MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



The Works of William Cowper. His Life and Letters, now first 

 completed by the introduction of his Private Correspondence. By 

 the Rev. T. J. GRIMSHAWE, M. A. Vols. I. and II. With 

 Illustrations. 



The works of Cowper have upon them the stamp of enduring popu- 

 larity. Their perfect simplicity, their grace and their purity, must ever 

 rivet the reader's attention. The Life of Cowper has not hitherto been 

 fully detailed, nor his moral and social peculiarities sufficiently developed. 

 This has arisen from the fact that no man but himself could be his bio- 

 grapher. Living as he did, absolutely shut out from the world, for the 

 greater part of his existence, no materials were offered for the pen of im- 

 partiality ; and although Hayley was in many respects well qualified for 

 the task of writing his Life, and although he had before him abundant 

 materials, he shrunk from making a legitimate use of them and hence 

 erroneous impressions have been produced by reading his work. This is 

 more especially the case, as regards the religious feelings of Cowper, and 

 we know of no man better qualified than Mr. Grimshawe, imbued as he 

 himself is with the genuine spirit of Christianity, -to bring this amiable, 

 but much to be pitied author before the public. Hence the volumes 

 before us, aided by Cowper's beautiful and inimitable letters, Hayley's 

 remarks, and Mr. Grimshawe's emendations and reflections, are as perfect 

 as it is possible for any work to be. 



Cowper had in excess that morbid delicacy of feeling, which so often 

 attends upon genius. Had his mother been living, it is possible that 

 many of his sufferings might have been spared him and that he might 

 have been a happier man if less of a poet. He was sent to Westminster- 

 school at an early age, which to his shrinking and retired disposition 

 proved a very hell ; and it was here, doubtless, that the seeds were sown, 

 or at least were brought into vegetation, the fruits of which for ever 

 afterwards unfitted him for mingling amongst his fellows. 



" His own forcible expressions represented him at Westminster as not 

 daring to raise his eye above the shoe-buckle of the elder boys, who were 

 too apt to tyrannise over his gentle spirit. The acuteness of his feelings 

 in his childhood rendered these important years mournful periods of 

 increasing timidity and depression. In the most cheerful hours of his 

 advanced life, he could never advert to this season without shuddering at 

 the recollection of its wretchedness. Yet to this, perhaps, the world is 

 indebted for the pathetic and moral eloquence of those forcible admo- 

 nitions to parents, which give interest and beauty to his admirable poem 

 on public schools." 



Cowper is not a solitary example of finely organised minds being 

 utterly blasted and ruined by the hardness and moral coarseness of public 

 schools. 



After his school education, Cowper entered the law, but his reserve 

 entirely disqualified him from sharing the busy scenes of actual life. 



At this period we find abundant proofs of that morbid sensibility, which 

 subsequently heightened into hypochondriacism and derangement. Al- 

 ready too his muse had commenced her plaintive record of his imaginary 

 sufferings : 



" Doom'd as I am in solitude to waste 



The present moments, and regret the past ; 

 Deprived of every joy I valued most, 

 My friend torn from me, and my mistress lost : 

 Call not this gloom I wear this anxious mien, 

 The dull effect of humour or of spleen. 



