he revealed his narrative through letters, came by accident, but,
though never self-conscious in his art, he must have realized that
this was his ideal method. For his strength lay in the knowledge of
the human heart, in the delineation o f the shades of sentiment, as
they shift and change, and the cross-purposes which trouble the
mind moved by emotion.
Influenced by the French writer Rousseau the sent imentalists
thought that civilization was harmful to humanity. They believed
that man should live close to nature and be free;from the corrupting
influence o f town life. For example, in Oliver Goldsmith’s novel
“The Vicar o f Wakefield” (1766) and Laurence Sterne’s (1713 -
1768) “Sentimental Journey” and in some other novels o f the time,
the corruption o f town life is contrasted to the happy patriarchal
life in the country. Oliver Goldsmith was also a poet. Most o f his
poems are devoted to the village life. (e.g. “The Deserted Village”).
Samuel Johnson said o f him in an epitaph, he attempted every
type o f literature and each type he attempted he adorned. His
dramas and his novel have already been recorded, and his hack
work history is best left without record. His essays, however,
showed his individuality, and in “The Citizen of the World” (1762)
he comments on life through the imaginary letters of a Chinese
visitor. The other sentimentalist poets o f the lfl,h century' were
James Thomson and Thomas Gray. James Thomsen (1700—
1748), was too diffuse to be a great artist. His poem “The Seasons”
(1726) is like a schoolboy’s essay padded into the requisite size.
Yet for over a century he was one o f the most widely-read poets
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