But he has not trufted entirely to these refources for combating the natural fterility of Winter. Repeating the pleafing artifice of his Summer, he has called in foreign aid, and has heightened the scenery with grandeur and horror not our own. The famifhed troops of wolves pouring from the Alps; the mountains of snow rolling down the precipices of the fame regions; the dreary plains over which the Laplander urges his rein deer; the wonders of the icy fea, and volcanoes "flaming thro' a waste of snow;" are objects judiciously selected from all that Nature prefents most fingular and striking in the various domains of boreal cold and wintry defolation. THUS have we attempted to give a general view of thofe materials which conftitute the ground-work of a poem on the Seasons; which are effential to its very nature; and on the proper arrangement of which its regularity and connexion depend. The extent of knowledge, as well well as the powers of description, which Thomfon has exhibited in this part of his work, is, on the whole, truly admirable; and though, with the present advanced taste for accurate obfervation in natural history, fome improvements might be fuggested, yet he certainly remains unrivalled in the lift of defcriptive poets. BUT the rural landskip is not folely made up of land, and water, and trees, and birds, and beafts; man is a distinguished figure in it; his multiplied occupations and concerns introduce themselves into every part of it; he intermixes even in the wildest and rudeft fcenes, and throws a life and interest upon every furrounding object. Manners and character therefore conftitute a part even of a descriptive poem; and in a plan fo extenfive as the history of the year, they must enter under various forms, and upon numerous occafions. THE most obvious and appropriated use of human human figures in pictures of the Seasons, is the introduction of them to affift in marking out the fucceffion of annual changes by their various labours and amufements. In common with other animals, man is directed in the diverfified employment of earning a toilsome subsistence by an attention to the viciffitudes of the feafons; and all his diversions in the simple state of rustic society are alfo regulated by the fame circumftance. Thus a feries of moving figures enlivens the landskip, and contributes to stamp on each scene its peculiar character. The fhepherd, the husbandman, the hunter, appear in their turns; and may be confidered as natural concomitants of that portion of the yearly round which prompts their feveral occupations. BUT it is not only the bodily pursuits of man which are affected by these changes; the fenfations and affections of his mind are almoft equally under their influence: and the refult of the whole whole, as forming the enamoured votary of Nature to a peculiar caft of character and manners, is not lefs confpicuous. Thus the Poet of the Seafons is at liberty, without deviating from his plan, to defcant on the varieties of moral conftitution, and the powers which external caufes are found to poffefs over the temper of the foul. He may draw pictures of the paftoral life in all its genuine fimplicity; and affuming the tone of a moral inftructor, may contraft the peace and felicity of innocent retirement, with the turbulent agitations of ambition and avarice. The various incidents too, upon which the simple tale of rural events is founded, are very much modeled by the difference of feafons. The catastrophes of Winter differ from thofe of Summer; the fports of Spring from thofe of Autumn. Thus, little hiftory pieces and adventures, whether pathetic or amufing, will fuggeft ་ fuggeft themselves to the Poet; which, when properly adapted to the scenery and circumftances, may very happily coincide with the main design of the composition. The bare enumeration of these feveral occafions of introducing draughts of human life and manners, will be fufficient to call to mind the admirable use which Thomson throughout his whole poem has made of them. He, in fact, never appears more truly inspired with his fubject, than when giving birth to those sentiments of tenderness and beneficence, which feem to have occupied his whole heart. An univerfal benevolence, extending to every part of the animal creation, manifests itself in almost every scene he draws; and the rural character, as delineated in his feelings, contains all the softness, purity, and fimplicity that are feigned of the golden age. Yet, excellent as the moral and fentimental part of his work must appear to 、 |