But he has not trufted entirely to these resources for combating the natural fterility of Winter. Repeating the pleafing artifice of his SUMMER, he has called in foreign aid, and has heightened the fcenery with grandeur and horror not our own. The famifhed troops of wolves pouring from the Alps; the mountains of fnow rolling down the precipices of the fame regions; the dreary plains over which the Laplander urges his rein-deer; the wonders of the icy fea, and volcanoes "flaming thro' a waste of snow;" are objects judiciously felected from all that Nature prefents most fingular and striking in the various domains of boreal cold and wintry defolation.

Thus have we attempted to give a general view of thofe materials which conftitute the ground-work of a poem on the Seafons; which are effential to its very nature; and on the proper arrangement of which, its regularity and connexion depend. The extent of knowledge, as well as the powers of description, which THOMSON has exhibited in this part of his work, is, on the whole, truly admirable; and though, with the present advanced taste for accurate observa. tion in Natural History, fome improvements might be fuggefted, yet he certainly remains unrivalled in the lift of defcriptive poets.

But the rural landscape is not folely made up of land, and water, and trees, and birds, and beafts; man is a distinguished fire in it; his multiplied occupations and concerns introduce themselves into every part of it; he intermixes even in the wildeft and rudeft fcenes, and throws a life and intereft upon every furrounding object. Manners and character therefore conftitute a part even of a descriptive poem ; and in a plan fo extenfive as the hiftory of the year, they must enter under various forms, and upon numerous occafions.

The most obvious and appropriated use of human figures in pictures of the Seafons, is the introduction of them to affist in marking out the fucceffion of annual changes by their various labours and amufements. In common with other animals, man is directed in the diverfified employment of earning a toilsome subfiftence by an attention to the viciffitudes of the feasons ; and all his diverfions in the fimple ftate of ruftic fociety are alfo regulated by the fame circumftance, Thus a series of moving figures enlivens the land, scape, and contributes to stamp on each scene its peculiar character. The fhepherd, the husbandman, the hunter, appear in their turns; and may be confidered as natural concomitants of that portion of the yearly round which prompts their feveral occupations.

But it is not only the bodily pursuits of man which are affected by these changes; the fenfations and affections of his mind are almost equally under their influence and the refult of the whole, as forming the enamoured votary of Nature to a peculiar caft of character and manners, is not lefs confpicuous. Thus the Poet of the SEASONS is at liberty, without deviating from his plan, to defcant on the varieties of moral constitution, and the powers which external causes are found to poffefs over the temper of the foul. He may draw pictures of the pastoral life in all its genuine fimplicity; and, affuming the tone of a moral inftructor, may contraft the peace and felicity of innocent retirement with the turbulent agitations of ambition and avarice.

The various incidents too, upon which the fimple tale of rural events is founded, are very much modeled by the difference of feafons. The catastrophes of Winter differ from thofe of Summer; the sports of Spring from thofe of Autumn. Thus, little hiftory pieces and adventures, whether pathetic or amufmg, will fuggeft themselves to the Poet; which, when properly adapted to the fcenery and circumftances, may very happily coincide with the main defign of the compofition.

The bare enumeration of these several occafions of introducing draughts of human life and manners, will be fufficient to call to mind the admirable use which THOMSON, throughout his whole poem, has made of them. He, in fact, never appears more truly infpired with his subject, than when giving birth to those fentiments of tenderness and beneficence, which feem to have occupied his whole heart. An univerfal benevolence, extending to every part of the animal creation, manifefts itself in almost every scene he draws; and the rural character, as delineated in his feelings, contains all the foftnefs, purity, and fimplicity that are feigned of the golden age. Yet, excellent as the moral and fentimental part of his work muft appear to every congenial mind, it is, perhaps, that in which he may the most easily be rivalled. refined and feeling heart may derive from its own proper fources a ftore of correfponding fentiment, which will naturally clothe itself in the form of expreffion beft fuited to the occafion. Nor does the invention of those fimple incidents which are most adapted to excite the fympathetic emotions, require any great ftretch of fancy. The nearer they ap proach to common life, the more certainly will they produce their effect. Wonder and furprise are af

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fections of fo different a kind, and so dictract the attention, that they never fail to diminifh the force of the pathetic. On these accounts, writers much inferior in respect to the powers of description and imagery, have equalled our poet in elegant and benevolent sentiment, and perhaps excelled him in interefting narration. Of thefe, it will be fufficient to mention the ingenious author of a French poem on the Seafons; who, though a mere copyift in the defcriptive parts, has made many pleafing additions to the manners and incidents proper for fuch a compofition.

But there is a strain of fentiment of a higher and more digreffive nature, with which THOMSON has occupied a confiderable portion of his poem. The fundamental principles of Moral Philofophy, ideas concerning the origin and progress of government and civilization, historical sketches, and reviews of the characters most famous in ancient and modern history, are interfperfed through the various parts of the SEASONS. The manly, liberal, and enlightened spirit which this writer breathes in all his works, must ever endear him to the friends of truth and virtue; and, in particular, his genuine patriotifm and zeal in the cause of liberty will render his writings always efti