Comprehending Medicine and Surgery, Physiology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geo- logy, Rural Economy, Agriculture, Horticulture, Perspective, Mathematics, Containing the Transactions of Literary Societies, Biography, Paleology, Philology, Classics, Poetry, Drama, Novels, Tales, and Romances [362] ALW-YORK THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE, LITERATURE, TASTE AND SCIENCE, IN GREAT BRITAIN, DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. N looking back to the second volume of the New Annual Register, to which we referred in our last, we find scarcely any notice taken of certain writers, who, on account of their celebrity, ought to have been mentioned in that period of the "History of Knowledge, &c." which related to the reigns of the two first Georges. We shall in this, and some succeeding articles supply the deficiency, beginning with the author of the "Seasons." James Thomson was born in September 1700, and discovering at an early age a promptitude for learning, a neighbouring minister, Mr. Riccarton, undertook to superintend his education; and owing to the narrowness of his pa rents' circumstances, he provided him with books, and other articles necessary to his progressive advancement in lite He was taught the common rudiments of learning at the school of Jedburg; but was not considered by the master of that seminary as superior to common boys, though even then, scarcely beyond the period of childhood, he amused his patron and his friends with poetical compositions, with which, it is said, he was so little pleased himself, that b 1812. оп on every new-year's day he threw into the fire all the pro ductions of the foregoing year. From this school he was removed to Edinburgh (his friends intending him for a minister), where he lived without distinction or expectation, till he performed a probationary exercise by explaining a psalm. His diction was so poetically splendid, that Mr. Hamilton, the professor of divinity, reproved him for speaking a language that was unintelligible to a popular audience. The rebuke is said to have led him to reject the ecclesiastical character, and he probably cultivated with increased diligence his talent for poetry. He repaired to London, and the reception he met with encouraged him to risk the publication of his poem on Winter. This piece was published in 1726: after a time it met with universal applause, and the acquaintance of the author was courted by people of the first taste and fashion. The Winter,though the earliest of Thomson's poems, is generally regarded as the best. The historical digressions suit the season, and agreeably relieve the mind after the richness of description. The principal advantage which this publication procured the author, was the acquaintance of Dr. Rundle, afterwards bishop of Derry, who introduced him to the lord chancellor Talbot, by whom he was selected as a fit person to attend his eldest son in a tour on the continent. The expectations which the WINTER had raised, were abundantly satisfied by the successive publications of the other seasons; of SUMMER, in 1727; of SPRING, in the following year; and of AuTUMN, in a quarto edition of his works, in 1730. Besides the SEASONS, and his tragedy of SOPHONISBA, written and acted with applause in the year 1729, he had, in 1727, published his poem to the memory of sir Isaac Newton, with an account of his discoveries, which he was enabled to perform with the exactness of a philosopher, by the assistance and instruction of Mr. Gray. The same year, he wrote his poem entitled BRITANNIA, to excite the nation to a spirit of revenge against the Spaniards, who had made depredations on its trade, On On his return from the continent, he settled at Richmond in narrow circumstances, and produced some dramatic pieces of celebrity: also "Liberty," a poem ; and "The Castle of Indolence," in imitation of Spenser. But his fame rests almost entirely on the SEASONS: in this his style is elegant and sublime, but in a few places it is incorrect. He delineates many parts of nature with great justness and propriety; but his descriptions have sometimes been thought minute and diffuse. He indulges in digressions, and, for a descriptive poem, perhaps gives way rather too frequently to reflections on human life: but his reflections are always natural, impressive, and interesting; they come home to the business and bosom of every reader, and generally inforce on the mind, lessons of sound morality and practical wisdom. He bears some resemblance to Lucretius, in his tender. strokes, in his digressions, and the moral conclusions of his books. His principal excellence consists in strength and sublimity, but there is sometimes a deficiency in the want of harmony and purity of expression. These faults, however, in Thomson, are easily overbalanced by a variety of pleasing, natural, and sublime beauties, which must for ever render the Seasons one of the most beautiful poems in the world. His description of love, in the Spring, is animated and pathetic, and is thought to be equal in every respect to Virgil's, or that of Lucretius on the same subject. It has even more of romance and enthusiasm; and one would be led to imagine that Thomson, as well as his predecessors, had felt the tender passion in no common degree, to have described it in so lively a manner. Thomson's Seasons are too well known to require quotations in proof of their merit: there are, however, two passages in the first edition of the Spring, omitted in subsequent impressions, that are eminently beautiful and sublime; and which, as they cannot be known to the generality of readers, we shall transcribe: "High from the summit of a craggy cliff, Hung o'er the green sea, grumbling at its base, b 2 The |