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thorized separation of "the Return from the Fox-Chase " from the verses with which it was naturally connected in "Autumn." But this was a venial offence when compared with the unbridled licence which he gave to the spirit of innovation in altering the poem of "Liberty," and for which he tenders his reasons in a "Preface to the Reader:" "The following poem being entirely of the historical and political kind, unornamented with fiction, except in a few lines, the author was sensible of its being too long. It has been therefore considerably shortened, by reducing the five parts into three; the rather, because the matter of several verses, now struck out here, occurs in his other writings, and some, upon a revisal, appeared not to be pertinent or proper to the subject." The mildest term which one can apply to such wholesale destruction as this, is "a lamentable defect of judgment!" Besides, this was Thomson's favourite poem.* In its composition he had expended much time and care; and its unseemly mutilation "by hands profane" had never been among his anticipations. But the expected consequences soon showed themselves in the tardy sale of the impression, although Millar is said to have tried to give it a fresh impulse by prefixing a new title to each of the four volumes, bearing the date of 1752. It is supposed that the edition was not exhausted till 1762; and the strong reprehension of Lyttelton's conduct to which Johnson long afterwards gave utterance in his "Life of Thomson," was only a manly echo of public opinion on the subject. "The poem of Liberty," says Johnson, "does not now appear in its original state; but, when the author's 'Works' were collected after his death, was shortened by Sir George Lyttelton, with a liberty which, as it has a manifest tendency to lessen the confidence of society, and to confound the characters of authors, by making one man write by the judg ment of another, cannot be justified by any supposed propriety of the alteration, or kindness of the friend. I wish to see it exhibited as its author left it." To the surviving friends of Lord Lyttelton this sentence always seemed to be too severe; and they often made the honest expression of his opinion on this matter a source of annoyance to the aged moralist and lexicographer.

I have been the more particular in my notice of this edition, because it tends to prove the high anticipations that * See his "Life" by Murdoch, p. xxiv.

were entertained concerning that which appeared in 1762, and the onerous duties which consequently devolved on Murdoch. His unassuming title is, "The Works of James Thomson, with his last Corrections and Improvements.” Under the peculiar circumstances which have now been detailed, the responsible task which the new editor undertook was well fulfilled; and, to this day, no whisper has been heard of his having been under any undue influence in determining either for or against the admission of a single phrase or epithet. The "Works" were published by subscription in two noble quarto volumes, and dedicated to His Majesty King George the Third, who headed the "List of the Encou ragers" with a royal gift of "a hundred pounds." There were at least two editions of them in 12mo., before the appearance, in 1768, of a new one in two vols. 4to., with a few emendations in the Life. The public evinced their confidence in Murdoch as an editor, by the rapid purchase of the collected "Works," and of the "Seasons" in a separate form; and all subsequent editors have had recourse to his quarto volumes, as containing the standard text of the author. Lord Lyttelton lived upwards of twelve years after the publication of the "Works" by Murdoch, to which he was not a subscriber; and saw them pass through four or five editions, and acquire deserved popularity. But neither his Lordship, nor any of his amiable acquaintances of the "blue-stocking" sisterhood, ever discovered in them a single flaw, or made any complaint, though they contained the poem of Liberty in its unmutilated form, and "the Return from the Fox-Chase," restored to its proper place in "Autumn," as it had been left by Thomson.

V.-ALTERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 66 'SEASONS" BY THOMSON AND POPE.

As early as the year 1816, the Rev. John Mitford, in his Life of Gray, announced to the world the interesting circumstance, that he had an interleaved copy of the "Seasons," containing numerous emendations, of which he gave a few specimens. In a more ample communication to the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1841, he informs us that for one shilling and six-pence he purchased, what he "would not exchange for the great ruby in the royal crown, the

edition of the Seasons' of 1738, 8vo. interleaved, filled with Thomson's alterations in his own hand in every page, and with numerous emendations and alterations by Pope, in his small and beautiful writing." From this gentleman's communication I proceed to borrow a few instances of the alterations made in the "Seasons."

I. BY THOMSON.

IN "Spring," the paragraph commencing at verse 356 of the edition of 1738, reads thus:

Hence in old time, they say, a deluge came ;
When the disparting orb of earth, that arch'd
The' imprison'd deep around, impetuous rush'd,
With ruin inconceivable, at once

Into the gulf, and o'er the highest hills
Wide-dash'd the waves, in undulation vast;
Till, from the centre to the streaming clouds,

A shoreless ocean tumbled round the globe.

Thomson made his first alteration in this style :-
Hence in old time, they say, a deluge came,

When the deep-chapt [parch'd] [chapt] [cleft] disparting orb,
that arch'd

The rarefied abyss, whose searching streams
Expansive sought a vent, impetuous rush'd,
With universal burst, into the gulf,

And o'er the high-piled hills of fractured earth
Wide-dash'd, &e.

Another alteration was:

-deep-cleft, disparting orb, that arch'd

The central waters round, impetuous rush'd,

With universal burst, into the gulf,

And o'er the high-piled [new-form'd] hills of fractured earth
Wide-dash'd, &c.

The preceding paragraph contains verses 309-316 in the present impression.

In the edition of 1738, the verses 376-379 are:

But now from clear to cloudy, moist to dry,

And hot to cold, in restless change revolved,

Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought,

The fleeting shadow of a Winter's sun.

His alteration is this, as it stands in the present copy:

But now, of turbid elements the sport,

From clear to cloudy toss'd, from hot to cold,

And dry to moist, with inward-eating change,

Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought,

Their period finish'd ere 't is well begun.-Verses 330-335.

The following verses (803-820) are erased from the text of 1738, with the exception of the first and the last, which stand as verses 860, 862 in this impression. The Rev. John Mitford thinks they were omitted in consequence of their breathing something of the language of Pantheism :The' informing Author in his work appears;

His grandeur in the heavens. The sun and moon,
Whether that fires the day, or, failing, 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 shakes 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, &c.

The character of Spenser was not in the edition of 1738; but Thomson wrote it nearly as it now stands in "Summer," verses 1572-1579:

Nor shall my verse forget that elder bard, [forget,]
The gentle Spenser, Fancy's gaudy [pleasing] son,
Who, like a copious river, pour'd his song

O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground:
Nor him, [thee,] his ancient master, laughing sage,
Chaucer, whose native manners-painting sense,
Well-moralized, shines through the Gothic cloud
Of life [time] and language o'er his genius thrown.

II. ALTERATIONS BY POPE.

THE emendations on the text of 1738 by this eminent poet, display a taste and elegance which, had he made the attempt, would have insured to him the highest place in blank verse as well as in rhyme.

In the edition of 1738, the following passage occurs in "Summer," verse 620 :—

Let comprehensive Newton speak thy fame

In all philosophy. For solemn song,

Is not wild Shakspeare Nature's boast and thine?

And every greatly amiable Muse

Of elder ages in thy Milton met?

His was the treasure of two thousand years,
Seldom indulged to man; a godlike mind,
Unlimited and various as his theme,
Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom
Of blowing Eden fair, soft as the talk
Of our grand parents, and as Heaven sublime!
This is Pope's charming alteration:-

Let Newton, pure intelligence, whom Heaven

Lent to mankind [to mortals lent] its boundless works to trace,
From laws sublimely simple, speak thy fame

In all philosophy. For lofty sense,

Creative fancy, and inspection keen

Through the deep windings of the human heart,

Is not wild Shakspeare thine and Nature's boast?

Is not each great, each amiable Muse

Of elder ages in thy Milton met?

A genius vast and boundless as his theme,
Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom

O blissful Eden fair, as Heaven sublime!

The last four lines of the tale of Palemon and Lavinia are Pope's entirely :—

The fields, the master, all, my fair, are thine!

If to the various blessings which thy house

Has shower'd upon me [on me lavish'd], thou that bliss wilt add,
That sweetest [dearest] bliss, the power of blessing thee!

The four lines which Thomson wrote, and which stood in the place of these, in the printed edition of 1738, were :-With harvest shining, all the fields are thine!

And, if my wishes may presume so far,

Their master too, who then indeed were blest,
To make the daughter of Acasto so.

In the same episode, Thomson had printed the following lines:

Thoughtless of beauty, she was Beauty's self,

Recluse among the woods; if city-dames

Will deign their faith: and thus she went compell'd

By strong Necessity, with as serene

And pleased a look as Patience e'er put on,

To glean Palæmon's fields.

These lines Pope erased, and wrote the following in their place, as they now stand in the best editions :

Thoughtless of beauty, she was Beauty's self,
Recluse among the close [deep] embowering woods.

As in the hollow breast of Apennine,

Beneath the shelter of encircling hills,

A myrtle rises, far from human eyes,

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