OF

WILLIAM COWPER, Esq.

COMPILED

FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE

AND OTHER

AUTHENTIC SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

CONTAINING

Remarks on his Writings,

AND ON THE

PECULIARITIES OF HIS INTERESTING CHARACTER,

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

BY THOMAS TAYLOR.

"Untainted with the blandishments of vice,
Which mark the manners of the present age,
He sought and found the pearl of precious price
Which stands recorded in the sacred page.
Yet, spite of all that wisdom could impart,
And all the fervour of religious flame,

Grief poured a tide of anguish through his heart,
And shook the fabric of his mental frame."

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER AND CO., CORNHILL,

ΤΟ

R. D. ALEXANDER, Esq. F.L.S.

THE STEADY, DETERMINED, AND PERSEVERING

FRIEND OF HUMANITY,

This Life

OF THE AMIABLE, PIOUS, AND HIGHLY-GIFTED,

BUT DEEPLY-AFFLICTED POET,

COWPER,

WHICH OWES ITS EXISTENCE ENTIRELY TO HIS SUGGESTION,

Es most respectfully knscribed,

AS A SLIGHT, BUT SINCERE AND GRATEFUL,

TRIBUTE OF ESTEEM,

FOR THE NUMEROUS UNMERITED FAVOURS RECEIVED

FROM HIM,

BY HIS OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

MANY lives of Cowper have already been published. Why, then, it may be asked, add to their number? Simply because, in the opinion of competent judges, no memoir of him has yet appeared that gives a full, fair, and unbiassed view of his character.

It is remarked by Dr. Johnson, the poet's kinsman, in his preface to the two volumes of Cowper's Private Correspondence, "that Mr. Hayley omitted the insertion of several interesting letters in his excellent Life of the poet, out of kindness to his readers." In doing this, however, amiable and considerate as his caution must appear, the gloominess which he has taken from the mind of Cowper, has the effect of involving his character in