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wish to render that little subser- tractive humour: among which stand vient to religious improvement, are usually familiar with the writings of Cowper.

This writer vindicates his claim to the character of a poet by uniting pleasure with instruction; thus accomplishing what the Sabine bard held to be the legitimate object of poetry. He pleases, or he would not be popular with one class of readers: he instructs, or he would be rejected by another: both agree in their opinion of his merits, and have conferred upon him a rank among the writers of our country, from which he is not likely to be deposed, while a taste for genuine simplicity or for unfeigned piety continues to distinguish the British nation.

The best illustration of the works of any author, who, like Cowper, writes from the fulness of his own mind, will be furnished by a knowledge of the society he enjoyed, of the books he read, or of such passing events as were likely to give an impulse to his reflections during the time he was employed in composition. In Cowper's private letters, we frequently discern sentiments which again recur in his poetry; and it is gratifying to trace in the rude conceptions of his mind, as they first arose in the unpremeditated effusions of confidential communication, the germs of some of the most admired passages in

the Task. I shall not omit to notice them in the following essays on that exquisite poem.

The Sopha.

At the opening of the Task, Cowper endeavours to conciliate his readers, by displaying whatever he deemed likely to attract their notice. "They are children (said he to Mr. Bull); and if we give them physic, we must sweeten the edges of the cup with honey." He had introduced his first volume in the same manner; and as in his Table Talk, so in The Sopha, he exhibits many specimens of genuine and at

foremost the history and progress of seats from convenience to luxury, from the stool to the sopha; and the parody on "Sweet is the breath of morn." He soon, however, quits the Sopha, and introduces us us into his favourite haunts at Weston. The prominent features of the scenery around him in his rambles, and the reflections they suggested, are delineated in a manner that at once justifies his avowal to Unwin: " "My descriptions are all from nature; none of them second-handed. My delineations of the heart are from my own experience; not one of them borrowed from books, or in the least degree conjectural." Life, vol. ii. p. 260.-It has been said, that we are indebted to the misunderstanding which arose between his female. companions, for the introduction of a passage, not only beautiful in itself, but heightening by its connexion the interest of what follows

"And witness, dear companion of my walks,

Whose arm this twentieth winter I perceive

Fast locked in mine

Witness a joy that thou hast doubled long.

Thou know'st my praise of nature most sincere,

And that my raptures are not conjur'd

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It has been said, this address to Mrs. Unwin was inserted to gratify her, after the first draft of the poem, written at Lady Austin's request, was finished. It is not easy to see any marks of juncture, though Hailey admits that it "was added in the course of a revisal." Vol. ii. p. 134.

There are two things which constitute the excellence of descriptive. poetry: one relates to what we see, the other to what we feel. The first consists in the selection of such objects as are characteristic

of the scene, and at the same time, however familiar they may be to our eye, are calculated to impress the imagination with a lively pic ture. When this is well done, we are gratified to find that the poet's observations correspond with our own, and bear witness with pleasure to the accuracy of his description. Nothing can be more striking, in this respect, than many passages of Thomson.

Another excellence of poetic description is, when its perusal excites those emotions which we should feel were we spectators, and not readers. I am enabled here at once to illustrate my meaning, and to gratify my readers, by a passage from "The Mourning Bride."

"How reverend is the face of this tall pile,

Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,

To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof,

By its own weight made steadfast and

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And as we accompany him in a walk through Weston Park, we are continually surprised and delighted by the judicious minuteness of his descriptions.

Cowper enjoyed highly the various rural sounds which salute the ear in a fine clear day. "All the sounds," said he, "that nature utters are delightful, at least in this country. I should not perhaps find the roaring of lions in Africa, or of bears in Russia, very pleasing; but I know of no beast in England, whose voice I do not account musical, save and except only the bray. ing of an ass. The notes of all our birds and fowls please me, without one exception. I should not indeed think of keeping a goose in a cage, that I might hang him up in the parlour for the sake of his melody, but a goose upon a common or in a farm-yard is no bad performer............Seriously, however, it strikes me as a very observable instance of providential kindness to man, that such an exact accord has been contrived between his ear and the sounds with which, at least in a rural situation, it is almost every moment visited............The fields, the woods, the gardens, have each their concert; and the ear of man is for ever regaled by creatures who seem only to please themselves. Even the ears that are deaf to the Gospel, are continually entertained, though without knowing it, by sounds for which they are solely in debted to its Author." Letter to Mr. Newton, Vol. ii. p. 248.-These sentiments were afterwards expressed more closely, and with increased dignity of language.

"Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature......................

Nature inanimate employs sweet sound

But animated nature sweeter still,

To soothe and satisfy the human ear.Ten thousand warblers cheer the day, and one

The cheering fragrance of her dewy The live-long night. Nor those alone

vales,

Aud music of her groves."

whose notes

Nice-fingur'd art must emulate in vain;

But cawing rooks and kites that swim sublime

In still repeated circles, screaming loud, The jay, the pie, and e'en the boding owl That hails the rising moon, have charms for me."

Cowper has been deemed an enemy to innocent mirth; and this supposed austerity has been attributed to the influence of his religious opinions. Of this influence I shall hereafter speak: but as we now, for the first time, meet with his sentiments on the subject of worldly pleasures and occupations, it can be no digression to advert briefly to the general influence of religion upon the pleasures of life. While the pleasures arising from unlawful gratifications are interdicted by it, with a rigour that admits of no compromise; by enforcing moderation, it heightens those that are lawful, and it multiplies almost indefinitely the sources of true enjoyment;

"It makes all nature beauty to our eye,

And music to our ear."

Cowper's own enjoyments were those to which religion both lent a sanction, and imparted a zest; and he has pourtrayed so forcibly the sensations they excited, that the reader feels convinced that the passage, "the innocent are gay," was prompted by his own sensations, when free from the pressure of constitutional malady. That he had not a particle of the cynic in his disposition, is evinced by the constant inclination he felt to associate every object presented to him with something belonging to man; his joys, his sorrows, his hopes, or his fears. Thus the "rock, conspicuous many a league," immediately leads his thoughts to the pleasures and anticipated joys of the homeward-bound mariner; with something of the poetic spirit which suggested the following passage to Virgil's mind, when he was occupied in giving directions for the pasturage of sheep.

"Non secus ac patriis acer Romanus in

armis

Injusto sub fasce viam cum carpit, et hosti

Ante expectatum positis stat in agmine castris."

The transition from the Gypsies to the inhabitants of the SouthSea islands is judiciously managed. Our poet was greatly interested by Cooke's Voyages, which he read the winter before he composed the Task. Omai accompanied Cooke to England in 1774, where he was treated with the greatest kindness, and sent home with Captain Furneaux, in 1776, loaded with presents. The address to this "gentle savage" will lose some of its interest, when the reader is informed that he was very unlike what Cowper supposed, and that he resumed with avidity all his former habits of savage life.-Whatever justice we may allow in general to the satiric passages of the Task, that which follows, and has for its object the exclusively commercial voyages of our nation, is unfounded; and so distinguished an advocate for humanity and religion would cheerfully have recalled it, had he lived to know that Omai's native island has again been visited by Englishmen, who are "doing good, disinterested good," in affording to his countrymen the benefits of civilization and the blessings of religion. The reader may compare the passages alluded to with the following extract from a letter to Newton. "We brought away an Indian; and having debauched him, we sent him home again to communicate the infection to his country;-fine sport to be sure, but such as will not defray the cost. Nations that live upon bread-fruit, and have no mines to make them worthy of our acquaintance, will be but little visited for the future. So much the better for them! Their poverty is indeed their mercy."

(To be continued.)

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Sermons, on Subjects chiefly prac tical; with Illustrative Notes, and an Appendix, relating to the Character of the Church of England, as distinguished both from other Branches of the Reformation, and from the modern Church of Rome. By the Rev. JOHN JEBB, A.M. Rector of Abington, in the Diocese of Cashel. London: Cadell and Davies. 8vo. pp. 398.

THE complex character of our work might perhaps be thought by many to render our present undertaking a matter of some little delicacy. Having afforded, in another department of our miscellany, as impartial gymnasiarchs, an undisturbed arena for the conduct of certain friendly controversies, arising out of the present volume, between its respected author and some very respectable antagonists, we may be thought unreasonable to intrude our own opinion of its contents, as if ex cathedra, in our Reviewing department; and thereby to influence, we will not say on what side, or in how many ways, the result of a discussion which we presume to be as yet pending between the above-named parties. If so, we must plead, what we are sure will be felt on all sides as a just and appropriate apology, and we trust will not prove unacceptable to the author himself-namely, our unfeigned respect for his own reputation, as well as for that of his work; and our unwillingness to await a longer issue of a doubtful and well-maintained struggle, on which it is not our present intention to give any opinion, ere we set before our readers a number of other points suggested by this volume, which are not materially connected with that already at issue, and which have long since

CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 197.

demanded the notice of the public, with the loud call of Mr. Jebb's authoritative name, high talents, and acknowledged piety.

