in the rest. Walking under thick trees in a vernal rain, which does not penetrate, is certainly very pleasant; but walking abroad even in such a rain, would hardly be agreeable enough to produce fine reveries on the profpect of plenty. This passage also is verbose and affected; Fancy is fir'd, the country ' kindles, &c.' the thought fimply expressed, is this; that heaven in shedding the rain, sheds herbs and flowers; &c. and that fancy anticipates their growth, and beholds the country covered with them.

Where a subject occupies any confiderable number of lines, it is commonly necessary to mention it repeatedly, either in the fame terms, or in others. The permitting one word to recur frequently, has been justly termed a flovenly practice; and writers, to avoid it, often have recourse to a kind of me

tonymical, or rather catachrestical expreffions, pressions, which are mostly either improper or inelegant. Thomson has a great number of these quaint phrases of his own construction. The reader must have observed, that in the two immediately preceding passages, the single circumstance of rain, is described by no less than seven different appellations; it is called 'falling verdure,' ' lucid moi' sture,'' promis'd sweetness,'‘treasures of the clouds,' ' heaven descending in • univerfal bounty,' 'fruits and flowers, and lastly, 'milky nutriment.'

Thus all day long the full-distended clouds, Indulge their genial stores and well-shower'd earth

Is deep-enrich'd with vegetable life;

Till in the western sky the downward fun
Looks out effulgent from amid the flush

Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes;
The illumin'd mountains through the foreft
streams,

Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist
Far smoaking o'er the interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems.

Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs
around;

Full fwell the woods, their every music wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the distant bleatings of the hills,
The hollow lows responsive from the vales,
Whence blending all the sweeten'd zephir
springs.

That a mind fully possessed of its subject, should aim to express it in every pofsible method, is natural; consequently one cannot wonder at finding in poetry, such frequent reiteration of the fame ideas in different expressions. The writer may experience no disgust from this redundance, but the reader must; for he has conceived the thought, and wishes not to dwell upon it, but to quit it for another. This is generally the cafe, but not constantly; repetition sometimes pleases. Our author had descanted largely on his vernal rain; but he introduces it here again, 'Thus all day long, &c.' with much dignity and ease. This paffage

U

sage has great merit; nothing can be more natural and picturesque, than the images of the 'fun shining from among • the broken clouds, and his radiance strik

،

ing on the mountain, streaming through

• the forest, trembling on the water,

and glitterThere is a

' fmoaking in the yellow mist, 'ing on the drops of rain. confufion, and contrariety of ideas in the circumstance of the landscape laugh'ing: the verb ' laugh,'* rather indicates a poetical person; but the epithets round, moist, bright, and green, are only compatible with a natural object. ' fwell the woods,' is an aukward phrafe, whose meaning can scarcely be difcovered; and Their every music wakes,' is but little better. Those who are cu

Full rious in found, will be disgusted with the cacophony in 'hollow lows. The * zephir' may be properly faid to 'blend,' or mingle, the various noises; but why that zephir' should be said to *Spring,' particularly 'from the vales, and why it should be said to be 'fweet

6

en'd,' are questions which it is natural to ask, but poffibly they could not be easily answered.

The amusement of angling has been generally regarded as a diverfion, not only inoffenfive in itself, but also favourable to the meditations of the philofophical and religious. Perhaps, however, it might be difficult to reconcile with the idea of moral rectitude, the idea of pleasure obtained by the punishment of innocent beings.* The attention of