The poetical works of James Thomson ...

MEMOIR OF THOMSON. lv
play of talents, this must have been the happiest
period of the poet's life, since nothing more can
be desired than youth, fame, health, and competence in possession, with a bright perspective of
future renown.
During his absence from England he appears
to have kept up a correspondence with Mr. Bubb
Dodington, to whom he had dedicated his " Sunmmer;" and his letters,* which show that he was
on terms of intimacy with that gentleman, justify a more favourable opinion of his epistolary
powers than any others that have appeared.
They are also interesting from his account of the
impression which foreign scenes made upon his
mind, and of his future intentions with respect to
literature: -
"Paris, December 27, N. S. 1730.
"M. DE VOLTAIRE'S Brutus has been acted here seven
or eight times with applause, and still continues to be
acted. It is matter of amusement to me to imagine
what ideas an old Roman republican, declaiming on
liberty, must give the generality of a French audience.
Voltaire, in his preface, designs to have a stroke at
criticism; and Lord have mercy on the poor similes at
the end of the acts in our English plays, for these seem
to be very worthy objects of his French indignation. It
is designed to be dedicated to Lord Bolingbroke....
"I have seen little of Paris, yet some streets and
First printed in " Seward's Anecdotes," vol. v. p. 137,
and again in the " Universal Magazine," for September, 1798.