WILLIAM COWPER: POET AND LETTER WRITER. 



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WILLIAM COWPER: POET AND LETTER WRITER. 



ABSTRACT OF MR. JACKSON'S PAPER. 



The question of the pronimeiation of the name Cowper was dis- 

 cussed. The conclusion was, that a man has a right to pronounce 

 his name as he likes. It was suggested that the Christian name 

 may have some influence in moulding the disposition of the bearer 

 of it. William Cowper was by nature timid, constitutionally 

 morbid, and in the fear of a public appearance before the House of 

 Lords attempted self-destruction. The same feeling drove him into 

 seclusion and a recluse life, and directed his thoughts to a contem- 

 plative rather than to an active life. 



The lecturer insisted on the distinction drawn by Aristotle be- 

 tween the contemplative and active life, which in modern terms is 

 the same as between subjective and objective. Cowper appeared at 

 an opportune time, when no great writer filled the public mind. 

 His merit is not to be judged by the manner in which his first 

 volume was received. His second attempt a year or two later was 

 fully appreciated. 



His style was free from the conceits of his predecessors, easy, 

 plain, and simple, but showing much elegance. He wrote the most 

 pathetic poem in the English language. His satire was pointed 

 and sharp, but not spiteful or ill-natured ; meant to correct, not to 

 wound ; lashing vices and not men. He had an original vein of 

 humour, which displayed itself most when he was in spirit most 

 depressed and melancholy. So extremes meet. His originality 

 may be tested by the "immortality of quotation." Following 

 Vincent Bourne's example, he successfully tried Latin versification. 

 He translated Homer into a metre, which had not been attempted 

 before his time. The translation was close and faithful, but not 

 elegant. Chapman and Pope were his predecessors ; both had their 

 peculiarities, but neither represented Homer correctly. His private 

 epistolary correspondence contained all the excellence of such com- 

 position, and was not penned, as Cicero's and Walpole's, with the 

 view of after publication. 



