broken the ice, are upon the most comfortable terms of correspondence. He writes very affectionately to me, and I say every thing to him that comes uppermost. I could not write frequently to any creature living, upon any other terms than these. He tells me infirmities that he has, which make him less active than he was; I am sorry to hear that he has any such. Alas! alas! he was young when I saw him, only twenty years ago 29! Cowper had reached that time of life, in which upon looking back twenty years seem but as yesterday.

;

He was not inclined to submit his manuscript to any one for criticism, having felt the inconvenience in the case of his first volume. When Lady Hesketh advised such a measure, he replied, "My cousin, give yourself no trouble to find out any of the Magi to scrutinize my Homer. I can do without them and if I were not conscious that I have no need of their help, I would be the first to call for it." Johnson, however, when the specimen, which had been sent to the General, came to his hands on its return, sent with it some notes thereon by a critic, whose name he did not mention, but to whom, as a man of unquestionable learning and ability, he, and the General also, wished Cowper to submit his manuscript. Pleased with the knowledge and sagacity which the remarks displayed, and not displeased with their temper, though it promised that severity of animadversion would not be spared when occasion should be found for it, he consented to let the manuscript be submitted to this unknown critic. And being in a complying mood, he assented also to Lady Hesketh's desire, that Maty should see one of the books; Maty had asked her leave to mention it in the number of his Review, in which he was about to express his approbation of the Task. "This," said Cowper, "pleases me the more, because I have authentic intelligence of his being a critical character in all its forms, acute, sour, and blunt; and so incorruptible withal, and so unsusceptible of bias from undue motives, that as my correspondent informs me, he would not praise his own mother, did he not think she deserved it 30 "

"But let Maty," said he, "be the only critic that has any thing to do with it. The vexation, the perplexity that attends a multiplicity of criticisms by various hands, many of which are sure to be futile, many of them ill-founded, and some of them contradictory to others, is inconceivable,-except by the 29 Jan. 31, 1786. 30 To Mr. Bagot, Jan. 23, 1786.

author, whose ill-fated work happens to be the subject of them. This also appears to me self-evident, that if a work have passed under the review of one man of taste and learning, and have had the good fortune to please him, his approbation gives security for that of all others qualified like himself. I speak thus, my dear, after having just escaped from such a storm of trouble, occasioned by endless remarks, hints, suggestions, and objections, as drove me almost to despair, and to the very verge of a resolution to drop my undertaking for ever. With infinite difficulty I at last sifted the chaff from the wheat, availed myself of what appeared to me to be just, and rejected the rest, but not till the labour and anxiety had nearly undone all that Kerr had been doing for me. My beloved cousin, trust me for it, as you safely may, that temper, vanity, and self-importance, had nothing to do in all this distress that I suffered. It was merely the effect of an alarm that I could not help taking, when I compared the great trouble I had with a few lines only thus handled, with that which I foresaw such handling of the whole must necessarily give me. I felt beforehand, that my constitution would not bear

it."

Johnson's friend proved to be Fuseli; and Cowper, though at first sadly teased by him, soon, when they understood each other, saw reason to think that he might have gone the world through before he could have found his equal in an accurate and familiar acquaintance with the original. Fuseli, though the most caustic of men, was greatly pleased with the translation, and it is said to have derived considerable advantage from his remarks. But Maty, not a little to the vexation and surprise of Lady Hesketh, declared against it, and Cowper was hurt by his animadversions; they appeared to him unjust in part, and in part ill-natured, "and yet," says he, "the man himself being an oracle in every body's account, I apprehended that he had done me much mischief. Why he says that the translation is far from exact, is best known to himself, for I know it to be as exact as is compatible with poetry; and prose translations of Homer are not wanted 31" Colman also made some remarks upon the specimen, "prompted," said he, “by my zeal for your success, not, Heaven knows, by arrogance or impertinence. On the whole I admire it exceedingly, thinking 31 May 8, 1786.

it breathes the spirit and conveys the manner of the original; though having here neither Homer nor Pope's Homer, I cannot speak precisely of particular lines or expressions, or compare your blank verse with his rhyme, except by declaring, that I think blank verse infinitely more congenial to the magnificent simplicity of Homer's hexameters, than the confined couplets and the jingle of rhyme."

Colman had shown himself in his Terence so excellent a translator, that there was no man, whose opinion upon such a specimen could be worth more. It came in good time to encourage Cowper, who had been harassed by minute criticisms, and had "altered and altered in deference to them, till at last he did not care how he altered." "When you come, my dear," said he to his cousin, "we will hang all these critics together, for they have worried me without remorse or conscience,―at least one of them has. I had actually murdered more than a few of the best lines in the specimen, in compliance with his requisitions; but plucked up my courage at last, and in the very last opportunity that I had, recovered them to life again by restoring the original reading. At the same time, I readily confess that the specimen is the better for all this discipline its author has undergone; but then it has been more indebted for its improvement to that pointed accuracy of examination to which I was myself excited, than to any proposed amendments from Mr. Critic; for as sure as you are my cousin, whom I long to see at Olney, so surely would he have done me irreparable mischief, if I would have given him leave 32."

