a poet of great eminence, was born in the parish of Ednam and county of Roxburgh, on the 11th of September 1700. His father was minister of that parish, which is contiguous to Kelso. The maiden name of his mother was Beatrix Trotter, and she was co-heiress with her sister of a small property, Widelhope, in Roxburghshire. At an early age James showed great aptitude for learning; and Mr Riccaulton, a neighbouring clergyman, furnished him with books, and took upon himself the chief direction of his studies. Mr Riccaulton was himself a poet, and author of a piece on Winter, which Thomson said contained some "masterly strokes that awakened him," and suggested his own poem of Winter (Letter to Cranstoun). The elementary branches of knowledge Thomson acquired at Jedburgh. He was early distinguished for poetical talent; but on the first day of every year he is said to have committed his boisterous effusions to the flames. Being intended for the church, Thomson was entered of the University of Edinburgh. His father died in 1720, leaving a numerous family; but the widow raised what money she could on her property by mortgage, and removed to Edinburgh with her children. James studied four years in the Divinity Hall. In October 1724, he delivered a college exercise—an illustration of part of the 119th Psalm—which is described as having been so splendid or florid in style as to call for reproof from the Professor, Mr Hamilton, who characterised it as unintelligible to ordinary persons, and bordering on indecency, if not profanity. Thomson had genius long before he acquired taste.

The poet's prospects in the Scottish Church being indifferent enough, he left Edinburgh and proceeded to London, intending to take orders in the Church of England. But to graduate at Cambridge or Oxford, and pursue classical and mathematical studies at the age of twenty-five, were formidable difficulties to the poor and indolent poet, and he was glad to accept an appointment as tutor in the family of Lord Binning at East Barnet. The mother of Lord Binning, Lady Grizel Bailie, had encouraged the poet's removal to London, and took a warm interest in his welfare; but Thomson, it appears, discharged the duties of tutor for only nine months. His mother died in May 1725, about two months after he had parted from her to proceed to England, and he dedicated some verses to her memory. In September of the same year, he commenced his poem of Winter, which was published in March 1726; a bookseller, Millan, having given him three guineas for the copyright. It was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton, afterwards Earl of Wilmington.

At this period of his history, the indigent bard was much indebted to the friendship of Mallet, who was then tutor to the sons of the Duke of Montrose. Mallet was a man of consummate dexterity, and very well qualified to enlighten his countryman in the art of pushing his fortune. In his zeal for the dignity of letters, Dr Johnson remarks that Thomson at this time "obtained the notice of Aaron Hill, whom, being friendless and indigent, and glad of kindness, he courted with every expression of servile adulation." Yet Hill was an ingenious and benevolent man, upon whom much praise could be conscientiously bestowed. He was also a man of spirit, as Pope had occasion to ascertain, when he provided him with a niche in the Dunciad. A proof of all these qualities now appeared in his conduct to the young poet. Of the dedication Sir Spencer Compton took no notice, until there appeared in the newspapers a copy of complimentary verses, addressed by Hill to Thomson, lamenting the miseries of genius, and condemning the paltry Macceases of the age. The result of this memento was an interview with Thomson, in which Sir Spencer, with perhaps the grace and delicacy of one bestowing alms upon a mendicant, made the poet a present of twenty guineas. A second impression of Winter was now called for, and the author's friends began rapidly to increase. Among these was Dr Rundle, afterwards Bishop of Derry, who introduced him to the Lord Chancellor Talbot. In 1727 appeared Summer, which was followed by "A Poem sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton." To this production he was enabled, by the instruction of his friend, Mr John Gray, F.R.S., to impart a philosophic spirit, worthy of the departed sage. In 1728 was published Spring, dedicated to the Countess of Hertford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, by whom the poet was invited to pass some time at the family-seat. The countess was herself addicted to the muses, and regaled her visitor by reciting to him many of her poetical lucubrations. This species of pastime, however, Thomson found somewhat insipid, and sought relief so frequently in the jovial company which surrounded his lordship's table, that he forfeited the favour of his learned hostess; and this invitation to become her guest, which was the first, was also the last that he ever received. For Spring the poet received from Millan the publisher fifty guineas. In 1729 appeared his poem of Britannia, and an elegy on the death of Congreve, that favourite of all poets and patrons. On the 28th of February 1729–30, the tragedy of Sophonisba was acted at Drury Lane; and in the following year, by the addition of Autumn, the plan of The Seasons was completed, and they were combined in a 4to volume, for which 454 copies were subscribed, Pope having taken three copies. The success of the play was much more moderate than was anticipated by the author's numerous and powerful friends. The feeble verse,

O, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!

and the parody to which it gave rise, spoken by a wag in the pit,— O, Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, O!

are still remembered: a fate which has attended few of his other tragic lines. His genius does not seem to have been dramatic; he is often flat, and when he rises, he seldom rises above rant; even his declamation, into which his dialogue too often expands, is not splendid, and his pathos is not affecting. In this, and in all his other plays, there is a perpetual repetition of the word glory, which surely argues poverty of sentiment; and Hurd did him little injustice when he applied to his palpable and laborious art in tragedy the words of Horace, promissus grandia target. Nor does he display any skill in depicting character, being a more diligent observer of external nature than of the qualities of men. His heroine hates the Romans, and, with little variation of expression, she says so every time she appears upon the scene. Syphax is only another Bajazet, and his rival Masinissa a common tragic lover, with whose raptures and lamentations no one has much sympathy.

About this time, or perhaps earlier, Thomson is said to have been under great obligations to the eccentric generosity of Quin, the celebrated actor, who, as the story goes, relieved him from a spunging-house in Holborn. After the publication of his Seasons, one of his creditors had him arrested, judging it was a likely time to procure payment. The amount of the debt was not forthcoming, and Thomson had every prospect of a lengthened sojourn in his involuntary retirement, when he was visited by Quin, with whom he had no personal acquaintance. The comedian gracefully apologised for his intrusion, to which Thomson was easily reconciled. The additional liberty of ordering supper was also taken in good part. After they had Thomson supped luxuriously and drank freely; Quin informed his new associate that he was indebted to him in the sum of one hundred pounds for pleasure received in the perusal of the Seasons. He then deposited the money on the table, and took his departure, leaving the imprisoned bard full of gratitude and amazement.

Thomson's poetical labours were, in 1730, agreeably interrupted by an invitation to attend the eldest son of Lord Talbot upon his travels. For this advantageous opportunity of extending his experience, he was indebted to the friendship of Dr Rundle. Upon his return to England, he was made secretary of briefs; the profits of which appointment were fully adequate to all his wants and desires. When in Italy, he conceived the idea of writing the poem of Liberty, which was afterwards completed in five parts, successively published in quarto; the first, second, and third in 1735, the fourth and fifth in 1736. This poem he dedicated to the Prince of Wales. One who has read the achievements of the masters of the world, and seen their posterity sunk in slavery and vice, is apt to imagine that he can say something that is new on the blessings of freedom and the horrors of oppression. But his sensations, which have been felt by all, have been described by many; and in the fervour of composition, mistaking the children of memory for the offspring of fancy, a great writer may produce, upon such an extensive theme, nothing but a tissue of common places, when he dreams that he has been making an invaluable addition to the treasures of knowledge. No man, whether sane or otherwise, prefers darkness and chains to light and the free range of creation; and when Thomson proved, by a multiplicity of examples drawn from the history of every age and nation, that the former were to be shunned and the latter pursued, the reader was neither amused nor instructed. By a species of infatuation not uncommon among authors, Thomson considered this poem the best of all his productions. It was coldly received by the public when it first appeared; and after the poet's death, when Sir George (afterwards Lord) Lyttelton was collecting his works for the press, he thought the best way of consulting the reputation of his deceased friend was to abridge it; a strange and unwarrantable proceeding, which no motives can justify. In the mutilated condition to which it was reduced by Lyttelton, it now appears.

