1800.] 
The profound refle€tiens: which frequent re- 
tirement into the country occafioned him to 
indulge in, gave him a ferioufnefs of manner 
and afpeét which alarmed his friends, and 
excited their united endeavours to avert the 
apprehended confequences. But, notwith- 
ftanding thefe kind and affectionate precau- 
tions in thofe about him, he contrafted a 
morbid melancholy, which at times deprived 
him of reafon. He refided at Huntingdon for 
feveral years, in the clofeft friendfhip with 
the Rev. Mr. Unwin, a moft refpedtable 
clergyman; after whofe death, he retired to 
Olney in Buckinghamfhire, with the widow 
ef that friend. At this village he wrote the 
principal part of his poems, Here the habi- 
tual gloominefs which had fo long preyed” 
upon his mind, was attempered at leaft, if 
not wholly removed, by an intercourfe with 
the Rey. Mr. Newton,. then minifter of that 
place; who brought him acquainted with a 
fyftem of religion, ufually denominated Ca/- 
winiftic Methodijm. ‘The mind of Mr. Cowper, 
long perplexed by {cruples of a religious na- 
ture, long bewildered on the fubjc& of Re« 
velation itfelf, and harrafied by new dogmas 
and metaphyfical objections, thus at laft be~ 
came fettled and compofed. It is not to be 
‘wondered, therefore, that between him and 
his new guide, the moft endearing friendthip 
fhould have been formed. When Mr. New- 
ton publifhed his volume of Hymns, called 
“6 The Qlney’s Collection,” it was enriched 
with fome compofitions from the pen of 
Cowper, diftinguithed by the letter C. They 
bear internal evidence of a cultivated under- 
ftanding, and an original genius. His time 
was now wholly dedicated to that literary 
leifure, in which the mind, left to its own 
operations, follows up that line of purfuit 
Which is the moft congenial to its tafte, and 
the moft adapted to its powers. In his garden, 
in his library, and in his daily walks, he 
feems to have difciplined his mufe to the 
picturefque and vivid habits of defcription, 
which will always diftinguifh Cowper among 
eur national poets. No writer, with the 
exception of Thomfon, feems to have ftudied 
nature with more diligence, and te have 
copied her with more fidelity. An advantage 
which he has gained over other men, by his 
difdaining to ftudy her ‘* through the fpec- 
tacles of books,’’ as Dryden calls it; and by 
his purfuing her through her haunts, and 
watching her in all her attitudes, with the 
eye of a philofopher as well as of a poet. 
As Mr. Cowper had no relifh for public con- 
cerns, it was not fingular that he fhould have 
neglected the ftudy of the law, on which he 
had entered. “That knowledge of a€tive lite, 
which is fo requifite for the legal profeffion, 
would hardly be acquired on the banks of the 
Oufe, and in filent contemplations on the 
beauties of nature. In this retreat, he ex- 
changed for the fociety and converfe of the 
mufes, the ambition and tumult of a forenfic 
occupation 3 dedicating Ris mind to the culti- 
Watien of poetry, and ftoring it with: thofe 
Marriaves and Deaths in and near London, 
images which he derived from the inex- 
hauftible treafury of a rich and varied {cenery, 
in a moft beautiful and romantic country —= 
The firft volume of his poems, which was 
publifhed by Mr. Newton in 1787, confifts of 
various pieces, on various fubjeéts. It feems,’ 
that he had been affiduous in cultivating a 
turn for grave and argumentative verlification, 
on moral and ethical topics. Of this kind is 
the Table Talk, and feveral other pieces in 
the colleftion. He who objets to thefe 
poems as containing too great a neglect of 
harmony in the artangement of his words, 
and the ufe of expreflions too profaic, will 
condemn him on principles of criticifm, which 
are by no means juft, if the objeét and ftyle 
of the fubje& be confidered. Horace apolo- 
gized for the ftyle of his own fatires, which 
are, ftri@ly {peaking, only ethical and moral 
difcourfes, by obferving, that thofe topics 
required the pedeffrian and familiar diction, 
and a form of expreflion, not carried to the 
heights of poetry. But if the reader will 
forego the delight of {mooth verfification, and 
recollect that poetry does not altogether con-~ 
fift in even and polifhed metre, he will re- 
mark in thefe productions, no ordinary depth 
of thinking and of judgment, upon the moft 
important objects of human intercourfe; and 
he will be occafionally ftruck with lines, not 
unworthy of Dryden for their ftrengthand digs 
nity. His lighter poems are well known. 
Of thefe, the verfes fuppofed to be written by 
Alex. Selkirk,on the ifland of Juan Fernandez, 
are in the moft popular eftimation. ‘There is 
great originality in the following ftanza. 
‘< T am out of humanity’s reach ; 
‘<I muft finith my journey alone; 
*é Never hear the {weet mufic of fpeechs 
*¢ J ftart at the found of my own.” 
It would be abfurd to give one general chae 
racter of the pieces, that wete publifhed in 
this volume: yet, this is true concerning Mr. 
Cowper’s productions 5 that in all the varie- 
ties of his ftyle, there may ftill be difcerned 
the likenefs and impreffion of thefame mind 5 
the fame unaffected modefty, which always 
rejects unfeafonable ambitions and ernaments 
of language; the fame eafy vigour; the fame 
ferene and chearful hope, derived froma fteady 
and unfhaken faith in the dogmas of Chriftiani+ 
ty. Mr.Cowper, perhaps, does not derive praife 
from the choice and elegance of his words 5 
but he has the higher praife of having chofer 
them without affectation. He appears to have 
ufed them as he found them; neither intro- 
ducing faftidious refinements, nor adhering 
to obfolete batbarifms. He underftood the 
whole fcience of numbers, and he has prac- 
tifed their different kinds with confiderable 
happinefs; and, if his verfes do not flow fo 
foftly as the delicacy of a modern ear requires, 
that roughnefs, which is objected to in his 
poetry, is his choice, not his defect. But 
this fort of critics, who admire only whatis 
exquifitely polithed, tike Cuyp’s pictures, 
thefe lovers of ** gentlenefs withant finews*,* 
"  ¥* Dr, Sprai’s Lite of Cawley. 
a53 aught 
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