the humbler glory of contributing to the Rolliad or the Connoif feur. As the prefent collection relates to no particular fet of fubjects or occurrences, but exhibits a view of the author's mifcellaneous correspondence with the few intimate friends he had retained, it is impoffible to give any abstract of its contents, or to obferve any order in the extracts that may be made from it. We fhall endeavour however to introduce as great a variety as poffible. Though living altogether in retirement, Cowper appears to have retained a very nice perception of the proprieties of conduct and manners, and to have exercised a great deal of acuteness and fagacity upon the few fubjects of practical importance which he had occafion to confider. The following sketch is by a fine and masterly hand, and proves how much a bashful reclufe may excel a gentleman from the grand tour in delicacy of ob fervation and juft notions of politenefs. I did not feel my Since I wrote laft, we had a vifit from felf vehemently difpofed to receive him with that complaifance, from which a ftranger generally infers that he is welcome. By his manner, which was rather bold than eafy, I judged that there was no occafion for it, and that it was a trifle which, if he did not meet with, neither would he feel the want of: He has the air of a travelled man, but not of a travelled gentleman; is quite delivered from that referve, which is so common an ingredient in the English character, yet does not open himself gently and gradually, as men of polite behaviour do, but burfts upon you all at once. He talks very loud, and when our poor little robins hear a great noife, they are immediately feized with an ambition to furpass it the increase of their vociferation occafioned an increase of his, and his in return, acted as a ftimulus upon theirs-neither fide entertained a thought of giving up the conteft, which became conti nually more interefting to our ears, during the whole vifit. The birds however, furvived it, and fo did we. They perhaps flatter themfelves they gained a complete victory, but I believe Mr could have killed them both in another hour.' p. 17. 18. Cowper's antipathy to public fchools is well known to all the readers of his poetry. There are many excellent remarks on that fubject in thefe letters. We can only find room for the following. A public education is often recommended as the most effe&tual remedy for that bashful, and awkward reftraint, fo epidemical among the youth of our country. But I verily believe, that, instead of being a cure, it is often the cause of it. For feven or eight years of his life, the boy has hardly feen or converfed with a man, or a woman, except the maids at his boarding houfe. A gentleman, or a lady, are confequently fuch novelties to him, that he is perfectly at a lofs to know S 2 what what fort of behaviour he fhould preferve before them. He plays with his buttons, or the ftrings of his hat, he blows his nofe, and hangs down his head, is confcious of his own deficiency to a degree, that makes him quite unhappy, and trembles left any one should speak to him, because that would quite overwhelm him. Is not all this miferable fhynefs the effect of his education? To me it appears to be fo. If he faw good company every day, he would never be terrified at the fight of it, and a room full of ladies and gentlemen, would alarm him no more than the chairs they fit on. Such is the effect of custom." р. бо. There is much acuteness in the following examination of Dr Paley's argument in favour of the English hierarchy. He fays first, that the appointment of various orders in the Church, is attended with this good confequence, that each clafs of people is fupplied with a clergy of their own level and defcription, with whom they may live and affociate on terms of equality. But in order to ef fect this good purpose, there ought to be at leaft three parfons in every parifh, one for the gentry, one for the traders and mechanics, and one for the lowest of the vulgar. Neither is it easy to find many parishes, where the laity at large have any fociety with their minifter at all. This therefore is fanciful, and a mere invention: in the next place he says it gives a dignity to the miniftry itfelf; and the clergy fhare in the refpect paid to their fuperiors. Much good may fuch participation do them! They themselves know how little it amounts to. The dignity a parfon derives from the lawn fleeves, and fquare cap of his diocefan, will never endanger his humility. Again- Rich and fplendid fituations in the Church, have been juftly regarded as prizes, held out to invite perfons of good hopes, and ingenuous attainments. Agreed. But the prize held out in the feripture, is of a very different kind'; and our ecclefiaftical baits are too often fnapped by the worthlefs, and perfons of no attainments at all. They are indeed incentives to avarice and ambition, but not to thofe acquirements, by which only the minifterial function can be adorned, zeal for the falvation of men, humility, and felf-denial. Mr Paley and I therefore cannot agree. p. 172. 