The mortification of finding the public opinion of his poem opposed to his own, was followed by the death of Lord Talbot; an event which deprived Thomson of his place. The new chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, kept it vacant for some time, in order to afford him an opportunity of applying, in the usual form, to be reinstated; but no such application was made, and his lordship bestowed it upon another person. The silence of Thomson probably proceeded from an incurable habit of neglecting his own affairs; for his experience was sufficient to inform him, that the dignity of a needy man who expects to be loaded with un solicited benefits will soon be his sole possession. His great friends, however, did not desert him; and soon after he had ceased to be a placeman, he was introduced to the Prince of Wales, who, among other modes of courting popularity, professed himself a friend to men of letters. Being questioned by the prince on the state of his affairs, Thomson informed his royal highness that "they were in a more poetical posture than formerly." This gay reply produced what might have been denied to a tedious catalogue of grievances, a pension of one hundred pounds a year. This allowance, well-timed as it was, being insufficient to support him in his former mode of living, he again had recourse to his pen. In 1738, his tragedy of Agamemnon was acted at Drury Lane. The performance was graced by the presence of Pope, who, on his entering the theatre, received from the audience nearly all the applause of the evening; for although supported by the acting of Quin in the hero, the play, to use the words of Johnson, "had the fate which commonly attends mythological stories, and was only endured, but not favoured." Being still compelled to write for the stage, Thomson next produced Edward and Eleonora, to the first edition of which is prefixed the following advertisement: "The representation of this tragedy on the stage was prohibited in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine." Brooke's Gustavus Vasa was the first, and Thomson's the second, play prohibited by the operation of the new act for licensing dramatic performances. In both cases, this act seems to have been exercised with very superfluous rigour. The following lines, however, which occur near the beginning of Thomson's tragedy, may perhaps have arrested the eye of authority, and sealed its fate:

"In times like these, Disturb'd and low'ring with unsettled freedom, One step to lawless power, one old attempt Renew'd, the least infringement of our charters, Would hurl the giddy nation into tempest."

In conjunction with Mallet, he afterwards wrote the masque of Alfred, which was played before the Prince of Wales. To the favour of that illustrious personage, who was on bad terms with the court, it is probable that he owed, in some degree, the prohibition of his former drama. Alfred was first published the national anthem of "Rule Britannia," and it is uncertain whether Thomson or Mallet was the author of the lyric. Mr Bolton Corney, a diligent inquirer, considers that Mallet has the best claim to it. The tragedy of Tancred and Sigismunda, taken from the novel in Gil Blas, was performed at Drury Lane in 1745. It was the most successful of his dramatic efforts, and kept possession of the stage until a recent period. The Castle of Indolence, the last of his works that was published in his lifetime, appeared in 1748, and is unquestionably—especially the first canto—the most highly finished and poetical of his works. Previous to this, when Lyttelton was in office, Thomson received the appointment of surveyor-general of the Leeward Islands. His clear emoluments amounted to about L300 a year, and the duties of his office he was suffered to perform by deputy.

The amiable and warm-hearted poet had now the enjoyment of lettered ease and comfort. His only fault seems to have been indolence (he had "no motive," he said, to make him get up in the morning), and he became "more fat than bard beseems." In the prime of life, while his fame was daily brightening, he was suddenly cut off. He had for some time resided in a snug cottage, embowered among trees, at Kew Lane, near Richmond. A cold caught upon the river between London and Kew was succeeded by a fever, of which he had partly recovered, when imprudent exposure to the evening dews induced a recurrence of his malady, and terminated his life on the 27th of August 1748. His remains were interred in the church of Richmond in Surrey; and, in 1762, a monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. The expense of this memorial was defrayed by an edition of his works, published during that year, in two volumes quarto. The king subscribed L100. A Life of the author was prefixed by his intimate friend Dr Murdoch. But the noblest tribute to the memory of Thomson is the beautiful ode of Collins, beginning,

