Page:A Voice from the Nile, and Other Poems. (Thomson, Dobell).djvu/46

 tage from his contributions to the Tobacco Plant as from all his other literary labours put together.

To the Tobacco Plant Thomson contributed articles on Ben Jonson, Rabelais, John Wilson, James Hogg, and Walt Whitman; also reviews of books, a series of papers on Tobacco legislation, &c. He was, in short, one of its most constant contributors from 1875 until it was discontinued in 1881.

Shortly after Thomson's secession from the National Reformer a new Freethought paper was started, entitled the Secularist. To this periodical he now transferred his services, and during the eighteen months that it lasted, he was a constant contributor to its pages. His articles in it were on the most various subjects, and any one who now looks through a file of it, must become convinced that his talents as a journalist were of a very high order, though it may be regretted indeed that his powers were so wasted. One of his most important contributions to the Secularist was a series of articles on Heinrich Heine, who (after Shelley) was the author with whom Thomson was most in sympathy, and whom he had most thoroughly studied. His translations from him have gained general praise; and I think it may be truly said that no other translator has so well rendered the spirit and music of Heine into English. One of the projects which were cut short by his untimely death was a book on Heine, which he had undertaken to write.

I will now quote a few passages, which are of general or personal interest, from his letters to me. The following paragraph, which is from a letter dated June 20, 1874, refers to a poem by Mr. W. M. Rossetti:—