it! But you are too good to plague me so severely. I expect this favour from Mr. Mallet, next post. "When you honour me with an answer, for which I shall be anxious, please to direct for me at Mr. Watt's Academy, in Little Tower Street. I am, dear Sir, with the most hearty respect, your most devoted, and most humble servant, JAMES THOMSON." On the 11th of June he sent Mr. Hill the proof sheets of the new edition of "Winter;" and it appears from the letter which accompanied them, that he took it for granted that Hill would comply with his wishes about the verses, but that Mallet found an excuse for not changing his lines, perhaps justly, considering that the generosity which was called into action only by shame well deserved the original reproach. "DEAR SIR. TO AARON HILL, ESQ. "London, June 11, 1726. "I HAVE been, for some days last past, in the country, else the enclosed sheets, to which you yourself have given the greatest sanction and value, should have waited on you ere now. "It was your approbation that gave me, formerly, an equally just and noble satisfaction; and the continuance of it is my inviolable ambition. Since I put you to the trouble of altering your verses, I ought to give you an account why Mr. Mallet's were not altered likewise. The truth is, he promised me to alter them, as I wrote to you; but in a following letter told me, that, after several attempts, he found it absolutely out them, I resolved To this resolu of his power; and, rather than lose 'Heedless of fortune, then look down on state, Prince of your passions, live their sovereign still.' "I wish, that the declaration, from my heart, with regard to you, in the preface, may not be disagreeable. These sentiments I could not suppress; and they are but a faint expression of the full esteem and admiration I shall ever bear you. May I hope that one of the inclosed copies of my poem can be acceptable to a lady of Mrs. Hill's fine taste, and the young darling of the Muses, Urania, who, in such a tender age, has encountered with all the horrors of so rough a description? Shal! I languish out a whole summer in the same city with you, and not once be re-inspired with your company? Such a happiness would much brighten my description of that season; from which, to fill out this letter, I venture to transcribe the following lines: - 'Oft in this season, too, the horse, provoked, He takes the river, at redoubled draughts, "In your last you were pleased to threaten me, as you term it, with a long letter. I beg you would be as exact in the execution of your threatenings, as you always are in the performance of your promises; which shall be submitted to, with the most cheerful resignation, by him who is, dear Sir, with the utmost devotion, your most obliged, and most obedient, humble servant, JAMES THOMSON.” Mallet at last promised to alter his verses; but he was still in doubt how far Mr. Hill would imitate his example :— TO AARON HILL, ESQ. "London, June 17, 1726. "SIR. "I HAD the inclosed for you from Mr. Mallet this day, which emboldens me to give you the present trouble. He is so good as to promise me another copy of verses, next post, which gives me a very great pleasure: but my satisfaction is far from being complete so long as I am uncertain of the like favour from you. Perhaps my forwardness, if not vanity, presumes too much on your goodness; but your already wondrous generosity, in this regard, has raised in me an expectation and ambition you ought, in all poetical justice, to satisfy. If you knew the gladness it would inspire into my heart, you would, certainly, steal a kind hour from your more important affairs, to smile upon my, I will not scruple to say, reasonable fondness. But by being importunate, I shall offer an injury to your ever-ready humanity. "All that I shall further add is, that on Monday next the Poem will be printed off. I am, Sir, with the utmost gratitude and regard, your most devoted, humble servant, JAMES THOMSON. "P. S. The press, if you please, shall wait your leisure." It would not be easy to ascertain if Mallet did alter his verses, but in those of Hill some changes seem to have been made. In a long preface Thomson entered into a defence of Poetry, complained of the debasing subjects to which it was chiefly applied, and contended that the works of Nature are most calculated to produce poetical enthusiasm. He then expressed his gratitude to Mr. Hill and to Mr. Mallet for their verses, as well as to a lady (according to Dr. Johnson, but too well known) who had graced his poem with some lines under the signature of Mira;"* and he announced his intention of treating of the other Seasons. "Winter" was universally read and almost as universally admired, and produced to the author the acquaintance of several ladies of rank, among whom were the Countess of Hertford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, Miss Drelincourt, daughter of the Dean of Armagh, who became Viscountess Primrose, and Mrs. Stanley; but the most valuable result of the poem was the friendship of Dr. Thomas Rundle, afterwards Bishop of Derry. That learned person, finding the man to be as * [See Note at the end of the Memoir.] estimable as the poet, honoured him with his friendship, spread his fame, and by introducing him to Sir Charles Talbot, afterwards Lord Chancellor, rendered him an important service. In Thomson's next letter to Mr. Hill, who was then in Scotland, he thanks him for a flattering notice which he had published of "Winter," and sends him the news of the town: TO AARON HILL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR. "London, Oct. 20, 1726. "MR. SAVAGE was so kind as to show me a letter you lately favoured him with, by which I had the true pleasure of learning your safe arrival at Berwick, intended tour, and halt at Inverness. "It is with a mixture of joy, pride, and confusion, I read the favourable mention you were pleased to make of me what unusual good fortune has thus intitled me to your kind regard? 'Tis nothing, sure, but your own generous goodness, which with your other many matchless perfections, shall ever be my love and wonder, while truth and harmony are the objects of these passions. 66 Every Muse, every Virtue, here, languishes for your return to me your absence would be much severer, if my partial sympathy in the happiness of my native country did not alleviate the misfortune. I congratulate her on the presence of such a kind inspirer and candid observer: there, you may chance to find, in that neglected corner of the world, depressed merit, uninformed beauty, and good sense clothed in the rags of language. Nothing has appeared in print here, |