The telescope. (Columbia, S.C.) 1815-1818, April 16, 1816, Image 1
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historical.
INTERESTING DOCUMENTS.
Tho following arc extract* from letter* tendf
ing to prove that tlio American declaration of In*
dependence wok the cfleet of ministerial op*
prewion* ami not tlie result of a preconcerted
plan. Though intended for the bosom of pri
vate friendship, these letters may legitimately
be considered at conveying the sentimenta of
the whole American people at that time. They
evince the reluctanco with which a ntparation
from Groat-llfitain was contemplated.; and do
tfiat they availed themselves of (he obnoxious
acta of tho British government for its assertion."
.Thomas Jefferson, inoletter to Dr. William
Small, formerly one of the professors of Wil
liam and Mary College, but then at Birming
ham, England, where he successfully applied
his extensivo scientific knowledge to practical
improvements, in various manufactures, &c. dat
ed May 7,1773, writes as follows M' Within
this week, wo have received the unhappy nows
of an action of considerable magnitude between
the King's troops and our brethren of Boston,
in which it is said 500 of the former, with the
Earl of Percy, were slain. That such ati ac
tion has happened is undoubted, though, per
haps, the circumstances may not <get have reach
ed us with truth. This accident has cut olf ?fir
last hopes of reconciliation, and a nhrenzy of
revenge Seem* to have seized all ranKs of peo
ple. ? It is a lamentable circumstance that the
only mediatory power acknowledged by both
parties, instead of leading to a reconciliation this
divided people, should pursue t)ie incendiary
guiiioso of Still blowing up tho flames, as we
nil Wm constantly doing in every speech, and
jMtblic declaration. This mSy? perhaps, be in
fthded to intimidate Into acquiescence, but the
effect has been most unfortunately otherwise.
A little knowledge of human nature* and at
tention to its ordinary workings, might have
foreseen that the spirits of the people were in a
state, in which they were morefikely to be pro
voked than frightened by haughty deportment)
and to fill up the measure of irritation, proscrip
tion of,^,^^ been '
jople wSfe .
Ion whose sole crime has been develop
ing and asserting their right* ?Hadthe par
liament poaaeSsed the liberty of reflection, they
would have Avoided a measure ss impotent as it
was inflammatory. When I saw 1/ord Chat
ham's bill, I entertained high hopes that a recon
ciliation could have been broeght about*?
The difference between his terms and those of
fered by our congress, might havo been accom
modated, if entered on both parties with a dis
position to sccommodate % but the dignity of
parliament it seems, can brook no opposition to
its power. Strang? that a set of men who have
made sale of their virtue to the ministry, should
yet talk of retaining dignity!"
Another letter from the samo gentleman to
John Randolph, the former Attorney-General,
dated August 25, 1775, contains the annexed
passage i?" I am sorry the situation of our
country should render it not eligible to you to
remain longer in it. I hope the returning wis
dom of Great-Britain will ere long put an end
to the unnatural contest. There may be peo
ple to whose tempers nnd dispositions conten
tion may he pleasing, and who may therefore
wish continuance of confusion t hut to me it
is of all states Int one, tho most horrid. My
first wish is a restoration of our just right* j??
my second, n return of the iuippv period when,
consistently with duty, I may withdraw myself
totally from tho public eve, and pass the rest of
my days in domestic ease and tranquility, ba
nishing every desire of afterwards even (rearing
what passes in tho world. Perhaps, ardor for
the lotter adds considerably to the warmth of
the former wish. Looking with fondness to
ward* a reconciliation with Great-Britain, 1 can
not help hoping you may bo able to contribute
towards expediting (his good work. I think it
?>nust be evident to yourself that tho ministry
).nv?? I?een deceived by their offtccra on this slrfe
the water, who, for wliat purposes I cannot tell,
have constantly representee! tjio American op
K?i(iou as that of ? small faction, in which the
dy of the people look a little part. 'lids you
can inform (hem of your own Knowledge to Ik*
untrue. They have taken it into (heir heads,
too, that we are coward", and shall surrender at
discretion to an armed force. The pant and fu
(ure operations of (he war mus( confirm or un
deceive (hem on that head. I wish they were
thoroughly and minutely acquainted with every
circumstance relative to America, as it exists in
tru(h. I am persuaded they would go far to
wards disposing them (o reconciliation. Even
those in Parliament who are called friends to
America, seem to know nothing of our real de
terminations. 1 observe they pronounced.in
thp last ^parliament that the congress of 1774
did not intend to insist rigorously on the terms
they held out, but kept something in the reserve
to give up, and in fact, that they would give up
every thing but the right of taxation. Now the
truth is far from thjs. as I can affirm, and put
uiy honor to the assertion. Their continuing in
this error, may, perhaps, have very ill conic
coiivinco the world tliojr were not M(
Thoy gave up the monopoly and I
trade, ami all ecte pasted prior to 1
to British generoaityto render the*, J*
ture timo, as cany to America as the I
of Great*DrHalii o6*M Admit* I'fWifc*
sense of honor, no iirnorance of oar reel
tions, no vain hope that partial conce
right will bo accepted, may Induce the
to trifle with accommodation, till itthall
even out of our own power to accommodate*?
