To Mrs. CHARLOTTE SMITH.

Weston, July 25, 4793.

MY DEAR MADAM,

Many reasons concurred

to make me impatient for the arrival of your most acceptable present, and among them was the fear, lest

you should perhaps suspect me of tardiness in acknowledging so great a favour; a fear, that as often as it prevailed, distressed me exceedingly; at length I have received it, and my little bookseller assures me, that he sent it the very day he got it; by some mistake however, the waggon brought it instead of the coach, which occasioned a delay that I could ill afford.

It came this morning, about an hour ago; consequently I have not had time to peruse the poem, though you may be sure I have found enough for the perusal of the Dedication. I have in fact given it three readings, and in each have found encreasing pleasure.

I am a whimsical creature; when I write for the public I write of course with a desire to please, in other words to acquire fame, and I labour accord

ingly; but when I find that I have succeeded, feel myself alarmed, and ready to shrink from the acquisition.

This I have felt more than once, and when I saw my name at the head of your Dedication, I felt it again; but the consummate delicacy of your praise soon convinced me that I might spare my blushes, and that the demand was less upon my modesty than my gratitude. Of that be assured, dear Madam, and of the truest esteem and respect of your most obliged and affectionate

Humble Servant,

W. C.

P. S.-I should have been much grieved to have let slip this opportunity of thanking you for your charming sonnets, and my two most agreeable old friends, Monimia and Orlando.

Cowper felt the full value of applause when conferred by a liberal and a powerful mind, and I VOL. 4.

had a singularly pleasing opportunity of observing the just sensibility of his nature on this point, by carrying to him, in one of my visits to Weston, a recent news-paper, including the specch of Mr. Fox, in which that accomplished orator had given new lustre to a splendid passage of the Task, by reciting it in Parliament. The passage alluded to contains the sublime verses on the destruction of the Bastile; verses that were originally composed in the form of a prophecy. The eloquence of the poet, and of the orator united, could hardly furnish a perfect description of the double delight, which this unexpected honour afforded to the author, and to the good old enthusiastic admirer and cherisher of his talents, Mrs. Unwin. Her feelings were infinitely the most vivid on this agreeable occasion; for the poet, though he truly enjoyed such honourable applause, was ever on his guard against the perils of praise, and had continually impressed on his own devout spirit, his primary motives of poetical ambition. The mention of these motives, which conduce, as well as his extraordinary powers, to distinguish Cowper in the highest rank of illustrious poets, will naturally lead me to consider him in that point of view, and to examine

the difficulties he has surmounted, and the great aims he has accomplished, in his poetical capacity.

Accident, idleness, want, spleen, love, and the passion for fame, have all in their turns, had such occasional influence over the human faculties, as to induce men of considerable mental powers to devote themselves to the composition of verse. But the poetical character of Cowper appears to have had mnch nobler origin. To estimate that character according to its real dignity, we should consider him as a poet formed by the munificence of nature, and the decrees of Heaven. He seems to have received his rare poetical powers as a gift from Providence to compensate the pressure of much personal calamity, and to enable him to become, though secluded by irregular health from the worldly business, and from the ordinary pastimes of men, a singular benefactor to mankind.

If we attend to the rise and progress of his works, we shall perceive that such was the predominant aim of this truly philanthropic poet, and that in despight of his manifold impediments and troubles, Heaven graciously enabled him to accomplish the noblest purpose, that the sublimest faculties can de

vise for their own most arduous exercise, and most delightful reward. He had cultivated his native talent for poetry in early life, although the extreme mod sty of his nature had restrained him from a public display of his poetical powers. Through many years of mental disquietude and affliction, that powerful talent, which was destined to burst forth with such unrivalled lustre, seems to have remained in absolute inactivity, but in different seasons of a very long abstinence from poetical exertion, his mind had been engaged in such studies (when health allowed him to study) as form perhaps the best possible preparation for great poetical achievements: I mean a fervent application to that book, which furnishes the most ample and beneficial aliment to the heart, and to the fancy, the book to which Milton and Young were indebted for their poetical sublimity. Cowper in reading the Bible, admired and studied the eloquence of the prophets. He was particularly charmed with the energy of their language in describing the wrath of the Almighty.

By his zealous attention to the Scripture, he incessantly treasured in his own capacious mind those inexhaustible stores of sentiment and expression, which enabled him gradually to ascend the purest