to Alexander Selkirk, the Winter Nosegay, and Mutual Forbearance.

It may perhaps console some future diffident poet, on his first appearance in public, if his merits happen to be depreciated by the presumptuous sentence of periodical criticism, it may console him to be informed, that when the first volume of Cowper was originally published, one of the critical journals of his day, represented him as a good devout gentleman, without a particle of true poetical genius. To this very curious decision we may apply with a pleasant stroke of poetical justice, the following couplet from the book so sagaciously described.

The moles and bats, in full assembly, find,

On special search, the keen-ey'd eagle blind.

But to those, who were inclined to deny his title to the rank and dignity of a poet, Cowper made the best of all possible replies, by publishing a poem, which rapidly, and justly, became a prime favourite with every poetical reader.

In his Task he not only surpassed all his former compositions, but executed an extensive work, of such original and diversified excellence, that as it

arose without the aid of any model, so it will probably remain for ever unequalled by a succession of imitators.

“Unde nil majus generatur ipso,

"Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum."

The Task may be called, a bird's-eye view of human life. It is a minute, and extensive survey of every thing most interesting to the reason, to the fancy, and to the affections of man. It exhibits his pleasures, and his pains; his pastimes, and his business; his folly, and his wisdom; his dangers, and his duties! all with such exquisite facility, and force of expression, with such grace and dignity of sentiment, that rational beings, who wish to render themselves more amiable, and more happy, can hardly be more advantageously employed, than in frequent perusal of the Task.

"O how fayre fruits may you to mortal men
"From wisdom's garden give! How many may
"By you the wiser, and the better prove!"

To apply three verses of singular simplicity from Nicholas Grimoald, (one of the earliest writers of

English blank-verse!) to the poet, who has added such a large increase of variegated lustre to that species of composition.

The Task, beginning with all the peaceful attractions of sportive gaiety, rises to the most solemn, and awful grandeur, to the highest strain of religious solemnity, Its frequent variation of tone is masterly in the greatest degree, and the main spell of that inexhaustible enchantment, which hurries the reader through a flowery maze of many thousand verses, without allowing him to feel a moment of languor or fatigue. Perhaps no author, antient or modern, ever possessed, so completely as Cowper, the nice art of passing, by the most delicate transition, from subjects to subjects, that might otherwise seem but little, or not at all, allied to each other; the rare talent

"Happily to steer

"From grave to gay, from lively to severe."

The Task may be compared to one of the grand fabricks of musical contrivance, where a single work contains a vast variety of power for producing such harmony and delight, as might be expected to arise only from a large collection of instruments. The

auditor is charmed by the vicissitudes of partial excellence, and astonished by the magnificent compass

of a single production, But the supreme attraction of the Task arises from that conviction, which all, who delight in it, cannot fail to feel, that the poet, however pre-eminent in intellectual powers, must have been equally pre-eminent in tender benevolence of heart. His reader loves him as a sympathetic friend, and blesses him as an invaluable instructor.

The truth of this remark may be illustrated by the following verses, which I insert with pleasure, as an elegant proof of that affection in a stranger, which the poetry of Cowper has such a peculiar tendency to inspire.

ON SEEING

A SKETCH of COWPER,

BY

LAWRENCE.

Sweet Bard, whose mind thus pictur'd in thy face,

O'er every feature spreads a nobler grace ;
Whose keen, but soften'd, eye appears to dart

A look of pity through the human heart;

To search the secrets of man's inward frame;
To weep with sorrow o'er his guilt and shame.
Sweet Bard with whom, in sympathy of choice,
I've oftimes left the world, at nature's voice,
To jom the song that all her creatures raise,
To carol forth their great Creator's praise;
Or wrept in visions of immortal day,
Have gaz'd on Truth in Zion's heavenly way.
Sweet Bard! may this thine image, all I know,
Or ever may, of Cowper's form below,

Teach one, who views it with a Christian's love,
To ssek, and find thee, in the realms above.

Persons, who estimate poetical talents more from the arbitrary dictates of established criticism, than from their own feelings, may be disposed to exclude Cowper from the highest rank of poets, because he has written no original work in the epic form-He has constructed no fable; he has described no great action, accomplished by a variety of characters, derived either from history or invention; but if the great epic poets of all nations were assembled to give their suffrages concerning the rank to