The essay then proceeds as in The Spirit of the Age, with a few trifling variations, down to the words ‘inscribed to the Rutland family!’ (vol. IV. p. 351, last line), after which there is the following long passage, omitted from that work [the quotations are indicated in brackets]:
‘But enough of this; and to our task of quotation.’ The poem of The Village sets off nearly as follows:
‘“No; cast by Fortune on a frowning coast,” etc. [The Village, i. 49–62].
‘This plea, we would remark by the way, is more plausible than satisfactory. By associating pleasing ideas with the poor, we incline the rich to extend their good offices to them. The cottage twined round with real myrtles, or with the poet’s wreath, will invite the hand of kindly assistance sooner than Mr. Crabbe’s “ruin’d shed”; for though unusual, unexpected distress excites compassion, that which is uniform and remediless produces nothing but disgust and indifference. Repulsive objects (or those which are painted so) do not conciliate affection, or soften the heart.’
‘“Lo! where the heath with withering brake grown o’er,” etc. [The Village, i. 63–84].[[83]]
‘This is a specimen of Mr. Crabbe’s taste in landscape-painting, of the power, the accuracy, and the hardness of his pencil. If this were merely a spot upon the canvas, which might act as a foil to more luxuriant and happier scenes, it would be well. But our valetudinarian “travels from Dan to Beersheba, and cries it is all barren.” Or if he lights “in a favouring hour” on some more favoured spot, where plenty smiles around, he then turns his hand to his human figures, and the balance of the account is still very much against Providence, and the blessings of the English Constitution. Let us see.
‘“But these are scenes where Nature’s niggard hand,” etc. [The Village, I. 131–153.][[84]]
‘Grant all this to be true; nay, let it be told, but not told in “mincing poetry.”[[85]] Next comes the Workhouse, and this, it must be owned, is a master-piece of description, and the climax of the author’s inverted system of rural optimism.
‘“Thus groan the Old, till by disease opprest,” etc. [The Village, I. 226 to the end of Book I.][[86]]
‘To put our taste in poetry, and the fairness of our opinion of Mr. Crabbe’s in particular, to the test at once, we will confess, that we think the two lines we have marked in italics: