Goldsmith, in _The Deserted Village_, has the lines:
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay:
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,
_A breath can make them, as a breath has made_;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroy'd, can never be supplied."
In this passage the fourth line, which I have given in italics, is
traced by D'Israeli, in _Curiosities of Literature_, under the head of
"Imitations and Similarities," to the French poet, De Caux, who,
comparing the world to his hour-glass, says--
---- "C'est une verre qui luit,
Qu'un souffle peut _detruire_, et qu'un souffle a _produit_."
The turn given to the thought in the French has suggested to D'Israeli
an emendation of the passage in Goldsmith. He proposes that the word
"unmakes" should be substituted for "can make." The line would then
read--
"A breath _unmakes_ them, as a breath has made."
This emendation seems to me to be alike ingenious and well-founded. The
line itself is but the corollary of the one that precedes it; and in
order to make the sense complete, it should contain antithetical
expressions to correspond with "flourish" and "fade." Now, between "can
make" and "made" there is nothing antithetical; but between "made" and
"unmakes" there is.
In support of this view, I may quote one or two parallel passages, in
which the antithesis is preserved. The first is a quatrain commemorating
the devastating effects of an earthquake in the valley of Lucerne in
1808:
"O ciel! ainsi ta Providence
A tous les maux nous condamna:
Un souffle _eteint_ notre existence
Comme un souffle nous la _donna_."
The second is a line which occurs in _Curiosities of Literature_, and
which I am compelled to quote from memory, having no access to that
work. It is as follows:
"A breath _revived_ him, but a breath _o'erthrew_."
That Goldsmith wrote the line in question with the word "unmakes," there
seems little reason to doubt. To say of princes and lords that "a breath
can make them, as a breath has made," far from conveying any idea of
their "fading," would be, on the contrary, to indicate the facile
process by which they may be perpetuated. It would show how they may
"flourish," but not how they may "fade."
Although this emendation in Goldsmith was pointed out many years ago,
and recommends itself by its appositeness, and its obvious adaptation to
the context, yet I believe it has never been introduced into any edition
of that poet. I have before me two copies of _The Deserted Village_, and
both contain the words "can make." As, however, among the many useful
hints thrown out by "NOTES AND QUERIES," that of suggesting the
emendation of obscure or difficult passages in our poets, appears to
have met with the approbation of your readers, I trust some future
editor of Goldsmith may be induced to notice this passage, and restore
the text to its original accuracy.