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fhew how neceffary a more accurate and scientific furvey of natural objects than has ufually been taken, was to the avoiding the common defects, and attaining the highest beauties of defcriptive poetry; and fome of the moft ftriking examples of excellence arifing from this fource were extracted from the poem now before us. It will be unneceffary here to recapitulate the substance of these remarks, or to mark out fingly the feveral paffages of our author which display his talents for defcription to the greatest advantage. Our present design rather requires fuch a general view of the materials he has collected, and the method in which he has arranged them, as may fhew in what degree they forward and coincide with the plan of his work.

The correfpondence between certain changes in the animal and vegetable tribes, and those revolutions of the heavenly bodies which produce the viciffitudes of the Seafons, is the foundation of an alliance between Aftronomy and Natural History, that equally demands attention, as a matter of curious speculation and of practical utility. The astronomical calendar, filled up by the Naturalift, is a combination of science at the fame time pregnant with important inftruction to the husbandman, and fertile in grand and pleafing objects

to the poet and philofopher. THOMSON feems conftantly to have kept in view a combination of this

kind; and to have formed from it fuch an idea of the economy of Nature, as enabled him to preserve a regularity of method and uniformity of defign through all the variety of his defcriptions. We shall attempt to draw out a kind of historical narrative of his progrefs through the SEASONS, as far as this order is obfervable.

Spring is characterized as the feason of the renovation of nature; in which animals and vegetables, excited by the kindly influence of returning warmth, shake off the torpid inaction of Winter, and prepare for the continuance and increase of their several species. The vegetable tribes, as more independent and felf-provided, lead the way in this progrefs. The poet, accordingly, begins with reprefenting the reviviscent plants emerging, as foon as genial showers have foftened the ground, in numbers" beyond the power "of botanists to reckon up their tribes." The opening bloffoms and flowers foon call forth from their winter retreats thofe induftrious infects which derive fustenance from their nectareous juices. As the beams of the fun become more potent, the larger vegetables, fhrubs and trees, unfold their leaves; and, as foon as

a friendly concealment is by their means provided for the various nations of the feathered race, they joyfully begin the course of laborious, but pleafing occupations, which are to engage them during the whole feafon. The delightful feries of pictures, fo truly expreffive of that genial spirit that pervades the Spring, which THOMSON has formed on the variety of circumstances attending the Paffion of the Groves, cannot escape the notice and admiration of the most negligent eye. Affected by the fame foft influence, and equally indebted to the renewed vegetable tribes for food and shelter, the feveral kinds of quadrupeds are reprefented as concurring in the celebration of this charming Seafon with conjugal and parental rites. Even Man himself, though from his focial condition lefs under the dominion of phyfical neceffities, is properly described as partaking of the general ardour. Such is the order and connexion of this whole book, that it might well pafs for a commentary upon a most beautiful paffage in the philofophical poet Lucretius; who certainly wanted nothing but a better system and more circumfcribed fubject, to have appeared as one of the greatest masters of defcription in either ancient or modern poetry. Reasoning on the unperishable nature, and perpetual circulation, of the particles of

matter, he deduces all the delightful appearances of Spring from the feeds of fertility which defcend in the vernal fhowers.

pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Æther

In gremium matris Terrai precipitavit.
At nitidæ furgunt fruges, ramique virefcunt
Arboribus; crefcunt ipfæ, fœtuque gravantur :
Hinc alitur porro noftrum genus, atque ferarum:
Hinc lætas urbeis pueris florere videmus,
Frundiferafque novis avibus canere undique fylvas:
Hinc feffæ pecudes pingues per pabula læta
Corpora deponunt, et candens lacteus humor
Uberibus manat diftentis; hinc nova proles
Artubus infirmis teneras lasciva per herbas
Ludit, lacte mero menteis percuffa novellas.

LIB. I. 251, &c.

The rains are loft, when Jove defcends in showers
Soft on the bosom of the parent earth :

But fprings the shining grain; their verdant robe
The trees refume; they grow, and pregnant bend
Beneath their fertile load: hence kindly food
The living tribes receive: the cheerful town
Beholds its joyous bands of flowering youth;
With new-born fongs the leafy groves refound;
The full-fed flocks amid the laughing meads
Their weary bodies lay, while wide-diftent

The plenteous udder teems with milky juice;
And o'er the grafs, as their young hearts beat high,
Swell'd by the pure and generous ftreams they drain,
Frolic the wanton lambs with joints infirm.

The period of Summer is marked by fewer and lefs ftriking changes in the face of Nature. A foft and pleasing languor, interrupted only by the gradual progreffion of the vegetable and animal tribes towards their state of maturity, forms the leading character of this Seafon. The active fermentation of the juices, which the first access of genial warmth had excited, now fubfides; and the increafing heats rather inspire faintness and inaction than lively exertions. The infect race alone seem animated with peculiar vigour under the more direct influence of the fun; and are therefore with equal truth and advantage introduced by the poet to enliven the filent and drooping scenes prefented by the other forms of animal nature. As this fource, however, together with whatever else our fummers afford, is infufficient to furnish novelty and business enough for this act of the drama of the year, the poet judiciously opens a new field, profufely fertile in objects fuited to the glowing colours of defcriptive poetry. By an easy and natural transition,

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