Ntment, Are Conceiv'D And Colour'D In An Exquisite Style. Fox-Hunting, The Fox-Hound'S Epitaph, The Long Autumnal Evenings, A Description Of Domestic Fowl, And A Welcome To The Snowy Nights Of Winter, Form The Concluding Topics Of This Season." "The Fourth Book, Under The Appellation Of Winter, Is Usher'D In By Some Humane Injunctions For The Treatment Of Storm-Pinch'D Cattle. The Frozen Turnips Are Broken For Them: And The Cowyard At Night Is Describ'D. The Conviviality Of A Christmas Evening, And The Conversation Round The Fire, With The Admonitions From The Master'S Chair, Are Depicted In A Manner Truly Pleasing. The Sea Boy And The Farmers Boy Are Contrasted With Much Effect: And The Ploughman Feeding His Horses At Night, With The Comparison Between The Cart-Horse And Post-Horse, Have Great Merit. The Mastiff Turn'D Sheep-Biter Is Next Delineated; Succeeded By A Description Of A Moon-Light Night, And The Appearance Of A Spectre." "The Counting Of The Sheep In The Fold, And The Adopted Lambs, Are Beautiful Paintings: And With The Triumph Of Giles On The Conclusion Of The Year, And His Address To The Deity, The Book And Poem Close." "Such Are The Materials Of Which The Farmer'S Boy Is Constructed. Several Of The Topics, It Will Be Perceiv'D, Are New To Poetry; And Of Those Which Are In Their Title Familiar To The Readers Of Our Descriptive Bards, It Will Be Found That The Imagery And Adjunctive Circumstances Are Original, And The Effort Of A Mind Practis'D In The Rare Art Of Selecting And Combining The Most Striking And Picturesque Features Of An Object." 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 Fact, The Result Of Unremitted Labour, And One Of The Most Valuable Acquisitions Of Litterature. It Displays Occasionally Likewise A Vigour And A Brilliancy Of Polish That Might Endure Comparison With The High-Wrought Texture Of The Muse Of Darwin. From The Nature Of His Subject, However, This Splendid Mode Of Decoration Could Be Us'D But With A Sparing Hand: And It Is Not One Of His Least Merits That His Diction And Harmony Should So Admirably Correspond With The Scene Which He Has Chosen." "To Excel," Dr. Drake Continues, "In Rural Imagery, It Is Necessary That The Poet Should Diligently Study Nature For Himself; And Not Peruse Her As Is But Too Common, 'Through The Spectacles Of Books' [Footnote: The Happy Illustration Of Dryden In His Admirable Character Of Shakespere.] He Should Trace Her In All Her Windings, In Her Deepest Recesses, In All Her Varied Forms. It Was Thus That Lucretius And Virgil, That Thomson And Cowper Were Enabled To Unfold Their Scenery With Such Distinctness And Truth: And On This Plan, While Wandering Through His Native Fields, Attentive To 'Each Rural Sight, Each Rural Sound,' Has Mr. Bloomfield Built His Charming Poem." "It Is A Work Which Proves How Inexhaustible The Features Of The World We Inhabit: How From Objects Which The Mass Of Mankind Is Daily Accustom'D To Pass With Indifference And Neglect. Genius Can Still Produce Pictures The Most Fascinating, And Of The Most Interesting Tendency. For It Is Not To Imagery Alone, Though Such As Here Depicted Might Ensure The Meed Of Fame, That The Farmer'S Boy Will Owe Its Value With Us And With Posterity. A Morality The Most Pathetic And Pure, The Feelings Of A Heart Alive To All The Tenderest Duties Of Humanity And Religion, Consecrate Its Glowing Landscapes, And Shed An Interest Over Them, A Spirit Of Devotion, That Calm And Rational Delight Which The Goodness And Greatness Of The Creator Ought Ever To Inspire." Dr. Drake Confirms, By Copious And Very Judicious Extracts From The Various Parts Of The Poem, As They Offer Themselves To Critical Selection, In Accompanying The Farmer'S Boy Through The Circle Of His Year, The Judgment Which