the most arduous tasks a poet can undertake. He that could accomplish this task was Prior." Cowper's friend Churchill, and subsequently Cowper himself, accomplished this task in a more eminent degree; completely redeem which it had fallen, of subserviency to the constantly recurring harmony of numbers in Mr. Pope and his imitators; and established a new era in the history of English versification. tled the Rose, were Mrs. Unwin and Lady Austen, and the incident is a real one, which occurred just as it was described; and so on with all his smaller pieces ;-and it is this reality and truthfulness that give them their great interest with every reader. Alled the public taste from the thraldom into these poems appear to have cost him but little mental effort; and his Task, upon which his reputation as a poet principally depends, the least of all, as it is a mere transcript of his habits, thoughts, and reflections, during the time he was writing it. But the most striking characteristic of Cowper's poetry, is his ardent desire to promote the cause of piety and the Christian religion. This breathes throughout all his works, and has justly procured for him the epithet of "the Christian Poet;" which contrasts most strangely, too, with his obstinate belief, that he himself could never be benefited by that religion. Of Cowper's style of versification, which, as being somewhat novel, did not at first please the fastidious taste of the public, we may as well let the poet speak for himself: "I reckon it among my principal advantages, as a composer of verses, that I have not read an English poet these thirteen years, and but one these twenty years." The one poet alluded to is supposed to have been his friend Churchill, already named. "Imitation, even of the best models, is my aversion; it is servile and mechanical; a trick that has enabled many to usurp the name of author, who could not have written at all, if they had not written upon the pattern of somebody, indeed original. But when the ear and the taste have been much accustomed to the manner of others, it is almost impossible to avoid it and we imitate, in spite of ourselves, just in proportion as we admire." This last remark is in some degree true of Cowper himself; for he was a great admirer of Churchill's talents as a poet; and between their modes of versification there is a great resemblance. Of the difficulty of this kind of versifying, he himself speaks in a let ter to Unwin: 66 We have said that there is little fiction in Cowper's poetry; there is none whatever in his letters; nor does he make any effort or pretension to fine writing. He begins and goes straight on, and is always sure to make a very readable letter, however trifling the subject. In this way he enters into all the minute details of his private life, and contrives to make every little incident interesting. "My feelings," says he, are all of the intense kind. I never received a little pleasure from anything;-if I am delighted, it is in the extreme." His feelings were thus all highly poetical, without any embellishment whatever; and everything relating to his private life, so far as he could tell it himself, has been spread before the world. In Cowper there was no disguise. He wrote with all that unreserved confidence with which one friend pours out the secrets of his heart into the ears of another, without any suspicion that a third person will ever be permitted to know them. If any part of his life has been cloaked and concealed, his biographers have done it by abridging his manuscripts. In reading Cowper's letters, however, we must make some allowance for his mental gloom, which occasionally obtrudes itself into his correspondence with particular persons, and for his peculiar religious views, which are far from being generally adopted. In other respects, his letters may be considered as unrivalled, on account of the easy and unaffected flow of the language, and the great purity and evident sincerity of every sentiment. His letters to his female correspondents are particularly so characterized. To them he pours out his whole heart in compliments, which are as delicate as they are en cere. thusiastic; and as beautiful as they are sin- to procure the first volume of his poems, which he read with equal pleasure." "This," says Cowper, in a letter to Lady Hesketh, "is the only instance I can recollect of a reader who has done justice to my first effasions: for I am sure that, in point of expres sion, they do not fall a jot below my second ; and that in point of subject, they are, for the most part, superior." It will be observed, that when Dr. Frank Cowper always tried to put on airs of indifference with regard to the censures of his critics; but the fact was, that they annoyed him excessively. And while we are aware of this, it is also pleasant to reflect that the only two Americans who are known to have written anything concerning Cowper, as a poet, during his life-time, did it in such terms of commendation as greatly pleased him.lin wrote, the Task had not been published, One of these was Doctor Franklin, at that and that Dr. Cogswell wrote after