The Vicar of Wkefield Author:Oliver Goldsmith The Reverend Mr. Primrose is a romantic, an optimist, a man of untarnished goodwill who delights in "those harmless delusions that tend to make us more happy." Yet the author is not trying to show us a grinning old fool, a blissful innocent. The generosity of spirit, in fact, is sharply in contrast with pinched and pointed Puritanism. Mr. Primro... more »se, like "The Village Preacher" of that poem by Goldsmith, does not wish to file and label the faults and fruits of men. Life is good, to be enjoyed. Its store is not the Puritan burden of sin and guilt; one does not tremble in fear of God, but rejoices in Him and loves His world. Primrose talks homely goodness, not theology; his religion is expressed in the brotherhood of man.