He Has Form'D With So Much Ability, Taste, And Feeling, And Has To Agreeably Express'D, Of The Merits Of Our English Georgic. And He Speaks In His Third And Last Essay On It Thus: "From The Review We Have Now Taken Of The Farmer'S Boy, It Will Be Evident, I Think, That Owing To Its Harmony And Sweetness Of Versification, Its Benevolence Of Sentiment, And Originality Of Imagery, It Is Entitled To Rank Very High In The Class Of Descriptive And Pastoral Poetry." He Concludes With An Highly Animated And Feeling Anticipation Of That Public Attention To The Poem And To Its Author, Merited In Every View, And Which Already Has Manifested Itself In Such An Extent. I Understand There Is A Paper On "The Farmer'S Boy" In A Work Lately Publish'D By Dr. Anderson; And Assuredly From Its Subject Well Entitled To Attention, As Well As From The Abilities And Public Spirit Of Its Editor; - Agricultural Recreations. Where Indeed With More Appropriate Honor Could Such A Poem Be Notic'D? In The Critical Remarks I Intended I Find Myself So Much Agreeing In Sentiment With Dr. Drake That I Shall Attempt Little More Than Merely To Offer Some Few Observations. One Of These Relates To The Coincidences Of Thought And Manner In The Farmer'S Boy With Other Writings. These, As Would Previously Be Expected From What Has Been Said, Are Extremely Few Indeed. And Almost All That Are Particularly Of Moment In Appreciating The Poetical Excellences Of The Work Are Most Truly Coincidences, And Cannot Be Otherwise Consider'D. For The First Of These Which I Shall Mention I Am Indebted To William Smith, Esq. Of Bury, Who Had Largely His Share Of Public Admiration, When He Sustain'D For Many Years With Great Skill And Judgment, And Great Natural Advantages, Almost Every Character Of Our Drama Which Had Been Eminently Favor'D By Either Muse; And Who Now Enjoys Retirement With Honor And Merited Esteem. He Mention'D To Me In Conversation, And Since By Letter, A Passage Very Closely Resembling One In The Idyllia Of Ausonius. It Is This In Spring. Like The Torn Flower The Fair Assemblage Fly. Ah, Fallen Rose! Sad Emblem Of Their Doom; Frail As Thyself, They Perish While They Bloom! I.V. 388-40. The Passage To Which Mr. Smith Referr'D Me Is This. (It Is Not In My Edition Of Ausonius; But He Sent Me A Copy.) "Conquerimur, Natura, Brevis Quod Gratia Florum Est; Ostentara Oculis Illico Dona Rapis. Quam Longa Una Dies Aetas Tarn Longa Rosarum, Ques Pubescentes Juncta Senecta Pressit." Id. Xiv. I Am Favor'D With A Translation Made By Mr. Smith In His Very Early Days. And Hope That As A Brother Etonian He Allows Me To Quote It. Nature, We Grieve That Thou Giv'St Flowers So Gay, Then Snatchest Gifts Thou Shew'St So Swift Away. A Day'S A Rose'S Life. - How Quickly Meet, Sweet Flower, Thy Blossom And Thy Winding Sheet! In The Procession Of Spring There Is A Fine Series Of Allegorical Images. Advancing Spring Profusely Spreads Abroad Flowers Of Kinds, With Sweetest Fragrance Stor'D: Where She Treads Love Gladdens Every Plain; Delight On Tip-Toe Beats Her Lucid Train; Sweet Hope With Conscious Brow Before Her Flies, Anticipating Wealth From Summer Skies. I. V. 271 - 6. Compare Now This Of Lucretius. It Ver Et Venus Et Veneris Praenuntius Ante Prunatus Graditur Zephyrus Vestigia Propter. Flora Quibus Mater Praespergens, Ante Viai Cuncta Coloribus Egregiis Et Odoribus Opplet. De Nat. Res. L. V. V. 736-9. Ed. Brindley 1749. There Spring, And Venus, And Her Harbinger, Near To Her Moves The Winged Zephyrus, For Whom Maternal Flora Strews The Way With Flowers Of Every Charming Scent And Hue. Or In The Very Words Of Bloomfield, Flowers Of All Hues With Sweetest Fragrance Stor'D. Hope Here Occupies The Place Of Zephyrus. Delight On Tip-Toe Supporting The Lucid Train Of Spring, - The Image And Attitude So Full Of Life And Beauty, - Is Our Poet'S Own. And What Poet, What Painter, Would Not Have Been Proud Of It? In Another Passage, The Splendid Raiment Of The Spring Peeps Forth Her Universal Green - This Of Lucretius Will Be Found To Have Much Similitude: Camposque Per Omnes Florida Fulserunt Viridami Prata Colore. 