Writing to Aaron Hill on 18 April 1726, shortly after the publication of the first edition of Winter, James Thomson expressed his gratitude for Hill's admiring comments on his poem, before launching into a short, essay-like discussion of the relation between ‘Self-love’ and ‘Social Love’. Characteristically effusive in tone, unrestrainedly idealizing in its insistence on the power of the ‘social’ feelings, the discussion is obviously intended to impress Hill, whom Thomson had not yet met. Hill, himself a poet as well as a periodical essayist, described in the letter as ‘so bright an Example’ of selfless ‘Social Love’ (p. 25), was 15 years older than Thomson, with a small literary circle of his own. A passionate advocate of the revival of English poetry through the pursuit of the religious ‘sublime’, he was to have an important influence on the young poet during the following months: the spirited and remarkably self-confident Preface that Thomson wrote for the second edition of Winter, published in June, is clearly influenced by Hill, and contains a passage of extravagant compliment to him. The discussion in the letter reflects Thomson's familiarity and lively sympathy with the philosophical writings of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury; it also suggests that he was well aware of the fierce controversy that followed the publication of Bernard Mandeville's attack on Shaftesbury in the essay ‘A Search into the Nature of Society’, which appeared in the second edition of The Fable of the Bees (London, 1723).