C O W P E IE 
a reply intitled Euchariftia, See. to which he added a 
defeription of fome newly-difcovered glands. Thefe, 
which are known by the name of Camper's, are mucous 
glands* feated near the neck of the bladder. After his 
death, there appeared, under the care of Dr. Mead, his 
MyotQmia Reformats, with an Introduction concerning 
rnufeulur Motion, 1724, folio, which is a very fplendid 
edition of his firft work, with fome additions. He was 
alfo the author of feveral chirurgical, and anatomical pa¬ 
pers in the'Philofophicai TranfaCtions, from No. 20S. to 
Mo. 299. There are fome obfervations of his in Drake’s 
Anthropologia Nova. 
COW'PER (William), doCtor of divinity, youngeft 
fon of earl Cowper, and grand fon of the lord high chan¬ 
cellor Cowper, who refigned the feals in 1719. He-was 
born in London in 1713, and educated in Trinity-college, 
Cambridge, where he took his degrees, and entered early 
in life into orders. He obtained feveral livings in the 
church, and was at lad promoted to the deanery ot Dur¬ 
ham, which he held till his death in 1772, aged fifty- 
nine. Pie was celebrated for his knowledge in geometry, 
on which he wrote a learned treatife, dedicated to the 
royal fociety. His eight fermons, and advice to a lady, 
are both very much efteemed. 
COW'PER (William), M, D. and F. S. A. praCtifed 
phyfic many years in the city of Cheffer, -with great re- 
pupation. He publilhed, 1. A Summary of the Life of 
St. Werburgh, with an hiftorical Account of the Images 
upon her Shrine, (now the epifcopal Throne,) in the 
Choir of Chefter. He was alfo author of II Penferofo, 
an Evening’s Contemplation in St. John’s Church-yard, 
Chefter. A Rhapfody, with Notes hiftorical and expla¬ 
natory, London, 1767, 4to, (addrelfed, under the name 
of M. Meariwell, to the reverend John Allen, M. A. 
fenior fellow of Trinity-college, Cambridge, and reCtor 
of Torpoley, in Chefhire ;) in which he takes a view of 
fome of the htoft remarkable places around it, diftin- 
guilhed by memorable perfonages and events. He died 
October 20, 1767, while he was preparing a memorial of 
his native city. 
COW'PER (William), an ingenious poet, defeended 
from the great earl Cowper, lord chancellor of England. 
He was born at Berkhamftead, Herts, in 1722, and was 
educated at Weftminfter fchool; but the place of clerk 
of the houfe of lords being referved for him, he was not 
fent to complete his ftudies at the univerfity, but finithed 
them at the Temple. He had an infuperable averfion to 
the drudgery of the law, and indeed to all manner of 
public buiinefs; he wholly gave himfelf up to this pro- 
penfity; and otia nojlra has appeared to have been his 
motto all his life. The profound reflections which fre¬ 
quent retirement into the country occafioned him to in¬ 
dulge in, gave him a ferioufnefs of manner and afpeCt 
which alarmed his friends, and excited their united en¬ 
deavours to avert the apprehended confequences. But, 
notwithftanding thefe kind and affectionate precautions 
in thofe about him, he contracted a morbid melancholy, 
which, at times, deprived him of reafon. His time was 
wholly dedicated to that literary leifure, in which the 
mind, left to its own operations, follows up that line of 
purfuit which is the mod congenial to its tafte, and the 
moft adapted to its powers. In his garden, in his libra¬ 
ry, and in his daily walks, he feems to have difeiplined 
his mufe to the piCturefque and vivid habits of deferip¬ 
tion, which will always diftinguilh Cowper among our 
national poets. The firft volume of his poems, which 
was publifhed in 1787, confifts of various pieces, on va¬ 
rious fubjeCts. It feems that he had been affiduous in 
cultivating a turn for grave and argumentative verfifica- 
tion on moral and ethical topics. Of this kind is the 
Table Talk, and feveral other pieces in the collection. 
