Mr. Newton published these letters as an illustration of the Power of Grace, taking these words of St. Paul for a motto, "the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power My dear friend the translator," he said, "is so well known, that I scarcely need add, I could have applied to no one more capable of doing justice to the writer, or of giving satisfaction to the reader. I think the relation will not be thought too minute or circumstantial by competent judges; I mean by those who are attentive to the workings of the human heart, and who acknowledge and admire the superintendence of a Divine Providence over the concerns of mankind. The man was suddenly and totally changed. The servant of sin became the devoted servant of God. The fact is evident and incontrovertible. Let philosophers account for it, if they can, upon any other grounds than what the Scripture assigns. But let them be serious, and not think to answer or evade the inquiry, by the stale, unmeaning cry of enthusiasm. They cannot thus satisfy others; nor even themselves.".. Mr. Newton was easily satisfied, as easily as Van Lier himself, who, when wavering between Calvinism, Arminianism, and Socinianism, was fixed in the Torrid Zone by a perusal of-Theron and Aspasio! Motives of the same kind which had formerly made him call Cowper's attention to the case of Simon Browne, induced him to engage his poor friend in translating these letters, wherein they both saw the power of Grace, and perceived nothing else. Cowper had long been accustomed to confound bodily sensations with spiritual impressions; this narrative failed to revive in him the feelings with which he left St. Alban's; the good, therefore, which had been hoped for was not produced; but neither did the evil consequence follow of confirming him in that dangerous error,.. for it was already fixed in him too firmly to be shaken. 75 1 Cor. iv. 20. ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Hooker's Epitaph, by Sir William Cowper, p. 2.-It is thus printed by Izaak Walton: Though nothing can be spoke worthy his fame, And God in me this lesson did inspire, To bid this humble man, "Friend, sit up higher!" Westminster, p. 11.-Cowper even liked the school well enough to admire the worst things belonging to it,-its grammars. "I am no friend," he says, "to Lilly's Grammar, though I was indebted to him for my first introduction to the Latin language. The grammars used at Westminster, both for the Latin and the Greek, are those to which, if I had a young man to educate, I should give the preference. They have the merit of being compendious and perspicuous, in both which properties I judge Lilly to be defective. They are called Busby's Grammars, though Busby did not compose them. The compilation was a task imposed upon his uppermost boys, the plan only being drawn by the master, and the versification, which I have often admired for the ingenuity of it, being theirs. I never knew a boy of any abilities, who had taken his notion of language from these grammars, that was not accurate to a degree that distinguished him from most others."-Letter to Mr. Unwin, July 3, 1784. I do not think any Westminster man would agree with Cowper in his opinion of the aforesaid grammars. As for their being compendious and perspicuous, I should not be more surprised at hearing them called entertaining. Benefit derived both from the discipline of Westminster and its indis 1 Qu. lie? cipline, p. 13.-"One constant blunder of these New Broomers," says Mr. Coleridge, "these Penny Magazine sages and philanthropists, in reference to our public schools, is to confine their views to what schoolmasters teach the boys, with entire oversight of all that the boys are excited to learn from each other, and of themselves, with more geniality even because it is not a part of their compelled school knowledge. An Eton boy's knowledge of the St. Laurence, Mississippi, Missouri, Orellana, &c. will be generally found in exact proportion to his knowledge of the Illissus, Hebrus, Orontes, &c. ; inasmuch as modern travels and voyages are more entertaining and fascinating than Cellarius; or Robinson Crusoe, Dampier, and Captain Cook, than the Periegesis. Compare the lads themselves from Eton and Harrow, &e. with the alumni of the New Broom Institution, and not the lists of school lessons; and be that comparison the criterion."-Table Talk, ii. 224. In 1756 he lost his father, p. 21.-" Biographers," says Dr. Memes, "have stated, that Cowper was but little affected by his father's death. Certainly nothing to the contrary appears in the poet's writings; but the cause assigned, namely, a depression of spirits, which is said to have hindered him from duly estimating the magnitude of the blow, did not at this time exist. The first attack had passed away, and the second and more dreadful one had its commencement many years afterwards. Granting, then, the fact, we must seek some other explanation. Though there is no reason to doubt the filial reverence and respect with which Cowper regarded his surviving parent, yet the prolonged interruption of that personal intercourse which to the sentiment of duty adds the intensity of love and attachment, had never allowed these feelings fully to unfold themselves. We have already seen that the poet draws from his own experience the picture of a youthful heart chilled and seared by early separation from home and its associations. Hardly can any subsequent opportunity make up for the vividness of first impressions on the opening affections of childhood; or for the loss of that season when the child so guilelessly, so insensibly, yet so sweetly and certainly, gains the proper station in the parental bosom. But that Cowper's disposition naturally overflowed with this genuine kindliness, needs no other proof than the affectionate sincerity with which, at the very time of which we now speak, he regarded another relative. How well,' says he, writing on this subject long afterwards, 'do I still remember, when I have been kept awake the whole night by the thought that my uncle might die before me.' Who does not recognise in these words the pure aspirations of his own young heart? and what clearer evidence can there be of the baneful effects of early dissipation and religious indifference, than their stifling in such