and there by violet clouds, which burst in showers at the horizon, which they darken.

Thirty years before Rousseau, Thomson had expressed all Rousseau's sentiments, almost in the same style. . Like Rousseau, he praised gravity, patriotism, liberty, virtue; rose from the spectacle of nature to the contemplation of God, and showed to man glimpses of immortal life beyond the tomb. Like him, in fine, he marred the sincerity of his emotion and the truth of his poetry by sentimental vapidities, by pastoral billing and cooing, and by such an abundance of epithets, personified abstractions, pompous invocations and oratorical tirades, that we perceive in him beforehand the false and decorative style of Thomas, David, and the Revolution.-TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. II, bk. iii, ch. vii, pp. 217, 219.

Thomson is one of those minor poets who are read by each successive generation with about equal favor. His fame is as high now as it was during his lifetime, perhaps higher. His descriptions of English scenery, because of their faithfulness to nature, are much read by foreigners, especially by Germans.-HART, John S., 1872, A Manual of English Literature, p. 219.

For generations past, as the magic of Nature unrolls its annual recurrences and vicissitudes, some beauty or some majesty has here and there, by this person and by that, been more keenly perceived, more deeply loved, or acknowledged with a more fully realized sense of awe, because of something written by Thomson. He has been one of the concentrators and intensifiers one of the fixing and fashioning spirits of that characteristically modern passion, the love of scenery.

Our progenitors, to the fourth and fifth step of ascent from our own time, have delighted in Thomson; and, notwithstanding the shifting of literary models, and of the tenor of public taste, our successors, to as remote or a remoter term, may probably do the same.-ROSSETTI, WILLIAM MICHAEL, 1878, Lives of Famous Poets, p. 144.

Thomson dared to be true to the face of nature, and to make the delineation of it the all-sufficient object of poetry. And it enhances the merit of the poet that in this, a new form of poetic art, he was

thoroughly successful, and influenced the eighteenth century literature of Britain, indeed all British literature since his time. -VEITCH, JOHN, 1878, The History and Poetry of the Scottish Border, p. 443.

No competent criticism of any school has ever denied Thomson's claim to a place, high if not of the highest, among poets of the second order. His immense and enduring popularity would settle the question, if it had ever been seriously debated. For the orbis terrarum may indeed judge without hesitation on such point, when its judgment is ratified beforehand by many generations. Popularity which outlasts changes of manners and fashions is a testimony to worth which cannot be left out of the account, and Thomson's popularity is eminently of this kind. Neither the somewhat indiscriminate admiration of the romantic style, of which Percy set the fashion, nor the naturalism of Cowper, nor the great revolution championed in various ways by Scott, by the Lakists, and by Byron, nor the still more complete revolution of Shelley and Keats, availed to shake the hold of "The Seasons" on the popular mind. -SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1880, English Poets, ed. Ward, vol. III, p. 168.

For the most part in Thomson, we have mere picturesqueness-a reproduction of Nature for the mere pleasure of reproducing her a kind of stock-taking of her habitual effects.-MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY, 1880, Wordsworth (English Men of Letters), p. 85.

Just at present Thomson's reputation is a pious tradition rather than a visibly potential reality. It seems strange that this should be so, in an age which gives unmistakable and increasing welcome to the apostles of the new naturalism; for it is no exaggeration to say that the discoveries of Jefferies and of Burroughs were well known to Thomson, and that Thomson presented his transcripts of nature with perfect truth, freedom, and beauty, and sublimity of effect. One of the secrets of Thomson's power our new naturalists possess, namely, fulness of knowledge, acquired by careful sympathetic study; but for the felicity of his expression of the phenomena of nature he stands to this day unmatched. His pages are broadcast with these felicities of phrase. Such are his castled clouds, for

ever flushing round a flushing sky; the sleepy horror of his waving pines; the still song of his harvests, breathed into the reaper's heart; his sturdy boy grasping the indignant ram by the twisted horns; his lively-shining leopard, the beauty of the waste; his ruddy maid, full as the summer rose blown by prevailing suns; the slender feet of his red-breast, attracted by the table crumbs; his lightfooted dews; his isles amid the melancholy main. One does not need to pick and choose; they start from the opened leaves.-HALIBURTON, HUGH, 1893, James Thomson, Good Words, vol. 34, p. 467.

He was not an idealist; he sought simply to depict what he saw, and what apparently everyone might easily see. On the other hand, if Thomson was a realist, he was assuredly not one of the type to which the garbage of nature is as valuable and as well worthy of description as her noblest scenes. He discriminated. The most commonplace scene was good enough for his verse provided it was perfect of its kind; but decay and dissolution were, to him, matter for reference, not for elaborate portraiture.-WALKER, HUGH, 1893, Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, vol. II, p. 67.

Thomson must be acknowledged to be one of the greatest of our minor poetsi. e., of those that are ranked next to the great names of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and Byron. He holds this place in virtue of his vigor of imagination, his broad manly sentiment, the individuality of his verse, and the distinction of his subject. These have given him a remarkable and enduring popularity.-MINTO, WILLIAM, 1894, The Literature of the Georgian Era, ed. Knight, p. 68.

