Contents. The articles marked with an asterisk have never before appeared in any edition of Thomson's Poems, and some of them are printed for the first time from the Author's MS. Memoir of James Thomson. "Tutored by thee, sweet Poetry exalts THE biography of a man whose life was passed ment on the opinions of superior understandings, in his study, and who is known to the world by without reflecting that none are exempt from his writings alone, can present few facts to render caprice even if they be so from errors; and though It popular, unless it was chequered by events that the statements of an author may be generally excite interest, or marked by traits which lessen just, cases occur in which he is prejudiced or esteem. If a Poet has been vicious, the account misinformed. It is scarcely necessary to say, of the misfortunes which vice never fails to bring, that the Life of Thomson by Dr. Johnson is and of its effects on himself, is read with atten- alluded to; and few need be told that this is not tion; but the career of him who was uniformly the first time his account of the Poet has been virtuous, who experienced no remarkable vicissi- charged with injustice. The inquiries necessary tudes of fortune, and who was only eminent from for this article have tended to confirm the suspithe genius which his writings display, must yield cion that the colossus of literature was influenced in variety of incident to that of a pirate or cour- by some extraordinary bias against the author of "The Seasons," for not a single notice of him, There is nevertheless much that will gratify a reflecting upon his character, has been found reader whose taste is not so vitiated as to require which is not traceable to Johnson. His Life is the excitement of romance, in tracing the progress sneering and satirical, and he rarely admits Thomof a distinguished literary person; and he who is son to have possessed a merit without accompa not desirous of knowing the history of a writer nying it by an ungenerous remark. The cause whose name is associated with his earliest recol- of this conduct must be sought in vain; but the lections must be void of every spark of curiosity. temper of Johnson and his violent political feelA favourite author possesses claims upon our re-ings are sufficiently notorious to render the pagard similar to those of friendship; and the tale, triotic sentiments which Thomson every where which would be dull and tiresome if it concerned inculcates a sufficient explanation of his hostility, any other person, is read, or listened to, with the liveliest pleasure. tesan. whilst his country may have been another ground for his dislike. Before dismissing Dr. Johnson's Thomson's life must be indebted for whatever Life it is material to state, that his assertions regratification it may afford to the sympathy of his specting Thomson are entitled to little credit when admirers, since it is destitute of all other attrac- opposed by other testimony; for it can be proved tions. Little has been preserved concerning him, that he knew little about him, and that he was perhaps because very little was deserving of being too negligent to avail himself of the information recorded; and these notices are so scattered that which he sought. It must be remembered, too, it has required some labour to form the present that Johnson never saw him; and that whatever memoir. He did less for his own history than he may have learned from others avails nothing almost any other poet of the time, as his works in comparison with the account of his personal contain few egotisms, and his great dislike to cor- and intimate friends whose esteem is in itself amrespondence prevented the existence of those fa- ple evidence of his virtues. miliar letters which form the most delightful materials for biography. JAMES THOMSON was the son of the Reverend The task of preparing this memoir has, how- Mr. Thomson, of Ednam, in the shire of Roxever, been a grateful one. A writer can not be burgh, at which place the Poet was born on the ndifferent to the pleasure of rendering justice to 11th of September, 1700. Less has been said of merit which has been traduced, and of placing his parents than they merit, and from the slight an amiable and unblemished character in its true manner in which they have been noticed the idea light. Mankind are too apt to form their judg-may have arisen that he was of obscure origin. His father was well descended, and his mother|versity," and signed with the initial of his name, was Beatrix, the daughter and coheiress of Mr. shows how early the love of rural scenery and Trotter, of Fogo,* a genteel family in the neigh- pursuits took possession of his mind, and may be bourhood of Greenlaw in Berwickshire. Though deemed the first conceptions of "The Seasons." Mr. Thomson's worth was of that unostentatious His productions were rather