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burgh, and fenior of the Chapel Royal, was no less ferviceable to Mrs. Thomson in the management of her little affairs; which, after the decease of her husband, burdened as fhe was with a family of nine children, required the prudent counfels and affiftance of that faithful and generous friend.

Sir William Bennet likewise, well known for his gay humour and ready poetical wit, was highly delighted with our young poet, and used to invite him to pass the fummer vacation at his country feat: a fcene of life which Mr. Thomson always remembered with particular pleasure. But what he wrote during that time, either to entertain Sir William and Mr. Riccarton, or for his own amusement, he destroyed every new year's day; committing his little pieces to the flames, in their due order; and crowning the folemnity with a copy of verses, in which were humorously recited the feveral grounds of their condemnation.

After the ufual courfe of fchool education, under an able mafter at Jedburgh, Mr. Thomson was fent to the Univerfity of Edinburgh. But in the fecond year of his admiffion, his ftudies were for some time interrupted by the death of his father; who was carried off fo fuddenly, that it was not poffible for Mr. Thomson, with all the diligence he could use, to receive his last bleffing. This affected him to an uncommon degree; and his relations ftill remember fome extraordinary instances of his grief and filial duty on that occafion.

Mrs. Thomson, whofe maiden name was Hume, and who was co-heirefs of a fmall eftate in the

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country, did not fink under this misfortune. She confulted her friend Mr. Gufthart; and having, by his advice, mortgaged her moiety of the farm, repaired with her family to Edinburgh; where she lived in a decent frugal manner, till her favourite fon had not only finished his academical course, but was even diftinguished and patronised as a man of genius. She was, herself, a perfon of uncommon natural endowments; poffeffed of every focial and domestic virtue; with an imagination, for vivacity and warmth, fcarce inferior to her fon's, and which raised her devotional exercises to a pitch bordering on enthusiasm.

But whatever advantage Mr. Thomfon might derive from the complexion of his parent, it is certain he owed much to a religious education; and that his early acquaintance with the facred writings contributed greatly to that sublime, by which his works will be for ever distinguished. In his first pieces, the Seasons, we fee him at once affume the majestic freedom of an Eastern writer; seizing the grand images as they rise, clothing them in his own expreffive language, and preserving, throughout, the grace, the variety, and the dignity which belong to a juft compofition; unhurt by the ftiffnefs of formal method.

About this time, the ftudy of poetry was become general in Scotland, the beft English authors being univerfally read, and imitations of them attempted. Addison had lately displayed the beauties of Milton's immortal work; and his remarks on it, together with Mr. Pope's celebrated Essay,

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had opened the way to an acquaintance with the best poets and critics.

But the most learned critic is not always the best judge of poetry; tafte being a gift of nature, the want of which, Ariftotle and Bossu cannot fupply; nor even the study of the best originals, when the reader's faculties are not tuned in a certain confonance to those of the poet: and this happened to be the cafe with certain learned gentlemen, into whofe hands a few of Mr. Thomson's first essays had fallen. Some inaccuracies of style, and those luxuriancies which a young writer can hardly avoid, lay open to their cavils and cenfure; fo far indeed they might be competent judges: but the fire and enthufiafm of the poet had entirely efcaped their notice. Mr. Thomson, however, confcious of his own ftrength, was not difcouraged by this treatment; efpecially as he had fome friends on whofe judgment he could better rely, and who thought very differently of his performances. Only, from that time, he began to turn his views towards Londen; where works of genius may always expect a candid reception and due encouragement; and an accident foon after entirely determined him to try his fortune there.

The divinity chair at Edinburgh was then filled by the reverend and learned Mr. Hamilton; a gentleman univerfally refpected and beloved; and who had particularly endeared himself to the young divines under his care, by his kind offices, his candor and affability. Our author had attended his lectures for about a year, when there was pre

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fcribed to him for the fubject of an exercife, a pfalm, in which the power and majesty of God are celebrated. Of this pfalm he gave a paraphrafe and illuftration, as the nature of the exercife required; but in a style so highly poetical as furprised the whole audience. Mr. Hamilton, as his custom was, complimented the orator upon his performance, and pointed out to the students the most masterly striking parts of it; but at last, turning to Mr. Thomson, he told him, smiling, that if he thought of being useful in the miniftry, he must keep a stricter rein upon his imagination, and exprefs himself in language more intelligible to an ordinary congregation.

So

This gave Mr. Thomson to understand, that his expectations from the study of theology might be very precarious; even though the Church had been more his free choice than probably it was. that having, foon after, received fome encouragement from a lady of quality, a friend of his mother's, then in London, he quickly prepared himself for his journey. And although this encouragement ended in nothing beneficial, it ferved for the prefent as a good pretext, to cover the imprudence of committing himself to the wide world, unfriended and unpatronifed, and with the flender stock of money he was then poffeffed of.

But his merit did not long lie concealed. Mr. Forbes, afterwards Lord Prefident of the Seffion, then attending the fervice of Parliament, having seen a specimen of Mr. Thomson's poetry in Scotland, received him very kindly, and recommended

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him to fome of his friends: particularly to Mr. Aikman, who lived in great intimacy with many perfons of diftinguished rank and worth. This gentleman, from a connoiffeur in painting, was become a profeffed painter; and his taste being no lefs just and delicate in the kindred art of descriptive poetry, than in his own, no wonder that he foon conceived a friendship for our author. What a warm return he met with, and how Mr. Thomson was affected by his friend's premature death, appears in the copy of verfes which he wrote on that occafion.

In the mean time, our author's reception, whereever he was introduced, emboldened him to risque the publication of his Winter: in which, as himself was a mere novice in fuch matters, he was kindly affifted by Mr. Mallet, then private tutor to his Grace the Duke of Montrose, and his brother the Lord George Graham, fo well known afterwards as an able and gallant fea officer. To Mr. Mallet he likewise owed his firft acquaintance with several of the wits of that time; an exact information of their characters, perfonal and poetical, and how they ftood affected to each other.

The Poem of Winter, published in March 1726, was no fooner read than univerfally admired; thofe only excepted who had not been used to feel, or to look for, any thing in poetry, beyond a point of fatirical or epigrammatic wit, a fmart antithefis richly trimmed with rhyme, or the foftness of an elegiac complaint. To fuch his manly claffical fpirit could not readily recommend itself; till after a