By looking on the bud descry,

Or guess, with a prophetic power,
The future splendor of the flower?
Just so th' Omnipotent who turns
The system of a world's concerns,
From mere minutiæ can educe
Events of most important use;
And bid a dawning sky display

The blaze of a meridian day.

The works of man tend one and all,

As needs they must, from great to small;

And vanity absorbs at length

The monuments of human strength.

But who can tell how vast the plan

Which this day's incident began?
Too small perhaps the slight occasion
For our dim sighted observation;

It pass'd unnotic'd, as the bird

That cleaves the yielding air unheard,
And yet may prove, when understood,
An harbinger of endless good.

Not that I deem, or mean to call Friendship a blessing cheap, or small; But merely to remark, that ours, Like some of nature's sweetest flowers,

Rose from a seed of tiny size,

That seemed to promise no such prize:

A transient visit intervening,

And made almost without a meaning,
(Hardly the effect of inclination,
Much less of pleasing expectation!)
Produced a friendship, then begun,
That has cemented us in one;

And plac'd it in our power to prove,
By long fidelity and love,

That Solomon has wisely spoken;

"A three-fold cord is not soon broken."

In this interesting poem the author expresses a lively and devout presage of the superior productions, that were to arise in the process of time, from a friendship so unexpected, and so pleasing; but he does not seem to have been aware, in the slightest degree, of the evident dangers that must naturally attend an intimacy so very close, yet perfectly innocent, between a poet and two ladies, who, with very different mental powers, had each reason to flatter herself that she could agreeably promote the studies, and animate the fancy of this fascinating bard.

Genius of the most exquisite kind is sometimes, and perhaps generally, so modest, and diffident, as to require continual solicitation and encouragement, from the voice of sympathy, and friendship, to lead

it into permanent and successful exertion. Such was the genius of Cowper; and he therefore considered the chearful and animating society of his new accomplished friend, as a blessing conferred on him by the signal favour of providence. I have reserved the following Letters, although of an earlier date than some of their predecessors, because they speak of Lady Austen, and could not therefore appear to advantage till the course of my narrative had rendered the reader acquainted with that interesting lady. In speaking of Cowper's first volume, and the circumstances of it's publication, I had occasion to proceed beyond the period when his friendship with Lady Austen commenced. In my first date of that very important event I have discovered, and corrected, a little mistake which probably arose from a slight failure in the recollection of that lady, when she favoured me with the particulars of her intercourse with the poet, whom she so happily inspired. Their acquaintance was said (in the first edition of this book) to have arisen in September 1781, but the following Letters clearly prove that Cowper had been enlivened by the socie

of this animating friend, at an earlier period.

LETTER I.

To the Revd. WILLIAM UNWIN.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

July 29, 1781.

Having given the case you

of

laid before me in your last all due consideration, I proceed to answer it, and in order to clear my way, shall, in the first place, set down my sense of those passages in scripture, which, on a hasty perusal, seem to clash with the opinion I am going to give—" If a man smite one cheek, turn the other"-" If he take thy cloak, let him take thy coat also.”—That is, I suppose, rather than on a vindictive principle, avail yourself of that remedy the law allows you, in the way retaliation, for that was the subject immediately under the discussion of the speaker. Nothing is so contrary to the genius of the Gospel, as the gratification of resentment and revenge, but I cannot easily persuade myself to think, that the Author of that dispensation could possibly advise his followers to consult their own peace at the expence of the peace of society, or inculcate an universal abstinence from the use of lawful remedies, to the encouragement of injury and oppression.

St. Paul again seems to condemn the practise of

going to law," Why do ye not rather suffer wrong, &c." but if we look again we shall find, that a liti

gious temper had obtained, and was prevalent among the professors of the day. This he condemned, and with good reason; it was unseemly to the last degree, that the disciples of the Prince of Peace should worry and vex each other with injurious treatment, and unnecesary disputes, to the scandal of their religion in the eyes of the Heathen. But surely he did not

mean, any more than his Master, in the place above alluded to, that the most harmless members of society should receive no advantage of its laws, or should be the only persons in the world who should derive no benefit from those institutions, without which society cannot subsist. Neither of them could mean to throw down the pale of property, and to lay the Christian part of the world open, throughout all ages, to the incursions of unlimited violence and wrong.

By this time you are sufficiently aware that I think you have an indisputable right to recover at law, what is so dishonestly withheld from you. The fellow, I suppose, has discernment enough to see a difference between you, and the generality of the clergy, and cunning enough to conceive the purpose of turn