The excited condition of public feeling during the earlier period,
incident to the accession of the house of Hanover and the last struggles
of the Jacobites, had given a political character to every author, and a
political significance to almost every literary work. At the close of this
abnormal condition of things, the poets of the transition school began
their labors; untrammelled by the court and the town, they invoked the
muse in green fields and by babbling brooks; from materialistic
philosophy in verse they appealed through the senses to the hearts of men;
and appreciation and popularity rewarded and encouraged them.
JAMES THOMSON.--The first distinguished writer of this school was Thomson,
the son of a Scottish minister. He was born on the 11th of September,
1700, at Ednam in Roxburghshire. While a boy at school in Jedburgh, he
displayed poetical talent: at the University of Edinburgh he completed his
scholastic course, and studied divinity; which, however, he did not pursue
as a profession. Being left, by his father's death, without means, he
resolved to go to the great metropolis to try his fortunes.
Pages:
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574