ry early in life; a measure, to which he was doubly dif pofed by judgment and inclination. But the peculiarities of his wonderful mind rendered him unable to fupport the ordinary duties of his new office! for the idea of reading in public proved a fource of torture to his tender and apprehenfive fpirit. An expedient was devised to promote his intereft, without wounding his feelings. Refigning his fituation of reading Clerk, he was appointed Clerk of the Journals in the fame House of Parliament, with a hope, that his perfonal appearance, in that affembly, might not be required; but a parliamentary dispute made it neceffary for him to appear at the bar of the House of Lords, to entitle himself publicly to the office. Speaking of this important incident in a sketch, which he once formed himself, of paffages in his early life, he expreffes what he endured at the time in these remarkable words: "They, whofe fpirits are formed "like mine, to whom a public exhibition of themselves is “mortal poison, may have fome idea of the horrors of fituation-others can have none." 66 my His terrors on this occafion arofe to fuch an astonishing height, that they utterly overwhelmed his reason :— for although he had endeavoured to prepare himself for his public duty, by attending closely at the office, for feveral months, to examine the parliamentary journals, his application was rendered useless by that excess of diffidence, which made him conceive that, whatever knowledge he might previously acquire, it would all forfake him at the bar of the House. This diftreffing apprehenfion increased to fuch a degree, as the time for his appearance approached, that when the day fo anxiously dreaded, arrived, he was unable to make the experiment. The very friends, who called on him for the purpose of attending him to the House of Lords, acquiefced in the cruel neceffity of his relinquifhing the profpect of a ftation fo feverely formidable to a frame of such fingular fenfibility. The conflict between the wishes of juft affectionate ambition, and the terrors of diffidence, fo entirely overwhelmed his health and faculties, that after two learned and benevolent Divines (Mr. John Cowper his brother, and the celebrated Mr. Martin Madan, his first coufin) had vainly endeavoured to establish a lafting tranquillity in his mind, by friendly and religious converfation, it was found neceffary to remove him to St. Alban's, where he refided a confiderable time, under the care of that eminent physician, Dr. Cotton, a scholar and a poet, who added to many accomplishments a peculiar sweetness of manners, in very advanced life, when I had the pleasure of a perfonal acquaintance with him. The misfortune of mental derangement is a topic of fuch awful delicacy, that I confider it as the duty of a biographer, rather to fink in tender filence, than to proclaim, with circumftantial and offenfive temerity, the minute particulars of a calamity, to which all human beings are exposed, and perhaps in proportion as they have received from nature thofe delightful, but dangerous gifts, a heart of exquifite tenderness, and a mind of creative energy. This is a fight for pity to perufe, Till fhe resembles faintly what the views; This, of all maladies, that man infest, Claims most compaffion, and receives the least. But, with a foul, that ever felt the fting 'Tis not, as heads that never ache suppose, No wounds like thofe, a wounded spirit feels; A Father's frown, and kifs the chaft'ning hand! It is in this awful, and inftructive light, that Cowper himfelf teaches us to confider the calamity, of which I am now speaking; and of which he, like his illustrious brother of Parnaffus, the younger Taffo, was occafionally a most affecting example. Heaven appears to have given a ftriking leffon to mankind, to guard both virtue and genius against pride of heart and pride of intellect, by thus fufpending the affections, and the talents, of two moft tender and fublime Poets, who, in the purity of their lives, and in the splendour of their intellectual powers, will be ever defervedly reckoned among the pre-eminent of the earth. From December 1763, to the following July, the pure mind of Cowper appears to have laboured under the severeft fufferings of morbid depreffion: but the medical skill of Dr. Cotton, and the cheerful, benignant manners of that accomplished phyfician, gradually fucceeded, with the bleffing of Heaven, in removing the undescribable load of religious defpondency, which had clouded the admirable faculties of this innocent and upright man. His ideas of religion were changed, from the gloom of terror and despair, to the luftre of comfort and delight. This juster and happier view of evangelical truth is faid to have arifen in his mind, while he was reading the 3d Chapter of St. Paul's Epiftle to the Romans. Devout contemplation became more and more dear to his reviving fpirit: refolving to relinquifh all thoughts of a laborious profeffon, and all intercourfe with the bufy world, he acquiefced in a plan of fettling at Huntingdon, by the advice of his brother, who, as a Minifter of the Gospel, and a Fellow of Bennet College, in Cambridge, refided in that Univerfity; a fituation fo near to the place chofen for Cowper's retirement, that it afforded to thefe affectionate brothers opportunities of easy and frequent intercourse. I regret that all the letters, which paffed between them, have perished, and the more fo, as they fometimes correfponded in verse. John Cowper was alfo a poet. He had engaged to execute a tranflation of Voltaire's Henriade, and in the courfe of the work requested and obtained the affiftance of William, who tranflated, as he informed me himself, two entire Cantos of the Poem. A fpecimen of this fraternal production, which appeared in a Magazine of the year 1759, will be found in the Appendix to thefe volumes. In June, 1765, the reviving Invalid removed to a private lodging in the town of Huntingdon; but Providence foon introduced him into a family, which afforded him one of the most fingular and valuable friends, that ever watched an afflicted mortal in feafons of overwhelming adverfity; that friend, to whom the Poet exclaims, in the commencement of the Task, And witnefs, dear companion of my walks, But genuine, and art partner of them all. These verses would be alone fufficient to make every poetical reader take a lively intereft in the lady they de scribe; but these are far from being the only tribute, which the gratitude of Cowper has paid to the endearing virtues of his female companion. More poetical memorials of her merit will be found in these volumes, and in verfe fo exquifite, that it may be queftioned, if the most paffionate love ever gave rife to poetry more tender, or more fublime. Yet, in this place, it appears proper to apprize the reader, that it was not love, in the common acceptation of the word, which infpired these admirable eulogies. The attachment of Cowper to Mrs. Unwin, the Mary of the Poet! was an attachment perhaps unparalelled. Their domestic union, though not fanctioned by the common forms of life, was fupported with perfect innocence, and endeared to them both, by their having ftruggled together, through a series of forrow. A fpectator of fenfibility, who had contemplated the uncommon tenderness of their attention to the wants and infirmities of each other, in the decline of life, might have faid of their fingular attachment, L'Amour n'a rien de fi tendre, Ni L'Amitiè de fi doux. |