more I reflected upon it, the more important it appeared. I even went a step beyond Whiston in displaying my principles : as he had engraven upon his wife's tomb that she was the only wife of William Whiston, so I wrote a similar epitaph for my wife, though still living, in which I extolled her prudence, economy, and obedience till death ; and having got it copied fair, with an elegant frame, it was placed over the chimney-piece, where it answered several very useful purposes. It admonished my wife of her duty to me, and my fidelity to her ; it inspired her with a passion for fame, and constantly put her in mind of her end.

The Vicar of Wakefield.

It was thus, perhaps, from hearing marriage so often recommended, that my eldest son, just upon leaving college, fixed his affections upon the daughter of a neighbouring clergyman, who was a dignitary in the Church, and in circumstances to give her a large fortune ; but fortune was her smallest accomplishment. Miss Arabella Wilmot was allowed by all (except my two daughters) to be completely pretty. Her youth, health, and innocence were still heightened by a complexion so transparent, and such a happy sensibility of look, as even age could not gaze on with indifference. As Mr. Wilmot knew that I could make a very handsome settlement on my son, he was not averse to the match ; so both families lived together in all that harmony which generally precedes an expected alliance. Being convinced, by experience, that the days of courtship are the most happy of our lives, I was willing enough to lengthen the period ; and the various amusements which the young couple every day shared in each other's company seemed to increase their passion. We were generally awaked in the morning by music, and on fine days rode a-hunting. The hours between breakfast and dinner the ladies devoted to dress and study : they usually read a page, and then gazed at themselves in the glass, which even philosophers might own often presented the page of greatest beauty. At dinner my wife took the lead ; for, as she always insisted upon carving everything herself, it being her mother's way, she gave us, upon these occasions, the history of every dish. When we had dined, to prevent the ladies leaving us, I generally ordered the table to be removed; and sometimes, with the music-master's assistance, the girls would ^'ve us a very agreeable concert. Walking out, drinking tea, country dances, and forfeits, shortened the rest of the day, without the assistance of cards, as I hated all manner of gaming, except backgammon, at which my old friend and I sometimes took a twopenny hit. Nor can I here pass over an ominous circumstance that happened the last time we played together ; I only wanted to fling a quatre, and yet I threw deuce ace five times running.

Some months were elapsed in this manner, till at last it was thought convenient to fix a day for the nuptials of the young couple, who seemed earnestly to desire it. During the preparations for the wedding, I need not describe the busy importance of my wife, nor the sly looks of my daughters : in fact, my attention was fixed on another object, the completing a tract which I intended shortly to publish in lo Cassetts Illustrated Goldsmith.

defence of my favourite principle. As I looked upon this as a master-piece, both for argument and style, I could not, in the pride of my heart, avoid showing it to my old friend, Mr. Wilmot, as I made no doubt of receiving his approbation : but not till too late I discovered that he was most violently attached to the contrary opinion, and with good reason ; for he was at that time actually courting a fourth wife. This, as may be expected, produced a dispute attended with some acrimony, which threatened to interrupt our intended alliance ; but, on the day before that appointed for the ceremony, we agreed to discuss the subject at large.

It was managed with proper spirit on both sides ; he asserted that I was heterodox ; I retorted the charge : he replied, and I rejoined. In the mean time, while the controversy was hottest, I was called out by one of my relations, who, with a face of concern, advised me to give up the dispute, at least till my son's wedding was over. " How," cried I, ** relinquish the cause of truth, and let him be a husband, already driven to the very verge of absurdity ? You might as well advise me to give up my fortune as my argument." " Your fortune," returned my friend, " I am now sorry to inform you, is almost nothing. The merchant in town, in whose hands your money was lodged, has gone off to avoid a statute of bankruptcy, and is thought not to have left a shilling in the pound. I was unwilling to shock you or the family with the account till after the wedding ; but now it may serve to moderate your warmth in the argument ; for I suppose your own prudence will enforce the necessity of dissembling, at least till your son has the young lady's fortune secure." "Well," returned I, " if what you tell me be true, and if I am to be a beggar, it shall never make me a rascal, or induce me to disavow my principles. I'll go this moment, and inform the company of my circumstances : and as for the argument, I even here retract my former concessions in the old gentleman's favour, nor will I allow him now to be a husband in any sense of the expression."

It would be endless to describe the different sensations of both families, when I divulged the news of our misfortune ; but what others felt was slight to what the lovers appeared to endure. Mr. Wilmot, who seemed before sufficiently inclined to break off the match, was by this blow soon determined ; one virtue he had in perfection, which was prudence, too often the only one that is left us at seventy-two.

The Vicar of Wakefield. ii

Chapter III

A MIGRATION. — THE FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR LIVES ARE GENERALLY FOUND AT LAST TO BE OF OUR OWN I^ROCURING.

^^;^JHE only hope of our family now was, that the report ^5- of our misfortune might be malicious or premature : U but a letter from my agent in town soon came with ^ a confirmation of every particular. The loss of fortune to myself alone would have been trifling : the only uneasiness I felt was for my family, who were to be humble without an education to render them callous to contempt. Near a fortnight had passed before I attempted to restrain their affliction ; for premature consolation is but the remembrancer of sorrow. During this interval, my thoughts were employed on some future means of supporting them ; and at last a small cure of fifteen pounds a year was offered me in a distant neighbourhood, where I could still enjoy my principles without molestation. With this proposal I joyfully closed, having determined to increase my salary by manao-inof a little farm.

Having taken this resolution, my next care was to get together the wrecks of my fortune ; and, all debts collected and paid, out of fourteen thousand pounds we had but four hundred remaining. My chief attention, therefore, was now to bring down the pride of my family to their circumstances ; for I well knew that aspiring beggary is wretchedness itself. " You cannot be ignorant, my children," cried I, " that no prudence of ours could have prevented our late misfortune ; but prudence may do much in disappointing its effects. We are now poor, my fondlings, and wisdom bids us conform to our humble situation. Let us, then, without repining, give up those splendours with which numbers are wretched, and seek in humbler circumstances that peace with which all may be happy. The poor live pleasantly without our help ; why, then, should not we learn to live without theirs ? No, my children, let us from this moment give up all pretensions to gentility ; we have still enough left for happiness if we are wise, and let us draw upon content for the deficiencies of fortune."

As my eldest son was bred a scholar, I determined to send him to town, where his abilities might contribute to our support and his own.

The Vicar of Wakefield.

GEOKGE LEAVING HOME.

The separation of friends and families is, perhaps, one of the most distressful circumstances attendant on penury. The day soon arrived on which we were to disperse for the first time. My son, after taking leave of his mother and the rest, who mingled their tears with their kisses, came to ask a blessing from me. This I gave him from my heart, and which, added to five guineas, was all the patrimony I had now to bestow. "You are going, my boy," cried I, "to London on foot, in the manner Hooker, your great ancestor, travelled there before you. Take from me the same horse that was given him by the good bishop Jewel, this staff, and take this book, too, it will be your comfort on the way ; these two lines in it are worth a million — / have been young, and now am old ; yet 7iever saw I the righteous man forsakejt, nor his seed begging their bread. Let this be your consolation as you travel on. Go, my boy, whatever be thy fortune, let me see thee once a-year ; still keep a good heart, and farewell." As he was possessed of integrity and honour, I was under no apprehensions from throwing him naked into the amphitheatre of life ; for I knew he would act a good part, whether vanquished or victorious.