His lighter poems are well known. Of thefe, the verfes 
fuppofed to be written by Alexander Selkirk, on the 
iftand of Juan Fernandez, are in the moft popular eftima- 
tion. There is great originality in the following ftanza; 
2 
I am out of humanity’s reach ; 
I mu ft finifli my journey alone ; 
Never hear the fweet mufic of fpeech ; 
I ftart at the found of my own. 
The favourable reception which this volume experi¬ 
enced, produced another of fuperior merit. His princi¬ 
pal performance was undoubtedly The Tafk, a poem. 
The cccafion that gave birth to it was trivial. A-lady 
had requefted him to write a piece in blank verfe, and 
gave him for its fubject a thing, next to her at the time, 
viz. the fofa. This he expanded into one of the fineft 
moral poems our language has produced. He who de¬ 
fires to put into the hands of youth a poem, which is not 
deftitute of poetic embellifhment, free from all matter of 
a licentious tendency, will find in the Tafk a book adapted 
to his purpofe. His John Gilpin is univerfally known, 
and may be confidered as a fportive piece of humour, 
which would have done credit to many writers, but can 
hardly be laid to have added to Mr. Cowper’s reputa¬ 
tion. His next work was a tranflation of the Iliad and 
Odyfley into Miltonic blank verfe. It is an unjuft cri- 
ticifm to compare the verfion of Mr. Pope to that of 
Mr. Cowper. The merits of each are diftinCt and ap¬ 
propriate. Mr. Pope has exhibited Homer as he would 
have fung had he been born in England. Mr. Cowper 
has endeavoured to pourtray him as he wrote in Greece, 
adhering frequently to the peculiarities of his original 
idiom, and defiring to preferve his ftrength and energy, 
together with his harmony and fmoothnefs. 
In early life Mr. Cowper was the intimate friend of 
lord Thurlow, and while at Huntingdon formed a clofe 
friendfliip with Dr. Cotton of St. Alban’s, a poet of no 
flender fame, by whofe converfation he doubtlefsgreatly 
improved himfelf. By an intermarriage between the fa¬ 
milies, Mr. Cowper was related to the author of The-, 
lypthora, and of courfe to the biftiop of Peterborough ; 
but this connection does not appear to have been culti¬ 
vated or improved. Mr. Cowper died of a fevere and 
lingering illnefs, at Eaft Dereham, in Norfolk, April 
25, 1800. 
Mr. Wakefield, in his fplendid edition of Pope’s Ho¬ 
mer, publifhed in 1796, gives 11s the following character 
of Cowper’s tranflation of the Iliad and Odyftey : “ The 
merits of Mr. Cowper, in his tranflation of Homer, are 
difficult to eftimate, with a benevolent regard a_t the fame 
time to the lacred feelings of an amiable writer, under a 
reverence infpired by a man of fine genius, and with juf- 
tice to the public by a fcrupulous adherence to fincerity. 
I fpeak with unwilling emphafis, but unaffeCted hefita- 
tion, when I aflert, if my own ears are not abfolutely 
unattuned to the mellifluous cadence of poetic numbers, 
the ftruCture of Mr. Cowper’s verfe is harfh, broken, 
and inharmonious, to a degree inconceivable in a writer 
of fo much original and intrinfic excellence. His fide¬ 
lity to his author is, however, entitled to unreferved 
praife, and proclaims the accuracy and intelligence of a 
critical proficient in his language. The true fenfe of 
Homer, and the character of his phrafeology, may be 
feen in Mr. Cowper’s verfion to more advantage, beyond 
all comparifon, than in any ether tranflation whatfoever 
within the compafs of my knowledge. His epithets are 
frequently combined after the Greek manner, which our 
language moft happily admits, with Angular dexterity 
and complete fuccefs: his diction is grand, copious, 
energetic, and diverfified; full fraught with every era- 
belliihment of poetic phrafeology : his turns of expref- 
iions are on many occafions hit off with moft ingenious 
felicity ; and there are fpecimens of native fimplicity 
alfo in his performance, that place him at leaft on a level 
with his author, and vindicate his title in this refpeCt to ' 
a fuperioriiy over all his predeceffors in this moft arduous 
and painful enterprife.” He was not more admired as 
the poet of religion and morality, than refpeCted and be¬ 
loved as a man. 
COW'RING, 