Dr. Franktime (1782,) our minister to the Court of lin's death. Louis XVI., and residing at Passy, near Paris. A friend of his in London had sent him a copy of Cowper's first volume. The Doctor, after acknowledging the receipt of it, and thanking his friend for the present, observes: "The relish for reading poetry had long since left me, but there is something so new in the manner, so easy, and yet so correct in the language, so clear in the expression, yet concise, and so just in the sentiments, that I have read the whole with great pleasure, and some of the pieces more than once." It is a most singular circumstance in the life of Cowper, to which his biographers never allude, and he himself but seldom, that a man of his character, standing, education, and habits, should have no books. His father, both as a clergyman of the Church of England, and a man of some literary taste, must have had a very considerable library of books, not only on theological subjects, but on general literature. One half of these must have fallen to the Poet. Cowper himself must have had a good supply of classical books, while at Westminster school, either owned by himself or furnished by the Faculty. A law library, too, must have been necessary for him in the Temple. His brother's books, including his share of the paternal library, must have all come into the possession of Cowper. Thus, we know that at one time, he must have had a valuable library. And yet, from the time that he left the Temple, in 1763,“ he had no books except what he borrowed," and here and there a volume presented by some one of his friends. In 1780 he writes to Unwin to purchase for him a second-hand Virgil, and Homer, both Iliad and Odyssey, with a Clavis," for he had no Lexicon, nor a Latin book in the world to correct a mistake by;" and four years subsequently he had no Latin Dictionary. In 1788, in a letter to Joseph With this praise Cowper was delighted. "We may now," says he, "treat the critics as the Archbishop of Toledo treated Gil Blas; bid them begone, and furnish themselves with a better taste, if they know where to find it." The other American gentleman alluded to, was Doctor James Cogswell, of the city of New-York. He wrote to Cowper, sending him some books, and asking an exchange. The autograph letter of the poet, in reply to the above, is now in the possession of Doctor Cogswell's grand-daughter, wife of the editor of this periodical. It is dated, "WestonUnderwood, near Olney, Bucks, June 15, 1791;" and written in a neat, plain, round hand, as easily read as print. There is one erasure, and the substitution of the word "one" for " it ;" slightly improving the grammatical sense. Cowper appears to have been particularly pleased with the compliment paid him by Doctor Cogswell, as well as with that of Doctor Franklin. Dr. Cogswell wrote, "Alas! my library-I must now give it up that," after having read the Task, with which for a lost thing for ever. The only consolapoem he was highly pleased, he was induced (tion belonging to the circumstance is, or Hill, he thus laments the loss of his library, and this is the only place in all his writings in which he does anything more than barely allude to it: seems to be, that no such loss did ever befallously unprovided, being much in the condiany other man, or can befall me again. As tion of the man whose library Pope defar as books are concerned, I am totus teres scribes as No mighty store! His own atque rotundus,' and may set fortune at de-works neatly bound, and little more. You fiance. The books which had been my fa- shall know how this has come to pass herether's had, most of them, his arms on the in-after." Yet he never did explain to Hayley side cover, but the rest no mark, neither his what had become of his library; or if he did, name nor mine. I could mourn for them, Hayley has neglected to inform us. It prolike Sancho for his dapple, but it would avail bably "perished," (to use his own expression me nothing." In 1791, he states, in a letter with regard to some of his own and his broto Bagot, that "he had but twenty books in ther's manuscripts,) “ in the wreck of a thouthe world," and in a letter of subsequent date sand other things, when he left the Temple." to Hayley, he says, "with books I am hein 66 EDITOR'S TABLE. sions I declared my repugnance-my decided refusal to have my name brought before the Church for this exalted station, and I thought I had expressed my sentiments in terms such as could not be misunderstood, and such as must shut out all action in regard to myself-such as you have now taken. My opposition has been disregarded, and the office of Bishop, over this large and influential Diocese, is proffered to me. I am not prepared to accept it. I ought not, without due consideration, to decline it. I must have time. You friends, for reflection, for prayer-that I may be guided must give me time for consultation with judicious to a right decision in this momentous matter." THE NEW-YORK CONVENTION.