Without making any undue reference to the appearance of Mr. Jebb's name, and the cause of its appearance, in our former pages, we may safely assume that our readers are already acquainted with him, as a divine of no ordinary stamp, and as one who thinks for himself; and even where he does attach himself to the opinions of others, if it be slavery to follow closely the footsteps of the reputed wise and good of all ages, we must allow, that "even in servitude itself he maintains a spirit of the most exalted freedom." His practical views, at least, and his manly elocution, obey, it must be confessed, a high standard. If alone in his sentiments, he is not likely long to continue alone; and if the representative of a class, a school, a community, we must allow him to be the organ of no ignoble body, and brought up at the feet of no ordinary Gamaliel.

In presenting the author of the, present volume to our readers under this character of independence, we feel ourselves to be performing a profitable, but at the same time an anxious and critical task. We deem it to be important, on all occasions, to mark the shadow of a departure from any principles of doctrine or practice that are really fundamental; and shall therefore consider it a duty to give notice, though with deference, of that appearance, even if found in the pages of Mr. Jebb. On the other hand, we think it subordinately and strongly important, in matters of Christian faith or Christian morals, to avoid every thing like a narrow and contracted spirit; not to insist on any one mode of stating the same unalterable 2 S

and eternal truths, to the exclusion of another; not to maintain a preference for the mere Sibboleth of this party above the mere Shibboleth of that; not to mistake words for things; nor to discard the same devotion because expressed in different words, any more than to assume always the co-existence of the same devotion with the same form of expression. To this fault there is perhaps much tendency in these times, and in the human mind at all times. There is an innate disposition to value our own, and that which is like our own, in every subject, and every department of human life. Reli. gion, more particularly, where it is thought of and valued at all, is very likely, from its strong grasp on the understanding and the affections, to engender a very marked and decided partiality to one class of ideas and sentiments, feelings and expressions, doctrines and preachers, over another. And this is often known to lead to very serious consequences in the body ecclesiastic, perhaps to the formation of sects and divisions, and the reciprocal exercise of the most mischievous and uncharitable, and even malignant, passions: and where this is not the case, still, to what is only a shade better, a certain spirit of religious coterèism, which practically, if not visibly, divides and subdivides, without end, "that communion of saints" which should know but of two grand distinctions, the church militant and the church triumphant.

As an antidote to the mischief of this very common frailty even of religious minds, it will be found highly profitable to examine the various productions of different schools; and, like the bee, to cull from flowers of the most opposite scents and colours some particles of that sweet and homogeneous food which may demonstrate to ourselves and others the common fluid which circulates in all their vessels. To appreciate what is

truly valuable in all classes of genuine religionists, will at once expand the riches of our liberality, warm our charitable feelings, and extend the circle of our knowledge. The harvest will be rich, when we "sow beside all waters." We shall gain a strong confirmation in our own minds for those truths which we have "heard amongst many witnesses," and on which we find all to be agreed; and shall learn to admire the beauty and harmony of many shining bodies, moving, though in orbits of various form and eccentricity, around the same centre of moral light and heat, "the Sun of Righteousness."

That Mr. Jebb is one from whom many religionists of rather a different school, and accustomed to other habits, both of thought and expression, on certain points, may yet derive both profit and pleasure, we have no hesitation in affirming. He has a strength of conception, a loftiness of tone, a vigour of expression, that would do honour to any school. His standard of devotion is high, his rule of conduct scriptural, and his doctrinal views, to say the least of them, strongly tending to practice. His motto seems to be " sursum corda :" and from the pure etherial regions in which his mind delights to soar, "with nought of sordid or debasing mould," he appears to look down on the trifles of this lower scene as far beneath his notice, and as already lost in that annihilation to which they are finally doomed. The world stands forth in his pages in its true character, “a clouded maze, o'erspread with snares;" and sin appears as "the thief, to steal, to kill, and to destroy." He warns, in strong and animated strains, the giddy sons of folly and thoughtlessness, of the ruin to which they are hastening; and such being the persons to whom he principally addresses himself, he shrinks not from the task of boldly setting before them the exalted and ennobling pursuits of

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