ds to give. He does not tell us how he is affected by what he sees, and
looks upon neither directly nor indirectly. He does not search for any
resemblances that are not palpable, and founded in the nature of things.
All similes and metaphors which serve to express his own emotions are
carefully avoided. The whole is picturesque and life-like in the highest
degree, yet every circumstance is mentioned in the cool, unimpassioned way
in which we mention any common occurrence.

Thomson accomplishes his purpose by portraying his own feelings; not
indeed in so many words, but by the use of those expressions, and by those
transitions of thought, which mark a state of emotion. The epithet
'boding,' to which we have referred, is an example. It is an indirect
disclosure of the mood of his own mind. At another time it is not
improbable that an epithet of a directly opposite meaning would have been
selected. The reader is affected by it, because by a law of sympathy, we
are affected by whatever reveals the presence of passion in another. It
influences us precisely as the tones of the voice of a person in distress
influence us. Both are expressive of emotion, and we cannot remain
unaffected by them.

This is the main source of the pleasure we feel in reading Thomson's
description. It conveys to us but a very indistinct idea of the subject
matter. Different readers, according to their mental peculiarities, will
be differently affected by it. He does not paint to the bodily eye, but to
the eye of the mind; and he will feel most pleasure who puts himself in
the same position as the poet, and sees with his eyes and hears with his
ears. Unless he can do this, he will derive but little gratification from
the perusal.

Less minute than Irving, and more picturesque than Thomson, Scott will
probably to most readers give more pleasure than either of them. In
conveying lively impressions of natural objects he is unsurpassed, but he
is scarcely less successful in inspiring the mind of the reader with the
same emotions that fill his own breast. There is ever between the thought
and its expression a perfect harmony. It is only when agitated by passion
that he uses the _language_ of passion. Hence we never find that timid
phraseology which so often disgusts us in Thomson; _vox et praeterea
nihil_. No one delights more in the use of figurative language, nor
employs metaphors that more appropriately convey the sentiment that
pervades his mind. In t