a breast the yearnings of filial affection? For, conceding to absence and interruption of cordial intercourse all their effect in estranging relatives from each other, an absorbing and selfish dissipation-and dissipation is always selfish-could alone so speedily obliterate from a son's recollection the memory of a father." I should be wanting in one of the first duties of a biographer if I did not express my indignation at the manner in which Cowper is treated in this passage. A double charge is here brought against him, that he felt little upon his father's death, and that this want of feeling was the effect of religious indifference, and of early, absorbing, selfish dissipation. The proof of the first charge is, that "nothing to the contrary2 appears in the poet's writings." Now any one who thinks upon the matter for a moment may perceive that many of Cowper's letters have perished, many have not been published, and of those which have appeared in print, much has been suppressed. Let it be observed, also, that we have none of his letters written at, or near, the time of his father's decease. What then can be more unjust, or more uncharitable, than to accuse him of want of filial feeling on such an occasion, because no expression of it happened to be found in letters written many years afterwards? This would be bad enough, if this were all; but it is even worse to account for the imputed want of feeling by early, absorbing, selfish dissipation, and this Dr. Memes supposes to be proved by Cowper's own confession! Into what error and injustice must men be led, if they take in a literal sense the exaggerated language of enthusiatic self-condemnation, even when (as in Cowper's case) it is undoubtedly sincere! What Cowper's dissipation amounted to has been shown in the text. Original of the Letter to Clotworthy Rowley, Esq. p. 24. Delicia et Lepores mei! Lond. Aug. 1758. Qui Gallicé scripsisti, responsum habes Latinum; non quia Linguam hanc satis calleo, sed istam quia nimis ignoro. Literas Anglicanas te contempturum certò scivi. Dum tu Rhadamanthum tuum, quicunque is est, per villas atque oppida sectaris, majori, ut ais, opere quam lucro; ego, neque laborans, neque lucrum sperans, otiosam, ideoque mihi jucundissimam vitam ago; neque rus tibi invideo, lutulentum scilicet, et intempestivo diluvio quotidie obrutum. Aliquando autem et ego in suburbana rura, amicum vel amicam visurus, proficiscor: breve est iter, quod vel pedes, vel curru conducto facile perficias; perrarò enim, et nunquam nisi coactus, in caballum ascendo, quippe qui nates teneras habeo, quas exiguus usus contundit et dilacerat. Triduum nuper, Villæ quam dicunt Greenwich, commoratus sum. O beatum Triduum, quod si Triennium fuisset, immortalitatem Superis minime invidissem. Puellulam ibi amabilem et amatam, de quá sæpius tibi locutus sum, inveni. Ed Virgo est ætate (annos nata sedecim) ut dies singuli novum aliquod decus ad formam afferant. Modestia, et (quod mirum videtur in Fæmina) taciturnitate est maxima; quando autem loquitur, crederes Musam loqui. Hei mihi, quod Sidu tam clarum alio spectet! India Occidentali oriundum, illuc rediTu me turum est; mihique nihil præter suspiria et lacrymas relicturum. amore sentes torqueri,-ego te lascivia Paucis abhinc diebus ad Hortos Bonæ Mariæ sum profectus; delicias ejus loci nequeo satis laudare. Ludi Scenici qui ibi exhibentur, more Italorum, nostrâ vero linguâ, sunt constituti. Partes quas Recitativas vocant, 2 To refute such an argument by facts would be treating it with too much respect. It is best refuted by exposing its utter emptiness. But the reader may call to mind a singularly beautiful passage, (p. 20,) in which Cowper, more than thirty years after his father's death, speaks of his feelings upon going for the last time to the parsonage at Berkhampstead. If he had not loved his father dearly, and found that home a happy home whenever he went to it, he would not have "preferred it to a palace." ridiculæ sunt ultrà modum; cantilenæ autem suavissimæ. timendum, ne sub Dio sedentem, tussis occupet vel febris. Unum hoc Quod ad amicum nostrum Alston attinet, neque Epistolam mihi misit quamlibet, neque missurum reor; scio enim jamdudum ignavam hominis naturum, et obliviosam. Si videris, objurgationes aliquos a me in eum confer, Culumque meum osculetur, jube.-Vale. Nonsense Club, p. 26.-Dr. Memes says that Mr. De Grey, afterwards a judge, was one of this club. (p. 59.) He may be right, but as in his list of the members he omits Bensley, and includes Thurlow, his authority cannot be relied on. Colman at Westminster, p. 31.-An epistle of his to Lord Viscount Pulteney, written from school in 1747, is printed in the St. James's Magazine, vol. ii. p. 240. In this poor Coley, Who still is drudging in the college In slow pursuit of further knowledge, complains, in untranscribable rhyme, that many a cruel lash was laid on him, To make him sometime hence a parson; A judge, perhaps, or a physician, Strolling on Ratcliff's exhibition. After describing the manner in which he supposes his friend to pass his time on the continent, visiting the camp there, and the foreign courts, he concludes thus : Though I have long with study mental Yet in my soil the Hebrew root Has scarcely made one single shoot. I've now broke up, but have a task though, For mine's as knotty as the Devil. By different roads with different speed; Cowper's papers in the Connoisseur, p. 34.—Five papers are certainly his, Nos. 111, 115, 119, 134, and 138. Whether the letters by Mr. Town's cousin Village, in other numbers, (13, 23, 41, 76, 81, 105, and 139,) are also his, is uncertain,—most probably not, for they are not assigned to the same author as the five former, in the concluding paper. Gray's Bard, p. 35.-This ode was first published in 1757, with that on the Progress of Poetry. The Monthly Review treated the author respectfully, but informed him that he was not taking the way to be popular. "As this publication," says the critic, "seems designed for those who have formed their taste by the models of antiquity, the generality of readers cannot be supposed adequate judges of its merit; nor will the poet, it is presumed, be greatly disappointed if he finds them backward in commending a performance not entirely suited to their apprehensions. We cannot. |