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kindness, and therefore one for you. The storm of sixty-three, made a wreck of the friendships, I had contracted in the course of many years, yours excepted, which has survived the tempest.

I thank you for your repeated invitation. Singular thanks are due to you for so singular an instance of your regard. I could not leave Olney, unless in a case of absolute necessity, without much inconvenience to myself and others.

W. C.

In his sequestered life, he seems to have been much consoled and entertained, by the society of his pious friend Mr. Newton, in whose religious pursuits, he appears to have taken an active part, by the composition of sixty-eight Hymns. Mr. Newton wished, and expected, him to have contributed a much larger number, as he has declared in the Preface to that collection of Hymns, which contains these devotional effusions of Cowper, distinguished by the initial letter of his name. The volume, composed for the inhabitants of Olney, was the joint production of the divine and the poet, and intended, as the former expressly says in his Preface, "As a monument to

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perpetuate the remembrance of an intimate and "endeared friendship-With this pleasing view," (continues Mr. Newton) " I entered upon my part, "which would have been smaller, than it is, and the "book would have appeared much sooner, and in 66 a very different form, if the wise, though mysterious "Providence of God, had not seen fit to cross my "wishes. We had not proceeded far upon our pro"posed plan, before my dear friend was prevented by a long and affecting indisposition, from afford

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Iing me any farther assisstance. "The severe illness of the poet, to which these expressions relate, began in 1773, and extended beyond the date of the Preface (from which they are quoted) February the fifteenth, 1779.

These social labours of the poet, with an exemplary man of God, for the purpose of promoting simple piety, among the lower classes of the people, must have been delightful in a high degree to the benevolent heart of Cowper, and I am persuaded, he alludes to his own feelings on this subject, in the following passage from his Poem on Conver

sation.

True bliss, if man may reach it, is compos'd
Of hearts in union mutually disclos'd;

And, farewell else all hope of pure delight!

Those hearts should be reclaim'd, renew'd, uprihgt:
Bad men, profaning friendship's hallow'd name,
Form, in its stead, a covenant of shame :

But souls, that carry on a blest exchange
Of joys, they meet with, in their heavenly range,
And, with a fearless confidence, make known
The sorrows, sympathy esteems its own;
Daily derive encreasing light and force.

From such communion; in their pleasant course,
Feel less the journey's roughness, and its length;
Meet their opposers, with united strength,
And one in heart, in interest, and design,

Gird up each other, to the race divine.

Such fellowship in literary labour, for the noblest of purposes, must be delightful indeed, if attended with success, and at all events, it is entitled to respect; yet it may be doubtful if the intense zeal, with which Cowper embarked in this fascinating pursuit, had not a dangerous tendency to undermine his very delicate health.

Such an apprehension naturally arises from a

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recollection of what medical writers, of great ability, have said, on the awful subject of mental derangement. Whenever the slightest tendency to that misfortune appears, it seems expedient to guard a tender spirit, from the attractions of Pity herself————— So fearfully and wonderfully are we made, that man in all conditious ought perhaps to pray, that he never may be led to think of his Creator, and of his Redeemer, either too little, or too much; since human misery is often seen to arise equally from an utter neglect of all spiritual concerns, and from a wild extravagance of devotion.

But if the charitable and religious zeal of the poet led him into any excesses of devotion, injurious to the extreme delicacy of his nervous system, he is only the more entitled to admiration and to pity. Indeed his genius, his virtues, and his misfortunes were calculated to excite those tender and temperate passions in their purest state, and to the highest degree.—It may be questioned, if any mortal could be more sincerely beloved and revered than Cowper was by those, who were best acquainted with his private hours.

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The season was now arrived, when the firm friendship of Mrs. Unwin, was put to the severest

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of trials, and when her conduct was such, as to deserve those rare rewards of grateful attention and tenderness, which, when she herself became the victim of age and infirmity, she received from that exemplary being, who considered himself indebted to her friendly vigilance for his life, and who never forgot an obligation, when his mind was itself.

In 1773, he sunk into such severe paroxysms of religious despondency, that he required an attendant of the most gentle, vigilant, and inflexible spirit. Such an attendant he found in that faithful guardian, whom he had professed to love as a mother, and who watched over him, during this long fit of depressive malady, extended through several years, with that perfect mixture of tenderness and fortitude, which constitutes the inestimable influence of maternal protection. I wish to pass rapidly over this calamitous period, and shall only observe, that nothing could surpass the sufferings of the patient, or excell the care of the nurse. That meritorious care received from Heaven the most delightful of rewards, in seeing the pure and powerful mind, to whose restoration it had contributed so much, not only gradual

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