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of themselves is mortal poison, may have some idea of the horrours of my situationothers can have none.'

"His terrours on this occasion arose to such 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 several 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 forsake him at the bar of the house. This distressing apprehension encreased to such a degree, as the time for his appearance approached, that when the day, so 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, acquiesced in the cruel necessity of his relinquishing the prospect of a station so severely formidable to a frame of such singular sensibility.

"The conflict between the wishes of just affectionate ambition and the terrours of diffidence, so 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 cousin) had vainly endeavoured to establish a lasting tranquillity in his mind, by friendly and religious conversation; it was found necessary to remove him to St. Alban's, where he resided a considerable time, under the care of that eminent physician, Dr. Cotton."

The period of his residence here was from Dec. 1763 to July 1764, and the mode of his insanity appears to have been that of religious despondency; but this, about the last mentioned date, gave way to more cheering views, which first presented themselves to his mind during a perusal of the third chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

After his recovery from this awful visitation, he determined to retire from the busy world altogether, finding his mind alienated from the conversation and company, however select, in which he had hitherto delighted, and looking back with particular horrour on some of his former associations: and by the advice of his brother the rev. John Cowper of Bennet College, Cambridge, he removed to a private lodging in Huntingdon. He had not, however, resided long in this place, before he was introduced into a family that had the honour for many years of administring to his hap piness, and of evincing a warmth of friendship of which there are few examples. This intercourse was begun by Mr. Cawthorn Unwin, a young man then a student at Cambridge and son to the rev. Mr. Unwin, rector of Grimston, but now a resident at Huntingdon. Mr. Unwin the younger, was one day so attracted by Cowper's uncomm mon and interesting appearance, that he attempted to solicit his acquaintance, and achieved this purpose with such reciprocity of delight, that Cowper was finally induced to take up his abode with his new friend's amiable family, which then consisted of the rev. Mr. Unwin, Mrs. Unwin, the son just mentioned, and a daughter. It appears to have been about the month of September 1765, that he formed this acquaintance, and about February 1766, he became an inmate in the family. In July 1767, Mr. Unwin senior was killed by a fall from his horse. The letters which Mr. Hayley has published, * describe in the clearest light, the singularly peaceful and devout life of the amiable

writer, during his residence at Huntingdon, and this melancholy accident which oc casioned his removal to a distant county."

About this time he added to the number of his friends, the late venerable and pious John Newton, rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, but then curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire, who being consulted by Mr. Cowper as to an eligible residence for Mrs. Unwin, recommended a house at Olney, to which that lady, her daughter, and our poet removed on the 14th of October, 1767. At this residence, endeared to them by the company and public services of a man of congenial sentiments, Cowper for some years continued to enjoy those blessings of a retired and devotional life which had constituted his only happiness since his recovery. His correspondence at this era evinces a placid train of sentiment, mixed with an air of innocent gaiety, that must have afforded the highest satisfaction to his friends. Among other pleasures of the purest kind, he delighted in acts of benevolence, and as he was not rich, he had the additional felicity of being employed as an almoner in the secret benevolences of that most charitable of all human beings, the late John Thornton, esq. an opulent merchant of London, whose name he has immortalized in his poem on Charity, and in some verses on his death which Mr. Hayley first published. Mr. Thornton statedly allowed Mr. Newton the sum of 2001. per annum 2, for the use of the poor of Olney, and it was the the joint concern of Mr. Newton and Mr. Cowper to distribute this sum in the most judicious and useful manner. Such a bond of union could not fail to increase their intimacy." Cowper," says Mr. Newton, " loved the poor; he often visited them in their cottages, conversed with them in the most condescending manner, sympathized with them, counselled and comforted them in their distresses: and those who were seriously disposed, were often cheered and animated by his prayers." Of their intimacy, the same writer speaks in these emphatic terms-" For nearly twelve years we were seldom separated for seven hours at a time, when we were awake and at home -the first six I passed in daily admiring, and aiming to imitate him: during the se cond six, I walked pensively with him in the valley of the shadow of death." Among other friendly services about this time, he wrote for Mr. Newton some beautiful, hymns, which the latter introduced in public worship, and published in a collection long before Cowper was known as a poet.

