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occasion which gave birth to it, is trivial. A lady had requested him to write a piece in blank verse, and gave him for its subject, the SOFA. This, from the trifle, which he at first intended, he expanded into a volume containing one of the finest moral poems which the English language ever produced. Added to it, are an epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, containing severe strictures on the general mode of public education, in the British kingdoms; and, the universally well known History of John Gilpin," a sportive piece of humour, which would have done credit to many writers, but can hardly be said to have added to Mr. Cowper's reputation.

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His next work was "The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, translated into English blank verse," which were published in two volumes 4to. in 1791. It is an unjust piece of criticism, to compare the version of Mr. Pope, to that of Mr. Cowper. The merits of each are distinct and appropriate. Mr. Pope has exhibited Homer, as he would have sung, had he been born in England. Mr. Cowper has endeavoured to pourtray him, as he wrote in Greek, adhering frequently to the peculiarities of his original's idiom, and desiring to preserve his strength and energy, together with his harmony and smoothness.

The remaining literary work of Mr. Cowper, though said to be finished, has not yet seen the light, we mean his complete translation of Milton's Latin and Italian poetry, which Mr. Hayley describes as an elegant and spirited version.

During the last seven years of this amiable person's life, the state of his health continued wavering and uncertain, subject to frequent relapses, and exhibiting, at times a spectacle, of calamity most distressing to a feeling mind. To the exertions of his friend, Mr. Hayley, he was indebted for a pension from the crown, than which no exercise of Royal benevolence

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was ever more calculated to satisfy the wishes of the good, or the expectations of the generous. He died, April 25th, 1800.

COLDEN, (CADWALLADER) son of the Rev Alexander Colden, minister of Dunse, in the Merse, Scotland, was born 17th February, 1688. After having received a liberal education, under the immediate inspection of his father, he went to the University of Edinburgh, where, in 1705, he completed his course of academical studies. He then applied himself particularly to medicine and mathematics, and was eminently distinguished by his proficiency in both.

Allured by the fame of Mr. Penn's Colony of Pennsylvania, and the invitation of a relation, carried thither by euthusiasm amongst the first settlers, he went over to that country, about the year 1708. Here, after having practised physic, for some years with great reputation, he returned to his native country, which he found greatly distracted, in consequence of the troubles of 1715. From London, he went down to Scotland, in company with the Marquis of Lothian, and putting himself at the head of the loyal men of his father's congregation, joined a body of militia, under lord Ancram, to oppose the progress of general M'Intosh, a circumstance in his life, which had not been worth mentioning, had not his enemies in America, many years afterwards, propagated a report, that Mr. Colden had been engaged in the rebellion of that year.

The state of his native country, marring all his prospects of enjoyment with his friends and learned acquaintances, he hastened to complete a matrimonial connection with a young lady of a respectable Scotch family, by the name of Cristie, with whom he returned to America, in 1716.

Whilst in London, he was introduced to Dr. Hal

ley, who was so well pleased with a paper on animal secretions, written in that early part of Mr. Colden's life, that he read it before the Royal Society, the notice of which, it greatly attracted.

At this time, he formed an acquaintance with some of the most distinguished literary characters in Enggland, with whom he afterwards corresponded, giving them useful and curious inteligence from this then little known country. He early began to notice the plants of America, classing and distinguishing them according to the custom of botany then in use. He was attentive to the climate, and left a long course of diurnal observations on the thermometor, barometer and winds. He cultivated an acquaintance with the natives of the country, and often entertained his correspondents with observations on their customs and manners. He wrote also a history of the prevalent diseases of the climate, and if he was not the first to recommend, he was certainly one of the earliest and warmest advocates of the cooling regimen, in the cure of fevers; and opposed with great earnestness the then prevalent mode of shutting up, in warm and confined rooms, patients in the small pox.

Brigadier General Hunter, at that time, governor of New-York, a man of letters and a correspondent of Dean Swift, who mentions the general in one of the. Tatlers, under the appellation of Eboracensis, conceived so favourable an opinion of Mr. Colden, after a short acquaintance, that he became his warm friend, and offered him his patronage, if he would remove. to New-York. In 1718, therefore, Mr. Colden settled in that city, where, in a year or two after, he was made surveyor general of lands, and was the first, who filled that office in the colony. About the same time, he appears, likewise, to have received as the first evidence of his patron's favour, the appointment of Master in Chancery.

In 1720, upon the arrival of governor Burnet, of whose life we have already given a sketch, he was

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