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numbers, his paufes, his diction, are of his own growth, without tranfcription, without imitation. He thinks in a peculiar train, and he thinks always as a man of genius; he looks round on Nature and on Life, with the which Nature beftows only on a poet; the eye that distinguishes, in every thing presented to its view, whatever there is on which imagination can delight to be detained, and with a mind that at once comprehends the vast, and attends to the minute. The reader of the Seafons wonders that he never faw before what Thomson fhews him, and that he never yet has felt what Thomfon impreffes.

His is one of the works in which blank verse seems properly ufed; Thomson's wide expanfion of general views, and his enumeration of circumftantial varieties, would have been obftructed and embarraffed by the frequent interfection of the sense, which are the neceffary effects of rhyme.

His defcriptions of extended scenes and general effects bring before us the whole magnificence of Nature, whether pleafing or dreadful. The gaiety of Spring, the fplen-..

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dour of Summer, the tranquillity of Autumn,' and the horror of Winter, take in their turns poffeffion of the mind. The poet leads us through the appearances of things as they are fucceffively varied by the viciffitudes of the year, and imparts to us fo much of his own enthusiasm, that our thoughts expand with his imagery, and kindle with his fentiments. Nor is the naturalift without his part in the entertainment; for he is affifted to recollect and to combine, to arrange his discoveries, and to amplify the sphere of his contemplation,

The great defect of the Seafons is want of method; but for this I know not that there was any remedy. Of many appearances subfifting all at once, no rule can be given why one should be mentioned before another yet the memory wants the help of order, and the curiofity is not excited by fufpenfe or expectation.

His diction is in the highest degree florid and luxuriant, fuch as may be faid to be to his images and thoughts both their luftre and their fhade; fuch as invests them with fplenVOL. IV. dour,

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dour, through which perhaps they are not al ways easily discerned. It is too exuberant, and fometimes may be charged with filling the ear more than the mind.

Thefe Poems, with which I was acquainted at their first appearance, I have fince found altered and enlarged by fubfequent revifals, as the author fuppofed his judgement to grow more exact, and as books or conversation extended his knowledge and opened his profpects. They are, I think, improved in general; yet I know not whether they have not loft part of what Temple calls their race; a word which, applied to wines, in its primitive sense, means the flavour of the foil.

Liberty, when it firft appeared, I tried to read, and foon defifted. I have never tried again, and therefore will not hazard either praise or cenfure.

WATTS.

WATTS.

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