Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, To leafless shrubs the flowery palm succeed, And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead. 21, 22. j) Isa. ix. ver. 6. (k) Ch. ii. ver. 4. P Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem (q), rise! And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. The seas (v) shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, THE DYING CHRISTIAN. VITAL spark of heavenly flame! Isa. lx. ver. 1. Ch. Ix. ver. 4. (3) Ch. lx. ver. 3. (u) Ch. lx. ver. 19, 20. (t) Ch. Ix. ver. 6. (v) Ch. li. ver. 6. and ch. liv. ver. 10. Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying- Hark! they whisper; angels say, The world recedes; it disappears! Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! Oh death! where is thy sting? EPITAPH ON MRS CORBET. HERE rests a woman, good without pretence, JAMES THOMSON. BORN 1700-DIED 1748. THIS admired poet was the son of the minister of Ednam, a place of great beauty on the banks of the Tweed. He was educated at the grammar school of Jedburgh, and afterwards went to Edinburgh to study for the church. The professors of divinity taxed the boldness of some of the phrases in his exercises as indecent, if not profane, and his friends thought very meanly of his poetry. He abandoned all thoughts of the church, and went to London on the encouragement of a lady, who did nothing more to further his views. His finances were low, his friends none, his prospects the most precarious. But he published Winter, which, after a little time, attracted notice, and procured the friendless poet some really useful patrons. By one of these he was introduced to the Lord Chancellor Talbot; and, after publishing the other portions of the Seasons, Thomson became a person of celebrity in the world of letters, and was appointed to travel with Mr Talbot, the Chancellor's son. The young man died abroad, and was deeply lamented by his tutor, who paid a tribute to his memory in the poem of Britannia. Thomson's services were rewarded by the place of Secretary to the Briefs; but at the death of the Chancellor the place fell to his successor, and the indolence, bashfulness, or pride of the poet, or probably a mixture of all these feelings, prevented him from soliciting its renewal from Lord Hardwicke, who might have offered it, had his desire that Thomson should retain the office been very strong. The Secretary of the Briefs, living in ease and plenty, did not trouble the world with his publications. But the disposted poet found it necessary to resume his pen; and in this interval he produced some of his tragedies. By the kindness of Mr Lyttelton, who animated and directed the Court of the Prince of Wales, who then lived in open hostility with the Court of St James's, Thomson was allowed a pension of a hundred a year from the Prince, who affected to patronize men of letters. When his friend Lyttelton came into power, the place of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, bestowed on Thomson, set him at ease for life. But his life was not of long duration. He died on the evening of the 27th August, 1748, of a fever caught by taking cold on the Thames. The Castle of Indolence, his last and most finished production, was published shortly before his death. His play of Coriolanus was performed under the auspices of his friend Lyttelton to pay off his debts, and assist his relatives in Scotland. The life of Thomson gives one a better opinion of man. kind than can be drawn from the private history of most poets. From the urbanity of his natural disposition it was impossible that he could make an enemy; but he found many disinterested friends, by whom he was not only served in many essential points, but tenderly and warmly beloved. He never lost a friend, nor dropt one when his own worldly prospects brightened and extended. He was a very kind relation. His letters to his family in Scotland, after the lapse of many years spent in the pestiferous atmosphere of the great world, breathe regard as warm and tender as if he had never left his home; and he deserved the high and singular praise bestowed by Lyttelton of never having written a line which on his deathbed he could wish to blot. Thomson is described as "more fat than bard beseems," of a heavy and lumpish figure and countenance, silent in mixed society, but cheerful with his friends. His indolence was extreme; and a most happy graphic account of his habits and appearance describes him standing in luxurious laziness, his hands in his pockets, eating the sunny-side of a peach as it temptingly hung on a friend's garden wall: laziness in |