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COWPER COXE. 



brother of the lord chancellor Cowper. He received 

 his early education at a school in his native county, 

 whence he was removed to that of Westminster. 

 Here he acquired a competent portion of classical 

 knowledge ; but, from the delicacy of his tempera- 

 ment, and the timid shyness of his disposition, he 

 seems to have endured a species of martyrdom 

 from the rudeness and tyranny of his more robust 

 companions, and to have received, indelibly, the im- 

 pressions that subsequently produced his Tirocinium, 

 in which poem his dislike to the system of public 

 education in England is very strongly stated. On 

 leaving Westminster, he was articled, for three years, 

 to an eminent attorney, during which time he ap- 

 pears to have paid very little attention to his profes- 

 . sion ; nor did lie alter on this point after his entry at 

 the Temple, in order to qualify himself for the 

 honourable and lucrative place of clerk to the house 

 of lords, which post his family interest had secured 

 for him. While he resided in the Temple, he appears 

 to have been rather gay and social in his intercourse, 

 numbering among his companions Lloyd, Churchill, 

 Thornton, and Column, all of whom had been his 

 companions at Westminster school, and the two lat- 

 ter of whom he assisted with some papers in the Con- 

 noisseur. His natural disposition, however, remain- 

 ed timid and diffident, and his spirits so constitution- 

 ally infirm, that, when the time arrived for his as- 

 suming the post to which he had been destined, he was 

 thrown into such unaccountable terror at the idea ot 

 making his appearance before the assembled peerage, 

 tliat he was not only obliged to resign the appoint- 

 ment, but was precipitated, by his agitation of 

 spirits, into a state of great mental disorder. At 

 this period, he was led into a deep considera- 

 tion of his religious state, and, having imbibed the 

 dwtrine of election and reprobation in its most ap- 

 palling rigour, he was led to a very dismal state of 

 apprehension. We are told, " that the terror of 

 eternal judgment overpowered and actually disorder- 

 ed his faculties ; and he remained seven months in a 

 continual expectation of being instantly plunged into 

 eternal misery." In this shocking condition, con- 

 finement became necessary, and he was placed in a 

 receptacle for lunatics, kept by the amiable and 

 well known doctor Cotton of St Albans. At length 

 his mind recovered a degree of serenity, and he re- 

 tired to Huntingdon, where he formed an acquain- 

 tance with the family of the reverend Mr Unwin, 

 which ripened into the strictest intimacy. In 1773, 

 he was again assailed by religious despondency, and 

 endured a partial alienation of mind for some years, 

 during which affliction he was highly indebted to the 

 affectionate care of Mrs Unwin. In 1778, he again re- 

 covered ; in 1780, he was persuaded to translate some 

 of the spiritual songs of the celebrated madame Guion. 

 In the same and the following year, he was also induc- 

 ed to prepare a volume of poems for the press, which 

 was printed in 1782. This volume did not attract 

 any great degree of public attention. The principal 

 topics are, Error, Truth, Expostulation, Hope, Cha- 

 rity, Retirement, and Conversation ; all of which 

 are treated with originality, but, at the same time, 

 with a portion of religious austerity, which, without 

 some very striking recommendation, was not, at that 

 time, of a nature to acquire popularity. They are in 

 rhymed heroics ; the style being rather strong than 

 poetical, although never flat or insipid. A short 

 time before the publication of this volume, Mr Cow- 

 per became acquainted with lady Austen, widow of 

 Sir Robert Austen, who subsequently resided, far 

 some time, at the parsonage-house at Olney. To the 

 influence of this lady, the world is indebted for the 

 exquisitely 'humorous ballad of John Gilpin, and 

 the author's master-piece, the Task. The latter ad- 



mirable poem chiefly occupied his second volume 

 which was published in 1785, and rapidly secured 

 universal admiration. The Task unites minute ac- 

 curacy with great elegance and picturesque beauty ; 

 and, after Thomson, Cowper is probably the poet 

 who has added most to the stock of natural imagery. 

 The moral reflections in this poem are also exceed- 

 ingly impressive, and its delineation of character 

 abounds in genuine nature. His religious system 

 too, although discoverable, is less gloomily exhibited 

 in this than in his other productions. This volume 

 also contained his Tirocinium a piece strongly writ- 

 ten, and abounding with striking observations, what- 

 ever may be thought of its decision against public 

 education. About the year 1784, he began his ver- 

 sion of Homer, which, after many impediments, 

 appeared in July, 1791. This work possesses much 

 exactness, as to sense, and is certainly a more accu- 

 rate representation of Homer than the version of 

 Pope; but English blank verse cannot sufficiently 

 sustain the less poetical parts of Homer, and the 

 general effect is bald and prosaic. Disappointed at 

 the reception of this laborious work, he meditated a 

 revision of it, as also the superintendence of an edi- 

 tion of Milton, and a new didactic poem, to be en- 

 titled the Four Ages ; but, although he occasion- 

 ally wrote a few verses, and revised his Odyssey, 

 amidst his glimmerings of reason, those and all 

 other undertakings finally gave way to a relapse of 

 his malady. His disorder extended, with little in- 

 termission, to the close of life ; which, melancholy 

 to relate, ended in a state of absolute despair. In 

 1794, a pension of 300 per annum was granted him 

 by the crown. In the beginning of 1800, this gift- 

 ed, but afflicted man of genius, exhibited symptoms 

 of dropsy, which carried him off on the 25th of April 

 following. Since his death, Cowper has, by the 

 care and industry of his friend and biographer, Hay- 

 ley, become known to the world, as one of the most 

 easy and elegant letter-writers on record. 



COW-POCK. See Vaccination. 



COWRY-SHELLS ; shells used for coin ; a kind 

 of small muscles, belonging to the Indian seas, &c. ; 

 the cyprcea moneta of Linnaeus. They have an oval 

 smooth shell. The largest are an inch and a half 

 in size, and indented on both sides of the opening. 

 They are collected twice a-year in the bay of Ben 

 gal, on the Malabar coast, and, in still greater quan- 

 tity, in the neighbourhood of the Maldive islands. 

 They are used throughout the East Indies, especially 

 in Bengal, and in the African trade, instead of small 

 coins. The demand is so great, that, notwithstand- 

 ing the insignificant price (in 1780, a pound of them 

 might be bought for three half -pence), about 

 .33,750 worth are sent every year to Bengal. 



COXE, WILLIAM, an historian and traveller, born 

 in London, 1747, was educated at Eton and Cam- 

 bridge, and successively accompanied several young 

 men of the first English families, on their travels in 

 Europe, in the capacity of tutor. Among these were 

 the earl of Pembroke, the late Mr Whitbread (the 

 famous parliamentary orator), and the marquis of 

 Cornwallis. He published an account of his travels 

 through Switzerland (1779), and through Poland, 

 Russia, Sweden, and Denmark (1784 92), which 

 are highly esteemed, and have been translated into 

 almost all the languages of Europe. As an historian, 

 he brought himself into notice by his Memoirs of 

 Sir Robert Walpole, in 1798, which were followed 

 by those of Horatio lord Walpole, in 1802. He 

 then published his History of the House of Austria 

 (1807), which has been translated into German ; next, 

 his Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of 

 Bourbon, from 1700 to 1788 (1813, three vols., 4to). 

 Marlborough's Life and Original Papers (1818 ct 



