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Our readers will recoil with aftonifhment. Their pity they certainly will not refufe to the devoted fufferer. Nor will they feel lefs honeft indignation than ourselves, that a man of feelings fo exquifite, whofe nerves were more tender than the fibres of the moft delicate mimofa, fhould have been fo inconfiderately expofed to pain, by those who ought to have guarded his highly fenfitive conftitution from injury, instead of having ambitiously expofed it to the touch of rudenefs. To this foolish circumftance alone, fhall we ever afcribe the greater part of that infelicity, under which the unfortunate poet laboured to the latest hour of his life.

"The manner of his preservation in life, or rather of his restoration to it, indicated an unusual interpofition of Providence. His friends no longer perfifted in urging him to retain his office. It was refigned; and with it his flattering prospects vanished, and his connexions with the world dif

folved."

We know not the particulars of the attempt on his life, and how he was preserved from deftruction; nor have we ever understood that he was in actual poffeffion of the place referved for him. If far other expectations were entertained by his friends, they seem not to have been fenfible, that the first thing to be confidered in determining a young man's future occupation and profeffion, is the degree of fitnefs and capability with which nature has endowed him. It is in vain to refift obftacles which he has placed in the way: expelles furcâ, tamen ufque recurret. The relatives of Mr. C. were obliged to practife, at lait, that forbearance, which good fenfe ought to have taught them was requifite at firft: but, alas! how much mischief was done, before they would be perfuaded to desist !

"His manners were in general decent and amiable; and the courfe of pleafure in which he indulged bimfelf being cuftomary with perfons in fimilar circumftances, he remained infenfible of his state as a finner, &c."

What reader will not be difpofed to conclude, from this paffage, that the manners of Mr. Cowper, which were in general decent and amiable, were alfo fometimes indecent and unamiable? Who will not imagine that he fuffered himself to be carried away by the vortex of difipation and vice, with as much indifference as the gayeft libertine、 that ever lived? Yet does his biographer quaintly add, fome twenty pages afterwards:

"So if any of you think, that because Mr. Cowper was so eminent a fufferer he must have been a finner above others; I tell you, no..... I have good ground to believe, that before our decealed friend was brought to a knowledge of the Golpel, his conduct, instead of being notoriously wicked, was generally inoffenfive and amiable. I have ftill more reafon to be convinced, that fince he profeffed the knowledge and love of Chrift, he never allowed himfelf in the practice of any thing that he apprehended to be contrary to the will of God."

It is incumbent on the preacher to explain this extemporaneous inconfiftency,

"He

"He remained infenfible of his ftate as a finner, till he was brought to reflect upon the guilt of that action, by which he had nearly plunged himfelf into endless perdition. His mind was then, for the first time, convinced of the evil of fin, as a tranfgreffion of the law of God; and he was terrified by the apprehenfion, that his late offence was unpardonable in its nature. Inftead of finding relief from reading, every book he opened, of whatever kind, feemed to him adapted to increase his diftrefs; which became fo pungent as to deprive him of his ufual reft, and to render his broken flumbers equally miferable with his waking hours. While in this state, he was vifited by the late Rev. Martin Madan.

The un

In our impatience at the firft reading of this paffage, we uncharitably wished Mr. Martin Madan at the devil. But without configning him, in our more rational moments, to fo warm a climate, we shall content ourselves with pronouncing his apparition, at this critical moment, to have been a circumftance the most unfortunate. happy patient needed the affiftance of a phyfician of the first order: his malady was too complicated, and too deeply feated, to be removed by an empiric. Accordingly, we find that Mr. C. inftead of being made better, is inftantaneously made worfe, by the intervention of this fophiftical, hypothetical, doating, polygamous confeffor.

"The following day he again funk under the horrors of perdition; and that diffraction, which he had fought as a refuge from the fear of man, now feized him amidst his terrors of eternal judgment. A vein of self-loathing ran through the whole of his infanity; and his faculties were so completely deranged, that the attempt which he had fo lately deplored as an unpardonable tranfgreffion, now appeared to him an indifpenfible work of piety. He therefore repeated his affault upon his own life."

