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Updated: May 6, 2025
Goldsmith is supposed to have had him and his school in view in the following sketch in his Deserted Village: "Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay, There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule, The village master taught his little school; A man severe he was, and stern to view, I knew him well, and every truant knew: Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; Full well the busy whisper circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd: Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault; The village all declared how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher too; Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, And e'en the story ran that he could gauge: In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill, For, e'en though vanquished, he could argue still; While words of learned length and thund'ring sound Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew."
Your Miracles were but conjuring-tricks, your Prophecies lucky Hazards, and your Laws a Gallimaufry of Commonplaces and Absurdities. Confess that you were more skill'd in flattering the Vulgar than in ascertaining the Truth, and that your Reputation in the World would never have been so high, had your Lot fallen among a Nation of Philosophers.
Again, dear Harmonist! again, Through the hollow of thy flute, Breathe that passion-warbled strain: Till memory each form shall bring The loveliest of her shadowy throng; And hope that soars on sky-lark whig, Carol wild her gladdest song! O skill'd with magic spell to roll The thrilling tones, that concentrate the soul!
And now when busy crowds retire To take their evening rest, The hermit trimm'd his little fire, And cheer'd his pensive guest: And spread his vegetable store, And gayly prest, and smil'd; And skill'd in legendary lore, The lingering hours beguil'd. Around in sympathetic mirth Its tricks the kitten tries, The cricket chirrups in the hearth; The crackling faggot flies.
Now, ladies, I ask, if law-matters you're skill'd in, Whether crimes such as yours should not come before Fielding: For giving advice that is not worth a straw, May well be call'd picking of pockets in law; And picking of pockets, with which I now charge ye, Is, by quinto Elizabeth, Death without Clergy. What justice, when both to the Old Bailey brought!
The last object of pilgrimage is the quondam habitation of the schoolmaster, "'There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule. "It is surrounded with fragrant proofs of identity in "'The blossom'd furze, unprofitably gay.
The Carpenter, who I look upon to be well skill'd in his profession, and a good judge in these matters, was of Opinion that this was of little consequence; and as I found that it would be difficult, if not impractical, for us to get under her bottom to repair it, I resolved to spend no more time about it.
'My Body being dead, my Limbs unknown; Before I skill'd to prize Those living Stars, mine Eys; Before or Tongue or Cheeks I call'd mine own, Before I knew these Hands were mine, Or that my Sinews did my Members join; When neither Nostril, Foot, nor Ear, As yet could be discerned or did appear; I was within A House I knew not; newly cloath'd with Skin.
Swiftly the arrow of death was discharg'd on the host of the Argives; More and yet more did he slay, for the terrible darts of his vengeance Spared not a spot of the camp; till at last, when the people were gather'd, Rose up a seer well skill'd and reveal'd the decree of the Archer.
And that is all the account I can give of the time, save that, on the second day, the girl left me alone in the hut and descended to the plain, where, after asking at many cottages for a physician, she was forced to be content with an old woman reputed to be amazingly well skill'd in herbs and medicines; whom, after a day's trial, she turn'd out of doors.
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