INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO THE Right Honorable Earl COWPER. YOUR family, my Lord, our country itself, and the whole literary world, fuftained fuch a lofs in the death of that amiable Man, and enchanting Author, who forms the fubject of these Volumes, as infpired the friends of genius and virtue with univerfal concern. It foon became a general wish, that fome authentic and copious memorial of a character fo highly interefting fhould be produced with all becoming difpatch; not only to render due honour to the dead, but to alleviate the regret of a nation, taking a just and liberal pride in the reputation of a Poet, who had obtained, and deferved, her applaufe, her esteem, her affection. If this laudable wish was very fenfibly felt by the public at large, it glowed with peculiar warmth and eagerness in the bofom of the few, who had been fo fortunate as to enjoy an intimacy with Cowper in fome unclouded periods of his life, and who knew from fuch an intimacy, that a lively fweetness, and fanctity of Spirit, were as truly the characteristics of his focial enjoyments, as they are allowed to conflitute a principal charm in his poetical productions. It has jufly been regarded as a fignal bleffing to have poffeffed the perfect esteem and confidence of fuch a man; and not long after his deceafe, one of bis particular friends prefumed to fuggeft to an accomplished Lady, nearly related both to him and to your Lordship, that She herself might be the biographer the most worthy of the Poet. The long intimacy and correfpondence which be en joyed with him from their lively hours of infantile friendship to the dark evening of his wonderfully chequered life; her cultivated and affectionate mind, which led her to take peculiar delight and intereft in the merit and the reputation of his writings, and laftly that generous attachment to her afflicted Relation, which induced her to watch over his difordered bealth, in a period of its moft calamitous depreffion, these circumflances united feemed to render it defirable that he fhould affume the office of Cowper's biographer, having fuch advantages for the perfect execution of that very delicate office, as perhaps no other memorialift could poffefs in an equal degree. For the intereft of literature, and for the honour of many poets, whofe memories have fuffered from fome biographers of a very different defcription, we may wish that the extenfive feries of poetical biography had been frequently enriched by the memoirs of fuch remembrancers, as feel only the influence of tenderness and truth. Some poets indeed of recent times have been happy in this most defirable advantage. The Scottish favourite of nature, the tender and impetuous Burns, has found in Dr. Currie an ingenuous, eloquent, affectionate biographer; and in a lady alfo (whofe memoir of her friend the Bard is very properly annexed to his life) a zealous, and graceful advocate, fingularly happy in vindicating his character from invidious detraction. We may obferve, to the honour of Scotland, that her national enthufiafm has for fome years been very laudably exerted in cherishing the memory of her departed poets.But to return to the Lady, who gave rife to this remark. The natural diffidence of her fex, uniting with extreme delicacy of health, induced her (eager as she is to promote the celebrity of her deceafed Relation) to Shrink from the idea of fubmitting herself, as an author, to the formidable eye of the public. Her knowledge of the very cordial regard, with which Cowper has honoured me, as one of his moft confidential friends, led her to requeft, that he might affign to me that arduous office, which she candidly confeffed She had not the refolution to affume. She confided to my care. fuch materials for the work in question, as her affinity to the deceafed had thrown into her bands. In receiving a collection of many private Letters, and of feveral pofthumous little Poems, in the well-known characters of that beloved Correfpondent, at the fight of whofe hand I have often exulted, I felt the blended emotions of melancholy regret, and of awful pleafure. Yes! I was pleafed that these affecting papers avere entrusted to my care, because fome incidents induce me to believe, that if their revered Author had been folicited to appoint a biographer for himself, he would have affigned to me this honourable task: Yet honourable as I confidered it, I was perfectly aware of the difficulties and the dangers attending it. One danger indeed appeared to me of such a nature, as to require perpetual caution, as I advanced: I mean the danger of being led, in writing as the Biographer of my friend, to Speak infinitely too much of myself. To avoid the offenfive failing of egotism, I had refolved at first to make no inconfiderable facrifice; and to fupprefs in his letters every particle of praife beftowed upon myself. I foon found it impossible to do fo without injuring the tender and generous spirit of my Friend. I have therefore fuffered many expreffions of his affectionate partiality towards me to appear, at the