severely treated by kind which only entitles him to the praise of be- some learned persons into whose hands they fell, ing a good father, a good husband, and a good man, fulfilling his clerical duties with pious diligence, and who "This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf, That first he wrought and afterwards he taught," and one of his biographers has laboured to prove the want of taste of his judges. This charge is, probably, unjust, for the early pieces of the author of The Seasons afford slight indication of his future powers, and the criticism was far from destroying his attachment to the muses. An nearly all the sterling parts of human excellence accident, connected with the indulgence of his are comprised in that character. taste, made him suddenly renounce the profession At an early period of the Poet's life, his dawning for which he was designed, and his views became talents attracted the attention of Mr. Riccarton, a directed to London. Mr. Hamilton, the Divinity neighbouring clergyman, and a judicious friend Professor of Edinburgh, having given Thomson of his father, who consented to his superintending the 104th Psalm as an exercise, he made so poeti his son's education. He was placed at school in cal a paraphrase of it, that the professor and the Jedburgh, and the care this gentleman bestowed audience were equally surprised. After complion him was well rewarded by the success which menting the writer, he told him that if he expected attended his exertions. to be useful in the ministry, he must restrain his Nor was Mr. Riccarton his only patron. Sir imagination, and adopt language more suited to a William Bennet, of Chesters, near Jedburgh, who country congregation; and, according to Dr. Johnwas distinguished for his wit, honoured him with son, Mr. Hamilton censured one of the expressions his kindness, and invited him to spend his summer as indecent, if not profane. Part of this paraphrase vacations at his seat. Under the auspices of these only has been printed, but a perfect copy will be generous friends, and of Sir Gilbert Eliot of Minto, found in the present edition, not on account of its Thomson wrote various pieces; but on the first of merits, which are far from conspicuous, but from January he destroyed the labours of the preceding the circumstances connected with it. The obnox year, and celebrated the annual conflagration by ious line will, however, be sought for in vain; but some humorous verses, stating his reasons for their it may have been altered in this transcript. condemnation. A poetical epistle, addressed to This piece having fallen under the notice of Sir William Bennet, and written in his fourteenth Mr. Auditor Benson, he expressed his admiration year, has however been lately discovered, and it of it, and added, that if the author came to Lonwill be found in this edition of his works. don, he had no doubt his merit would be properly From Jedburgh he was sent to the university encouraged. This remark was communicated to of Edinburgh, being intended for the church; but Thomson, apparently, by Lady Grizel Baillie, a before he had been two years there, he lost his relation of his mother's, and he accordingly emfather, who died so suddenly that he did not see barked at Leith in the autumn of 1725, but as, on him before his decease, a circumstance which so his arrival in the metropolis, he received no assistmuch increased his grief that he is said to have ance from her ladyship, he found himself without evinced his affliction in an extraordinary manner. money or friends. To what extent he suffered the His widowed mother, who was left with nine chil- stings of poverty is uncertain; and his zealous addren slenderly provided for, was advised to remove mirer, the Earl of Buchan, is very indignant at to Edinburgh, where she remained, living in an the assertion, that "his first want was a pair of economical manner, until James had completed shoes." Johnson, on whose authority it rests, is his studies. not likely to have invented the statement: and, as Whilst at the University, Thomson contributed it reflects no discredit on the Poet, whether it arose three articles to a volume entitled "The Edin- from a temporary exhaustion of his finances, or burgh Miscellany," printed in that city in 1720, by from the impossibility of recruiting them, excepta club called the Athenian Society. One of them, ing by the sale of one of his works, his Lordship's On a Country Life, by a Student of the Uni- anger is misplaced. That he was stored with letters of introduction Mrs. Thomson's sister married first a Mr. Hume, and se- may be supposed; but, having tied them up in a condly the Rev. Mr. Nicolson, Minister of Preston and Bun- handkerchief, they were stolen from him, an accile. Their daughter Elizabeth married her namesake, Ro-dent sufficiently disastrous to a young stranger, vert