-This body ad- man can be raised. You have chosen me to the office journed on the 26th of September, after having elected of a Bishop in the Church of God-a station to which the Rev. WILLIAM CREIGHTON, D. D., Provisional fulness, dignity, sanctity, solemn and awful responsi there is none superior in respectability, influence, useBishop of the Diocese of New-York. In making this bility. For the favorable opinion, the kind feeling announcement, we cannot refrain from congratulating thus expressed, I thank you. But, brethren and the Diocese upon the happy result which, by the over-friends, it is well known that upon two suitable occaruling of Providence, has crowned their deliberations. Of the many good men and true, there is not one whose election to the Episcopate would have done more to heal the wounds under which the Diocese has so long been suffering. Possessing in an eminent degree the Christian graces and virtues, and the genuine Church principles which he learn. ed in the Hobart School, with a large experience in the affairs of the Diocese, and learning and qualifications of the highest order; and combining with these a warm personal attachment to, and sympathy with, the present Diocesan, and a purity of motive, and straightforwardness of action, which have extorted the respect of his warmest opponents, the election of Dr. Creighton can hardly fail to prove a blessing. And it was the deep conviction in the mind of the Diocese that Dr. Creighton possessed these qualities, which secured his election. There were no preconcerted efforts directed to this end. He did not seek it, but rather avoided it, and entreated his friends not to put him in nomination. But the Diocese have overruled his wishes, and called him to the office of Provisional Bishop. The following solemn and affecting remarks were addressed by Dr. Creighton to the Convention, on the announcement to him of the result of the balloting: "BRETHREN AND FRIENDS: You have elected me to the highest honor, in my estimation, to which any GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.-We deem it a subject of sincere congratulation to the friends of our Seminary, and of the Church, that at a meeting of the Trustees, held in this city, on Wednesday, Sept. 10th, the Rev. MILO MAHAN, B. D., was elected St. Mark's Church in the Bowery Professor of Ecclesiastical History. We doubt not that he will prove a worthy successor of the lamented Ogilby. Mr. Mahan is the third incumbent of that Professorship, which was endowed by the late Peter G. Stuyvesant. His predecessors were William Rollinson Whittingham, D. D., elected January 13, 1836-resigned, on his removal to the charge of the See of Maryland, November 4, 1840; and John David Ogilby, D. D., elected December 2, 1840-died February 2, 1851. It sometimes pleases the Wise and Good Head of We find the following in the Banner of the Cross, the Church to afflict her by taking away the strong with a request that it be copied in the Church papers; men of her ministry in the midst of their vigor and and comply with the request with much pleasure: fidelity; and sometimes by allowing the willing spirit. ST. MARY'S HALL AND BURLINGTON COLLEGE. to be long checked and hindered in its ardent aspira-—The undersigned, the Bishop of New-Jersey, has tions after active devotion to duty, by the weakness of the immediate and constant supervision of these two the flesh, and at last called to the reward of earnest Institutions; the former of which was founded by him desire, when there was withholden the power to do. in 1837; and the latter in 1846. There are 116 pupils Such reflections are suggested by the melancholy re- at St. Mary's Hall, and 97 at Burlington College. cord of the death, at Morristown, New-Jersey, on Mon- They are situated at either side of his residence, at day, September 15th, in the 34th year of his age, of Riverside, on the Green Bank, at Burlington. Their the Rev. HENRY M'VICKAR, son of the Rev. John position is unsurpassed in health, beauty, and conve M Vickar, D. D., of Columbia College. He was or- nience. There is no connection whatever between dained Deacon, on Rogation Sunday, May 17. 1846; the pupils of the two Institutions, nor between the pu and Priest on the 16th Sunday after Trinity, October pils and the town. The undersigned gives to each of 8, 1848. His career of ministerial duty was rendered them his personal attention, daily; and has charge of very short-though faithful and earnest while it last- the highest English classes, in each. The course of ed-by an enfeebled and diseased constitution. But studies is full and complete; including the four chief the same cause added efficiency to the principles, and languages of the European continent; and is thoroughbrightness to the example, of that evangelical and caly carried out, in all its details. But their highest tholic piety, which, itself the true faith to which the promises are made, overcomes the world, and, as the body sinks, elevates and sublimates the soul. Sound principles, consistent profession, fearless action, pure affections, and earnest devotion, combined with, a large gift of intellectual and moral power, and with well improved study, give his surviving friends the mingled sorrow and satisfaction of reflecting on the instance afforded by his death of the divine sufficiency for the Church's safety, purity, and welfare, even in her privation of means and instruments of the highest value. TO CORRESPONDENTS.