and became chaplain in ordinary to the king, married Miss Anne Donne, daughter of Roger Donne, Esq., of Ludham Hall, Norfolk, who is said to have been of the family of the celebrated Dr. Donne,) by whom he had William (the poet,) and John, who survived their parents, and others, who died in their childhood. John entered into orders, and had a cheering prospect of advancement in the church, but his death took place in March 1770, and thus put an end to his ministerial labours, and all his hopes of preferment. A just and durable tribute was paid to the memory of John by his brother William in "The Task," book ii; but the prose efforts of William's pen pourtrayed in characters which cannot be misinterpreted, the worth of his beloved brother.

William Cowper, the poet, was born on the 15th of November, 1731, (old style), at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, of which place his father, the Rev. Dr. John Cowper, was then rector. When our poet was in his sixth his mother died in childbed. The loss of his moyear, ther is supposed by many to have had a serious effect upon his mind, and produced that fatal aberration with which he was subsequently so painfully afflicted. The deep fervour of his affection for her memory was shown some years afterwards in the poem which he wrote "On the receipt of my Mother's picture out of Norfolk," wherein he alludes to his infantine days with heartsearching pleasure. In 1737-8 our poet was sent to a school of great celebrity in the country, but to the discipline of which, on account of his naturally delicate constitution, he was ill adapted. The severe treatment which he met with at this school was supposed by many to be the cause in a great measure of that painful malady with which he was afterwards afflicted. His own account of what he suffered at this school is in these words: "I was singied out from all the other boys by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a proper object on whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper, who, by his savage treatment towards me, impressed such a dread of his figure upon my mind, that I well remember being afraid to lift my eyes upon him higher than his knees, and that I knew him better by his shoe-buckles than by any other part of his dress." When he removed from this school, on account of his being visited with a painful complaint in his eyes, he was placed under the care of an eminent oculist in London; and receiving great benefit from his treatment, Cowper was, in the ninth year of his age, placed at West

minster school. He left this school in 1749, and was then articled to an attorney, and, after attending to his duties in the attorney's office for three years, he was, at the age of twenty-one admitted a member of the Middle Temple; and about two years afterwards, he was called to the bar. In 1757 he removed from the Middle to the Inner Temple, and succeeded in obtaining the office of Commissioner of Bankrupts. Our author was in a great measure ill adapted for the profession of the law, not only on account of his disinclination for the profession, but also for that mental infirmity, which had, it was feared, laid a sure foundation for that natural diffidence which he afterwards frequently manifested to appear in public. For several years during his connection with the Inner Temple, Cowper invairably manifested a preference for poetry, friendship, and love: yet, his poetic effusions, which consisted of a few desultory poems, produced at intervals, together with some occasional jeux d'esprit for a periodical, and some translations of Horace for his friend Mr. Duncombe, were given to the world as the fruit of others. In his friendly associations, Cowper appears to have made a judicious choice; Colman, Bonnel Thornton, and Lloyd, being amongst his warmest friends, but in his affections for a lady, who had for some time given encouragement to his addresses, he was disappointed, objections being made by the lady's parents to Cowper's lack

of fortune.

In the year 1756 our author lost his father; but this bereavement does not appear to have had any very serious depressing effect upon his mind. In 1762, the offices of reading clerk and clerk of the private committees in the House of Lords were offered to him; and as the emoluments of these offices were, in a pecuniary point of view, rather considerable, he consented to accept them. But here, that diffidence which had many times before been conspicuous in him, and when he reflected that he would have to appear in public, he shrunk from the ordeal, and declined to fill the offices. Afterwards he was offered the less valuable situation of the clerk of the journals in the same House; but to obtain possession of this situation, on account of there being a dispute of the right of nomination, as Cowper would be obliged to appear at the bar of the House of Lords, he shrunk from accepting the office; and after a painful struggle in which his feelings were greatly taxed, he sunk into a state of insanity; and thus ended all his hopes of worldly affluence, More than

once, during the prevalence of this awful malady, Cowper meditated upon the act of suicide; but, by the skilful treatment of Dr. Cotton, he ultimately recovered. The first encouraging symptom of amendment, which he evinced to his friends, was when he was visited by his brother, who, by his judicious, friendly and pious advice, led our author to raise his thoughts above the things of time and sense, and fix them on those which are eternal and endurable. The feelings which had been awakened in the mind of our author, by the conversation which had taken place between him and his brother, preponderated between hope and fear for some time, until eventually he became possessed of

"The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy."

After the expiration of eighteen months, during which time he had been placed in an asylum at St. Alban's, he removed, with the advice of his brother, to Huntingdon, where he was fortunate in obtaining the acquaintance and the friendship of the Rev. Morley Unwin; and the subsequent intercourse and friendly feeling which subsisted between our author and this family appears to have been the happiest period of his life.

