( xxxix which they display. It seems that a copy of some of Mr. Corrections appear as if made by the author. The local scenery, persons, manners, and dress, described in these pieces, are all Scottish; and, considering the very respectable channel through which this valuable relic has reached the hands of its present owner, there exists no tenable ground whereby to question or deny their authenticity. "The pieces of poetry are twenty-five in number; of which the following is a catalogue:-1. Upon Beauty.-2. Pastoral betwixt David, Thirsis, and the Angel Gabriel, on the Birth of our Saviour.-3. Verses to his Mistress on receiving a Flower from her.-4. Psalm civ. paraphrased.5. The yielding Maid.-6. Upon Marlefield.-7. Complaint of the Miseries of this Life.-8. A Poetical Epistle to Sir William Bennet.-9. Upon May.-10. Upon the Hoop.11. A Hymn to God's Power.-12. A Pastoral between Damon and Celia parting.-13. A Morning in the Country.-14. A Pastoral upon the Death of Mr. William Ruddell.-15. Description of Ten o'Clock at Night in the Town.-16. The Fable of the sick Kite and its Dame.— 17. Upon Mrs. Elizabeth Bennet.-18. A Pastoral Entertainment described.-19. Upon Happiness.-20. An Elegy upon Parting.-21. Fable of a Hawk and Nightingale.— 22. Upon the Sparkler.-23. A Song.-24. Dialogue in Praise of the Pastoral Life -25. An Elegy. "Very few of these pieces display any very striking flashes of poetic genius; yet some of them contain a richness of fancy, and warmth of expression, sufficient to afford a promise of future excellence. Some minds expand very early, and their first productions are often the most spirited: the case was evidently otherwise with Mr. Thomson. But when his poetical powers were matured, they burst forth with that fulness and luxuriance of beauty and harmony which has conferred immortality upon his name." Mr. Goodhugh then gives specimens of Thomson's early composition and imperfect versification; and adds, that there is "no punctuation in the manuscript." His remarks on the comparatively low character of these poems are just. But that which seems most astonishing to the admirers of the poet, is the circumstance of Thomson's having copied these juvenilia when he was more than twenty-five years of age, evidently because he had no poetry of superior quality to present to his young and noble friend. The fact is, that till the publication of his "Winter," which was a hasty production, he was himself unconscious of his mental prowess; but when once he had been compelled, through sheer poverty, to test and ascertain his own capabilities, he took his stand in the foremost rank of our didactic, pastoral, and descriptive poets. Sir N. H. Nicolas made great use of Mr. Goodhugh's collection, and inserted the larger portion of its contents in his edition of Thomson's Poetical Works. C.-Page xvii. The Death of his Father. THOMSON's father died in consequence of a fright which he received while laying a ghost at Woolie, in the parish of Southdean. The acts of exorcism had commenced; but, in the midst of his introductory prayer, he was struck on the head by a ball of fire, which he attributed to diabolical agency. He was carried home, and soon afterwards expired. Thomson was eighteen years of age when his father died; and the only perceptible effect which this lamentable event produced on his sensitive mind, was, according to Dr. Somerville, a childish fear of ghosts and hobgoblins, that on some occasions afforded considerable sport to his fellowstudents. But, in cases of this kind, the inquiry naturally arises, After he had in some degree conquered this fear, what were the impressions which it left, and what their manifestations? Had his mental constitution been of a Shakspearean cast, his poetic flights would undoubtedly have developed his familiarity with sprites, elves, and fairies. But in his poetry we look in vain for prominent traces of this kind of imagery. Those impressions, however, found their natural developement in the uniform tenderness of his poetical allusions to widows and orphans, and in his strong sympathies with the unaided struggles of rising genius. mirers a g copied rears * qualit D.-Page xix. The Purpose for which Thomson came to London. THOMSON had been a student in divinity upwards of four years when he left the University; and from Murdoch's enigmatical phraseology it may be inferred, that he did not feel any deep regard for the presbyterian church, of which his father had been an able and useful minister; but abandoned all his prospects of preferment in it with little reluctance. His early correspondence, and the report of his college-friends, prove him to have been more devoted to the service of the Muses than to that of the sanctuary. This interesting part of Thomson's history has been left in great obscurity: no one could have elucidated it better than Murdoch, who was his fellow-student, and who, it is believed, obtained ordination and preferment in the church of England, through the same powerful influence which would have been exerted in favour of Thomson, and which before he left Edinburgh it was his purpose to accept. This, however, was a secret then confided only to his friend Cranstoun. A report of the kind was in general circulation at the time when Dr. Johnson was collecting materials for his brief sketch of Thomson's Life; and he instructed Boswell to ascertain its correctness from one of the poet's surviving sisters. Her answer was, that she never heard that he had any intentions of going into holy orders." But, in reference to this matter, Boswell had well observed in a previous letter, "As Thomson never returned to Scotland, his sister can speak (from her own knowledge) only as to the early part of his life." He evidently expected to find, that Thomson had in his mature age entertained serious thoughts of entering into holy orders in the episcopal church. But the poet's correspondence with Cranstoun had not then seen the light; and from it we learn more than it was in the power of his sister to communicate. Thomson's paternal relations were great favourites with the Elliots of Minto; and one of his cousins, (if not more,) after having received a good classical education in Scotland, graduated at one of the English Universities, and, through the interest of that noble family, became rector of a parish in the north of England. This young man may then have been residing in or near London; and it was part of the 66 plan which had been concerted between our poet and Cranstoun, that the latter should address a note to Mr. Elliot, then in London, and another to Thomson's cousin. All this appears very clearly in the following extract of a letter from the poet to his friend, about a fortnight before his departure from Scotland :-"You are so modest as to desire me to correct any thing I see amiss in your letter to Mr. Elliot, and you will transcribe it again: but, I assure you, I am not so vain as to attempt it. If there was no other thing to bind me to a good behaviour but your recommendation and character of me, I could go great lengths of mortification to answer them. Your letter to my cousin, I do not doubt, will be considerably useful to me, if I can find him out." This purpose was a secret tenaciously held by the two friends; it could not, without prejudice to his prospects, have been divulged to others. When, therefore, he applied to persons of consequence for letters of introduction, he was not in a condition to explain to them his prime intention; and they consequently demurred about giving him the benefit of their recommendation till he had fixed on some particular course of life in which it might be serviceable. This will be perfectly understood from another of his letters to Cranstoun, written only a few days before the ship sailed; of which the following is an extract :-" I have got ten several recommendations; and am promised more afterwards, when I am fixed on any particular view, which would render them more pointed and effectual. I shall do all that is in my power,-act, hope, and so either make something out, or be buried in obscurity. There is-and I am persuaded of it, I triumph in it-another life after this; which depends, as to its happiness, on our virtue, as this (for the most part) on our fortune." Thomson sailed from Leith in March, 1725; and, nearly a month afterwards, he wrote again to Cranstoun, acknowledging the receipt of his letter of introduction to Mr. Elliot, and speaks more explicitly on the chief object of his visit to that gentleman :-"I had yours some days since; the only letter I received since I came from Scotland. I was almost out of humour at the letter to Mr. Elliot, since it so curtailed yours to me. I went and delivered it. He received me affably enough, and promised me his assistance; though, at the same time, he told me, (which every one poet an te to I n's cous tract of al ht bef lest as lettera! xliii tells me,) that it will be prodigiously difficult to succeed in the business you know I design. However, come what will, I shall make an effort, and leave the rest to Providence. There is, I am persuaded, a necessary fixed chain of things; and I hope my fortune, whatever it be, shall be linked to diligence and honesty. If I should not succeed, in your next advise me what I should do. Succeed or not, I firmly resolve to pursue divinity, as the only thing now I am fit for. Now, if I cannot accomplish the design on which I came up, I think I had best make interest and pass my trials here; so that if I be obliged soon to return to Scotland again, I may not return no better than I came away: and, to be deeply serious with you, the more I see of the vanity and wickedness of the world, I am more inclined to that sacred office. I was going to bid you suppress that rising laugh; but I check myself severely again, for suffering such an unbecoming thought of you to enter into my mind." The language of the entire paragraph fixes "the design on which he came up" to have been his entrance into the episcopal church; but especially the two sentences which I have marked in Italics, and which can convey no other meaning than this:-Whether I be successful or not in my attempt to obtain holy orders in the church of England, I am still determined to pursue in the presbyterian church the study of divinity, which, in this the twenty-fifth year of my age, is the only thing suitable for me. If I cannot accomplish my original design, I think I had best make Most The reason why the two friends were not more explicit on this point in their correspondence will be obvious to every one who considers that if either of them had been known to entertain a design of this kind, all prospect of success in his own church would have been blasted. of the ecclesiastics beyond the Tweed in that age were accustomed to regard the church of England with a degree of abhorrence, as "the younger sister of the church of Rome." But a purer and more tolerant spirit had arisen among the Scotch gentry and nobility, whose public duties compelled them to pass the greatest part of their time in |