Such were the healing effects of Mr. Madan's religious medicine, We cannot but impute to him this fecond attempt of the poet on his own life, as we imputed the first to his other friends: especially when we are informed that the reafon Mr. C. urged for fuicide in this instance, was that the fooner it was accomplished, his future mifery would be the more tolerable! We doubt not that hell and damnation had been flashed into the poet's face, after the manner of pages 37 and 38 of the fermon before us. He was alfo probably inftructed, as in p. 45, that "whom God foreknew as heirs of eternal life, he predeftinated to be conformed:" he was initiated into certain narrow notions of election and repudiation, which make the gate of heaven more strait and difficult to the finner, than the needle's eye to the camel.

"His purpose being again mercifully fruftrated, he became at length faniliar with defpair, and fuffered it to be alleviated by converfation with a pious and humane phyfician at St. Alban's, under whole care he had happily been placed. The comfort he enjoyed, induced him to prolong his ftay at St. Alban's for twelve months after his recovery. He then retired, first to Huntingdon, and two or three years afterwards to this place [Olney] in order to induige, amidst rural fcenes, thole religious pleafures and occupations which experience had taught him to value, &c."

Here we reach a moft curious period of our poet's life; a period in

which he appears to have connected himself, without hesitation, with fectaries of every defcription; with the author of the difcourfe now before us, and with his venerable friend Mr. Newton, as he is ftiled. The latter wrote the preface prefixed to a late edition of Mr. Cowper's poems, which fits like a patch of dowlas upon a robe of lawn. But we haften to exhibit our bard, as a feceder from the Church, in which we cannot doubt of his having been brought up.

"At your stated meetings for prayer (would there were fuch in every parifh*!) you have heard him, with benefit and delight, pour forth his heart before God in earnest interceffion, with a devotion equally simple, fublime, and fervent; adapted to the unusual combination of elevated genius, exquifite fenfibility, and profound piety, that diftinguifhed his mind. It was, I believe, only on fuch occafions as thefe, that his conftitutional diffidence was felt by him as a burden, during this happy portion of his life. I have heard him fay, that when he expected to take the lead in your united prayers, his mind was greatly agitated for fome hours preceding; but he obferved, that his trepidation wholly fubfided as foon as he began to fpeak in prayer!"

We think our pity will not be applied amifs, if we fhed a fmall portion of it here. It fhall be accompanied with no remark.-With a blush, and with a figh, we draw the veil over these pardonable deviations of a mind, which feems to have been fported with by every gale, till it had no more fteadiness than a feather. One little anecdote, however, of the poet, we must here communicate to our readers, which was for many years a riddle to us, till we were apprized of the non-conformity above-mentioned. A party of literati, among whom was Mr. Cowper, an eminent writer of poetical epiftles, a celebrated Authorefs, and a divine of the Church of England, fpent a fhort time together in a country village. The reverend divine was requested by the minifter of the place to give him a fermon. After much hefitation, he at length confented; and prepared himself with all the nicety. and care requifite to render his difcourfe tolerable to the critical ears of the ingenious party with which he was affociated, Sunday morning arrived, the bell fummoned to the church which was very near at hand, the divine made his motion to procced. Not one of the learned junto manifefted the leaft inclination to follow him, till one of the bards, politely offered to attend him to the church door. To the church door he accordingly attended him, and then withdrew to the com-. pany which he had left. In the mean time the fair writer proceeded with her novel, and Mr. Cowper took his walk. As this anecdote was related to us, fome years ago, by the reverend preacher himself, we can vouch for its authenticity.

A third attack of infanity now overtook this unfortunate poet. We are told that he conceived fome prefentiment of this fad reverse as it drew near.'.

* We thank God, there are not: and we truft, there never will be. R.

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"His mind became immovably fixed. He cherished an unalterable perfuafion, that the Lord, after having renewed him in holinefs, had doomed him to everlasting perdition. He fuppofed himself to be the only perfon that ever believed with the heart unto righteousness, and was notwithstanding excluded from falvation. In this fate of mind, he ceafed, not only from attendance upon public worship, but likewife from every attempt at private prayer: apprehending that for him to implore mercy, would be oppofing the determinate counfel of God. Amidst thefe dreadful temptations, fuch was his unfhaken fubmiffion to what he imagined to be the divine pleasure, that he was accustomed to fay, "if holding up my finger would fave me from endless torments, I would not do it against the will of God." It was only at feasons, when (racked by the immediate expectation of being plunged into everlasting mifery) his mind became wholly diftracted, that he ever uttered a rebellious word against that God of love, whom his lamentable delufion transformed into an implacable oppreffor. His efforts at felf-deftruction were repeatedly renewed; but they were ftimulated by a ftrong impreffion that God had commanded him to perpetrate this act; and he even fuppofed that his involuntary failure in the performance had incurred the irrevocable vengeance of the Almighty! To this, and never to any other deficiency of obedience, have I heard him afcribe his imaginary exclufion from mercy. P. 21.

