r Wordsworth, that men had
forgotten both the heavens and the earth. They had not--nor was the
wonder with which they must have regarded the great shows of nature, the
"natural product of ignorance," then, any more than it is now, or ever
was during a civilised age. If we be right in saying so--then neither
could the admiration which "The Seasons," on the first appearance of
that glorious poem, excited, be said, with any truth, to have been but a
"wonder, the natural product of ignorance."

Mr Wordsworth having thus signally failed in his attempt to show that
"much of what Thomson's biographer deemed genuine admiration, must, in
fact, have been blind wonderment," let us accompany him in his equally
futile efforts to show "how the rest is to be accounted for." He
attempts to do so after this fashion: "Thomson was fortunate in the very
title of his poem, which seemed to bring it home to the prepared
sympathies of every one; in the next place, notwithstanding his high
powers, he writes a vicious style; and his false ornaments are exactly
of that kind which would be most likely to strike the undiscerning. He
likewise abounds with sentimental commonplaces, that, from the manner in
which they were brought forward, bore an imposing air of novelty. In any
well-used copy of 'The Seasons,' the book generally opens of itself with
the Rhapsody on Love, or with one of the stories, perhaps of Damon and
Musidora. These also are prominent in our Collections of Extracts, and
are the parts of his work which, after all, were probably most efficient
in first recommending the author to general notice."

Thomson, in one sense, _was fortunate_ in the _title_ of his poem. But a
great poet like Wordsworth might--nay, ought to have chosen another
word--or have given of that word a loftier explanation, when applied to
Thomson's _choice_ of the Seasons for the subject of his immortal poem.
Genius made that choice--not fortune. The "Seasons" are not merely the
"_title_" of his poem--they are his poem, and his poem is the Seasons.
But how, pray, can Thomson be said to have been _fortunate_ in the
_title_ or the subject either of his poem, in the sense that Mr
Wordsworth means? Why, according to him, people knew little, and cared
less, about the Seasons. "The art of seeing had in some measure been
learned!" That he allows--but that was all--and that all is but
little--and surely far from being enough to have disposed people in
general to listen to t