He had assuredly never seen in his native island such a rural
paradise, such a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity, as his
"Auburn." He had assuredly never seen in England all the inhabitants of
such a paradise turned out of their homes in one day and forced to
emigrate in a body to America. The hamlet he had probably seen in Kent;
the ejectment he had probably seen in Munster; but, by joining the two,
he has produced something which never was and never will be seen in any
part of the world.' ('Encyclop. Britannica', 1856.) It is obvious also
that in some of his theories--the depopulation of the kingdom, for
example--Goldsmith was mistaken. But it was not for its didactic
qualities then, nor is it for them now, that 'The Deserted Village'
delighted and delights. It maintains its popularity by its charming
'genre'-pictures, its sweet and tender passages, its simplicity, its
sympathetic hold upon the enduring in human nature. To test it solely
with a view to establish its topographical accuracy, or to insist too
much upon the value of its ethical teaching, is to mistake its real
mission as a work of art.
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