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nius and friendship. The contrast that I now contemplated, has often led me to repeat (with such feelings as those only who have surveyed a contrast so deplorable can possibly conceive) the following pathetic exclamation in the Sampson Agonistes of Milton.

God of our fathers, what is man?

Since such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorned;

Yet towards these thus dignified, thou oft

Amidst their height of noon,

Changest thy count'nance, and thy hand, with no regard

Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

So deal not with this once thy glorious champion!
What do I beg? How has thou dealt already!
Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn
His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end!

In the spirit of this prayer every being sympathized who had enjoyed a personal acquaintance with Cowper in his happier days, or felt the beneficent influence of his unclouded mind: but for reasons inscrutable to human apprehension, it was the will of

Hcaven, that this admirable and meritorions invalide should pass through a length of sufferings, on which I am very far from being disposed to detain the attention of my reader:

"Animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit."

I shall therefore only say, that although it has been my lot to be acquainted with affliction in a variety of shapes, I hardly ever felt the anguish of sympathy with an afflicted friend in a severer degree, than during the few weeks that I passed with Cowper, at this season of his sufferings. The pain that I endured from this sympathy, was, I believe, very visible in my features, and it obtained for me, from his excellent, accomplished neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Courtenay, the most delicate and endearing attention-kindness so peculiarly consoling, that I can never cease to remember, and to speak of it with gratitude, while the faculty of memory remains to

me.

Indeed as my own health had been much shattered by a series of troubles, it would probably have sunk utterly under the pressure of this distressing scene, had not some comforts of a very soothing nature been

providentially blended with the calamities of my friend.

It was on the 23d of April, 1794, in one of those melancholy mornings, when his compassionate relation Lady Hesketh and myself were watching together over this dejected sufferer, that a letter from Lord Spencer arrived at Weston, to announce the intended grant of such a pension from his Majesty to Cowper, as would ensure an honourable competence for the residue of his life. This intelligence produced in the friends of the poet very lively emotions of delight, yet blended with pain almost as powerful; for it was painful, in no trifling degree, to reflect, that these desirable smiles of good fortune could not impart even a faint glimmering of joy to the dejected invalide.

His friends however had the animating hope that a day would arrive when they might see him receive, with a cheerful and joyous gratitude, this royal recompence for merit universally acknowledged. They knew that when he recovered his suspended faculties, he must be particularly pleased to find himself chiefly indebted for his good fortune to the active benevolence of that nobleman, who, though not personally

acquainted with Cowper, stood, of all his noble friends, the highest in his esteem.

Indeed it is a justice due to the great to declare, that many of them concurred in promoting on this occasion, the interest of the poet; and they spoke of him with a truth, and a liberality of praise, that did honour both to him, and to themselves. It is not often that majesty has opportunities of granting a reward for literary merit, where the individual who receives it, has so clear and unquestionable a title both to royal munificence, and to popular affection. But the heart and spirit of Cowper were eminently loyal, and patriotic. He has spoken occasionally of his sovereign in verse, with personal regard, but without a shadow of servility; and his poetry abounds with eloquent and just descriptions of that double duty which an Englishman owes to the crown and to the people.

Perhaps no poet has more clearly and forcibly delineated the respective duties that belong both to subjects and to sovereigns: I allude to an admirable passage on this topic in the fifth book of the Task:It is time to return to the sufferer at Weston. was unhappily disabled from feeling the favour he received, but an annuity of three hundred a year

He

was graciously secured to him, and rendered payable to his friend Mr. Rose, as the trustee of Cowper.

After devoting a few weeks to Weston, I was under a painful necessity of forcing myself away from my unhappy friend, who though he appeared to take no pleasure in my society, expressed extreme reluctance to let me depart. I hardly ever endured an hour more dreadfully distressing, than the hour in which I left him. Yet the anguish of it would have been greatly increased, had I been conscious that he was destined to years of this dark depression, and that I should see him no more. I still hoped from the native vigour of his frame, that, as he had formerly struggled through longer fits of this oppressive malady, his darkened mind would yet emerge from this calamitous eclipse, and shine forth again with new lustre. These hopes were considerably encreased at a subsequent period; but alas! they were delusive; for although he recovered sufficient command of his faculties to, write a few occasional poems, and to retouch his Homer, yet the prospect of his perfect recovery was never realized. I had beheld the poet of unrivalled genius, the sympathetic friend, and the delightful companion, for the last time; and I must now relate the gloomy residue of his life, not from

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