are those of his productions which partake greatly of the nature of the sermo pedestris. Yet where he trifles it is at once with dignity and ease: his descriptions of natural objects exhibit a proof of his having looked through creation with a poet's eye and his choice of topics, his lively and faithful pictures of human manners, his keen and delicate and playful satire, his ardent sensibility, his quick

and graceful transitions, his skill in painting those domestic scenes and retired employments which he loved -these are his appropriate recom mendations. He who has once read Cowper, is desirous of reading him with his strains. There are writers again, and even of becoming familiar whom we can enjoy only in certain states of our minds: Cowper always gains admittance to us; he is our companion and instructor, he soothe and engage us, at every hour.

Review.-Cowper's Poems.

tions that were previously unpublished, some readers will regard the editor as sufficiently bountiful. But we feel so greatly indebted to him for his sketch of his kinsman's life, which we shall soon notice, that we are not disposed to make any complaints or pass any censures.

Cowper's admirable good sense qualified him for placing in a clear and striking light every subject in which the manners of men are concerned nor would it be easy to mention any poem, of its class, at once so instructive and interesting as the verses on Friendship, preserved, though not for the first time printed, in the present volume. The following stanzas, in particular, are deserving of being impressed on the memory, and will indeed be very easily retained:

"As similarity of mind,

Or something not to be defin'd,

First rivets our attention;
So, manners decent and polite,
The same we practis'd at first sight,
Must save it from declension.

The man who hails yon Tom-or Jack,
And proves, by thumping on your back,
His sense of your great merit,
Is such a friend, that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed,
To pardon, or to bear it."

In these lines there are singular justness of thought, fidelity of description, poignancy of satire and sprightliness and terseness of expression. Theophrastus himself was never more successful.

The Montes Glaciales, a truly classical poem, was written by Cowper in 1799, at a time when his health, both of body and mind, was considerably impaired. But he appears to have been fond of composing Latin verses, which he framed with a readiness and felicity demonstrative of his having left Westminster school with "scholastic attainments of the first order."

His lines on the loss of the Royal George [Aug. 29, 1782], he translated into the language of ancient Rome: and he has well preserved the simpli city, pathos and force of the original; an elegiac ballad of uncommon merit. Let the rendering of the following stanzas be a specimen :

"Toll for the brave!

Brave Kempenfelt is gone ;
His last sea-fight is fought;
His work of glory done.
It was not in the battle;
No tempest gave the shock;
She sprang no fatal leak;

She ran upon no rock.
His sword was in its sheath;
His fingers held the pen,
When Kempenfelt went down,
With twice four hundred men."

Magne, qui nomen, licèt incanorum,
Traditum ex multis atavis tulisti!
At tuos olim memorabit ævum
Omne triumphos.

Non hyems illos furibunda mersit,
Non mari in clauso scopuli latentes,
Fissa non rimis abies nec atrox
Abstulit ensis.

168

Navitæ sed tum nimium jocosi
Voce fallebant hilari laborem,
Et quiescebat, calamoque dextram im
pleverat heros." (96.)

Some of our readers will here call to mind the frequent recurrence of the compellation Magne in the Pharsalia of Lucan, and the dignified and plaintive manner in which that poet applies it.

With the life of Cowper the public had already been made acquainted by Mr. Hayley. There was still wanting, however, the sketch of it which Dr. Johnson has exhibited in the present volume. He speaks of this composition with the greatest modesty. Yet, in truth, it possesses distinguished excellence as a biographical narrative, and is characterized not only by faithfulness of delineation, but also by that simple and artless, that lively and decorously minute relation of circumstances which renders us, for the time, the companions of Cowper and his kinsman. In illustration of this remark we transcribe a passage descriptive of some incidents on the journey of the poet and of Mrs. Unwin from Weston into Norfolk; whither they were attended by the editor: lii.

"As it was highly important to guard against the effect of noise and tumult on the shattered nerves of the desponding tra veller, care was taken that a relay of horses should be ready on the skirts of the towns of Bedford and Cambridge, by which means he passed through those the idea of these poems not having been places without stopping. On the evening before published.

of the first day, the quiet village of St.