If, indeed, 0reat*Britain, disjoined from her co
lonies, be a match for the most potent nation^ of
Europe with the colonies thrown intothelrfccalc
thoy may so on securely} buf if they #re not
assured or this, it would be certainly unwlfce,
by trjing tlie event of enother campaign, to riik
our accepting a foreign aid, which, perhaps, tniur
not be obtainsblo but on a condition of ever
fating avulsion from England. This woulaDe
tnought a hard condition to those who wish ft're-i
union with the parent country. I am sinoerely
one of those, it would rather bo in dependance
on Great-Britain, properly limited, than on any
nation on earth, or than on no nation j but I am
one of those too who rather than submit to the
right of legislating for us, assumed by tho 'Bri*
tish parliament, and which late experience has
shewn they will so ctuelly overdue, would lend
my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean."
LITBlliAltY. ?
THOMSON" AS'l) CO
OONPAMBO.
No poetical .artist can well venture to draw
with minuter strokes than Thomson ha* done
in the delineations of rural scenery and occupa
tions which constitute the proper matter or sta
ple of hie poeiu, and which ore ^cueraliy both
pleasing to contemplate and happily selected for
the purpose of characterizing the Seasons. It
would l>o difficult to determine whether the
?;rand or the agreeable objects presented by na?
ure ^-.-re most congenial to Ms disposition. If
his imagination was captivated by the former,
his heart inclined him to the latter, especially to
such as called forth kind and benevolent emoti
ons i and as thole offered themselves most co
piously to his observation, thby occur most fre
quently ill his poem. His scenes of sublimity
are chiefly token from tht polar and tropical re
gions, in depicting which, he only transcribes
(With a poetical pen and fancy indeed,) the des
criptions of travellers. Ins home scenery
seems to have been almost entirely suggested by
his own remarks, first made when In
banks of the Tweed, and
lest
season he was describing. ho
appears t<> hav<i thought it incumbent upon him,
in order to support the dignity of verse, to in*
tcrmix the figures and phraseology of the high
er kinds of poetry; and to this ho was particu
had acquired, in the practice of several eminent
writers, an artificial staieliness of diction, more
remoto from common speech than tho usual he
roic thyme couplet. This mixture of high
wrought language with-a humble topic is one of
the peculiar features of Thomson's style in des
criptive poetry. A few examples will illustrate
the manner of this combination.
In summer a picture is given of hay making,
in which the vanous operations of that pleasing
rural labor are minutely represented. The fol
owing lines are part of die description I
B'en atoonmg age it here, and infant hand*
Trail the long fake, or With the fragrant load
(VorchalrgM, arokl the Kindopprtttlon roll,
all in a row
Advancing hrttitl, or wheeling round the Held,
They spread the breaihing A<irvttt to the sun.
In tlie autumnal scene of the hare hunt, when
the poor animal is put up?
the spring* amaat'd and all
The tirvtijff tout of gome It up, al onet,
The stag, in similar circumstances,
Gives all hit tvift aerial toul to flight.
When a herd of cattle has taken alarm from
the attack of a swarm of gad-flies?
. . . touting the foam,
They tcorn the Keeper'* voice, aixl scour the plain,
Thro' all M?; bright tevrrity of noon.