-A number of communications have been necessarily postponed. We hope to bring up all arrears next month. clain is in the moral and religious influence which they exert, in the formation of character. To this end, each institution is a Christian Household, with a parental and pastoral head. The terms begin, 1st November, and 1st May, April and October being vacations. One uniform charge of $150, for the term of five months, covers all the expenses of maintenance and instruction, in every department. There are no other charges whatsoever, but for Books, Sheet Music, and Drawing materials. Robert B. Aertsen, Esq., Curator, is charged with all the financial arrangements. The undersigned, after fourteen years of service, in this field, makes himself responsible for this statement, in all its particulars. Riverside, 1st Sept., 1851. GEORGE W. DOANE. BOOK TABLE. LECTURES ON THE LORD'S PRAYER. By William Lincoln. 1831. We have no harsh thoughts of them for not doing so, for we see at once that it implies a concession, which it were unreasonable for us to expect of them. On the other hand, there are titles assumed by different This book, the publisher's department of which is denominations around us, which, for the same reason, executed with great beauty and accuracy, is by one of that is, because they imply concessions which we are the most respectable and most respected of the clergy not prepared to make, we cannot yield to them. Our of the Anabaptist denomination in the city of New-neighbors may apply them to themselves as they York, and dedicated to his flock, whom he styles "The please-we think none the worse of them for it-but Church and Congregation in Amity-street, Newthey must excuse us for not herein walking with them. York." The above italicizing was intended to indicate points on which we wish briefly to remark before entering on a general notice of the volume. In adopting the term Anabaptist, for that more generally applied to the denomination concerned, we sincerely disavow every degree of disrespectful or un-) kind feeling. We are governed in the matter by principle. Our worthy friends out of our communion are not very fond of awarding to us the title of The Church, however we may adopt it. We do not want them to. The Romanists must not expect us to allow them to be especially Catholics: the Socinians cannot ask us to appropriate to them a name which implies that they especially hold to the Divine Unity: we do not think the Quakers can justly claim to be the sole or pre eminent possessors of the grace of Friendship: and certainly we may fairly demur at appropriating to the good people-in reality, we believe, a sort of Socinian, perhaps rather Arian, Anabaptists-who as sume it as peculiarly theirs, the distinctive appella tion of Christian, often pronounced with the tirst long, as in our Redeemer's adorable name. The name Baptist, as a sectarian appellative, is connected with claims, doubtless honestly felt, to holding the only true doctrine of Baptism, namely, that it is valid only when administered to adults and by immersion-none others being considered as truly baptizers, but those who impart, and none others truly taptized, but those who receive, baptism according to this theory. Believing the theory a wrong one, we cannot make the concession which the use of the name implies. Anabaptist, we believe the original name of the sect, is appropriate to them, because avasarтovo (analap tousi)-they rebaptise-all who have received Bap. tism in infancy, or by affusion. We therefore, with great respect for the character and standing of Dr. Williams, and for his denomination, must be allowed to introduce his book to our readers as the production of one of the most learned and excellent of the anabaptist clergy. thus: "Thus therefore pray ye," which can hardly be considered as differing in meaning from "When ye pray say." Surely the great mass of Christians, froin the Apostles down, have not been wrong in supposing that here is the highest possible sanction, nay, à divine requirement, of the use of prescribed form in prayer. On this point the worthy author seems to have been betrayed into something very like inconsistency. No one, we think, can read page 3 without seeing that he wishes to explain the phrase ouror in St. Matthew, as not prescribing the use of the Lord's Prayer as a form. When he arrives near the close of the volume, however, page 208-he says that our Lord, in that place, did give the form for the people's use; but on the occasion recorded by St. Luke, gave it to his disciples, only as a model. And this inconsistency is the more palpable because, although the expression, in each case, is abundantly sufficient to justify the opinion of Christians generally, that Christ meant to prescribe a form, yet that in St. Luke is the stronger of the two. Dr. Williams, however, in this part of his work, thinks that when it was said ourws, thus, "after this manner," the use