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 destroyed, can never be supplied.

In contrast to Goldsmith’s savage indignation at the destruction of village life, the village’s former inhabitants in happier and less avaricious times are treated with wistful nostalgia and only mildly satirized. The village schoolmaster was severe and stern but respected by the boys and sufficiently well-liked for them to laugh at his jokes whether they were funny or not. His erudition might not have distinguished him in the academy, but it was impressive enough to his rustic audience, to the extent that they used to marvel "That one small head could carry all he knew." This time, however, is long gone:

But past is all his fame. The very spot
Where many a time he triumph'd is forgot.

The final couplet of “The Village Schoolmaster, re-emphasizes the theme of desertion and desolation in the poem. No one remembers the schoolmaster any more. He has been so thoroughly forgotten that no one now even knows where it was that he so often demonstrated his learning and triumphed in argument. But for the poet’s description, this man who influenced and taught the village youth and amazed everyone with his knowledge has been lost to history.