All these quotations afford examples of that
abstraction or generalir.ation which is one of the
distinctions of poetical language, and which
when in unison with tho subject and ordinary
strain of tho diction, often produces a very hap
py effect. How far it docs so in the preceding
passages, the reader may determine according
tohia own feelings. To me, while the two last
appear not only excusable, but worthy of admi
ration, tho former give the perception of tnrgi
dity and illrapjdieu effort. Tho following linen
in tho description of the vintage, afford a singu
lar mixture of vulgar and lofty phraseology :?
Then come* the crushing swam, the country floj?t*
And foam* tinlmundcd with the m:?r*hy tW.I,
Th|t by degree* fermented nnd refined,
Uound the mis'd nation* pours the cup of joy.
There are few pages of the Seasons which do
not present some what of this combination of ele
vated language with common matter, which,
whatever critical judgment ho passed upon it,
mutit l>e regarded as characteristic of the author's
manner.
Another artifice which he employs to give dig
nity to a liumblo topic, is to annex to it moral
sentiment, ami, as it were, humanize the ani
mal natures concerned in the scene. Thus,
where he has perhaps descended the lowest?in1
of 4 spider catching'fliea in a
curmlnr und fierce,
[iitture *bhbcr?i1
:Ilo is afterward* called >the ruffian* and (he
victim fly, tHty'rijrtadleM wanderer i an\l the
w^ale action isminu tcly told in a tragical style
tliat^SOuld wit the ihurder of a Duncan or a
nner, the bear, seeking hii
wed with a hitman soul ??
?M&tfctfcaCe, ?coming wc*k compUint,
? assailing Want.
Whatever be thought of tlicso particular ex*
ample*, it is presumed thit rto deader of sensi
bility will otyett to the pleasing details of tiie
passion of tho groves, though in some instanced
the writer may have assigned to his feathered
pairs feeling* which only belong to human lo
vers.
The use of compound .epithets is another cir
cumstance by which Thomson's diction is
strongly marked. These are elliptical modes of
expression, by means of which, qualities or at
tributes are annexed to a subject in the most
concise form possible. The effect of this com
Kression is often truly poetical, a striking Idea
Ding excited by a single wonl, which it woOld
take a line to convey Tu detail. It is, however,
?a license in language, and when Arbitrarily fra
med, with no regard to grammatical propriety,
is apt to give offence to a correct taste. This Is
the case when the two parts of the compound
have no natural connexion,or Stand Mho relati
on to each other of substantivo'ari}l Attribute, or
of cause and effect. Tlius/liy ihe Seasons,
blood-happy, meaning happy In the taste of
blood ; thick-nibbling, standing close and nib
blingj pale-quivering, pale and quivering t fair
exposed, fair and exposed j seem examples of
harsh and vicious formation. In many instan
ces the compounding is effected merely by using
mi'aty%ctive adverbially, as, wild-throbbing, for
Wildly throbbing j louse-floating, for loosely
floating f where too little ap|>ears to be gained
to justify the licenso. (Tpon the whole, Thom
son's employment of this device to render lan
guage poetical, may justly be termed excessive ;
|and it is so characteristic of his style, that
! Drown, in his " Pipe of Tobacco," has person
ated tills poet chiefly by his compound epithets :
! ... forth itiuc cloud*,
Thought-thrilling, tliir?t.inciting cloiuU aronn<1,
And nuny-mining fires.
To apeak of Thompson generally as a des
criptive poet, it may then bo said, that in choice
of subjects, he rejects none that can be render
ed pWosingand impressive, and that lie paints
jwitn a*circuinstantial minuteness that uives the
~*~*ects clear and distinct to the imagination;
t With respect to diction, ho is usually ex
sive and energetic, with frequent touches
*0 imagery, but occasionally vcrg
nvgto and cumbrous, particularly
en he is desirous of elevating a humble topic
by a pomp of phrase. It may & added, that no
poet before him ever viewed nature either so
extensively or so accurately ; and that a bene
volent heart, and a soul tutored by philosophy,
and impressed by the sentiments of a puro and
eiilarg&l theology, continually animate his pic
tures o? rural life.
