nor for any convenience of place or habitation, that Cowper and Mrs. Unwin had fixed upon Olney for their abode. He had once been what he called "an extravagant tramper," and thought that he had done himself "no good by pilgrimages of immoderate length." The walks here were beautiful, "but it was a walk to get at them," and they were only for fine weather at other times "a gravel walk, thirty yards long, afforded but indifferent scope to the locomotive faculty, yet," he said, "it was all they had to move on for eight months in the year"." He no longer kept a horse; the chief reason for that expense ceased when he removed too far from Cambridge to meet his brother once a week half way. And indeed he could now indulge in no superfluous expenditure, Mrs. Unwin's means being so much reduced by her husband's death, that their joint incomes did not more than suffice for their frugal establishment. The sole motive which directed them in their choice was that they might be under the pastoral care of Mr. Newton.

It is said by one of Cowper's biographers that though he had "clearly discerned and warmly embraced the leading truths of the gospel," he was till now a stranger to the advantages of an evangelical ministry :".. the phraseology shows from what school the observation comes. "Their days," it is said by the same person, were spent nearly as at Huntingdon, except the differences produced by a substitution of frequent evangelical worship for the daily form of prayer; the advantages of a more extended religious intercourse; and the peculiar friendship of Mr. Newton." That friendship could not be estimated above its value, Mr. Newton being a man whom it was impossible not to admire for his strength of heart, and the warmth and sincerity of his affections, and his vigorous intellect, and his sterling worth. A sincerer friend Cowper could not have found; he might have found a more discreet one. The advantages of a more extended religious intercourse depend wholly upon the description of that intercourse; and the difference between what is called "frequent evangelical worship" and the daily form of prayer, could have been no difference for the better to Mrs. Unwin (the widow and the mother of a clergyman), and to a person in Cowper's 6 To Lady Hesketh, May 1, 1786. 7 To Mr. Newton, Aug. 5, 1786.

The

state of mind must have been greatly for the worse. morning service which he attended every day at Huntingdon could induce no feelings except such as were calm and soothing and salutary,.. none which would make him leave the church with an excited pulse, a flushed cheek, and a heated and throbbing head.

But what was likely to be the effect when he entered at Olney upon what has been called “ a course of decided Christian happiness;" when it was "by no means a rare occurrence to find the man of trembling sensibilities praying by the sick bed of the poorest cottager, or (the height of distress to a feeling mind) guiding the devotions of some miserable being, who, having lived for the world, attempted to seek God only in the departing moments of existence ?" Mr. Newton had established prayer meetings in his parish, and Cowper was required to take an active part at these meetings,.. he who, by his own account, was one of those persons "to whom a public exhibition of themselves on any occasion is mortal poison'!" We are assured, and no doubt with truth, that at these times he "poured forth his heart before God in earnest intercession, with a devotion equally simple, sublime, and fervent, adapted to the unusual combination of elevated genius, exquisite sensibility, and profound piety, that distinguished his mind." Mr. Greatheed, by whom this was said in Cowper's funeral sermon, proceeds to say, "it was, I believe, only on such occasions as these, that his constitutional diffidence was felt by him as a burden during this happy portion of his life. I have heard him say, that when he expected to take the lead in your social worship, his mind was always greatly agitated for some hours preceding. But his trepidation wholly subsided as soon as he began to speak in prayer; and that timidity, which he invariably felt at every appearance before his fellow creatures, gave place to an aweful yet delightful consciousness of the presence of his Saviour."

Mr. Newton had

A frame of adamant, a soul of fire 10; nothing could shake his nerves. But for Cowper to visit the sick and the dying, and to prepare himself by hours of ner8 Mr. Cecil says, "Mr. Newton used to consider him as a sort of curate, from his constant attendance upon the sick and afflicted in that large and necessitous parish." 10 Dr. Johnson.

9 See p. 78.

vous agitation for taking the lead in a prayer-meeting, with a constitution like his, and a mind which had already once been overthrown,.. what could Dr. Cotton, if the question had been proposed to him,.. what could any practitioner who was acquainted with the circumstances of the case, or any person capable of forming an opinion upon such subjects have expected.. but the consequences that ensued?