Cowper was sufficiently aware of his own state, to know that the sort of excitement which he thus underwent in his way to the press, must appear dangerous to his relations, and that there was one of his letters to the General that would distress and alarm him. "I sent him another," he says, "that will, I hope, quiet him again. Johnson has apologized very civilly for the multitude of his friend's strictures, and his friend has promised to confine himself in future to a comparison of me with the original, so that I doubt not we shall jog on merrily together." Fuseli no doubt was made acquainted with Cowper's case, and tempered his strictures accordingly. It was fortunate that Mr. Newton33, who neither thought favourably

$2

S2 Feb. 19,1786. 33 When the work was on the point of publication, he wrote

of the undertaking, nor of the execution, had prudence enough to see that some such employment was necessary for his poor friend, and therefore did not discourage him. And it is observable, that though Cowper was not aware of Mr. Newton's opinion on the subject, he wrote to him in a strain that seems intended to propitiate him. "I thank you heartily, both for your wishes and prayers, that should a disappointment occur, I may not be too much hurt by it. Strange as it may seem to say it, and unwilling as I should be to say it to any person less candid than yourself, I will nevertheless say, that I have not entered on this work, unconnected as it must needs appear with the interests of the cause of God, without the direction of his providence, nor altogether unassisted by him in the performance of it. Time will show to what it ultimately tends. I am inclined to believe that it has a tendency to which I myself am, at present, perfectly a stranger. Be that as it may, He knows my frame, and will consider that I am but dust; dust, into the bargain, that has been so trampled under foot and beaten, that a storm less violent than an unsuccessful issue of such a business might occasion, would be sufficient to blow me quite away. But I will tell you honestly, I have no fears upon the subject. My predecessor has given me every advantage.

"As I know not to what end this my present occupation

thus to Hannah More:-"My dear friend's Homer is coming abroad. I have received my copy, but the publication is not yet. I have cursorily surveyed the first volume; it seems fully equal to what I expected, for my expectations were not high. I do not think it will add to the reputation of the author of the Task, as a poet; but I hope the performance will not be unworthy of him, though the subject is greatly beneath the attention of the writer, who has a mird capable of original, great, and useful things; but he could not at the time fix his thoughts upon any thing better; and they who know his state will rather pity than blame him. I hope we shall have no more translations."-Roberts's Life of H. More, vol. ii. p. 264.

Mrs. More agreed in opinion with him. She says, "You know my admiration of this truly great genius, but I am really grieved that he should lower his aims so far as to stoop to become a mere editor and translator. It is Ulysses shooting from a baby's bow. Why does he quit the heights of Solyma for the dreams of Pindus? What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?" In his own original way he has few competitors; in his new walk he has many superiors; he can do the best things better than any man, but others can do middling things better than he."-Ibid. vol. ii. p. 289.

may finally lead, so neither did I know, when I wrote it, or at all suspect, one valuable end, at least, that was to be answered by the Task. It has pleased God to prosper it; and being composed in blank verse, it is likely to prove as seasonable an introduction to a blank verse Homer, by the same hand, as any that could have been devised: yet when I wrote the last line of the Task, I as little suspected that I should ever engage in a version of the old Asiatic tale, as you do

now

34 9

There was another subject, however, upon which Mr. Newton did not observe the same delicacy. Cowper had told him that he expected a visit from the General as soon as the season should turn up bright and warm. "I have not seen him," said he, "these twenty years and upwards, but our intercourse having been lately revived, is likely to become closer, warmer, and more intimate than ever. Lady Hesketh also comes down in June, and if she can be accommodated with any thing in the shape of a dwelling at Olney, talks of making it always, in part, her summer habitation. It has pleased God that I should, like Joseph, be put into a well; and because there are no Midianites in the way to deliver me, therefore my friends are coming down into the well to see me3." The tenour of Mr. Newton's remarks upon this intelligence may be understood from Cowper's letter in reply.

TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

May 20, 1786.

Within this hour arrived three sets of your new publication, for which we sincerely thank you. We have breakfasted since they came, and consequently, as you may suppose, have neither of us had yet an opportunity to make ourselves acquainted with the contents. I shall be happy (and when I say that, I mean to be understood in the fullest and most emphatical sense of the word) if my frame of mind shall be such as may permit me to study them. But Adam's approach to the Tree of Life, after he had sinned, was not more effectually prohibited by the flaming sword that turned every way, than mine to its great Antetype has been now almost these thirteen years, a short interval of three or four days, which passed about this time twelvemonth, alone excepted. For what reason it is that I am thus long excluded, if I am ever again to 84 Feb. 18, 1786. 35 April 1, 1786. 36 Messiah.