whom he appointed, was his old friend, Mr Paterfon, who lived to fucceed him in the office. The following letter to this gentleman explains the in timacy which fubfifted between them, and illustrates fome of our poet's domeftic habits.

Thomson to Mr Paterfon, of the Leeward Islands*.

DEAR PATERSON,

In the first place, and previously to my letter, I must recommend to your favour and protection, Mr James Smith, fearcher in St Chriftopher's, and I beg of you, as occafion fhall ferve, and as you find he merits it, to advance him in the bufinefs of the customs. He is warmly recom. mended to me by Sargent, who in verity turns out one of the best men of our youthful acquaintance, honest, honourable, friendly, and generous. -If we are not to oblige one another, life becomes a paltry selfish affair, a pitiful morfel in a corner! Sargent is fo happily married, that I could al most say, the fame cafe happen to us all.

THAT I have not anfwered feveral letters of yours, is not owing to the want of friendship, and the fincereft regard for you; but you know me well enough to account for my filence, without my faying any more upon

that

*Mr Paterfon, a companion of Thomfon, afterwards his deputy as furveyor general of the Leeward Islands, and his fucceffor in the office, used to write out fair copies of his works, feveral of which are in my collection. This gentleman, as Murdoch informs us, courted the Tragic Muse, and wrote a piece in that line, with Arminius for its hero.

When he presented it to the manager of Drurylane play-house, the hand-writing of Edward and Eleonora being immediately recognised, it was scouted, and he was glad to fell it for a trifle to a good-natured bookseller. MURDOCH'S LIFE OF THOMSONI

that head; befides, I have very little to fay, that is worthy to be tranfmitted over the great ocean. The world either futilises* fo much, or we grow fo dead to it, that its transactions make but a feeble impreflion on us. + Retirement and nature are more and more my paffion every day; and now, even now, the charming time comes on: heaven is just upon the point, or rather in the very act, of giving earth a green gown. The voice of the nightingale is heard in our land ‡.

You must know that I have enlarged my rural domain much to the fame dimenfions you have done yours-the two fields next to me; from the first of which I have walled-no, no,-paled in about as much as my garden confifted of before; fo that the walk runs round the hedge, where you may figure me walking any time of the day, and sometimes under night. For you, I imagine you reclining under cedars and palmettos, and there enjoying more magnificent flumbers than are known to the pale climates of the north; flumbers rendered awful and divine, by the folemn ftillness and deep fervors of the torrid noon. At other times I imagine you drinking punch in groves of lime or orange trees, gathering pine apples from hedges

f

A verb coined by Thomson from the adjective futile.

as

† On this account it has been suggested, that the most proper monument for Thomson would be a modeft Doric portico, adjoining to a cottage ftored with the best books on natural history, to be kept by fome of the poet's poor relations, with a salary.

The bird-catchers about London generally obferve the fong of the nightingale in the first or fecond week of April. This letter of Thomson's having no date, it is impoffible to determine exactly from circumstances when it was written; but as the firing began at Maeftricht in the first week, it may be guessed that the letter was written about the middle of the month, fince he speaks in the close of the letter of the news of the fiege being fresh.

as commonly as we may blackberries, poetising under lofty laurels, or making love under full spread myrtles.-But to lower my style a little-as I am fuch a genuine lover of gardening, why don't you remember me in that inftance, and fend ine fome feeds of things that might fucceed here during the fummer, though they cannot perfect their feeds fufficiently in this, to them, ungenial climate, to propagate?-in the which cafe is the calliloo; that, from the feed it bore here, produced plants puny, ricketty, and good for nothing. There are other things certainly with you, not yet brought over hither, that might flourish here in the summer-time, and live tolerably well, provided they were sheltered during the winter in a greenhoufe.

You will give me no small pleasure, by sending me, from time to time, fome of these feeds, if it were no more than to amuse me in making the trial*.

