the press and the public. Perhaps the most generous and unstinted recognition of the interest and importance of the poems was in an article by Mr. G. A. Simcox in the Fortnightly Review. Naturally enough the tone and spirit of the "City of Dreadful Night" came in for a good deal of adverse criticism, although the power and excellence of the writing were generally acknowledged. One acute critic, whose penetration is not usually so much at fault, expressed an opinion that the intensely gloomy character of the poem did not represent its author's real feelings, but was merely assumed in accordance with a prevailing poetical fashion. Thomson must have smiled rather bitterly on reading this, for if ever there was a work which expressed with entire sincerity its author's mind and feelings, that work was "The City of Dreadful Night." It was the outcome of long years of suffering and despair, of ceaseless yearnings, fruitless regrets, and continual ponderings upon the mysteries of human life. True or not to humanity at large-and doubtless, to make it true universally, the dreadful gloom would have to be lightened with many rays of sunlight—it was at least a true expression of the author's thoughts and experiences; and it is to be feared that his case was by no means singular, and that the inhabitants of "The City of Dreadful Night" are far more numerous than comfortable and respectable optimism has any conception of. The poem must always remain unsurpassed as a picture of the night-side of human nature: that there is another side Thomson was well aware, and he is perhaps as successful in depicting the bright as the dark aspect of life.