On these employments Mr. Hayley passes the following opinion. "Where the nerves are tender, and the imagination tremblingly alive, any fervid excess in the exercise of the purest piety may be attended with such perils to corporeal and mental health, as men of a more firm and hardy fibre would be far from apprehending. Perhaps the life that Cowper led, on his settling at Olney, had a tendency to increase the morbid propensity of his frame, though it was a life of admirable sanctity." It appears, however, by his letters, that this was the life of his choice, and that it was varied by exercise and rational amusements. How such a life could have a tendency to increase a morbid propensity, or what mode of life could have been contrived more likely to diminish that propensity, it is difficult to imagine.

In 1770, his brother John died at Cambridge, an event which made a lasting, but

2 Cecil's Life of Newton, p, 142. Mr. Newton told his biographer that he thought he had received upwards of 30001, in this way from Mr. Thornton, during the time that he resided at Olney, little more than fifteen years. C.

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not unfavourable impression' on the tender and affectionate mind of our poet. While the circumstances of this event were recent he committed them to paper, and they were published by Mr. Newton in 1802. Cowper afterwards introduced some lines to his memory in the Task:

"I had a brother once Peace to the mem'ry of a man of worth,

A man of letters, and of manners too," &c.

For some years this brother withstood, but finally adopted, our author's opinions in religious matters; and severely as the survivor felt the loss of so amiable a relative it produced no other effect on his mind than to increase his confidence in the principles he had adopted, and to rejoice in the consolations be derived from them,

From this period, his life affords little of the uarrative kind, until 1773, when, in the language of his biographer," he sunk into such severe paroxysms of religious despondency, that he required an attendant of the most gentle, vigilant, and inflexible spirit. Such an attendant he found in that faithful guardian (Mrs. Unwin) whom he had professed to love as a mother, and who watched over him, during this long fit of depres sive malady, extended through several years, with that perfect mixture of tenderness and fortitude, which constitutes the inestimable influence of maternal protection, I wish to pass rapidly over this calamitous period, and shall only observe, that nothing could surpass the sufferings of the patient, or excell the care of the nurse. That meritorious care received from Heaven the most delightful of all rewards, in seeing the pure and powerful mind, to whose restoration it has contributed so much, not only gradually restored to the common enjoyments of life, but successively endowed with new and marvellous funds of diversified talents, and courageous application."

His recovery was slow, and he knew enough of his malady to abstain from literary employment while his mind was in any degree unsettled. The first amusement which engaged his humane affections was the taming of three bares, a circumstance that would have scarcely deserved notice unless among the memoranda of natural history, if he had not given to it an extraordinary interest in every heart by the animated account he wrote of this singular family. In the mean time, his friends Mrs. Unwin and Mr. Newton redoubled their efforts to promote his happiness, and to reconcile him to the world in which he had yet a very important part to act: but as, in 1780, Mr. Newton was obliged to leave Olney and accept of the living of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, he contrived to introduce Cowper to the friendship of the rev. Mr. Bull of Newport Pagnell. This gentleman, who had many excellent qualities to recommend him as a fit successor to Mr. Newton, soon acquired the unreserved confidence of our author. It was at Mr. Bull's request that he translated several spiritual songs from the French of Madame De La Mothe Guion, which have since been published separately. His recovery from this second illness may be dated from the summer of 1778, after which he began to meditate those greater exertions upon which his fame rests, About this time he was advised to make application to lord Thurlow, who had been

* See Cowper's character of him. Hayley, vol. ii. p. 90. C.

* Cowper says, “Her verse is the only French verse I ever read that I found agreeable: there is a neatness in it equal to that which we applaud, with so much reason, in the compositions of Prior." Hayley, vol. ii. p. 51. C.

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