but when his own participation of the blessing was hinted at, the old delusion was as strong as ever upon him, and he implored that such observations should cease. A few days more, and his hour was come. He would not take a cordial from Miss Perowne, saying,-"What can it signify?" and he never spoke more. Early on the following morning, which was April 25, 1800, the approach of death was observed, and at five in the afternoon he had ceased to breathe, a circumstance which the five persons beside him did not perceive at the moment, so peacefully had he passed away. It is observed by Mr. Johnson,-"The expression into which his countenance had settled, from the moment of his death till the closing of his coffin, was that of calmness and composure, mingled, as it were, with holy surprise." He was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel, a part of Dereham Church. The monument to him was erected by Lady Hesketh, who was his administratrix. The inscription is by Hayley, and is as follows: IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM COWPER, Esq. YE WHO WITH WARMTH THE PUBLIC TRIUMPH FEEL OF TALENTS, SIGNIFIED BY SACRED ZEAL, HERE, TO DEVOTION'S BARD DEVOUTLY JUST, PAY YOUR FOND TRIBUTE DUE TO COWPER'S DUST. ENGLAND, EXULTING IN HIS SPOTLESS FAME, RANKS WITH HER DEAREST SONS HIS FAVOURITE NAME. Had we been writing a detached life of Cowper, or a life for a Biographia, we should have entered into a critical examination of his writings, and drawn attention to those particular excellencies which made him the most popular poet of his age, and which, so long as English literature exists, must secure for him a foremost rank among the poets of his country. But since the reader can refer at once to his performances, there is no need of such a disquisition. Moreover, although Cowper invariably writes like a gentleman and a scholar, his merits are for the most part of the obvious kind. The pictures of nature he presents are at once seen to be exquisitely accurate by every eye familiar with the country; and his moral strain is so direct, honest, and manly, that every sound mind must accept, and every heart that is not depraved, must feel it. The moral to be deduced from his life, is one that should make us all wiser and better. Perhaps, while few men have deserved what to our limited apprehension we call happiness, more than Cowper, few men have ever endured a more miserable existence. Southey has said,-"In sure and certain hope, indeed, for the deceased, might the remains of Cowper be committed to the ground. And never was there a burial at which the mourners might, with more sincerity of feeling, give their hearty thanks to Almighty God, that it had pleased Him to deliver the departed out of the miseries of this sinful world" And yet this virtuous and exemplary man was denied, in the hour of death, the expectation of mercy, and the hope of a joyful resurrection! the We do not wish to take upon ourselves an office which does not belong to us, that is to say, function of a preacher; but if we did not point to it, who could resist the conclusion, that if it was the Almighty's will to chasten so strictly such a man as Cowper, how thankful ought we to be for XXXVI THE LIFE OF WILLIAM COWPER. every blessing that attends, and how patient and resigned under every calamity that befals, us. The afflictions of this man were great indeed, and he endured them as best he might; but he had his intervals of comparative tranquility, and these he employed to the honour of God, and the lasting benefit and delight of mankind. On Mrs. Montagu's Feather-Hangings Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk, during his abode in the island of On observing some Names of little Note re- corded in the Biographia Britannica Report of an adjudged Case, not to be found |