will be heightened, and endeared, to the friends of virtue, by the obvious reflection, that his writings, excellent as they appear, were excelled by the gentleness, the benevolence, and the sanctity of his life. To . the merits of such a life, I could wish, that a more early intimacy with my departed friend, had enabled me to render more ample justice; but affection has made me industrious in my endeavours to supply, from the purest sources of intelligence, all the deficiency of my personal knowledge, and in composing this cordial tribute to a man whose history is so universally interesting, my chief ambition has been to deserve the approbation of his pure spirit, who appeared to me on earth among the most amiable of earthly friends, and whom I cherish a lively hope of beholding in a state of happier existence, with the spirits of "just men made perfect." Pardon me thou tenderest of mortals! if I have praised thee with a warmth of affection, that might appear to thy diffident nature to border on excess : I am not conscious that I have, in the slightest particular, over-stepped the modesty of truth, but lest expressions of my own should have a more questionable shape, I will close this imperfect, though affection ate memorial, by applying to thee those tender, and beautiful verses, which Cowley (one of thy favourite poets!) addressed to a poetical brother, in all points perhaps, and assuredly in genius, by many degrees thy inferior. Long did the Muses banish'd slaves abide, Like Moses, thou (tho' spells and charms withstand) The two most sacred names of Earth and Heaven! POSTSCRIPT. IT has been once more my lot, during the process of printing an extensive work, to lose a friend,whom I had anxiously hoped to please with a sight of my completed publication. I allude to Lady Austen, whose name is justly mentioned with honour in the Life of Cowper, as she possessed and exerted an influence so happily favourable to the genius of the poet. Before I began the present work, I had the pleasure, and the advantage, to form a personal acquaintance with this lady, she favoured me, in a very graceful and obliging manner, with much valuable information, and with some highly interesting materials for the history of our friend, who had sportively given her the title of sister, and who, while their intercourse lasted, treated her with all the tenderness, and all the confidence of a brother. Her maiden name was Richardson; she was married very early in life to Sir Robert Austen, Baronet, and resided with him in France, where he died. Her intercourse with Cowper is already related ;-in a subsequent period she was married to a native of France, Mr. De Tardif, a gentleman, and a poet, who has expressed, in many elegant French verses, his just and deep sense of her accomplished, endearing cha racter. In visiting Paris with him in the course of the summer of 1802, she sunk under the fatigue of the excursion, and died in that city on the 12th of August. My obligations to her kindness, induce me to terminate this brief account of a person so cordially regarded by Cowper, and so instrumental to the existence of his greatest work, with an offering of respect and gratitude, in the shape of AN EPITAPH. Honour and Peace! ye guardians kindly just, Fail not in duty to this hallow'd dust! And mortals (all, whose cultur'd spirits know Who, when she grac'd this earth, in Austen's name, Remov'd by counsel, like the voice of spring, Sent the freed eagle in the sun to bask, And from the mind of Cowper--call'd the TASK! I close my work with these verses, from a persuasion that I can pay no tribute to the memory of Cowper more truly acceptable to his tender spirit, than praise sincerely bestowed on the objects of his affection. |
