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WILLIAM COWPER.

BORN, 1731; DIED, 1800.

IN COWPER, for the first time since the age of Milton, the highest poetical genius is seen as the advocate of pure religion; and the high-toned morality of his writings has exercised a powerful influence on all who have succeeded him; so that the poetry of the nineteenth century is not more diverse from that of the licentious era of the Stuarts, than are the social manners, or any other of the most striking characteristics of the age, from those of the period which succeeded the Commonwealth. Cowper enjoyed the advantages of an education which place him on a footing with any gentleman of his age. He was born at the Rectory of Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, and partook of the full advantages of a parentage practically belonging to the happy social middle ranks of England, and yet nearly connected, by both parents, with families of ancient rank and noble descent. His paternal grandfather was the Lord Chancellor, Earl Cowper, and his mother could boast of a still loftier lineage. Hence the additional force acquired by these touching lines in the poet's address on the receipt of his mother's picture :—

"My boast is not that I can trace my birth
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,

The son of parents passed into the skies."

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All the advantages of birth and station, however, could not compensate the poet for the loss so touchingly commemorated in the beautiful poem above referred to. He was only about six years old on the death of his mother;

but his gentle nature was peculiarly suited to appreciate the tender solicitude of a mother, and the vivid impression produced on his infant mind by her loss was never after effaced. In his eleventh year, he was entered as a scholar at Westminster school, and not the least advantage which he derived from it was the friendships he then formed. Churchill, Colman, and Cumberland, all whose names still rank among our poets and dramatists, were among his early playfellows; while his juvenile intimacy with Warren Hastings is commemorated both in prose and verse; and his early friendship, both with Joseph Hill, and with Thurlow, the future Lord Chancellor, were productive of the most substantial benefits in after years. Cowper left Westminster in his eighteenth year, and his works as a translator preserve abundant evidence that his time there had not been lost. He was shortly after apprenticed to a solicitor in London, where he spent his time with little thought of studying law, nor does he appear to have seriously turned his mind to the necessity for some permanent provision for life, till he formed an attachment for his cousin, Theodora Jane, the sister of his cousin and correspondent, Lady Hesketh.

After leaving the solicitor to whom he had been bound for the term specified, Cowper went into chambers in the Temple, and having gone through the requisite forms for qualifying him to fill one of the many posts at the command of influential political friends, he had probably done the utmost that was expected of him. The solitude of chambers was especially unsuited to one so formed by nature for social enjoyment, and to this cause we may probably trace the first development of the mental disease which clouded all his later years. The seeds of this terrible malady had probably existed in Cowper's consti

tution from his birth; an event, however, occurred when he had reached his thirty-first year, which brought matters to a crisis. His friends had procured for him the office of Reading Clerk to the Committee of the House of Lords; but his sensitive mind shrunk from the idea of such public appearances as the duties of the office involved, and influence was used to obtain its exchange for that of Clerk of the Journals, which, though worth less in a pecuniary point of view, involved no such dreaded duties. Unfortunately, amid the rivalries of political parties, the appointment was disputed, and Cowper was required to appear before the House of Lords. The dread of this had such an effect on his sensitive mind, though involving nothing more than any common clerk was competent to, that his reason entirely gave way, and he had to be removed for a time to a private asylum at St. Albans. It has been attempted to be shown by more than one of the poet's biographers, that his malady was occasioned by religious melancholy. But this idea is sufficiently refuted by his own touching narrative. Religion was not the cause, but the cure of his disease. The physician, Dr. Cotton, was a pious Christian, whose well-timed words of comfort led him, in his recovery, to the great source of peace of mind, as revealed through Christ. On his complete restoration, he repaired to Huntingdon, to be near his brother, who was then studying at Cambridge, and after having remained in private lodgings there for some months, not without experiencing some return of the depression of spirits consequent on his secluded life, he was at length providentially led to join the family circle of the Unwins, whose names are so indelibly associated with that of the poet.

In 1767, Cowper removed with Mrs. Unwin to Olney,

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