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and that therefore under every government happincfs may be 

 attained, inafmuch as 



Still to ourfelves In every place confign'd, 

 Our own felicity we make or find. 



All this Is truth and good fenfe from the author of the Rambler, 

 but furely it is very different from Goldfmith's original po- 

 fitlon. 



The fcheme of the Defer ted Village vras " to regret the de- 

 *' population of England, and to inveigh againft the increafe of 

 " thofe luxuries by which it vras occafioned." Goldfmith had 

 found the leading principles of his Traveller controverted, 

 and in his dedication to the Deferted Village feems aware 

 that the fcheme of this poem alfo was queftionable. He is 

 aware that it will be objetSled that " the depopulation it de- 

 " plores is no where to be feen, the diforders it laments only 

 " to be found in the poets own imagination." To this he 

 fays he can fcarce make any other anfwer than " that he fin- 

 '• cerely believes what he had written, and had taken all pof- 

 " fible pains in his country excurfion? for four or five yeirs 

 " paft to be certain of what he alleged." There is feme va- 

 nity in fetting up the fupport collecfted in a few country • 

 excurfions for a favourite theory publiflied by him fome years 

 before, againft the authority of thofe whom he acknowledges 

 to be the wifeft and beft of his friends. No doubt the 



luxury 