Neot's, near Eaton, afforded as convenient
a resting place for the party as could have
been devised; and the peaceful moon-light
scenery of the spot, as Cowper walked
with his kinsman up and down the church-
yard, had so favourable an effect on his
spirits, that he conversed with him, with
much composure, on the subject of Thom-
son's Seasons, and the circumstances un-
der which they were probably written."
In August, 1795, the two invalids,
together with Dr. Johnson, went
"to the village of Mundsley, on the
Norfolk Coast; having previously re-
sided, for a very short time, at North
Tuddenham, in that county." How-
ever, "the effect of air and exercise
on the dejected poet being by no
means such as his friends had hoped,
change of scene was resorted to as
the next expedient:" Ivii.

"About six miles to the south of Munds

ley, and also on the coast, is a village called Happisburgh, or Hasboro', which. in the days of his youth Cowper had visited from Catfield, the residence of his mother's brother. An excursion therefore to this place was projected, and happily accomplished, by sea; a mode of convey ance which had at least novelty to recommend it; but a gale of wind having sprung up soon after his arrival there, the return by water was unexpectedly precluded, and he was under the necessity of effecting it on foot through the neighbouring villages. To the agreeable surprise of his conductor, this very considerable walk was performed with scarcely any fatigue to the invalid."

The party afterwards took up their residence at Dunham Lodge, in the vicinity of Swaffham. Here (lix),

"As the season advanced, the amusement of walking being rendered impracticable, and his spirits being by no means sufficiently recovered to admit of his resuming either his pen or his books, the only resource which was left to the poet, was to listen incessantly to the reading of his companion. The kind of books that appeared most, and indeed solely to attract him, were works of fiction; and so happy was the influence of these in rivetting his attention, and abstracting him, of course, from the contemplation of his miseries, that he discovered a peculiar satisfaction when a production of fancy of more than ordinary length, was introduced by his kinsman. This was no sooner perceived, than he was furnished with the voluminous pages of Richardson, to which he listened with the greater interest, as he had been personally acquainted with that ingenious writer."

"At this time, the tender spirit of Cow

per clung exceedingly to those about him, and seemed to be haunted with a continual dread that they would leave him alone in his solitary mansion. Sunday, therefore, was a day of more than ordinary apprehension to him; as the furthest of his kinsman's churches being fifteen miles from the Lodge, he was necessarily absent during the whole of the Sabbath. On these occasions, it was the constant practice of the dejected poet to listen frequently on the steps of the hall-door, for the barking of dogs at a farm house, which in the stillness of the night, though at nearly the distance of two miles, invariably announced the approach of his companion." lx.

We cannot resist the temptation of making a few more extracts:

"—in the month of April [1796] Mrs. Unwin received a visit from her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Powley. The tender and even filial attention which

the compassionate invalid had never ceased to exercise towards his aged and infirm companion, was now shared by her affectionate relatives; to whom it could not but be a gratifying spectacle to see their venerable parent so assiduously watched over by Cowper, even in his darkest periods of depression. The visit of these exemplary persons was productive also of advantage to their friends, as their salutary custom of reading a chapter in the Bible to their mother, every morning before she rose, was continued by the writer of this Memoir, who, as the dejected poet always visited the chamber of his poor old friend, the moment he had finished his breakfast, took care to read the chapter at that time." lxi.

"-Being encouraged by the result of the above experiment, the conductor of the devotions of this retired family ventured in the course of a few days, to let the members of it meet for prayers in the room where Cowper was, instead of assembling in another apartment, as they hitherto had done, under the influence, as it proved, of a misconception, with regard to his ability to attend the service. On the first occurrence of this new arrangement, of which no intimation had been previously given him, he was preparing to leave the room, but was prevailed on to resume his seat, by a word of soothing and whispered entreaty." lxii.

We pass over the narrative of the occasion of Cowper's engaging in a revisal of his Homer: the account is deeply interesting, but has long been in possession of the public.

* Preface to the 2nd ed. of Cowper's Translation of the Iliad,

the following anecdote ?

Review-Cowper's Poems. ·

“—as a faithful servant of his dying friend [Mrs. Unwin] and himself was opening the window of his chamber on the morning of the day of her decease, he said to her, in a tone of voice at once plaintive, and full of anxiety as to what might be the situation of his aged companion, Sally, is there life above stairs?" lxv.

