while investigating the merits of this astonishing Rural Poem.

In a letter from HADLEIGH * Dr. DRAKE has given me this distinct and vivid representation of his general idea of the poem.

"I have read THE FARMER'S BOY with a "mixture of astonishment and delight. There is a pathetic simplicity in his sentiments and descriptions that does honour to his head and "heart.

"His copies from Nature are truly original "and faithful, and are touched with the hand of "a Master.....His versification occasionally dis

'plays an energy and harmony which might de"corate even the pages of a DARWIN.

"The general characteristics of his Style, how'ever, are sweetness and ease. In short, I have "no hesitation in declaring, that I think it, as a "Rural and descriptive Poem, superior to any production since the days of THOMSON.

"It wants no reference to its Author's unedu"cated poverty to render its excellence the more "striking; they are such as would confer durable "Fame on the first and most polish'd Poet in the "Kingdom.

* March 9, 1800.

"I shall now take the liberty of extracting part of the CRITIQUE which Dr. DRAKE, agreeably to his intimation to me, has made of the FARMER'S BOY in his LITERARY HOURS *.

"From the pleasing duty of describing such a "character" (meaning the personal character of Mr. BLOOMFIELD) "let us now turn our atten"tion to the species of composition of which his "Poem is so perfect a specimen. It has been "observ'd in my sixteenth number that PASTORAL "POETRY in this country, with very few ехсер“tions, has exhibited a tame and servile adhe"rence to classical imagery and costume; at the "same time totally overlooking that profusion of "picturesque beauty, and that originality of man"ner and peculiarity of employment, which our "climate and our rustics every where present.

"A few Authors were mention'd in that Essay as having judiciously deviated from the customary plan: to these may now be added the name "of Bloomfield; the Farmer's Boy, though not assuming the form of an Eclogue, being peculiarly and exclusively, throughout, a pastoral "Composition; not like the Poem of Thomson, taking a wide excursion through all the phæno

66

* Vol. II. Ess. xxxix, p. 444.

"mena of the Seasons, but nearly limited to the "rural occupation and business of the fields, the "dairy, and the farm-yard.

"As with these employments, however, the " vicissitudes of the Year are immediately and "necessarily connected, Mr. Bloomfield has, with

66

propriety, divided his Poem into Four Books, 66 affixing to those Books the Titles of the Seasons. "Such indeed are the merits of this Work, that "in true pastoral imagery and simplicity I do not "think any production can be put in competition "with it since the days of Theocritus*.

"To that charming simplicity which particu"larizes the Grecian, are added the individuality †, "fidelity, and boldness of description, which "render Thomson so interesting to the lovers of "Nature.

"GESNER possesses the most engaging senti❝ment, and the most refin'd simplicity of manners; "but he wants that rustic wildness and naïveté in

*I have heard that the opinion of no less a Judge than Dr. WATSON, Bishop of LLANDAFF, is by no means short of the encomium implied in this comparison, high and ample as it is. C. L.

+ Much of these qualities indeed is certainly in Theocris tus also. C. L.

" delineation characteristic of the Sicilian, and of

"the composition before us.

"WARNER and DRAYTON have much to re"commend them: but they are very unequal; " and are devoid of the sweet and pensive morality "which pervades almost every page of the Farmer's Boy; nor can they establish any pretensions to "that fecundity in painting the œconomy of rural "life, which this Poem, drawn from actual ex"perience, so richly displays.

"It is astonishing indeed what various and "striking circumstances, peculiar to the occupa"tion of the British Farmer, and which are

adapted to all the purposes of the pastoral "Muse, had escaped our Poets, previous to the "publication of Mr. Bloomfield's Work.

"Those who are partial to the Country;-and "where is the man of Genius who feels not a de

light approaching to ecstasy from the contem"plation of its scenery, and the happiness which "its cultivation diffuses?-those who have paid "attention to the process of husbandry, and who "view its occurrences with interest; who are at "the same time alive to all the minutiae of the "animal and vegetable creation; who mark

'How Nature paints her colours, how the Bee
'Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweet,'

* will derive from the study of this Poem a grati "fication the most permanent and pure *."

Dr. DRAKE after this well accounts for the poetic singularity that the Poetry of Thomson should have past through a mind so enthusiastically enamor'd of it, without impairing the originality of its character, when exercis'd on a subject so much leading to Imitation. This he explains, and justly, by the vivid Impressions on a most sensible and powerful Imagination in his earliest youth, anterior to the study of any Poet.

Dr. DRAKE expresses his astonishment at the VERSIFICATION and DICTION of this Poem. And says most truly, "I am well aware that smooth and flowing lines are of easy purchase, and the property of almost every poetaster of the day but the versification of Mr. Bloomfield is of another character; it displays beauties of the most positive kind, and those witcheries of expression which are only to be acquir'd by the united efforts of Genius and Study.

The general characteristics of his versification are facility and sweetness; that ease which is, in

* In the seventh Edition I inserted Dr. DRAKE'S ANALYSIS of the FARMER'S BOY. And it is not agreeably to my wish or judgement that it has been since omitted. C. L.