755-65. The original text which remained in the earlier editions (1728-38) was as follows:

High from the summit of a craggy cliff,

Hung o'er the green sea grudging at its base,
The royal eagle draws his young, resolved
To try them at the sun. Strong-pounced, and bright
As burnished day, they up the blue sky wind,
Leaving dull sight below, and with fixed gaze
Drink in their native noon: the father-king

Claps his glad pinions, and approves the birth.

The alteration was made for edition 1744.

827-9. This short passage is a condensation of the original text of seven lines which stood as follows from 1728 to 1738

How the red lioness, her whelps forgot

Amid the thoughtless fury of her heart;

The lank rapacious wolf; the unshapely bear;
The spotted tyger, fellest of the fell;

And all the terrors of the Libyan (Lybian) swain, By this new flame their native wrath sublimed, Roam the surrounding waste in fiercer bands, &c. 861-6. Instead of these six lines the earlier editions (1728-38) give the following :

His grandeur in the heavens: the sun and moon,
Whether that fires the day, or, falling, this

Pours out a lucid softness o'er the night,

Are but a beam from him. The glittering stars,
By the deep ear of meditation heard,

Still in their midnight watches sing of him.

He nods a calm. The tempest blows his wrath,
Roots up the forest, and o'erturns the main.
The thunder is his voice, and the red flash
His speedy sword of justice. At his touch
The mountains flame. He takes the solid earth
And rocks the nations. Nor in these alone,
In every common instance God is seen;
And to the man, who casts his mental eye
Abroad, unnoticed wonders rise. But chief
In thee, boon Spring, and in thy softer scenes
The smiling God appears; while water, earth,
And air attest his bounty, which instils

Into the brutes this temporary thought, &c. (two lines). 903. This line was followed in the original text (1728-38) by the following passage of twelve lines, dropped in 1744 :

'Tis harmony, that world-attuning power
By which all beings are adjusted, each
To all around, impelling and impelled
In endless circulation, that inspires

This universal smile. Thus the glad skies,

The wide-rejoicing earth, the woods, the streams
With every life they hold, down to the flower

That paints the lowly vale, or insect-wing

Waved o'er the shepherd's slumber, touch the mind,
To nature tuned, with a light-flying hand

Invisible, quick-urging through the nerves
The glittering spirits in a flood of day.

In the first of these lines the first and second editions (1728 and 1729 respectively) give 'world-embracing' for worldattuning'-the latter being the reading from 1730 to 1738.

906. George, eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, of Hagley Park, in Worcestershire. Born in 1709, died 1773. He wrote

Dialogues of the Dead, &c. As a politician he opposed the policy of Walpole, and in 1744 became one of the lords of the Treasury. Previously he had been secretary to the Prince of Wales. In 1755 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was raised to the peerage in 1757. Thomson's first visit to Hagley Park was in 1743. Lucinda,' l. 936, refers to Mrs. Lyttelton (Lucy Fortescue), whose death was lamented by her husband in a monody, the tenderest and most touching of his verses. He was a true friend to Thomson in many ways. In the preparation of a new edition of The Seasons for 1744 the poet was indebted to him for some suggestions.

991-1008. The original text (editions 1728, 1729) was as follows:

Effusing heaven; and listens ardent still
To the small voice, where harmony and wit,
A modest, melting, mingled sweetness flow.
No sooner is the fair idea formed,
And contemplation fixes on the theme,
Than from his own creation wild he flies,
Sick of a shadow. Absence comes a pace,
And shoots his every pang into his breast.
'Tis nought, &c.

SUMMER

[Inscribed to the Right Honourable Mr. Dodington.

First published in 1727 (1,146 11.); last edition in author's lifetime published in 1746 (1,805 II.).]

THE ARGUMENT

THE subject proposed. Invocation. Address to Mr. Dodington. An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the succession of the Seasons. As the face of nature in this season is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a description of a Summer's day. The dawn. Sun-rising. Hymn to the sun. Forenoon. Summer insects described. Hay-making. Sheep-shearing. Noonday. A woodland retreat. Group of herds and flocks. A solemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The storm over. A serene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Transition to the prospect of a rich, well-cultivated country; which introduces a panegyric on Great Britain. Sunset. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philosophy.*

6

*The above is substantially the Argument of the poem in the first collected edition of The Seasons (1730). The notes in italics were added in 1744-all except 'A comet', which was added in 1746. In the Argument for 1730, for 'Sun-rising', appears A view of the sun rising'; for 'Hay-making', appears Rural Prospects'; for 'View of Summer in the Torrid Zone', appears 'A Digression on Foreign Summers'; and the note 'Rural Prospects', of 1730, is withdrawn in 1744, as is also the note The Morning '--superseded by The Dawn'. For 'Group of herds and flocks', the 1730 edition gives 'A Group of Flocks and Herds'. The order in which the notes of the Argument come in 1730 differs considerably from the order in which they are presented above-that is, from their order in edd. 1744 and 1746.

FROM brightening fields of ether fair-disclosed,
Child of the sun, refulgent Summer comes

In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth :

He comes, attended by the sultry hours

And ever-fanning breezes on his way;

While from his ardent look the turning Spring
Averts her blushful face, and earth and skies
All smiling to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence let me haste into the mid-wood shade, Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom,

And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink
Of haunted stream that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large.
And sing the glories of the circling year.
Come, Inspiration! from thy hermit-seat,
By mortal seldom found: may fancy dare,
From thy fixed serious eye and raptured glance
Shot on surrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite-
Pure light of mind and tenderness of heart,
Genius and wisdom, the gay social sense
By decency chastised, goodness and wit

1, 2 From southern climes, where unremitting day
Burns overhead, illustrious Summer comes-

is the reading of the first ed. (1727).

I brightening] yonder 1730-38.

IO

20

2 refulgent] illustrious 16 fancy dare] I presume

1727. 17 eye] muse 1727-38; glance] eye 1730-38.

21-31

These lines are not found in the first ed. (1727). They first appear in 1730. 21 my youthful Muse's early] the Muse's

honour and her 1730-38.

In seldom-meeting harmony combined,
Unblemished honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, liberty, and man:
O Dodington! attend my rural song,
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

30

With what an awful world-revolving power Were first the unwieldy planets launched along The illimitable void !-thus to remain, Amid the flux of many thousand years That oft has swept the toiling race of men, And all their laboured monuments away, Firm, unremitting, matchless in their course; To the kind-tempered change of night and day, And of the seasons ever stealing round, Minutely faithful: such the all-perfect Hand That poised, impels, and rules the steady whole ! When now no more the alternate Twins are fired, And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night; And soon, observant of approaching day, The meek-eyed morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east;

31 just] best 1730-38. 36 toiling] busy 1727-38. changeless 1727-38.

40

32 an awful] a perfect 1727-38. 38 Firm, unremitting] Unresisting,

39-42 Instead of these lines, the first ed. (1727) givesTo day and night, and (with 1730-38) the delightful round Of seasons faithful; not eccentric once :

So poised and perfect is the vast machine!

The change was made in 1744, except that 'all' was omitted from 1. 41.

45 doubtful] uncertain 1727. before approaching '.

46 Edd. 1730-38 insert' th' 48 Mildly elucent in the streaky

east 1727. The change was made in 1730.