165

Who can be unaffected in reading further from the truth. On the contrary, all those alleviations of sorrow, those dethose healing consolations to a wounded lightful anticipations of heavenly rest, spirit, of which he was permitted to taste resumed its sway, were unequivocally to at the periods when uninterrupted reason be ascribed to the operation of those very in the instance before us, have been principles and views of religion, which, charged with producing so opposite an effect. The primary aberrations of his mental faculties were wholly to be attributed to other causes. But the time was tion of a gracious Providence, he was to at hand, when, by the happy interposibe the favoured subject of a double emanabout to terminate; and a bondage, though cipation. The captivity of his reason was hitherto unmentioned, yet of a much longer standing, was on the point of being exchanged for the most delightful of all freedom."

Of the last moments of Cowper his kinsman has left a record, from which we make a single extract: lxxvii. "In the course of the night [of Thursday, April 24th, 1800], when he appeared to be exceedingly exhausted, some refreshment was presented to him by Miss Browne. From a persuasion, however, that nothing could ameliorate his feelings, though without any apparent impression that the hand of death was already upon him, he rejected the cordial with these words, the very last that he was heard to utter, What can it signify?"

"At five in the morning, of Friday the 25th, a deadly change in his features was observed to take place. He remained in an insensible state from that time till about five minutes before five in the afternoon,

when he ceased to breathe."

The assiduity, the wisdom, the affection and the tenderness with which Dr. Johnson soothed the dejected spirits of his relative, do much honour to his principles and feelings, and claim the gratitude of the numerous admirers of Cowper, as a poet and a man. Though he is solely desirous of directing our regard to his kinsman, yet we cannot be insensible to the illustration of his own excellencies presented in this sketch. His theological creed appears to be that of his relation. This creed, however, is not obtruded on the reader: nor is it defended with bitterness and rancour; and we can respect the motives which dictated the following paragraphs and the spirit which breathes in themthough we may not fully assent to the reasoning they contain: xvii.

"A most erroneous and unhappy idea has occupied the minds of some persons, that those views of Christianity which Cowper adopted, and of which, when enjoying the intervals of reason, he was so bright an ornament, had actually contributed to excite the malady with which he was afflicted. It is capable of the clearest demonstration that nothing was

The event to which the biographer of Cowper alludes, took place on July 25th, 1764: xix.

"-Before he left the room in which he had breakfasted, he observed a Bible lying in the window-seat. He took it up. Except in a single instance, and that two months before, he had not ventured to open one, since the early days of his abode at St. Alban's. But the time was now come when he might do it to purpose. The profitable perusal of that divine book had been provided for in the most effectual manner, by the restoration at once of the powers of his understanding, and the suUnder these favourable circumstances, ho peradded gift of a spiritual discernment. opened the sacred volume at that passag● of the epistle to the Romans where the apostle says, that Jesus Christ is 'set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.' To use the expres sion employed by Cowper himself in a writhis history is extracted, he received ten document, from which this portion of strength to believe it; to see the suitableness of the atonement to his own necessity, and to embrace the gospel with gratitude and joy." xx.

We doubt not that "the primary aberrations of" this poet's "mental faculties were wholly to be attributed to other causes" than any theological sentiments whatever. But the return and the continuance of his disorder seem to have been owing, in some

+ It appears that Cowper was prepared • There is an incongruity between the for the impression by previous trains of words views and ornament. Ray. thought and feeling. REV.

Review-Wilson's Dissenting Churches.

present time. With an Appendix on the Origin, Progress and Present State of Christianity in Britain. 8vo. 4 vols. Portraits. Button and Son. 1808-1814.

OME of our periodical critics affect

to smile at the application of the term "Antiquities" to Meeting-houses. Dr. Milner would be equally amused with its being bestowed on any thing belonging to the Protestant Church of England. Some meetinghouses are ancient compared with others that are modern. Protestant Episcopal Churches are of a little greyer age; but for antiquity in its most venerable sense we must go to periods before the Reformation, and even before Christianity if not before Judaism itself. Westminster Abbey is of yesterday compared with the altars of Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt.