Page 396

Oliver Goldsmith. (1730?–1774) (continued)

4295

The bashful virgin’s sidelong looks of love.

The Deserted Village. Line 29.

4296

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,—
A breath can make them, as a breath has made; 1
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroy’d, can never be supplied.

The Deserted Village. Line 51.

4297

His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

The Deserted Village. Line 61.

4298

How blest is he who crowns in shades like these
A youth of labour with an age of ease!

The Deserted Village. Line 99.

4299

While Resignation gently slopes away,
And all his prospects brightening to the last,
His heaven commences ere the world be past.

The Deserted Village. Line 110.

4300

The watch-dog’s voice that bay’d the whispering wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

The Deserted Village. Line 121.

4301

A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a year.

The Deserted Village. Line 141.

4302

Wept o’er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
Shoulder’d his crutch, and shew’d how fields were won.

The Deserted Village. Line 157.

4303

Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
And even his failings lean’d to Virtue’s side.

The Deserted Village. Line 161.

4304

And as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledg’d offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reprov’d each dull delay,
Allur’d to brighter worlds, and led the way.

The Deserted Village. Line 167.

Note 1.
See Pope, Quotation 177.

C’est un verre qui luit,
Qu’un souffle peut détruire, et qu’un souffle a produit
(It is a shining glass, which a breath may destroy, and which a breath has produced).—De Caux (comparing the world to his hour-glass). [back]

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