hazard of being cenfured for inordinate vanity. To obviate fuch a senfure, I will only fay, that I have endeavoured to execute what I regard as a mournful duty, as if I were under the immediate and visible direction of the most pure, the most truly modeft, and the most gracefully virtuous mind, that I had ever the happiness of knowing in the form of a manly friend. It is certainly my wife that thefe Volumes may obtain the entire approbation of the world, but it is infinitely more my defire and ambition to render them exa&ly fuch, as I think moft likely to gratify the confcious fpirit of Cowper himself, in a fuperior exiftence.The perfon who recommended it to his female relation to continue her exemplary regard to the Poet by appearing as his biographer, advised her to relate the particulars of his Life in the form of Letters addreffed to your Lordship. He cited, on the occafion, a striking passage from the Memoirs of Gibbon, in which that great hiftorian pays a juft and a fplendid compliment to one of the early English poets, who, in the tenderness and purity of his heart, and in the vivid powers of defcription, may be thought to resemble Cowper. The paffage I allude to is this: "The nobility of the Spencers has been illuftrated and enriched by the trophies of Marlborough, but I exhort them to confider the Fairy Queen as the most precious jewel of their coronet." If this lively metaphor is juft in every point of view, we may regard The Task as a jewel of pre-eminent luftre in the coronet belonging to the noble family of Cowper. Under the influence of this idea allow me, my Lord, to addrefs to you fuch Memoirs of your admirable Relation, as my own intimacy with him, and the kindness of those who knew and loved him most truly, have enabled me to compofe. I will tell you, with perfe& fincerity, all my motives for addreffing them to your Lordship. First, I flatter myself it may be a pleafing, and permit me to fay, not an unuseful occupation to an ingenuous young nobleman, to trace the steps by which a retired man of the most diffident modefty, whofe private virtues did honour to his name, arofe to peculiar celebrity. My fecond motive is, I own, of a more felfifh nature; for I am perfuaded, that in addreffing my work to you, I give the public a fatisfactory pledge for the authenticity of my materials. I will not pretend to fay, that I hold it in the power of any title, or affinity, to reflect an additional luftre on the memory of the departed Poet: for I think fo highly of poetical diftinction, when that diftinction is pre-eminently obtained by genius, piety, and benevolence, that all common honours appear to be eclipsed by a' Splendour more forcible and extenfive. Great poets, my Lord, and that I may peak of them, as they deferve, let me fay, in the words of Horace, Primum me illorum, dederim quibus effe Poetas, Excerpam numero. Great poets have generally united in their deftiny thofe extremes of good and evil, which Homer, their immortal president, af figns to the bard, he defcribes; and which he exemplified himfelf in his own perfon.-Their lives have been frequently che quered by the darkest fhades of calamity; but their personal infelicities are nobly compenfated by the prevalence and the extent of their renown. To fet this in the most friking point of view, allow me to compare poetical celebrity with the fame acquired by the exertion of different mental powers in the highest department of civil life. The Lord Chancellors of England may be jufly regarded among the perfonages of the modern world, peculiarly exalted by intellectual endowments: with tro of these illuftrious characters, the Poet, whofe life I have endeavoured to delineate, was in fome measure connected; being related to one, the immediate ancestor of your Lordship, and being intimate, in early life, with a Chancellor of the prefent reign, whofe elevation to that dignity he has recorded in rhyme. Much refpect is due to the legal names of Cowper, and of Thurlow. Knowledge, eloquence, and political importance, confpired to aggrandize the men, who added thofe names to the lift of English Nobility: yet after the lapfe of a few centuries, they will fbine only like very diftant conftellations, merely visible in the vast expanfe of history! But, at that time, the Poet, of whom I speak, will continue to sparkle in the eyes of all men, like the radiant ftar of the evening, perpetually hailed by the voice of gratitude, affection, and delight. There is a principle of unperifbable vitality (if I may ufe fuch an expreffion) in the compofitions of Cowper, which must enfure to them in future ages, what we have seen them so happily acquire and mainta' ; in the prefent-univerfal admiration and love! His poetry is to the heart, and the fancy, what the moral effays of Bacon are to the understanding, a never-cloying feaft! "As if increase of appetite had grown "By what it fed on." Like them it comes "home to the business and bofom of every man;" by poffeffing the rare and double talent to familiarize and endear the most awful fubjects, and to dignify the most fa |