173 One of the moft remarkable things in this volume, is the great profufion of witty and humorous paffages which it contains, though they are ufually fo short, and ftand fo much connected with more indifferent matter, that it is not easy to give any tolerable notion of them by an extract. His ftyle of narrative is particularly gay and pleasing, though the incidents are generally too trifling to bear a feparation from the whole tiffue of the correfpondence. We venture on the following account of an election vifit. As when the fea is uncommonly agitated, the water finds its way into creeks and holes of rocks, which in its calmer ftate it never reaches, in like manner the effect of these turbulent times is felt even at Orchard-fide, where in general we live, as undifturbed by the political ele ment ment, as fhrimps or cockles that have been accidentally depofited in fome hollow beyond the water mark, by the ufual dashing of the waves. We were fitting yesterday after dinner, the two ladies and myself, very compofedly, and without the leaft apprehenfion of any fuch intrufion, in our fnug parlour, one lady knitting, the other netting, and the gentleman winding worfted, when to our unfpeakable furprife, a mob appeared before the window, a finart rap was heard at the door, the boys halloo'd, and the maid announced Mr G. Puss was upfortunately let out of her box, fo that the candidate, with all his good friends at his heels, was refused admittance at the grand entry, and referred to the back door, as the only poffible way of approach. * Candidates are creatures not very fufceptible of affronts, and would rather, I fuppofe, climb in at a window, than be abfolutely excluded. In a minute, the yard, the kitchen, and the parlour, were filled. Mr G, advancing toward me, fhook me by the hand with a degree of cordiality that was extremely feducing. As foon as he, and as many as could find chairs were feated, he began to open the intent of his vifit. I told him I had no vote, for which he readily gave me credit. I affured him I had no influence, which he was not equally inclined to believe, and the lefs no doubt becaufe Mr A --, addreffing himfelf to me at that moment, informed me that I had a great deal. Suppofing that I could not be poffeffed of fuch a treasure without know. ing it, I ventured to confirm my firft affertion, by faying, that if I had any, I was utterly at a lofs to imagine where it could be, or wherein it confifted. Thus ended the conference. Mr G. ——fqueezed me by the hand again, kiffed the ladies, and withdrew. He kiffed likewife the maid in the kitchen, and feemed upon the whole a most loving, kiffing, kind-hearted gentleman. He is very young, genteel, and handfome. He has a pair of very good eyes in his head, which not being fufficient as it fhould feem for the many nice and difficult purposes of a fenator, he had a third alfo, which he wore fufpended by a riband from his button-hole. The boys halloo'd, the dogs barked, Pufs fcampered, the hero, with his long trair of obfequious followers, withdrew. We made ourselves very merry with the adventure, and in a fhort time fettled into our former tranquillity, never probably to be thus interrupted more. I thought myself however happy in being able to affirm truly, that I had not that influence for which he fued, and for which, had I been poffeffed of it, with my prefent views of the difpute between the Crown and the Commons, I must have refused him, for he is on the fide of the former. It is comfortable to be of no confequence in a world, where one cannot exercife any without disobliging fomebody.' p. 242–4. Melancholy and dejected men often amufe themselves with purfuits that feem to indicate the greatest levity. Swift wrote all forts of doggrel and abfurdity while tormented with fpleen, S 3 giddinefs, * His tame Hare. giddinefs, and mifanthropy. Cowper compofed John Gilpin during a season of most deplorable depreflion, and probably indited the rhyming letter which appears in this collection in a moment equally gloomy. For the amufement of our readers, we annex the concluding paragraph, containing a fimile, of which we think they muft immediately feel the propriety. I have heard before of a 100m, with a floor laid upon fprings, and fuch like things, with fo much art, in every part, that when you went in, you was forced to begin a minuet pace, with an air and a grace, fwimming about, now in, and now out, with a deal of ftate, in a figure of eight, without pipe or ftring, or any fuch thing; and now I have writ, in a rhyming fit, what will make you dance, and as you advance, will keep you ftill, though against your will, dancing away, alert and gay, till you come to an end of what I have penn'd; which that you may do, ere Madam and you, are quite worn out, with jigging about, 1 take my leave; and here you receive a bow profound, down to the ground, from your humble meW. C.' p. 89. As a contrast to this ridiculous effufion, we add the following brief