After a short time of friendly and social meetings, Cowper felt a desire to take up his abode with this family, and he expressed his wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Unwin, who, without the least hesitation, cordially assented to what he desired. The sudden death, however, of Mr. Unwin, which occurred in June or July, 1765, proceeding from a fall from his horse, was the cause of our poet's removal in October of the same year, with Mrs. Unwin and family to Olney. At this place he became the intimate friend and associate of the Rev. John Newton, curate of the parish, whose kind and uniform good counsels to the unhappy poet were of such a nature as to bind their friendship so close that death alone could dissolve it. It was at this place that he composed, jointly with Mr. Newton, those hymns so well known under the title of "The Ol ney Collection." At Clney, too, the unwearied and kind attentions of Mrs. Unwin to our unhappy poet tended more and more to endear her to him: the Mary of the poet was not solely the Mary of the poem, but the Mary who was endeared to the writer's heart, the Mary for whom his strongest and fondest affections of which the heart is susceptible, were entertained.

The death of the poet's brother, which, as we have be

fore stated, took place in 1770, appears to have at this time again had a serious effect upon the mird of our author. He was suddenly called to Cambridge to witness the last moments of his brother John, and for some time he gave himself up to melancholy and grief; but, through the kind and unwearied attentions of his friends, he again rallied, and became more composed. The family with whom he resided was now reduced to two, Mrs. Unwin and himself; the other branches of the family, consisting of a son and daughter, having left her, the former by having obtained a preferment in the church, and the latter by having given herself in marriage. It is not improbable that Cowper did at this time propose to Mrs. Unwin the desirability of uniting himself in marriage with her, and, there were, as we believe, no serious objections on the part of that lady, yet from the recurrence of the painful malady which had before visited our author, occurring at this time, that union did not take place.

For some years this painful hallucination overcame the noble faculties of Cowper in so serious a manner as to preclude every idea of future comfort in this world; although the illusion on his mind was of a quite different nature to the one that had possessed him in his first attack; his imagination at that time resting upon the idea that he was a pre-ordained subject for everlasting punishment, and at this time feeling the assurance that he had been, from all eternity, destined for a place among the saints of the Most High. These illusions of predestination appear to have bound him, in each case, as with an iron spell. In the autumn of the year 1774, he was prevailed upon to set aside those melancholy contemplations which were producing such a withering effect upon both the inner and the outer man. The attentions of Mrs. Unwin throughout these afflictions had been unwearied, and when convalescence had in some measure been restored, she strongly urged him to pursue some course which might innocently divert his mind from dwelling on melancholy subjects; and our author acting upon her advice, undertook the management of three leverets, which he has not failed to immortalize. He commenced, about this time, at the suggestion of his friend the Rev. Mr. Bull, of Newport Pagnell, his translations of Madame la Mothe Guion. Cowper at length appeared before the public in the character of a British poet; Mrs. Unwin, perceiving that mental exercise, particularly the exercise requisite for the formation of a poetic wreath, was the

best alleviator of our poet's natural depression of spirits, urged him to essay higher and more comprehensive flights in such compositions than he had heretofore aimed at; and the fruit of such advice was "Table Talk," ," "The Progress of Error," "Truth," "Expostulation," "Hope," "Charity," "Conversation," and "Retirement;" which, with some minor pieces, formed Cowper's first volume. Our author particularly requested his friend Mr, Newton to write a preface for his first volume, which request that gentleman kindly complied with, and a preface dated February, 1782, from the pen of Mr. N. appeared with the volume.

The year preceding that of the publication of his first volume was eventful to him from the circumstance of that cordial friendship which he enjoyed in his acquaintance, brief as it was, with Lady Austen, widow of Sir Robert Austen, who, at this period, came to reside with her sister, Mrs. Jones, at Olney. The cheerful and agreeable conversation of this lady was greatly instrumental in abating the poet's gloom. A story which she learnt in her childhood, and related to Cowper, was the foundation of that humorous ballad, "The History of John Gilpin ;" at her instigation, too, the principal poem of our author was written, "viz. "The Task;" the Advertisement annexed to it explains how far she was the means of its production. After he had completed "The Task," at the earnest solicitation of his two friends, Mrs. Unwin. and Lady Austen, Cowper commenced the translation of Homer. That friendship and acquaintance which subsisted between our author and Lady Austen was here suddenly terminated; but from what cause has never been disclosed.

The publication of his second volume of poems, including "The Task," took place in June, 1785, and besides extending his reputation, attracted the notice of his family; and in 1786, Lady Hesketh, who appears to have been the only one of Cowper's kindred who entertained a uniform friendly recollection of him, visited him at Olney, when she expressed a desire to reside with him; whereupon Mrs. Unwin provided for her reception, by removing to a more commodious house in the neighbourhood of Weston. Some years previous to this, Sir Thomas Hesketh had died, and bequeathed a legacy to our author, which the latter gratefully acknowledged. This year produced another event which greatly disturbed and