From whom are all our blessings, business finds
E'en here; while sedulous I seek t' improve,
At least neglect not, or leave unemploy'd,
The mind He gave me; driving it, though slack
Too oft, and much impeded in its work
By causes not to be divulged in vain,

To its just point-the service of mankind."

Bk. III, 361-372.

Here perhaps will be the most convenient and fitting place to insert a few observations from the pen of Lord Jeffrey, as more fully illustrating the personal character of the poet.

The personal character of Cowper is easily estimated from the writings he has left, and the anecdotes contained in this publication (Hayley's Life of Cowper). He seems to have been chiefly remarkable for a certain feminine gentleness and delicacy of nature, that shrank back from all that was boisterous, presumptuous, or rude. His secluded life and awful impressions of religion, concurred in fixing upon his manners something of a saintly purity and decorum, and in cherishing that pensive and contemplative turn of mind by which he was so much distinguished. His temper appears to have been yielding and benevolent; and though sufficiently steady and confident in the opinions he had adopted, he was very little inclined, in general, to force them upon the conviction of others. The warmth of his religious zeal made an occasional exception; but the habitual temper of his mind was toleration and indulgence; and it would be difficult, perhaps, to name a satirical and popular author so entirely free from jealousy and fastidiousness, or so much disposed to make the most liberal and impartial estimate of the merit of others, in literature, in politics, and in the virtues and accomplishments of social life. No angry or uneasy passions,

indeed, seem at any time to have found a place in his bosom ; and, being incapable of malevolence himself, he probably passed through life without having once excited that feeling in the breast of another.

Mr. Grimshawe's sketch will now be resumed; in which he proceeds to say that, the office of doing justice to the poetical genius of Cowper having been assigned to an individual so well qualified to execute it with taste and ability (the Rev. John Cunningham, whose dissertation follows this article), all that now seems necessary, is simply to illustrate the beauties of Cowper's poetry in the same manner as we have exhibited his personal

character. portraits.

We shall present a brief series of poetical

The following portrait of Lord Chatham is drawn with great force and spirit:

"In him Demosthenes was heard again;

And Freedom taught him her Athenian strain:
She clothed him with authority and awe,
Spoke from his lips, and in his looks gave law.
His speech, his form, his action, full of grace,
And all his country beaming in his face,
He stood, as some inimitable hand

Would strive to make a Paul or Tully stand.
No sycophant or slave, that dared oppose
Her sacred cause, but trembled when he rose :
And every venal stickler for the yoke

Felt himself crush'd at the first word he spoke."

Table Talk.

Sir Joshua Reynolds:

“There touch'd by Reynolds, a dull blank becomes

A lucid mirror, in which Nature sees

All her reflected features."

Bacon the sculptor:

"Bacon there

Gives more than female beauty to a stone,
And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips." *

The Martyrs of the Reformation:

"Their blood is shed

In confirmation of the noblest claim,
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,
To walk with God, to be divinely free,

To soar, and to anticipate the skies.

Yet few remember them. They lived unknown
Till persecution dragg'd them into fame,

And chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew
-No marble tells us whither. With their names

No bard embalms and sanctifies his song:
And history, so warm on meaner themes,
Is cold on this. She execrates indeed
The tyranny that doom'd them to the fire,
But gives the glorious sufferers little praise."

Task, Bk. V.

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress:

"O thou, whom, borne on Fancy's eager wing
Back to the season of life's happy spring,
I pleased remember, and, while mem'ry yet
Holds fast her office here, can ne'er forget;
Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;

Whose humorous vein, strong sense, and simple style,
May teach the gayest, make the gravest smile;

* Alluding to the monument to Lord Chatham, in Westminster Abbey.

Witty and well-employ'd, and, like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables his slighted word:
I name thee not, lest so despised a name
Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame :
Yet e'en in transitory life's late day,
That mingles all my brown with sober gray,
Revere the man, whose Pilgrim marks the road,
And guides the Progress of the soul to God."

Tirocinium.

Brown, the rural designer, who, in Cowper's time, was greatly celebrated for his skill in laying out grounds for the nobility and gentry. For a beautiful sketch of him refer to "The Task,”. Book III., 765–783.

London: The sketch will be found in "The Task," Book III., 835-848. Book I., 697-724.

We add a few short passages:

"Not to understand a treasurer's worth

Till time has stolen away the slighted good,

Is cause of half the poverty we feel,

And makes the world the wilderness it is."

"Not a year but pilfers as he goes

Some youthful grace, that age would gladly keep."

With these acknowledged claims to popular favor, it is pleasing to reflect on the singular moderation of Cowper amidst the snares of literary fame. His motives seem to have been pure and simple, and his main design to elevate the character of the age, and to glorify God.

But it is not merely the poetic claims of Cowper which have earned for him so just a title to public gratitude and praise. It would be unjust not to bestow particular notice on a talent, in which he singularly excelled-the talent of writing letters.

man.

The Letters of Cowper are not distinguished by any remarkable superiority of thought or diction: it is rather the easy and graceful flow of sentiment and feeling, his enthusiastic love of nature, his touching representations of common and domestic life, and above all, the ingenuous disclosure of the recesses of his own heart, that constitute their charm and excellence. They form a kind of biographical sketch, drawn by his own hand. His poetry proclaims the author; his correspondence depicts the We see him in his walks, in the privacy of his study, in his daily occupations, amid the endearments of home, and with all the qualities that inspire friendship, and awaken confidence ' and love. We learn what he thought, what he said, his views of men and manners, his personal habits and history. His ideas usually flow without meditation. All is natural and easy. There is no display, no evidence of conscious superiority, no concealment of his real sentiments. He writes as he feels and thinks, and with such an air of truth and frankness, that he seems to stamp upon the letter the image of his mind, with the same fidelity of resemblance that the canvas represents his external form and features. We see in them the sterling good sense of a man, the playfulness and simplicity of a child, the winning softness and delicacy of a woman's feelings. He can write upon any subject, or write without one. He can embellish what is real by the graces of his imagination, or invest what is imaginary with the semblance of reality. He can smile or he can weep; philosophize or trifle; descant with fervor on the loveliness of nature, talk about his tame hares, or cast the overflowings of an affectionate heart at the shrine of friendship. His correspondence is a wreath of many flowers. His letters will

always be read with delight and interest, and by many, perhaps, will be considered to be the rivals of his poems. They are justly entitled to the eulogium which we know to have been pronounced upon them by Charles James Fox,-that of being "the best specimens of epistolary excellence in the English language."