the feelings. It combines sensibility with fortitudethe lowliness of the child, with the magnanimity of the hero.

The grandest features of the Christian character were never more gloriously exemplified than in that spirit, which animates the whole of Milton's poetry. His own Michael does not impress us with the idea of a purer, or more awful virtue than that, which we feel in every portion of his majestic verse; and he no less happily indicates the source, from which his excellence was derived, by the bright beams, which he ever and anon reflects upon us from the sacred Scriptures. But the milder graces of the Gospel are certainly less apparent. What we behold is so awful it might almost have inspired a wish, that a spirit equally pure and heavenly, might be raised to illustrate, with like felicity, the more attractive and gentler influences of our divine religion.

In Cowper, above any poet that ever lived, would such a wish seem to be fulfilled. In his charming effusions, we have the same spotless purity, the same elevated devotion, the same vital exercise of every noble and exalted quality of the mind, the same devotedness to the sacred Scriptures, and to the

peculiar doctrines of the gospel. The difference is, that instead of an almost reprehensive dignity, we have the sweetest familiarity-instead of the majestic grandeur of the Old Testament, we have the winning graces of the New-instead of those thunders, by which angels were discomfited, we have, as it were, "the still small voice," of him, who was meek and lowly of heart.

May we not then venture to assert, that from that spirit of devoted piety, which has rendered both these great men liable to the charge of religious enthusiasm, but which in truth raised the minds of both to a kind of happy residence

"In regions mild, of calm, and serene air,
"Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot,
"Which men call earth,"

a peculiar character has been derived to the poetry of them both, which distinguishes their compositions from those of almost all the world besides? I have already enumerated some of the superior advantages of a truly virtuous poet, and presumed to state, that these are realized, in an unexampled degree, in Milton and Cowper. That they both owed this moral

eminence to their vivid sense of religion will, I conceive, need no demonstration, except what will arise to every reader of taste and feeling on examining their works. It will here, I think, be seen at once,› that that sublimity of conception, that delicacy of virtuous feeling, that majestic independence of mind, that quick relish for all the beauties of nature, at once so pure, and so exquisite, which we find ever occuring in them both, could not have existed in the same unrivalled degree, if their devotion had been less intense, and of course their minds more dissipated amongst low and distracting objects."

The eloquent remarks, on the congeniality of mind, between Milton and Cowper will form, I trust, a favourable introduction to a proposal, by which the two congenial poets, may be united as contributors to a project of beneficence. A proposal in which it is my earnest desire to interest my readers, and which I take the most obvious mode of explaining to them, by inserting at the close of this work, the following

CIRCULAR LETTER

To the persons who have honoured the intention of raising

Gratitude and integrity seem to require from me, at this time, an address to the favourers of a plan, which I proposed to the public, as a tribute due to a departed object of national esteem and affection. To publish a Milton in three 4to volumes (including all the Manuscripts of Cowper relating to Milton) at the price of six guineas, was a proposal, that, with extensive encouragement, might have gratified the wishes of Cowper's ardent admirers, and, in rendering a signal and just honour to him, might also have honoured the taste of an enlightened and a libe ral nation.

first

Though the signature of several most respectable names seemed to afford an honourable sanction to my idea of a public Monument for my literary friend, yet I am now disposed to relinquish that idea; and I zealously solicit, not only those who have befriended it, but the public at large, to co-operate with me in a new, and different,

mark of regard to the memory of the poet, on a plan, which I hasten to explain, and to recommend to their favour

Since the publication of my first proposal, a favourite Godson and Namesake of Cowper has had the misfortune to become an Orphan at an early age. It has occurred to me, that I may improve the tribute of general respect to the memory of the poet, by converting his manuscripts relating to Milton, not into a marble monument, but into a little fund, to assist the education and future establishment of this interesting Orphan. I am confident, that no tribute of respect to Cowper's memory could be more truly acceptable to his pure and beneficent spirit, than what I now propose; and I feel a pleasure in believing, that I may gratify many of his admirers by affording them an opportunity of purchasing the posthumous poetry of my friend, and of indulging, at the same time, their feelings of tenderness and benevolence towards an Orphan particularly endeared to the departed poet.

It is therefore my present intention to print, not a Milton in three volumes, but the Latin and Italian poems of Milton translated by Cowper (with all that remains of his projected Dissertations on Paradise Lost) in one handsome quarto, at the price of two guineas.

I cherish a sanguine hope, that the liberality of the public, and a general wish to testify affectionate respect to Cowper's memory, in a manner, that will appear, I trust, peculiarly suited to the tenderness, and the beneficence of his character, may render such a subscription, as I have now proposed, in some degree adequate to the desirable object in view.