statement, which, notwithstanding its humble fimplicity, appears to us to be an example of the true pathetic. You never faid a better thing in your life, than when you affured Mr of the expedience of a gift of bedding to the poor of Olney. There is no one article of this world's comforts with which, as Falftaff fays, they are fo heinously unprovided. When a poor wo, man, and an honeft one, whom we know well, carried home two pair of blankets, a pair for herself and husband, and a pair for her fix children, as foon as the children saw them, they jumped out of their ftraw, caught them in their arms, kissed them, blessed them, and danced for joy. An old woman, a very old one, the first night frat she found herself fo comfortably covered, could not fleep a wink, being kept awake by the contrary emotions, of transport on the one hand, and the fear of not being thankful enough on the other.' p. 347-8. The correspondence of a poet may be expected to abound in poetical imagery and fentinients. They do not form the moft prominent parts of this collection, but they occur in fufficient profufion; and we have been agreeably furprised to find in these letters the germs of many of the fineft patlages in the Tafk.' There is all the ardour of poetry and devotion in the following paffages: O! I could fpend whole days, and moon-light nights, in feeding upon a lovely profpect! My eyes drink the rivers as they flow. If every human being upon earth, could think for one quarter of an hour, as I have done for many years, there might perhaps be many miferable men among them, but not an unawakened one could be found, from the arctic to the antarctic circle. At prefent, the difference between them and me is greatly to their advantage. I delight in baubles, and know them to be fo; for, refted in, and viewed, without a reference to their Author, what is the earth, what are the planets, what is the fun itfelf, but a bauble? Better for a man never to have seen them, or to fee them with the eyes of a brute, ftupid and unconfcious of what he beholds, than not to be able to say," The Maker of all these wonders is my friend!" Their eyes have never been ope red, to fee that they, are trifles; mine have been, and will be, 'till they are clofed for ever. They think a fine eftate, a large confervatory, a hot-houfe rich as a Weft Indian garden, things of coufequence; vifit them with pleasure, and mufe upon them with ten times more. I am pleafed with a frame of four lights, doubtful whether the few pines it contains will ever be worth a farthing; amufe myfelf with a green-houfe, which Lord Bute's gardener could take upon his back, and walk away with; and when I have paid it the accustomed vifit, and watered it, and given it air, I fay to myfelf" This is not mine, 'tis a plaything lent me for the pre fent, I must leave it foon." p. 19-20. We keep no bees; but if I lived in a kive, I fhould hardly hear more of their mufic. All the bees in the neighbourhood refort to a bed of mignonette, oppofite to the window, and pay me for the honey they get out of it, by a hum, which, though rather monotonous, is as agreeable to my ear, as the whiffling of my tinnets. All the founds that nature utters are delightful, at leaft in this country. I should not perhaps find the roaring of lions in Africa, or of bears in Ruffia, very pleafing; but I know no beaft in England whofe voice I do not ac count mufical, fave and except always the braying of an afs. The notes of all our birds and fowls pleafe me, without one exception. I fhould not indeed think of keeping a goofe in a cage, that I might hang him up in the parlour, for the fake of his melody; but a goofe upon a common, or in a farm-yard, is no bad performer: And as to infects, if the black beetle, and beetles indeed of all hues, will keep out of my way, I have no objection to any of the reft; on the con trary, in whatever key they fing, from the gnat's fine treble to the bafs of the humble bee, I admire them all. Seriously, however, it ftrikes me as a very obferveable inftance of providential kindness to man, that fuch an exact accord has been contrived between his ear and the founds with which, at least in a rural fituation, it is almoft every moment visited. All the world is fenfible of the uncomfortable effect that certain founds have upon the nerves, and confequently upon the fpirits-And if a finful world had been filled with fuch as would have curdled the blood, and have made the fenfe of hearing a perpetual in convenience, I do not know that we should have had a right to complain.-There is fomewhere in infinite fpace, a world that does not roll within the precincts of mercy; and as it is reasonable, and even fcriptural to fuppofe, that there is mufic in heaven, in those dismal regions perhaps the reverse of it is found. Tones fo difmal, as to make woe itfelf more infupportable, and to acuminate even despair. But my paper admonishes me in good time to draw the reins, and to check the defcent of my fancy into deeps with which the is but too familiar." P. 287-289. S 4 The |