every congenial mind, it is, perhaps, that in which he may the most easily be rivalled. A refined and feeling heart may derive from its own proper sources a store of correfponding fentiment, which will naturally clothe itself in the form of expreffion beft fuited to the occafion. Nor does the invention of those simple incidents which are most adapted to excite the sympathetic emotions, require any great stretch of fancy. The nearer they approach to common life, the more certainly will they produce their effect. Wonder and furprize are affections of fo different a kind, and fo diftract the attention, that they never fail to diminish the force of the pathetic. On these accounts, writers much inferior in respect to the powers of description and imagery, have equalled our Poet in elegant and benevolent fentiment, and perhaps excelled him in interesting narration. Of these, it will be fufficient to mention the ingenious author of a French poem on the Seafons; who, though a

mere copyift in the descriptive parts, has made many pleasing additions to the manners and incidents proper for fuch a compofition.

BUT there is a strain of fentiment of a higher and more digreffive nature, with which Thomfon has occupied a confiderable portion of his poem. The fundamental principles of Moral Philofophy, ideas concerning the origin and progrefs of government and civilization, historical sketches, and reviews of the characters most famous in antient and modern hiftory, are interfperfed through the various parts of the Seafons. The manly, liberal, and enlightened fpirit which this writer breathes in all his works, must ever endear him to the friends of truth and virtue; and, in particular, his genuine patriotism and zeal in the cause of liberty will render his writings always eftimable to the British reader. But, juft and important as his thoughts on thefe topics may be, there may remain a doubt

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in the breast of the critic, whether their introduction in a piece like this do not, in some inftances, break in upon that unity of character which every work of art fhould fupport. We have feen, from the general plan and tenor of the poem, that it is profeffedly of the rural caft. The objects it is chiefly converfant with are those presented by the hand of nature, not the products of human art; and when man himself is introduced as a part of the groupe, it would seem that, in conformity to the rest, he ought to be represented in fuch a ftate only, as the fimpleft forms of society, and most unconstrained fituations in it, exhibit. Courts and cities, camps and fenates, do not well accord with fylvan scenery. From the principle of congruity, therefore, a critic might be induced to reject fome of thefe digreffive ornaments, though intrinfically beautiful, and doubtless contributing to the elevation and variety of the piece. His judgment in this respect would be a good deal influenced

influenced by the manner of their introduction. In some instances this is fo eafy and natural, that the mind is scarcely fenfible of the deviation; in others it is more abrupt and unartful. As examples of both, we may refer to the paffages in which various characters from English, and from Grecian and Roman history, are displayed. The former, by a happy gradation, is introduced at the close of a delightful piece, containing the praises of Britain; which is itself a kind of digreffion, though a very apt and seasonable one. The latter has no other connexion with the part at which it is inferted, than the very forced and diftant one, that, as reading may be reckoned among the amusements appropriated to Winter, fuch fubjects as these will naturally offer themselves to the ftudious mind.

THERE is another fource of fentiment to the Poet of the Seafons, which, while it is fuperior to the last in real elevation, is also strict

ly

ly connected with the nature of his work. The genuine philofopher, while he furveys the grand and beautiful objects every where furrounding him, will be prompted to lift his eye to the great cause of all these wonders; the planner and architect of this mighty fabric, every minute part of which fo much awakens his curiofity and admiration. The laws by which this being acts, the ends which he feems to have pursued, muft excite his humble researches; and in proportion as he discovers infinite power in the means, directed by infinite goodness in the intention, his foul must be wrapt in astonishment, and expanded with gratitude. The economy of Nature will, to such an observer, be the perfect scheme of an all-wife and beneficent mind; and every part of the wide creation will appear to proclaim the praise of its great author. Thus a new connexion will manifeft itself between the several parts of the universe; and a new order and design will be traced through the progress of its various revolutions.