cal celebrity with the fame acquired by the exertion of different mental powers in the highest department of civil life. The Lord Chancellors of England may be justly regarded among the personages of the modern world, peculiarly exalted by intellectual endowments: with two of these illustrious characters, the poet, whose life I have endeavoured to delineate, was in some measure connected; being related to one, the immediate ancestor of your Lordship, and being intimate, in early life, with a Chancellor of the present reign, whose elevation to that dignity he has recorded in rhyme. Much respect is due to the legal names of Cowper and of Thurlow. Knowledge, eloquence, and political importance, conspired to aggrandize the men, who added those names to the list of English nobility: yet after the lapse of a few centuries, they will shine only like very distant constellations, merely visible in the vast expanse of history! But, at that time, the poet, of whom I speak, will continue to sparkle in the of all men, eyes like the radiant star of the evening, perpetually hailed by the voice of gratitude, affection, and delight. There is a principle of unperishable vitality (if I may use such an expression) in the compositions of Cowper; which must ensure to them in future ages, what we have seen them so happily acquire and maintain in the present-universal admiration, and love! His poetry is to the heart, and the fancy, what the moral essays of Bacon are to the understanding, a nevercloying feast! Like them it comes" home to the business and bosom of every man." By possessing the rare and double talent to familiarize and endear the most awful subjects, and to dignify the most familiar, the poet naturally becomes a favourite with readers of every description: his works must interest every nation under Heaven, where his sentiments are understood, and where the feelings of humanity prevail. Yet their author is eminently an Englishman, in the noblest sense of that honourable appellation: he loved the constitution; he revered the religion of his country; he was tenderly, and generously, alive to her real interest and honour, and perhaps of her many admirable poets, not one has touched her foibles, and celebrated her perfections, with a spirit so truly filial.—But I perceive that I am in danger of going far beyond my design in this Introductory Letter, for it was my intention not to enter into the merits of his character here, but to inform you in what manner I wish to make that character display itself to my readers, as far as possible, in his own most interesting language. Perhaps no man ever possessed the powers of description in a higher degree, both in verse and prose. By weaving into the texture of these memoirs, an extensive selection of his private letters, and several of his posthumous poems, I trust, that a faithful representation of him has been formed, where the most striking features will appear the work of his own inimitable hand. The result of the whole production will, I am confident, establish one most satisfactory truth, interesting to society in general, and to your Lordship in particular! The truth I mean, is expressed in the final verse of an epitaph, which the hand of friendship inscribed to your excellent relation : "His virtues formed the magic of his song." May the affectionate zeal, with which I have endeavoured to render all the justice in my power to his variety of merit, atone for whatever deficiencies may be found in this imperfect attempt, and lead both your Lordship, and our Country, to honour with some degree of approbation, Your very faithful Servant, WILLIAM HAYLEY. |