of the form was ineant; and when it was said, "When ye pray say," the use of the form, except as a model for extempore prayer, was not meant. Then as to "the Church and congregation in Amity street" there is something in this not unlike what is faulted among us-a special claim to being "the Church." A Church and Congregation" were formed "in Amity-street," under the very faithful pastoral services of the late Rev. Dr. Lewis P. Bayard, before Dr. Williams's was in existence; and it is still, by God's grace, under a worthy successor of that good man, dispensing the manifold blessings of the Gospel and the Church. What is generally known as the Amity street Baptist Church," may by some be very honest-author accounts for the form being prescribed in that ly regarded as "the Church in Amity-street." We, however, would respectfully demur. These "Lectures on the Lord's Prayer" are well written, and creditable both to the heart and mind of the author. They are marked with beauty and richness of style, often intermingled with no little ingenuity of expansion and illustration. They contain, also, what we always love to see, evidence of heartfelt and conscientious earnestness in the treatment of the several points, with no ill-temper to those who may differ. We do not recollect-und are glad of it-to have perceived any disclaimer of the work being, as nians and others often say, denominational or sectarian, that is, particularly adapted to any one denomination of Christians; because such disclaimers are, nine times out of ten, delusive. At the same time, we are not aware of having met in it any thing in special recognition or defence of the great peculiarity of the Anabaptists; nor indeed have we detected any of the grosser features of Calvinism. There are points, however, on which we cannot but think it a dangerous guide for those who would embrace the true evangelical system. his But there is connected with this strange inconsistency, a view of our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount, which we hardly know how to characterize. The The indiscrimi sermon, because it was delivered to the "indiscriminate mass of His" [our Lord's] "hearers," that is, to the world at large, as well as to His disciples; whereas, when the Prayer was repeated, as recorded by St. Luke, it was to the disciples only. nate mass" needed a prescribed form: the" disciples" did not; but only a guide to the exercise of their "personal endowinents and graces." In reply to this, we would suggest, first, that it seems very obvious from St. Matthew v. 1., that our Saviour addressed His sermon to "His disciples," albeit in the hearing of " the Soci-multitudes;" and secondly, that he incurs a tremendous responsibility, who would represent the Sermon in the Mount, as mainly intended for "the indiscriminate mass," as distinguished from the disciples. It savors much of that horrid development of Calvinism which represents the elect-the regenerated-the converted-the justified--as loosed from obligation to the moral law; or of that trick of popish jesuitism, which has an accommodated gospel for every variety of men. It is no part of our present object to notice the ar guments against forms of prayer which Dr. Williams has ingeniously, though somewhat cursorily, interwoven with his book. There is one, however, which particularly arrested our attention. He dismisses the argument from the principles and usages of the primitive Church, in the following words:" As to the early Christians, we find one of the first Latin fathers stating explicitly, that the leader in the Christian assemblies was accustomed to pray according to his ca It is a new, and we trust a rare thing in Christendom, for a writer on the Lord's Prayer to take occasion from it to oppose the principle of forms of prayer in worship. Dr. Williams goes, we must think, out of way to do this. We believe he is not among those of his sect who are for getting up a new English version of the Bible. Else-as much of the objection to the present version grows out of its not suiting favor-pacity. ite theories-we might fear an attempt on his part to substitute something else for the honest and literal translation given to the words with which, according to St. Luke, Jesus prescribed this prayer:-" When ye pray say, Our Father," &c. Which Dr. Williams Each evangelist and pastor of those days, according to the measure of his personal endowments their common wants, for himself and the flock he led." and graces, poured out before God the expression of The author does not state to what Latin father he alludes; and we are not aware of any to whom his remark would apply. There is a Greck father in the Doctor to his Latin father. Justin Martyr, as whom a passage occurs very like that attributed by translated by Reeves, speaking of the service of the Church in his day-about half a century from the death of St. John-says, " The Bishop sends up prayers and thanksgivings with all the fervency he is able, and the people conclude all with the joyful acclama would have his reader believe does not mean that the What are the words of the Latin father, which our |