THE LIFE,

AND

POSTHUMOUS WRITINGS,

OF

WILLIAM COWPER, EsQR.

WITH AN

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL COWPER.

BY WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQR.

"Observatur oculis ille vir, quo neminem ætas nostra graviorem, sanctiorem,
subtiliorem denique tulit: quem ego quum ex admiratione diligere cœpissem, quod cve-
nire contrà solet, magis admiratus sum, postquam penitus inspexi. Inspexi enim peni-
tus: nihil a me ille secretum, non joculare, non serium, non triste, non lætum.”
Plinii Epist. Lib. 4, Ep 17.

FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, LONDON.

1806.

LIFE OF

OF COWPER.

PART THE SECOND.

Ανης ήδιστος αοιδων.

A New æra opens in the history of the poet, from

an incident that gave fresh ardour and vivacity to his fertile imagination. In 1781, he became acquainted with a lady, highly accomplished herself, and singularly happy in animating and directing the fancy of her poetical friends. The world will perfectly agree with me in this eulogy, when I add, that to this lady we are primarily indebted for the poem of the Task, for the ballad of John Gilpin, and for the translation of Homer. But in my lively sense of her merit, I am almost forgetting my imme