It costs me not much difficulty to suppose that my friends, who were already grown old, when I saw them last, are old still; but it costs me a good deal sometimes to think of those who were at that time young, as being older than they were. Not having been an eye witness of the change that time has made in them, and my former idea of them not being corrected by observation, it remains the same; my memory presents me with this image unimpaired, and while it retains the resemblance of what they were, forgets that by this time the picture may have lost much of its likeness, through the alteration that succeeding years have made in the original. I know not what impressions time may have made upon your person; for while his claws (as our Grannams called them) strike deep furrows in some faces, he seems to sheath them with much tenderness, as if fearful of doing injury to others. But though

an enemy to the person, he is a friend to the mind, and you have found him so. Though even in this respect his treatment of us depends upon what he meets with at our hands; if we use him well, and listen to his admonitions, he is a friend indeed, but otherwise the worst of enemies, who takes from us daily something that we valued, and gives us nothing better in its stead. It is well with them, who, like you, can stand a tip-toe on the mountain top of human life, look down with pleasure upon the valley they have passed, and sometimes stretch out their wings in joyful hope of a happy flight into eternity. Yet a little while and your hope

will be accomplished.

When you can favour me with a little account of your own family without inconvenience, I shall be glad to receive it; for though separated from my kindred by little more than half a century of miles, I know as lit

tle of their concerns as if oceans and continents were interposed between us.

Yours, my dear cousin,

WM. COWPER.

The following letter to Mr. Hill contains a poem already printed in the works of Cowper, but the reader will probably be gratified in finding a little favourite piece of pleasantry introduced to him, as it was originally dispatched by the author for the amusement of a friend.

LETTER XXVIII.
To JOSEPH HILL, Esq.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Dec. 25, 1780.

Weary with rather a long walk in the snow, I am not likely to write a very sprightly letter, or to produce any thing that may cheer this gloomy season, unless I have recourse to my pocketbook, where, perhaps, I may find something to transcribe; something that was written before the Sun had taken leave of our hemisphere, and when I was less fatigued than I am at present.

Happy is the man who knows just so much of the law as to make himself a little merry now and then with the solemnity of juridical proceedings. I have heard of common law judgments before now, indeed have been present at the delivery of some, that, according to my poor apprehension, while they paid the utmost respect to the letter of a statute, have departed widely from the spirit of it, and, being governed entirely by the point of law, have left equity, reason, and

common sense behind them at an infinite distance. You will judge whether the following report of a case, drawn up by myself, be not a proof and illustration of this satirical assertion.

NOSE, Plaintiff-EYES, Defendants.

1.

Between Nose and Eyes a sad contest arose,
The Spectacles set them unhappily wrong,
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said Spectacles ought to belong.

2.

So the Tongue was the Lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning,
While chief Baron Ear, set to balance the laws,
So fam'd for his talents at nicely discerning.

3.

In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,
And your Lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find,
That the Nose has had Spectacles always to wear,
Which amounts to possession, time out of mind.

4.

Then holding the Spectacles up to the Court,
Your Lordship observes they are made with a

straddle

As wide as the ridge of the Nose is, in short,
Design'd to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

5.

Again would your Lordship a moment suppose,
("Tis a case that has happen'd, and may be again)
That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,
Pray who would, or who could, wear Spectacles then?

6.

On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the Spectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.

7.

Then shifting his side, as a Lawyer knows how,
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes;
But what were his armer few people know,
For the court did not think they were equally wise.

So his Lordshi decreed, with a grave solemn tone,
Disive an ear ithout one if or but,

That whenever the Nose put his Spectacles on,
By day-light, or candle-light-Eyes should be shut!
Yours affectionately,

W. COWPER.

LETTER XXIX.

To JOSEPH HILL, Esq.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Feb, 15, 1781.

I am glad you were pleased with my report of so extraordinary a case. If the thought of versifying the decisions of our Courts of Justice had struck me, while I had the honour to attend them, it would perhaps have been no difficult matter to have compiled a volume of such amusing and interesting precedents, which, if they wanted the eloquence of the Greek or Roman oratory, would have compensated that deficiency by the harmony of rhyme and metre.

Your account of my uncle and your mother gave me great pleasure. I have long been afraid to inquire

after some in whose welfare I always feel myself interested, lest the question should produce a painful answer. Longevity is the lot of so few, and is so seldom rendered comfortable by the associations of good health and good spirits, that I could not very reasonably suppose either your relations or mine so happy in those respects as it seems they are. May they continue to enjoy those blessings so long as the date of life shall last. I do not think that in these coster-monger days, as I have a notion Falstaff calls them, an antediluvian age is at all a desirable thing; but to live comfortably, while we do live, is a great matter, and comprehends in it every thing that can be wished for on this side the curtain that hangs between Time and Eternity.

Farewell my better friend than any I have to boast of either among the Lords or Gentlemen of the House of Commons.

The reviving Poet, who had lived a half century with such a modest idea of his own extraordinary talents,that he had hitherto given no composition professedly to the public, now assumed himself with preparations to appear as an author. But he hoped to conduct those preparations with a modest secrecy, and was astonished to find one of his intimate friends apprized of his design.

LETTER XXX.

To JOSEPH HILL, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR,

vain to deny it.

May 9, 1781.

I am in the press, and it is in But how mysterious is the convey