199 



affectionate regard and reverence ; and were they general 

 throughout the kingdom, they would do much more towards 

 guarding us against democratical opinion? 



Than twenty thousand soldiers, artn'd in proof. 



The cheerfulness of the scene I have mentioned, and all 

 the interesting circumstances attending it, (so different from 

 those of solitary grandeur,) have convinced me, that he who 

 destroys dwellings, gardens and inclosures, for the sake of 

 mere extent, and parade of property, only extends the 

 bounds of monotony, and of dreary, selfish pride ; but con- 

 trasts those of vanity, amusement and humanity." 



One may trace, too, his feeling mind towards the conclu- 

 sion of his second volume, where, after many pleasing pages 

 on the rural scenery of cottages, and in hamlets and villages, 

 (" where a lover of humanity may find so many sources of 

 amusement and interest,") and on the means of embellishing 

 them, " I could wish (says he) to turn the minds of improvers 

 from too much attachment to solitary parade, towards ob- 

 jects more connected with general habitation and embellish- 

 ment ; . . and it may be truly said, that there is no 

 way in which wealth can produce such natural unaffected 

 variety, and such interest, as by adorning a real village, and 

 promoting the comforts and enjoyments of its inhabitants. 

 Goldsmith has most feelingly described (more, I trust, from 

 the warmth of a poetical imagination and quick sensibility 

 than from real fact), the ravages of wealthy pride. My aim 

 is to shew, that they are no less hostile to real taste, than to 

 humanity ; and should I succeed, it is possible that those, 

 whom all the affecting images and pathetic touches of Gold- 

 smith would not have restrained from destroying a village, 

 may even be induced to build one, in order to shew their 

 taste in the decoration and disposition of village-houses and 

 cottages." After many traces of village scenery, he thus 