It is true that in this work man as a social being still occupies too large a place. Thomson cannot describe winter without giving a sentimental picture of the horrors of cold, nor spring without introducing a hymn to Love. Too frequently also there are suggestions of the "Georgics," and apostrophes to those "who live in luxury and ease, or to "the generous Englishmen" who "venerate the plough." Nevertheless, Thomson has the painter's eye. His winter and his spring are no mere adaptions from Vergil. He has a true and deep understanding of the

English landscape. With delicate subtlety he renders the impressions produced by spring or autumn, the charm of the indefinite periods when season gives way to season, the approach of rain, the forebodings of storm, the scudding of heavy clouds across skies grey and overcast. Even in the awkward French version something of the charm of these pictures lingers yet. . It is in these greytoned pictures that Thomson excels. But in others he revels in precision of detail. Occasionally, too, Thomson can command richness of colouring and splendour of imagery. What French

author wrote in this style, in 1730?— TEXTE, JOSEPH, 1895-99, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature, tr. Matthews, pp. 294, 295.

It was Thomson who made the first resistance to the new classical formula, and it is, in fact, Thomson who is the real pioneer of the whole romantic movement, with its return to nature and simplicity. This gift would be more widely recognised than it is if it had not been for the poet's timidity, his easy-going indolence. James Thomson is at the present hour but tamely admired. His extraordinary freshness, his new outlook into the whole world of imaginative life, deserves a very different recognition from what is commonly awarded to him. The "Hymn" which closes the "Seasons" was first published in 1730, when Pope was still rising towards the zenith of his fame. called to English verse a melody, a rapture which had been entirely unknown since Milton's death, more than sixty years before. GOSSE, EDMUND, 1897, Short History of Modern English Literature, pp. 233, 235.

It re

"Jacob Thomson, ein vergessener Dichter des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts"a forgotten poet of the eighteenth century -such is the title of a recent monograph on the author of "The Seasons" by Dr. G. Schmeding. . . . During the present century there have been no less than twenty editions of his poems, to say nothing of separate editions of "The Seasons;" while his works, or portion of them, have been translated into German, Italian, modern Greek and Russian. Only two years ago M. Léon Morel, in his "J. Thomson, sa vie et ses œuvres," published an elaborate and admirable monograph on this "forgotten

PERSONAL

I have had a letter from Mr. Philips, the pastoral poet, to get him a certain employment from lord-treasurer. I have now had almost all the whig-poets my solicitors; and I have been useful to Congreve, Steele, and Harrison; but I will do nothing for Philips; I find he is more a puppy than ever; so don't solicit for him.SWIFT, JONATHAN, 1711, Journal to Stella,

June 30.

When simple Macer, now of high renown, First fought a poet's fortune in the town: 'Twas all th' ambition his high soul could feel,

To wear red stockings, and to dine with Steele.

Some ends of verse his betters might afford, And give the harmless fellow a good word. -POPE, ALEXANDER, 1727, Macer: A Character.

Ambrose Philips was a neat dresser, and very vain.—In a conversation between him, Congreve, Swift, and others, the discourse ran a good while on Julius Cæsar. After many things had been said to the purpose, Ambrose asked what sort of a person they supposed Julius Cæsar was? He was answered, that from medals, &c., it appeared that he was a small man, and thin-faced."Now, for my part," said Ambrose, "I should take him to have been of a lean make, pale complexion, extremely neat in his dress; and five feet seven inches high" an exact description of Philips himself. Swift, who understood good breeding perfectly well, and would not interrupt anybody while speaking, let him go on, and when he had quite

done, said; "And I, Mr. Philips, should

take him to have been a plump man, just five feet five inches high; not very neatly dressed, in a black gown with puddingsleeves."-YOUNG, EDWARD, 1757, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 286.

In 1729 he published by subscription, his poems much enlarged, with the addition of one entitled "Namby Pamby;" the occasion of it was as follows: Ambrose Phillips being in Ireland at the time when lord Carteret was lord lieutenant of Ireland, wrote a poem on his daughter, lady Georgina, now the dowager lady Cowper, then in the cradle; in such a kind of measure, and with such infantine sentiments, as were a fair subject for ridicule: Carey laid hold of this, and wrote a poem, in which all the songs of children

at play are wittily introduced, and called it by a name by which children might be supposed to call the author, whose name. was Ambrose, Namby Pamby.-HAWKINS, SIR JOHN 1776, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, vol. II, p. 828.

Of his personal character all that I have heard is, that he was eminent for bravery and skill in the sword, and that in conversation he was solemn and pompous.JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, A. Philips, Lives of the English Poets.