His departure only prepared the way for our own, which arrived a few days afterwards. The leaving a neighbourhood in which we had enjoyed so many hours of tranquillity, was not without a tear, which scarce fortitude itself could suppress. Besides, a journey of seventy miles, to a family that had hitherto never been above ten from home, iilled us with apprehension ; and the cries of the poor, who followed us for some miles, contributed to Increase it. The first day's journey brought us in safety within thirty "miles of our future retreat, and we put up for the night at an obscure inn in a village by the way. When we were shown a room, I desired the landlord, in my usual way, to let us have his company, with which he complied, as what he drank would increase the bill next morning. He knew, however, the whole neighbourhood to which I was removing, particularly Squire Thornhill, who was to be my landlord, and who lived within a few miles of the place. This gentleman he described as one who desired to know little more of the world than its pleasures, being particularly remarkable for his attachment to the fair sex. He observed, that no virtue was able to resist his arts and assiduity, and that scarce a farmer's daughter within ten miles round, but what had found him successful and faithless. Though this account gave me some pain, it had a very different effect upon my daughters, whose features seemed to brighten with the expectation of an approaching triumph ; nor was my wife less pleased and confident of their allurements and virtue. While our thoughts were thus employed, the hostess entered the room to inform her husband that the strange gentleman, who had been two days in the house, wanted money, and could not satisfy them for his reckoning. " Want money !" replied the host, " that must be impossible ; for it was no later than yesterday he paid three guineas to our beadle to spare an old broken soldier that was to be whipped through the town for dog-stealing." The hostess, however, still persisting in her first assertion, he was preparing to leave the room, swearing that he would be satisfied one way or another, when I begged the landlord would introduce me to a stranger of so much charity as he described. With this he complied, showing In a gentleman who seemed to be about thirty, dressed in clothes that once were laced. His person was well-formed, and his face marked with the Hues of thinking. He had something short and dry in his address, and seemed not to understand ceremony, or to despise it. Upon the landlord's leaving the room, I could not avoid expressing my concern

The Vicar of Wakefield.

to the stranger, at seeing a gentleman in such circumstances, and offered him my purse to satisfy the present demand. " I take it with all my heart, sir," replied he, " and am glad that a late oversight, in giving what money I had about me, has shown me that there are still some men like you. I must, however, previously entreat being informed of the name and residence of my benefactor, in order to repay him as soon as possible." In this I satisfied him fully, not only mentioning my name and late misfortunes, but the place to which I was going to remove. " This," cried he, " happens still more luckily than I hoped for, as I am going the same way myself, having been detained here two days by the floods, which I hope, by to-morrow, will be found passable." I testified the pleasure I should have in his company, and my wife and daughters joining in entreaty, he was prevailed upon to stay supper. The stranger's conversation, which was at once pleasing and instructive, induced me to wish for a continuance of it ; but it was now high time to retire and take refreshment against the fatigues of the following day.

The next morning we all set forward together : my family on horseback, while Mr. Burchell, our new companion, walked along the foot-path by the road side, observing, with a smile, that as we were illmounted, he would be too generous to attempt leaving us behind. As the floods were not yet subsided, we were obliged to hire a guide, who trotted on before, Mr. Burchell and I bringing up the rear. We lightened the fatigues of the road with philosophical disputes, which he seemed to understand perfectly. But what surprised me most was, that though he was a money-borrower, he defended his opinions with as much obstinacy as if he had been my patron. He now and then also informed me to whom the different seats belonged that lay in our view as we travelled the road. " That," cried he, pointing to a very magnificent house which stood at some distance, " belongs to Mr. Thornhill, a young gentleman who enjoys a large fortune, though entirely dependent on the will of his uncle, Sir William Thornhill, a gentleman who, content with a little himself, permits his nephew to enjoy the rest, and chiefly resides in town." " What ! " cried I, "is my young landlord then the nephew of a man whose virtues, generosity, and singularities are so universally known '^. I have heard Sir William Thornhill represented as one of the most generous, yet whimsicai men in the kingdom ; a man of consummate benevolence." — " Something, perhaps, too much so," replied Mr. Burchell ; "at least, he carried i6 CasselVs Illustrated Goldsmith.