BY JAMES THOMSON. WITH CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS ON HIS AND NOTES, EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL, BY JAMES ROBERT BOYD, EDITOR OF THE PARADISE LOST, AND OF YOUNG'S NIGHT THOUGHTS, "The Seasons,"-a Poem, which, founded as it is upon the unfading beauties of REVISED EDITION. DR. AIKIN. NEW YORK: A. S. BARNES & CO., 51 JOHN STREET. HARVARD 50*12 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852 BY A. S. BARNES & CO. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED BY RICHARD C. VALENTINE, PLAN AND DESIGN OF THIS EDITION. In this age, when the press is covering our land with a frivolous and pernicious literature, there is great danthat the rising generation will too much neglect, if not entirely lose sight of, those noble and solid productions of the British Muse which were familiar to their ger predecessors-the poems of Milton and Young, of Cowper and Thomson. These are worthy, not of a hasty perusal only, but of frequent and profound study-cspecially by the young-for the varied information which they contain; for the learning, and taste, and high order of genius which they display, and for the eminent service they are adapted to afford, in the proper culture of the mind and of the heart. The study of such authors, if so far pursued as to secure a fair appreciation of their style, and sentiments, and scientific information, cannot fail to raise the mind above the danger of contaminating and degrading itself with the greatly inferior and the worthless productions so common at the present day. But such an acquaintance with these authors cannot, except in rare instances, be looked for, without the aid of suitable commentaries, that shall clear up obscure passages, call attention to what is beautiful or faulty in style or sentiment, and, in short, give to the immature and uncultivated mind the aid and the incitement which it |