Ambrose Phillips was a stately gentleman who had passed the best portion of his life in lisping dull songs about Chloris and Damon, Strephon and Delia, weakminded shepherds and bread-and-butter shepherdesses, who made it their silly business to play dismal tunes on oaten reeds to listening flocks of sheep which they called their "fleecy care. To see such a man made a fool of must delight every one. Pope made a fool of him by sending a paper to the "Guardian" brimful of good irony, in which while he appeared to praise Phillips as a superior poet to Pope, he left Pope so much the first that Phillips was literally nowhere. The artless and literally Irishman, Steele, was duped by the excellent irony; the astute Addison saw the joke. Phillips was Addison's friend; Addison indeed professed quite an affection for Phillips. He had praised his Pastorals; he had praised his Tragedies. With great demureness, pretending not to see Pope's irony, he had it printed. The ridicule of his friends greatly exasperated Phillips, who hung up a rod at Button's, with which he threatened to beat Pope when he should come to the coffee-house. Pope, who was no coward, laughed contemptuously at Phillips' menaces, called him a rascal, and charged him with robbing the Hanover Club. This double consequence-the discomfiture of Phillips and the quarrel of Pope-was much enjoyed by the virtuous. Mr. Addison.-RUSSELL, WILLIAM CLARK, 1871, ed. The Book of Authors, p. 155, note.

PASTORALS

1710

As to Mr. Phillips's Pastorals, I take the first to be infinitely the best, and the second the worst; and the third is for the greatest part a translation from Virgil's

Daphnis, and I think a good one. In the whole I agree with the "Tatler," that we have no better eclogues in our language. This gentleman, if I am not much mistaken in his talent, is capable of writing very nobly, as I guess by a small copy of his, published in the "Tatler," on the Danish Winter. It is a very lively piece of poetical painting, and I recommend it particularly to your perusal.-POPE, ALEXANDER, 1710, Letter to Cromwell, Oct. 28, Pope's Works, ed. Elwin, vol. VI, p. 106.

In mock heroic poems the use of the heathen mythology is not only excusabie, but graceful, because it is the design of such compositions to divert, by adapting the fabulous machines of the ancients to low subjects, and at the same time by ridiculing such kinds of machinery in modern writers. If any are of opinion. that there is a necessity of admitting these classical legends into our serious compositions, in order to give them a more poetical turn, I would recommend to their consideration the pastorals of Mr. Philips. One would have thought it impossible for this kind of poetry to have subsisted without fawns and satyrs, wood-nymphs, and water-nymphs, with all the tribe of rural deities. But we see he has given a new life and a more natural beauty to this way of writing, by substituting in the place of these antiquated fables the superstitious mythology which prevails among the shepherds of our own country.-ADDISON, JOSEPH, 1712, The Spectator, Oct, 30, No. 523.

Theocritus, who left his dominions to Virgil; Virgil, left his to his son Spenser; and Spenser, was succeeded by his eldestborn Philips.-TICKELL, THOMAS, ? 1713, Guardian No. 32.

When I remarked it as a principal fault, to introduce fruits and flowers of a foreign growth, the descriptions with the scene lies in our country, I did not design that observation should extend also to animals, or the sensitive life; for Mr. Philips hath with great judgment described wolves in England, in his first Pastoral. Nor would I have a poet slavishly confine himself (as) Mr. Pope hath done), to one particular season of the year, one certain time of the day, and one unbroken scene in each eclogue. 'Tis plain, Spenser neglected this pedantry, who, in his pastoral of

November, mentions the mournful song of the nightingale.

Sad Philemel her song in tears doth steep. And Mr. Philips, by a poetical creation, hath raised up finer beds of flowers than the most industrious gardener; his roses, endives, lilies, kingcups, and daffodils, blow all in the same season.- POPE, ALEXANDER, 1713, The Guardian, No. 40, p. 264.

Notwithstanding the ridicule which Mr. Philips has drawn upon himself, by his opposition to Pope, and the disadvantageous light his Pastorals appear in, when compared with his; yet, there is good reason to believe, that Mr. Philips was no mean Arcadian: By endeavouring to imitate too servilely the manners and sentiments of vulgar rustics, he has sometimes raised a laugh against him; yet there are in some of his Pastorals a natural simplicity, a true Doric dialect, and very graphical descriptions.-CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets, vol. v, p. 133.

Philips attempted to be more simple and natural than Pope; but he wanted genius to support his attempt, or to write agreeably. He, too, runs on the common and simple, he becomes flat and insipid.beaten topics; and endeavouring to be

BLAIR, HUGH, 1783, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Letters, ed. Mills, Lecture xxxix.

It is not uninstructive to see how tolerable Ambrose is, so long as he sticks manfully to what he really saw. The moment he undertakes to improve on Nature he sinks into the mere court poet, and we surrender him to the jealousy of Pope without a sigh.-LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 1871, A Good Word for Winter, My Study Windows, p. 45.

GENERAL

With Philips shall the peaceful valleys ring, And Britain hear a second Spenser sing. -TICKELL, THOMAS, 1713, On the Prospect of Peace.

All ye poets of the age! All ye witlings of the stage, Learn your jingles to reform, Crop your numbers and conform: Let your little verses flow Gently, sweetly, row by row. Let the verse the subject fit, Little subject, little wit, Namby-Pamby is your guide Albion's joy, Hibernia's pride. -CAREY, HENRY, 1729, Namby-Pamby.