"In yonder grave a Druid lies, Where slowly winds the stealing wave; The year's best sweets shall dateous rise To deck its poet's sylvan grave." The tragedy of Coriolanus, which he had prepared for the stage, was after his death performed at Covent Garden. The profits of the representation discharged his debts, and left a considerable overplus, which was remitted to his sisters. The principal character was supported by Quin, who also delivered a prologue written by Lyttelton. When he had to utter the following lines, the great comedian, who had long lived on terms of the most affectionate intimacy with Thomson, was entirely overcome by his emotions:

"He lov'd his friends—forgive this gushing tear— Alas! I feel I am no actor here."

Thomson was of a dull aspect, till quickened by conversation. In a mixed or a numerous company he was ill at ease, and appeared to disadvantage; but when surrounded by a few familiar faces his embarrassment disappeared, and he became frank, cheerful, and amusing. As a son and brother, his conduct was exemplary. A letter to his sister, inserted in Johnson's narrative, breathes the purest spirit of fraternal affection. He was warmly attached to his friends, whom he inspired with the same degree of cordial regard and tenderness.

From Thomson, as an author, has never been withheld the highest praise, that of originality. "He thinks," says Johnson, "in a peculiar train, and he thinks always as a man of genius; he looks round on nature and life with the eye which nature bestows only on a poet; the eye that distinguishes, in everything presented to its view, whatever there is on which imagination can delight to be detained, and with a mind that at once comprehends the vast and attends to the minute. The reader of the Seasons wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shows him, and that he never yet has felt what Thomson impresses." Where intellectual eminence was not conspicuous, Johnson distributed commendation with a very sparing hand, whether the character reviewed was dignified by rank, which he valued much, or by virtue, which he valued more. Upon a lover of liberty, a man of easy morals, and a writer of blank verse (in his estimation a delinquent almost as odious as either), he would have bestowed no praise that he could conscientiously have withheld. This liberal encomium on Thomson, therefore, ought to satisfy the warmest admirers of the poet. Since the time of Johnson criticism has taken a wider range, and possessed a more searching and aesthetic spirit, but has not withered one leaf of Thomson's laurels.

Thomson, Thomas, an eminent chemist, was born at Crieff in Perthshire, on the 12th of April 1773. Passing from the parish school of his native town, he became a pupil of Dr Doig of Stirling, and subsequently entered the University of St Andrews. After spending three years at this seat of learning, he entered upon his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1796 became connected with the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for an early edition of which he wrote the articles Chemistry, Mineralogy, Vegetable Substances, Animal Substances, Dyeing Substances, &c. These articles formed the basis of his System of Chemistry, which he published at Edinburgh in 1804, in 4 vols., and afterwards greatly enlarged and improved as the demand for the book increased. Dr Thomson's lectures on chemistry, which he commenced at Edinburgh in 1800, were continued with increasing popularity until 1810. Meanwhile he invented the system of chemical symbols, which are now substantially adopted by men of science; and he was the first to open a laboratory in Britain for practical manipulation. He published his Elements of Chemistry in 1810. In 1812 he visited Sweden, and wrote a description of that country on his return. Dr Thomson commenced the Annals of Philosophy in 1813, and was chosen lecturer on chemistry to the University of Glasgow in 1817, which was elevated into a professorship the year following. He was one of the first to recognise the value of Dalton's atomic theory. The works of this eminent chemist were henceforward numerous and popular. He wrote, in 1825, in 2 vols., An Attempt to Establish the First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment; in 1830–31, he published the History of Chemistry in 2 vols.; in 1836, appeared likewise in 2 volumes, his Outlines of Mineralogy and Geology; and in 1849 he issued his last work, on Brewing and Distillation. Thomson made a great many discoveries in chemistry, and has left behind a considerable reputation both as an original discoverer and as a practical teacher of his favourite science. Dr Thomas Thomson died in 1852. His son, who bears his name, is known to be a distinguished botanist, and is superintendent of the East India Company's Botanic Gardens at Calcutta.