Of the merit of his versification, different
earn havejudged very differently. That his
lines sometimes move heavily beneath an over
weight of matter, and that they are occasionally
harsh and unmelodtoul, is sufficiently percepti
ble f but, considering tho length or his poem,
such defects may be excused j and the general
flow of his strain appears to me equal in harmo
ny to that of most composer, of blank verse,
though rarely attaining excellence. As he is
said to have Veen a Very uncouth reader of his
own lines* ills probable that his musical percep
tions wer* not remarkably nice.
*l*homs6n atilt bore the palm of descriptive
poetry* and lib manner was the nrinr.inal <ifili?e?
of imitation* whenC'owper, who had failed of
cxciting atttentiM'by a volume of poems (IIh
playing abundant genius, but in a repulsive
Karl), burst on the public with Ills4 Task.* litis
work, without professed subject or plan, eon*
Hinti* of a mixture of description, chiefly rural,
and of moral and religious sentiment, each in*
troduced as it seems to have suggested itself to
the. mind of the author, with rto other connexion
than casual association* Educated at a public
school, and afterwardi initiated in the school of
the world t of a temper frank and undisguised ;
naturally inclined to hilarity, but with great in
equality of spirits, which at length plunged him
into a morbid melancholy, and rendered nim the
victim of a gloomy and appalling system of reli
gion i kind and benevolent in lus feelings, but
converted by principle to a keen and caustic
censor of life and manners } long consigned to
a retirement in which his chief employment and
solace was the contemplation of nature } Cow
per brought a very extraordinary assemblage of
qualities, moral and intellectual, to give direc
tion to a genius of the first order. A free con
verge with men of the world, and an abhorrence
of every thing like affectation, in languago as
well an in manners, had formed him to a style
purely KiikI'isIi, not disdaining a mixture of com*
inon words, and rendered poetical, not by a
loftv* cant, but by expressions warmed with the
vivid imagery that played before his fancy. K*
qtially minute and circumstantial with Thotnp*
son in his mode of description, and by no means
fastidious in his choice of Hubjects, in which he
was partly influenced by a strong relish for hu
mour, as well a<4 a taste for the beautiful and su
blime. lift sometimes pa nts in a manner renem*
bling the Dutch or flemish school, but always
with touches of the true picturesque. When
Ids subject in low, he is content to leave, it so>
without any eflbi t to raise H by the ambitious
ornaments of artificial diction, secure of interest-,
ing his render by the truth and liveliness of his
delineation, 'llius in his picture of the Wood*
man, which hat been happily transferred tu can
vaa, not4. word la employed that riaea above th*
matter, yet the language could present no other
term* equally expressive j
Sluggy, and lean, and tiirewd. with pointed cm.
And tail ciopt iliort, half lurcher and half cur,
lib dog attend* him. Clo*e behind Ilia heel
Now crccp* he alow, and now with many a fritk
Wkletcampering, anatchr* up the drifted ?uow
With ivory teeth, or plough* U Witfi hi* anout,
Tlien nhiUM his powderM coat, and bprks for Joy.
Jfccdlc** of all hit prank*, the aturdy churl
Move* right towards the mark, nor it op* for aught
Hut now ht<1 then, with prea*ureol'hi* thumb,
T* adjutt the fragrant charge ot'a ?hort tube
That fume* beneath hi* nose. The trail ng cloud
Stream* far behind li.m, scenting all the air.
The Carrier, in a enow storm,
With h*lf-*lmtejre*, and puckerM cheek*, and teeth
Profited bare bgaintt the atom),
ia a draft, of the same kind, somothing more
bordering on the Dutch style, but perfect an a
copy of reality. In both these passages, word*
aro found which could nut have suggested them
selves to Thomaon ) or if they had, would scarce
ly have been admitted | vet what reader uf truo
taste would reject them ?"This masculine vigor of
vernacular diction, which is the characteristic of
Cowper's style, and in which lie resembles Dry
den, by no means precludes (any more than it
it did in that poet) the highest degree of graco
and elcgauce, when those qualities arc conge
nial with tlio subject. What can surpass in
gracefultics of hnguage, as well as in beauty of
imagery, his enumeration of plants in the (tow
ering shrubbery ? The tall guelder-rose
throwing up into the darketl gloom
Of neighboring ryprt**, or more table yew,
Ilcr niTvcr glnbe.i, light a* the foamy turf
That the wind acvcr* from the broken wave.
