On Immoderate Grief, by Philemon On the Teaching of Cupid, by Moschus II. On the Death of the University Bedel at Cambridge Elegy III.-On the Death of the Bishop of Winchester The Soul that Loves God finds Him Everywhere A Child of God longing to see Him Beloved Aspiration of the Soul after God PREFATORY MEMOIR WILLIAM OF COWPE R. WILLIAM COWPER, the son of the Rev. John Cowper, was born at Great Berkhamstead Rectory, on the 26th of November, 1731. His family was of ancient descent, capable of being traced back without interruption to the time of Edward IV. on his father's side. His mother, Ann, daughter of Roger Donne, of Ludham Hall, Norfolk, was of the family of the celebrated and excellent Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, and was said to be descended from King Henry III. through four different lines. : When Cowper was only six years old the great misfortune of his life befell him his mother died. What that loss was to the tender sensitive child we can best judge by his own exquisite lines addressed to her picture, which he received from his cousin, Ann Bodham, more than fifty years afterwards. She left also a newly born child, his brother John, who survived to manhood; five other children had died in their infancy. at In less than a year after his mother's death, Cowper was sent to school Dr. Pitman's, Market Street, between St. Albans and Dunstable. Here he suffered for two years from the most cruel bullying on the part of the elder boys; his shyness, physical delicacy, and sensitive nature exposing him in a peculiar manner to their savage tormenting. Of one of these young tyrants, Cowper writes: "I had such a dread of him, that I did not dare lift my eyes to his face. I knew him best by his shoe-buckle." But the cruelty exercised by this young savage was at length discovered, the coward was expelled, and Cowper was taken from the school. The next two years he spent under the care of an oculist, who attended him for inflammation of the eyes. From this home he was removed to Westminster School. Here his dull and suffering young life brightened. He was an excellent scholar, and became also a good cricketer and football player. The usher of his form was Vincent Bourne-celebrated for his Latin poetry, which his pupil afterwards translated. His chief school friends were, Robert Lloyd, the son of Dr. Pierson Lloyd, another usher; William Russell, Warren Hastings, George Colman, Charles Churchill, and Cumberland. To these he was sincerely and faithfully attached; proofs of his friendship for them are scattered through his poems. While still a Westminster scholar, he wrote his first poem, in imitation of |