Jump to content

Page:Goody Two-Shoes (1881).djvu/28

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
xxii
INTRODUCTION

and 'The Deſerted Village.' Indeed, we could almoſt imagine that Dr Primroſe himſelf had deſcribed the panic at the ſuppoſed ghoſt in the church in the ſame tone as the ride to church, the family portrait, or the groſs of green ſpectacles."[1] We find in "Goody Two Shoes" every one of thoſe diſtinctive qualities of Goldſmith's writings which Mr William Black ſo well ſummarizes in the book already referred to—"his genuine and tender pathos, that never at any time verges on the affected or theatrical;" his "quaint, delicate, delightful humour;" his "broader humour, that is not afraid to provoke the wholeſome laughter of mankind by dealing with common and familiar ways

  1. "A Storehouſe of Stories," Firſt Series, preface.