782, 3. O'Er Every Plain The Flowery Meadows Beam With Verdant Hue. And That Exceedingly Fine Verse, All Nature Feels Her Venorating Sway, Calls To Mind The Ever-Memorable Exordium Of The Roman Poet. If We Admire The Imitative Force Of This Line In The Epic Majesty Of Virgilian Numbers, Quadrupedante Putrem Sonitu Qualit Ungula Campum: Shakes The Resounding Hoof The Trembling Plain: Shall We Not Admire The Imitative Harmony Of This; Attun'D Certainly With Not Less Felicity To The Sweetness Of The Pastoral Reed, The Green Turf Trembling As They Bound Along. The Pause On The First Syllable Of The Verse Has Been An Admir'D Beauty In Homer And Milton. [Greek: Nux Ech D'Espchsen Enchos.] Ii. And Over Them Triumphant Death His Dart Shook, But Delay'D To Strike. P.L. We Have This Beauty, - Coinciding With The Best Examples, Though Underiv'D From Them, - In A Cadence Of Most Pathetic Softness. Joys Which The Gay Companions Of Her Prime Sip, As They Drift Along The Stream Of Time. Iii. V. 169, 70. The Beautiful Description Of The Swine And Pigs Feeding On Fallen Acorns Reminds Me Of A Most Picturesque One, Not Now At Hand, In Gilpin On Forest Scenery. The Turn Of This Thought, Say Not, I'Ll Come And Cheer Thy Gloomy Cell. Iii. V. 241, & C. I Believe Is From Scripture. Prov. Iii. 28. And So I Think Certainly Is That, 'Till Folly'S Wages, Wounds And Thorns, They Reap. Iii. 37. But The Most Remarkable Of All, And Where I Had No Expectation Of Finding A Similitude, Is In Near The Close Of The Winter. Far Yet Above These Wafted Clouds Are Seen (In A Remoter Sky Yet More Serene) Others, Detach'D In Ranges Through The Air, Spotless As Snow, And Countless As They'Re Fair; Scatter'D Immensely Wide From East To West, The Beauteous Semblance Of A Flock At Rest. Iv. 255 - 60. In Hercules The Lion-Slayer There Is This Passage: ........ Tad Epaeluthe Piona Maela, Ech Soianaes Anionia Mei Aulia Ie Saechsie, Ayiar Epeiia Soes, Mala Muriai, Akkai Ep Allais Erchomenai Phainonth, Osei Nephe Hydatoenta 'Hossat' En Thrano Eisi Elaunomena Prolepose Aee Noloioio Ziae Ae Thraekos Boreao. Ton Meni Thlis Arithmos En Aeeri Ginei Ionion, Oui Anusis Lisa Gar Ie Meia Proloioi Chulindei Is Anemth, Iade I Alla Chorusselai Authis Ep Allois Toss Aiei Melopisthe Zoon Epi Zthcholi Aeei. Pan Dar Eneplaesthae Pedion, Pasaile Cheleuthai, Aaeidos Erchomenaes. Haerakl. Leontoph. Idyll. Theocrito Adscriptum. Brunckii Analect. I. 360. ........ On Came The Comely Sheep, From Feed Returning To Their Pens And Fold. And These The Kine, In Multitudes, Succeed; One On The Other Rising To The Eye; As Watery Clouds Which In The Heavens Are Seen, Driven By The South Or Thracian Boreas, And, Numberless, Along The Sky They Glide: Nor Cease; So Many Doth The Powerful Blast Speed Foremost, And So Many, Fleece On Fleece, Successive Rise, Reflecting Varied Light So Still The Herds Of Kine Successive Drew A Far Extended Line: And Fill'D The Plain, And All The Pathways, With The Coming Troop. * * * * * I May Possibly Enlarge These Remarks In A Future Edition. At Present I Am Happy To Be Stopt Here, By So Good A Cause As The Urgency Of The Publishers To Complete A Third Edition; They Informing Me That The Second Is Entirely Out Of Print. But It Is Pleasant To See These Coincidences With Classic Poets Of Other Days And Nations In A Classic Of Our Own, Of The Best School: "The Fields His Study, Nature Was His Book." C.L. Troston, 22 Aug. 1800. The End.