THE LIFE AND POSTHUMOUS WRITINGS OF WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ. .............. BY WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. .............. VOL. III. PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR BENJAMIN JOHNSON, JACOB JOHNSON, AND ROBERT JOHNSON. THE LIFE OF COWPER. LETTER XL. To the Reverend Mr. HURDIS. MY DEAR SIR, Eartham, August 26, 1792. Your kind but very affecting letter found me not at Weston, to which place it was directed, but in a bower of my friend Hayley's garden, at Eartham, where I was sitting with Mrs Unwin. We both knew, the moment we saw it, from whom it came, and observing a red seal, both comforted ourselves that all was well at Burwash; but we soon felt that we were called not to rejoice, but to mourn with you: we do indeed sincerely mourn with you; and if it will afford you any consolation to know it, you may be assured that every eye here has testified what our hearts have suffered for you. Your loss is great, and your disposition, I perceive, such as exposes you to feel the whole weight of it. I will not add to your sorrow, by a vain attempt to assuage it: your own good sense, and the piety of your principles, will, of course, suggest to you the most powerful motives of acquiescence in the will of God. You will be sure to recollect that the stroke, severe as it is, is not the stroke of an enemy, but of a father; and will find, I trust, hereafter, that, like a father, he has done you good by it. Thousands have been able to say, and myself as loud as any of them, it has been good for me that I was afflicted; but time is necessary to work us to this persuasion, and in due time it shall be yours. Mr. Hayley, who tenderly sympathises with you, has enjoined me to send you as pressing an invitation as I can frame, to join me at this place. I have every motive to wish your consent; both your benefit and my own, which, I believe, would be abundantly answered by your coming, ought to make me eloquent in such a cause. Here you will find silence and retirement in perfection, when you would seek them, and here such company as, I have no doubt, would suit you; all cheerful, but not noisy; and all alike disposed to love you. You and I seem to have here a fair opportunity of meeting. It were a pity we should be in the same county and not come together. I am here till the seventeenth of September, an interval that will afford you time to make the necessary arrngements, and to gratify me at last with an interview, which I have long desired. Let me hear from you soon, that I may have double pleasure, the pleasure of expecting, as well as the pleasure of seing you. Mrs. Unwin, I thank God, though still a sufferer by her last illness, is much better, and has received considerable benefit by the air of Eartham. She adds to mine her affectionate compliments, and joins me and Hayley in this invitation. Mr. Romney is here, and a young man a cousin of mine. I tell you who we are, that you may not be afraid of us. Adieu-May the Comforter of all the afflicted who seek him be yours. God bless you. W. C. LETTER XLI. To Lady HESKETH. Eartham, August 26, 1792. I know not how it is, my dear est coz. but in a new scene, and surrounded by strange objects, I find my powers of thinking dissipated to a degree that makes it difficult to me even to write a letter, and even a letter to you; but such a letter as I can, I will, and have the fairest chance to succeed this morning; Hayley, and Romney, and Hayley's son, and Beau, being all gone together to the sea for bathing. The sea, you must know, is nine miles off; so that unless stupidity prevent, I shall have opportunity to write not only to you, but to poor Hurdis also, who is broken-hearted for the loss of his favourite sister, lately dead; and whose letter, giving an account of it, which I received yesterday, drew tears from the eyes of all our party. My only comfort respecting even yourself is, that you write in good spirits, and assure me that you are in a state of recovery; otherwise I should mourn not only for Hurdis, but for myself, lest a certain event should reduce me, and in a short time too, to a situation as distressing as his; for though nature designed you only for my cousin, you have had a sister's place in my affections ever since I knew you. The reason is, I suppose, that having no sister, the daughter of my own mother, I thought it proper to have one, the daughter of yours. Certain it is that I can by no means afford to lose you, and that unless you will be upon honour with me, to give always a true account of yourself, at least when we are not together, I shall always be unhappy, because always suspicious that you deceive me. |