*. luxuriant above all
Theja-k'mine, throwing wide Iter elegnnt nwect*.
The deep dark green of whote unviimith'd leaf
MnWct inoro cnnxpicjious, and illumine* more,
The bright proftition of Iter tcailcr'd star*.
If the passage in which these lines are con
tained be compared with a resembling one in
Thompson, describing the flowors that blow from
early 8'pring to Summer, it will appear that
whikt the latter poet attempts little more than
to annex to each some mark of distinction pro
perly belonging to it, the former associates with
| the subject of liis description some idea of thu
imagination which euhances its effect* by parol
j lclism. Nothing denotes the mind of a poet so
much aa this operation of the fancy when object*
arc presented to the external senses.
Inat Thomson was in general an exact aa
well as a minute, observer of nature, is evinced
in almost every page of.the Seasons \ yet thero
are some instances in which Cowper, touching
upon the same circumstances with him, has dis
played superior correctness. Thus where Thom
son, with a truly picturesque selection of inci
dents, represents the effects of a hard front, ho
augment* the real wonders of the scene by paint
ing a cascade aa if it were congealed into ice at
the instant of fulling :
. . . The dumb catcado,
Whose idle torrent n only ?ccm to roir.
Hut this is an impossibility, and is regarded
ait uticli by Cowper, who has formed a beautiful
frost pictu 10 from the opposite appearances.-?
Speaking of a stream stealing atvay beneath its
frozen surface* he Hays,??
Not *n, where *rornful of a check, it leapt
The milUlnm, dxthes on tl*e restlci* wheel,
And wanton* in tin pebbly gulf below.
So .roitcan bind it there i its utmost t'orco
Can but arrest the light And itnoky mist
Tliat in its fall the liquid sheet throws wide.
In this pusage, too. Cowper is more accurato
in the silent,* stealthy flow of the frost-bound
stream, win Thomson, who, probably for the
sake'of poetical ofleet, represents it as indig
nantly murmuring at its chains *?
Tlio whole ImprisonM river growls below.
Cowper's exactness was probably owing to his
having been from his situation, an observer of
nature at an advanced period of life, when tho
novelty of common objects being exhausted, the
rural solitary U reduced to pry more closely in
to surrounding scenes, in order to excite a new
interest in then). Hence, his observations aro
commonly of a more curious and recondite kind
than those of Thomson, who usually takes what
lies obvious upon the surfaco of things. Every
reader of the Seasons has admired the pleasing
description of the red<breast, 14 paying to trust
ed man his annual visit j" it is recognised for
perfect nature, becauso every one has witnes
sed the reality t but few in their winter unlkn
have made those remarks on the same bird which
dictated to Cowper the following lines -
The redbreast warble* still, but i* content
With slender note* and more thnn half sunpreis'd,
Pleaa'd with his solitude, and flitting light
From spray to spray, where'er lie rests lie shake*
Prom many a twig the pendant drops of ice,
Tluit tinkle in the withered leaves below.
This picture Is ennally natural w ith the for
mer, and has the auditlonu merit of furnishing
new images to the fancy. It was from such a
mature arid deliberate study of nature that Mr.
White, of fthelborne, derived that store of cu
rious observations, which life has prosented in
the most entertainlg miscellany of natural his
tory that wa? ever composed.
Both of these poets occasionally employ per
sonification, which is a kind of abstract and com
prehensive description. To the poet of the
Wessons it was an obvious pitre of mechanism
that each should make its entrance as a living 0
sure f distinguished by some characterises ?f
Uiat portion of the year of which it was tho har
binger ? but it cannot lie said thut iu the**
drafts ho has diMilnved much fancy. The
epithet of" ethereal Mildness,** which lie ^ives
to HpHtig presents no visual linage , and it lins
bfcen justly oMected by Miss Howard, that the
** shqwer of shading rotes*" In which she des
ceftds, is an usurpation upon ths property of
Summer* To Bumtrier is assigned nothing moro
'* refulgent vouth," and an " ardent look."****