With the work
which he did for himself, the case is different. Into 'The Citizen of
the World', 'The Vicar of Wakefield', and his two comedies, he put all
the best of his knowledge of human nature, his keen sympathy with his
kind, his fine common-sense and his genial humour. The same qualities,
tempered by a certain grace and tenderness, also enter into the best of
his poems. Avoiding the epigram of Pope and the austere couplet of
Johnson, he yet borrowed something from each, which he combined with a
delicacy and an amenity that he had learned from neither. He himself, in
all probability, would have rested his fame on his three chief metrical
efforts, 'The Traveller', 'The Hermit', and 'The Deserted Village'. But,
as is often the case, he is remembered even more favourably by some of
those delightful familiar verses, unprinted during his lifetime, which
he threw off with no other ambition than the desire to amuse his
friends. 'Retaliation', 'The Haunch of Venison', the 'Letter in Prose
and Verse to Mrs.
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