usseau was
to be the great exponent. Goldsmith is beginning to denounce luxury--a
characteristic mark of the sentimentalist--and his regret for the period
when 'every rood of earth maintained its man' is one side of the
aspiration for a return to the state of nature and simplicity of
manners. The inimitable Vicar recalls Sir Roger de Coverley and the
gentle and delicate touch of Addison. But the Vicar is beginning to take
an interest in philanthropy. He is impressed by the evils of the old
prison system which had already roused Oglethorpe (who like
Goldsmith--as I may notice--disputed with Johnson as to the evils of
luxury) and was soon to arouse Howard. The greatest attraction of the
Vicar is due to the personal charm of Goldsmith's character, but his
character makes him sympathise with the wider social movements and the
growth of genuine philanthropic sentiment. Goldsmith, in his remarks
upon the _Present State of Polite Learning_ (1759), explains the decay
of literature (literature is always decaying) by the general enervation
which accompanies learning and the want of originality caused by the
growth of criticism. That was not an unnatural view at a time when the
old forms are beginning to be inadequate for the new thoughts which are
seeking for utterance. As yet, however, Goldsmith's own work proves
sufficiently that the new motive could be so far adapted to the old form
as to produce an artistic masterpiece. Sterne may illustrate a similar
remark. He represents, no doubt, a kind of sham sentimentalism with an
insincerity which has disgusted many able critics. He was resolved to
attract notice at any price--by putting on cap and bells, and by the
pruriency which stains his best work. Like many contemporaries he was
reading old authors and turned them to account in a way which exposed
him to the charge of plagiarism. He valued them for their quaintness.
They enabled him to satisfy his propensity for being deliberately
eccentric which made Horace Walpole call _Tristram Shandy_ the 'dregs of
nonsense,' and the learned Dr. Farmer prophesied that in twenty years it
would be necessary to search antiquarian shops for a copy. Sterne's
great achievement, however, was not in the mere buffoonery but in the
passages where he continued the Addison tradition. Uncle Toby is a
successor of Sir Roger, and the famous death of Lefevre is told with
inimitable simplicity and delicacy of touch. Goldsmith and Sterne work
upon the old line