"I argued with him on the impoffibility that God should command him to tranfgrefs his own law. He fupported his opinion by this plea; that the force with which the impreffion of fuch a duty had been made upon his mind, was equal to that of any he had received from the truths of fcripture. He alleged, in his vindication, the example of Abraham, who hefitated not to put to death his beloved and only fon, at the command of God; and judging himself called in like manner to perform an extraordinary act of faith, he concluded that his failure was therefore an unparalleled offence, beyond the reach of pardon. P. 43.

"He entered no place of worthip. When invited to do fo, he has faid, Had I the universe, I would give it to go with you; but I dare not do it against the will of God." P. 36.

"Habituated to the fearful expectation of judgement, it became by degrees lefs infupportable. He became acceffible to a few intimate friends in fucceffion, who laboured to divert his thoughts from the dreadful obje&t that engroffed them, and to excite them to activity on other fubjects. Thus originated most of thofe poems, which, when published, charmed and furprifed both the literary and the religious world." P. 21.

In one of these moments was produced that truly laughable ballad, in which the poet has defcribed the ridiculous adventures of John Gilpin. The Task alfo, as its title imports, was a labour impofed upon him by a lady, during one of thefe periods. Of the latter we are able to report, that when it was finished, the poet was not aware of its excellence, and little dreamed that it would become fo great a favourite with the world. He had previously published the first volume of his poems, which met with no fuccefs, and ferved only to bring him into debt to his book feller. The Tafk, therefore, was offered for publication, upon the condition that the bookfeller fhould have all the profits, and that Mr. C. fhould be excused from paying

the

the charges incurred by his first volume. The Task was annexed to the poems already published as a fecond volume; and, by its fingular merit, very fhortly produced a rapid and extenfive fale of both volumes. Confiderable profits must confequently have arifen from the fale; and yet we have been informed, and we fear the tale is too true, that the poet was never one penny the richer for his Tafk. The tranflation of Homer followed; and Mr. C. being now aware of the efteem in which his writings were held, offered it for fale. A fum was propofed to him, from the receipt of which he recoiled with indignation; confidering it as a trifling and inadequate recompence of his labours. One thousand pounds more were added to the offer, and the poet thought proper to acquiefce.

"After more than twelve years of uninterrupted despair, fome tranfient changes of his mental fenfations admitted a gleam of hope. He prayed in private, as before his affliction. These lucid intervals were unhappily fo fhort, that he never refumed his attendance on public worship. The most tolerable days that he spent, he has defcribed to me as begun with traces of horror. The forenoon, being employed in compofition, became gradually lefs diftreffing. Before dinner, he usually walked two hours; and the air, the rural profpects, and mufcular exercife, contributed to his farther relief. If at dinner, and during the afternoon, he had the company of an intimate friend or two, which was frequently the cafe during the last ten years that he lived in this neighbourhood [at Western Underwood, near Olney] their conversation seemed to afford the principal alleviation to his burthen."

Mr. Cowper was peculiarly well qualified by nature, to be an agreeable companion in a fmall circle. We have feen him dwell, with exquifite delight, on that delicate vein of humour, which gives fo high a relifh to the fpectators of Mr. Addifon. Nor is it flattery to say, that be poffeffed the fame kind of humour, in a degree not inferior to Mr. Addifon himself. With a low voice, and much apparent gravity and compofure, he was accustomed repeatedly to furprife his hearers with obfervations, which not only proved him to be poffeffed of knowledge and tafte, but evinced an extraordinary power of being ludicrous whenever he pleased:

"The evening was commonly employed in reading aloud to fome friend. who refided with him."

We believe his chief companions were Mrs. Unwin and Lady Hesketh. To the former, who had for many years paid him great attention during his fufferings, he always confeffed himself to be most affectionately attached, for her multitudinous kindneffes to him. She was a widow after the pattern of St. Paul, whofe delight was to relieve the afflicted.

As night approached, his gloom of mind regularly increafed and when he went to his bed, it was not to reft, but to be again harrassed in flumber with the terrifying images of a bewildered fancy.”

In this manner did the poet advance in years, and a tolerable state of mental as well as coporeal health feemed to be established: when

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