Nicholson, of Lonend near Berwick-on-Tweed, the great grandfather of Alexander Nicholson, Esq. of East Court, in the metropolis, to explain the condition in which Chalton Regis. he is represented to have found himself. Shortly after Thomson left Edinburgh, he lost living at my own charges, and you know how exhis mother, whom he loved with all a son's ten-pensive that is; this, together with the furnishing derness, and to whose talents and virtues he was of myself with clothes, linen, one thing and anoeminently indebted for the cultivation of his own. In the poem which he wrote to her memory, he thus feelingly adverts to the moment when he took his last leave of her: "When on the margin of the briny flood, ther; to fit me for any business of this nature here, necessarily obliged me to contract some debts. Being a stranger here, it is a wonder how I got any credit; but I can not expect it will be long sustained unless I immediately clear it. Even now, I believe, it is at a crisis. My friends have no money to send me till the land is sold, and my creditors will not wait till then: you know what the consequences would be. Now the assistance I would beg of you, and which I know, if in your power, you will not refuse me, is a letter of credit on some merchant, banker, or such like person in A very interesting letter from Thomson to his London, for the matter of twelve pounds, till I get friend Dr. Cranston, written about this time, money upon the selling of the land, which I am at proves that he was nearly destitute of money; and last certain of. If you could either give it me it is extremely deserving of attention from the yourself, or procure it, though you do not owe it to statement that the idea of writing The Seasons my merit, yet you owe it to your own nature, originated from reading a poem on Winter, by which I know so well as to say no more on the Mr. Rickleton, which sets at rest the dispute whe- subject; only allow me to add that when I first ther that poem was composed before or after his fell upon such a project, the only thing I have for arrival in London.* It is without a date, but must have been written in September 1726; and, as the post mark was Barnet,† it seems he then resided in that village. it in my present circumstances, knowing the selfish, inhumane temper of the generality of the world, you were the first person that offered to my thoughts as one to whom I had the confidence to make such an address. "DEAR SIR, "There is a little business I would communicate gives a farewell parting gleam, and the birds Stir the faint note, and but attempt to sing. to complain, and beg your assistance. When I" Then again, when the heavens wear a more came up here I brought very little money along gloomy aspect, the winds whistle, and the waters with me, expecting some more upon the selling spout, I see you in the well known Cleugh, beof Widehope, which was to have been sold that neath the solemn arch of tall, thick, embowering day my mother was buried. Now it is unsold trees, listening to the amusing full of the many yet; but will be disposed of as soon as it can be steep, moss-grown cascades; while deep, divine conveniently done, though indeed it is perplexed contemplation, the genius of the place, prompts with some difficulties. I was a long time here each swelling awful thought. I am sure you would not resign your part in that scene at an easy rate. A writer in the Literary Gazette asserts that "Winter" None ever enjoyed it to the height you do, and was written previous to this period, during the vacations, you are worthy of it. There I walk in spirit, and when Thomson retired from Edinburgh to Roxburghshire, disport in its beloved gloom. This country I am where it is a current tale that he composed the awful picture in is not very entertaining; no variety but that of the man perishing in the snow, while on a visit to a friend of woods, and them we have in abundance; but among the wild hills about Yetholm, eight or nine miles from Kelso and Ednam, the place of his birth. Foulkner, however, where is the living stream? the airy mountain ? in his Historical and Topographical Account of Fulham, p. and the hanging rock? with twenty other things 359, says: "In a room in the Dove Coffee-house, situated that elegantly please the lover of nature. Nature facing the water-side, between the Upper and Lower Mall at delights me in every form, I am just now painting Hammersmith, Thompson wrote his Winter. He was in the her in her most lugubrious dress for my own habit of frequenting this house during the winter season, when the Thames was frozen, and the surrounding country covered amusement, describing Winter as it presents itself with snow. This fact is well authenticated, and many per- After my first proposal of the subject, sons visit the house to the present day." I sing of Winter, and his gelid reign, |