WITH regard to the brother gardeners, you ought to know, that, as they are half vegetables, the animal part of them will never have spirit enough to confent to the transplanting of the vegetable into diftant dangerous climates: they, happily for themselves, have no other idea but to dig on here, eat, drink, fleep, and kiss their wives.

As

*The amusements of Thomson were chiefly the contemplation of nature, the study of natural hiftory as a science, voyages and travels, and the philosophy of civil hiftory; of which last he has given an excellent specimen in his Liberty, as he has of the firft in his Seasons and Caftle of Indolence. Gardening, except in the stiff ornamental ftyle of Holland, had made but little progress in England in the days of Thomfon. There were no Curtifes, Aytouns, or Forsythes, ftill lefs any Wheatlys or Walpoles. Philip Miller, the author of the Gardener's Dictionary, was almoft the only man who could be of use to Thomson in his researches.

As to more important business, I have nothing to write to you. You know beft the courfe of it. Be (as you always must be) juft and honeft; but if you are unhappily romantic, you fhall come home without money, and write a tragedy on yourself. Mr Lyttelton told me that the Grenvilles and he had strongly recommended the perfon the governor and you propofed for that confiderable office, lately fallen vacant in your department, and that there were good hopes of fucceeding. He told me alfo that Mr P. had faid it was not to be expected that offices fuch as that is, for which the greatest interest is made here at home, could be accorded to your recommendation: but that, as to the middling or inferior offices, if there was not fome particular reason to the contrary, regard would be had thereto. This is all that can be reasonably desired; and if you are not infected with a certain Creolean diftemper (whereof I am perfuaded your foul will utterly refift the contagion, as I hope your body will that of their natural ones), there are few men fo capable of that unperishable happiness, that peace and fatisfaction of mind that proceed from being reasonable and moderate in our defires, as you are. These are the treasures, dug from an inexhaustible mine in our own breasts; which, like those in the kingdom of heaven, the ruft of time cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. I must learn to work at this mine a little more, being struck off from a certain hundred pounds a year which you know I had. Weft, Mallet, and I were all routed in one day. If you would know why-out of refentment to our friend* in Argyll-ftreet. Yet I have hopes given me of having it reftored with George, afterwards Lord Lyttelton.-Whether we contemplate the character of this worthy man in public or private life, we are juftified in affirming that he abounded in virtues not only fufficient

f 2

*.

with intereft, fome time or other. Ah! that fome time or other is a great deceiver. Coriolanus has not yet appeared upon the stage, from the little dirty jealoufy of Tullus *-I mean of him who was defired to act Tullustowards him who can alone act Coriolanus. Indeed, the first has entirely jockeyed the laft off the stage for this season; but I believe he will return on him next season, like a giant in his wrath. Let us have a little more patience, Paterfon; nay, let us be cheerful. At laft all will be well; at leaft all will be over-here I mean: God forbid it fhould be hereafter. But as fure as there is a God, that will not be fot. Now that I am prating of myself, know that after fourteen or fifteen years, the Castle of Indolence

comes

sient to create reverence and efteem, but to excite the affectionate remembrance of all who had the honour and pleasure of his acquaintance. "His wit was nature by the Graces dreft".

+ Quin.-Those who wish to amuse themselves with the broils of the theatre may confult Davies? Dramatic Mifcellanies, and his Life of Garrick, for the campaigns (as the theatricals are pleased to call them) of the winters 47 and 48.-For my own part, I admire the great Frederick of Pruffia, who coming to his concert, and finding the muficians quarrelling, exclaimed with a good-natured smile"Arrangez vous, coquins."

It is pleafing to see the last expreffions of the poet's confidence, that the form of the foul is eternal; that great spirits perish not with the body. There may be worthless veffels, and there may be veffels fitted for destruction; but of all that Heaven has endowed with feelings to enjoy it, nothing fhall be loft, and the King of Heaven shall raise it up again at the last day!