Befides these, and his tragedy of Sophonisba, written and acted with applaufe in the year 1729, Mr. Thomfon had, in 1727, published his poem to the Memory of Sir Ifaac Newton, then lately deceased, "unobferved by all his predeceffors. What poet hath ever taken "notice of the leaf, that towards the end of the autumn, "Inceffant ruffles from the mournful grove, "Oft tartling fuch as, ftudious, walk below, "Or who, in speaking of a fummer evening, hath ever men"tioned, "The quail that clamours for his running mate? "Or the following natural image, at the fame time of the "year? "Wide o'er the thiftly lawn, as fwells the breeze, "A whitening shower of vegetable down "Amufive floats. "Where do we find the filence and expectation that precedes "an April fhower infifted on, as in ver. 165. of Spring? or where "The fealing fhower is fearce to patter heard "Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves. "How full, particular, and picturefque, is this affemblage "of circumftances that attend a very keen froft in a night "of winter! Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects "The heifer lows; the diftant water-fail "Shakes from afar. "In no one fubject are common poets more confused and "unmeaning, than in their defcription of rivers, which are "generally faid only to wind and to murmur, while their quali"tics and courfes are feldom accurately marked: examine the "exattnefs of the enfuing defeription, and confider what a per"feat idea it communicates to the mind: containing a deserved encomiumof that incomparable man, with an account of his chief difcoveries; fublimely poetical, and yet fo juft, that an ingenious foreigner, the Count Algarotti, takes a line of it for Around th' adjoining brook, that purls along "A various group the herds and flocks compofe, "A group worthy the pencil of Giacomo de Baffano, and "fo minutely delineated, that he might have worked from *this sketch; "on the graffy bank "Some ruminating lie; while others fland "He adds, that the ox, in the middle of them, "from his fides "The troublous infeas lafhes, to his fides "A natural circumftance, that, to the beft of my remembrance, "hath escaped even the natural Theocritus. Nor do I recollea "that any poct hath been ftruck with the murmurs of the num"berlefs infects that fwarm abroad at the noon of a fummer's day; as attendants of the evening, indeed, they have been " mentioned: Refounds the living furface of the ground; "Nor undelightful is the ceafelefs hum, With half-fhut eyes. "But the novelty and nature we admire in the defcriptions "of Thomson, is by no means his only excellence: he is equally to be praifed for impreffing on our minds the effects "which the fcene delineated would have on the prefent fpectator or hearer. Thus having fpoken of the roaring of the favages "in the wildernefs of Africa, he introduces a captive, who, though juft efcaped from prifon and flavery, under the tyrant 66 the text of his Philosophical Dialogues, Il Neutonianifmo per le dame: this was in part owing to the aflistance he had of his friend Mr. Gray, a gentleman well verfed in the Newtonian philosophy, who, on that occafion, gave him a very exact, though general, abftract of its principles. That fame year the resentment of our merchants "of Morocco, is fo terrified and aftonifhed at the dreadful uproar, that "The wretch half wifhes for his bonds again. Thus, alfo, having defcribed a caravan loft and overwhelmed in one of thofe whirlwinds that fo frequently agitate and "lift up the whole fands of the defert, he finishes his picture by adding, that, "in Cairo's crowded street "The impatient merchant wond'ring waits in vain, "And thus, laftly, in defcribing the peftilence that deftroyed the "British troops at the fiege of Carthagena, he has ufed a circum"flance inimitably lively, picturefque, and ftriking to the imagi"nation; for he fays that the Admiral not only heard the 46 groans of the fick that echoed from fhip to fhip, but that "he alfo penfively stood and liftened, at midnight, to the "dafhing of the waters, occafioned by throwing the dead bodics "into the fea : "Heard, nightly, pling'd into the fullen waves "Thefe obfervations on Thomfon might be ftill augmented, "by an examination and developement of the beauties in the "loves of the birds, in Spring, ver. 580.; a view of the torrid 26 zone, in Summer, ver. 626.; the rife of fountains and rivers, "in Autumn, ver. 781.; a man perifhing in the fnows, in "Winter, ver. 277.; and the wolves defcending from the Alps, and a view of winter within the Polar circle, ver. 8og.; which are all of them highly finished originals, excepting "a few of thofe blemishes intimated above. Winter is, in my "apprehenfion, the most valuable of these four poems; the "frenes of it, like thofe of Il Penferofo of Milton, being "of that awful, and folemn, and penfive kind, on which a great genius beft delights to dwell." for the interruption of their trade by the Spaniards in America running very high, Mr. Thomfon zealoufly took part in it, and wrote his poem Britannia, to roufe the nation to revenge: and although this piece is the lefs read that its fubject was but accidental and temporary, the fpirited generous fentiments that enrich it can never be out of season: they will at least remain a monument of that love of his country, that devotion to the public, which he is ever inculcating as the perfection of virtue, and which none ever felt more pure, or more intenfe, than himself. Our Author's poetical ftudies were now to be interrupted, or rather improved, by his attendance on the Honourable Mr. Charles Talbot in his travels. A delightful task indeed! endowed as that young nobleman was by Nature, and accomplished by the care and example of the best of fathers in whatever could adorn humanity; graceful of perfon, elegant in manners and addrefs, pious, humane, generous, with an exquifite tafte in all the finer arts. With this amiable companion and friend Mr. Thomson vifited most of the courts and capital cities of Europe, and returned with his views greatly enlarged; not of exterior nature only, and the works of art, but of human life and manners, of the conftitution and policy of the feveral ftates, their connexions, and their religious inftitutions. How particular and judicious his obfervations were, we fee in his poem of Liberty, begun foon after his return to England. We fee, at the fame time, to what a high pitch his love of his country was raised, by the comparisons he had all along been making of our happy well-poifed government with those of other nations. To inspire his fellow-fubjects with the like fentiments, and fhew them by what means the precious freedom we enjoy may be preserved, and how it may be abused or loft, he employed two years of his life in compofing that noble work, upon which,confcious of the importance and dignity of the subject, he valued himself more than upon all his other writings. While Mr. Thomson was writing the firft part of Liberty, he received a fevere shock by the death of his noble friend and fellow-traveller, which was foon followed by another that was feverer ftill, and of more general concern, the death of Lord Talbot himfelf; which Mr. Thomfon fo pathetically and fo juftly laments in the poem dedicated to his memory. In him the nation faw itself deprived of an uncorrupted patriot, the faithful guardian of their rights, on whose wifdom and integrity they had founded their hopes of relief from many tedious vexations; and Mr. Thomson, besides his share in the general mourning, had to bear all the affliction which a heart like his could feel for the person whom, of all mankind, he moft revered and loved. At the fame time he found himself, from an easy competency, reduced to a state |