Several years afterwards Lady Hesketh delivered her opinion to her sister Theodora upon the course of decided Christian happiness" into which Cowper had been led when he settled under the ministry of Mr. Newton. "Mr. Newton is an excellent man, I make no doubt," said she: "and to a strong minded man like himself might have been of great use; but to such a mind,.. such a tender mind,.. and to such a wounded, yet lively imagination as our cousin's, I am persuaded that eternal praying and preaching were too much : nor could it, I think, be otherwise. One only proof of this I will give you, which our cousin mentioned a few days ago in casual conversation. The case was this. He was mentioning that for one or two summers he had found himself under the necessity of taking his walk in the middle of the day, which he thought had hurt him a good deal; 'but,' continued he, 'I could not help it, for it was when Mr. Newton was here, and we made it a rule to pass four days in the week together. We dined at one; and it was Mr. Newton's rule for tea to be on table at four o'clock, for at six we broke up.' 'Well then,' said I, 'if you had your time to yourself after six, you would have good time for an evening's walk, I should have thought.' 'No,' said he; after six we had service or lecture, or something of that kind, which lasted till supper.' I made no reply, but could not and cannot help thinking, they might have made a better use of a fine summer's evening than by shutting themselves up to make long prayers. I hope I honour religion, and feel a reverence for religious persons; but still, (though I own the generality of the world are too careless, and devote too little time to these exercises,) I do think there is something too puritanical in all this. Our Saviour, I am sure, constantly speaks against it, and blames the Pharisees in more places than one who dealt in vain repetitions, and who thought they should be heard for their much speaking. But I do not mean to give you my sentiments upon this conduct generally, but only as it

might affect our cousin; and indeed, for him, I think it could not be either proper or wholesome11."

The effect appears in his correspondence 12. Though no man ever took more evident pleasure in conversing with his absent friends, he ceased writing to Lady Hesketh, and wrote only at long intervals to Mrs. Cowper. The character of his letters to Hill was changed: he still addressed him as Sephus, or dear Joe, but he wrote only on business; not coldly indeed, (for his affections were never chilled,) but briefly, and as if he were afraid of trespassing into a cheerful strain. Thanking him for " a full answer to an empty epistle," he says, "if Olney furnished any thing for your amusement, you should have it in return, but occurrences here are as scarce as cucumbers at Christmas 13.' Subjects for a letter were never wanting however when he looked for them; he could raise them in all places and at all times, as easily as he raised cucumbers in their season.

In the same letter he says, "I visited St. Alban's about a fortnight since in person, and I visit it every day in thought. The recollection of what passed there, and the consequences that followed it, fill my mind continually, and make the circumstances of a poor transient half-spent life so insipid and unaffecting, that I have no heart to think or write much about

11 Early Productions of Cowper, &c. pp. 68-70. Hayley, though evidently writing under some restraint, expresses a like opinion. He says, "When 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 in Olney had a tendency to increase the morbid propensity of his frame, though was a life of admirable sanctity.”—Vol. i. p. 98.

12 Mr. Thomas Taylor has observed this. "Owing to some cause," he says, "for which we are unable to account, Cowper's correspondence with his friends became much less frequent after his settlement at Olney than it had formerly been: probably it might be attributed, in some degree at least, to his close intimacy with Mr. Newton, for they were seldom seven waking hours apart from each other. The same vein of genuine and unaffected piety, however, runs through those letters which he did write, and they abound with remarks of uncommon excellence."-P. 86.

Those remarks are all of the same vein. The truth is that one effect of what is called his "more extended religious intercourse was to make that intercourse exclusive. 13 June 16, 1768.

them. Whether the nation is worshipping Mr. Wilkes, or any other idol, is of little moment to one who hopes, and believes, that he shall shortly stand in the presence of the great and blessed God. I thank Him, that he has given me such a deepimpressed persuasion of this aweful truth, as a thousand worlds would not purchase from me. It gives me a relish to every blessing, and makes every trouble light."

The motive for this journey to St. Alban's was a charitable one. Scanty, and indeed uncertain, as his own means were when he left Dr. Cotton's, he took upon himself the charge of a little boy who was in imminent danger of ruin through the depravity of his parents, who were moreover as poor as they were depraved. This boy he put to school at Huntingdon, removed him, on his own removal, to Olney, and went now to St. Alban's in order to bind him apprentice11 to some useful trade.

The next letter to Hill was written on his friend's recovery from a dangerous illness, and Cowper took the fair occasion for entering upon a solemn strain.

DEAR JOE,

TO JOSEPH HILL, ESQ.

Jan. 21, 1769. I rejoice with you in your recovery, and that you have escaped from the hands of one from whose hands you will not always escape. Death is either the most formidable, or the most comfortable thing we have in prospect on this side of eternity. To be brought near to him, and to discern neither of these features in his face, would argue a degree of insensibility, of which I will not suspect my friend, whom I know to be a thinking man. You have been brought down to the sides of the grave, and you have been raised again by Him who has the keys of the invisible world; who opens, and none can shut; who shuts, and none can open. I do not forget to return thanks to Him on your behalf, and to pray that your life, which He has spared, may be devoted to his service. "Behold! I stand at the door and knock," is the word of 14 The boy, however, was fixed as an apprentice at Oundle. In Mr. Greatheed's Memoir it is said that he afterwards settled at Olney, and married a favourite servant of Mrs. Unwin, whose daughter, by a former husband, was likewise brought up by that lady. "It is to be lamented that neither she nor her father-in-law proved worthy of the charitable advantages by which they were distinguished."

S. C.-1

L