not a song of violence or fear. It is the random trolling note of a man
who owes his liberty to no disorder, failure, or ill-fortune, but takes
it by choice from the voluntary world, enjoys it at the hand of
unreluctant charity; who twits the world with its own choice of bonds,
but has not broken his own by force. It seems, therefore, the song of an
indomitable liberty of movement, light enough for the puffs of a zephyr
chance.




THE LADIES OF THE IDYLL


Little Primrose dames of the English classic, the wife and daughters of
the Vicar of Wakefield have no claim whatever to this name of lady. It
is given to them in this page because Goldsmith himself gave it to them
in the yet undepreciated state of the word, and for the better reason
that he obviously intended them to be the equals of the men to whom he
marries them, those men being, with all their faults, gentlemen.
Goldsmith, in a word, meant them to be ladies, of country breeding, but
certainly fit for membership of that large class of various fortune
within which the name makes a sufficient equality.

He, their author, thought them sufficient. Having amused himself
ingeniously throughout the story with their nameless vulgarities, he
finally hurries them into so much sentiment as may excuse the convention
of heroes in love. He plays with their coarseness like a perfectly
pleased and clever showman, and then piously and happily shuts up his
couples--the gentle Dr. Primrose with his abominable Deborah; the