The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-03-30 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1803.

LITERATURE.
Est opera prdium cognwere. Hoe.
-
THE LIFE AND POSTHUMOUS WRIT/Nag OF MI.-
LIAM COWPER, ESQ.
BY WILLIAM HAYLEY.
(Continued.)
living given an abstract of the innocent and in•
teresting life of Cowper, we will now proceed to lay
before our readers such parts of Mr. Hayley's vo-
lumes, as may enable them to form a more intimate
acquaintance with the author of the Task, and at the
same time to appreciate the merits of his friendly
biographer. Our first extra& shall be chosen with
reference to the narrative in our last article, to
which the following charaler of Coxper will con-
stitute a proper accompaniment.
"6 The person and mind of Cowper seem to have
been formed with equal kindness by nature, and it
may be questioned if she ever bestowed on any man
with a fonder prodigality, all the requisites to con-
ciliate affeetion/ and tcrinspire respell.
From his figure, as it first appeared to me in
his sixty-second year, I shonhi imagine that he must
have been very comely in his youth ; and little had
time injured his countenance., since his features ex-
pressed at that period of life, all the power's of his
mind, and all the sensibility of his heart.
46 He was of a middle stature, rather strong thin
delicate in the form of his limbs; the coloui of his
hair was a light brown, that of his eyes a blueish
grey, and his complexion ruddy. In his dress he-
was neat, but not finical; iii his diet temperate, and
not dainty.
" He had,an air of paizsive reserve in his deports. ,
ment, and his extreme shyness sometimes produced
in his manners an indescribable mixture of auk.
wardness and dignity; hut no being could be more'
truly gracaful, when he was in petted health, and .
perfeetly pleased with his society. Towards women
in partieular,his behaviour and'eontarsatioh were de-
licate and fascinating in the highest degree.
66 Nature had given him a warm conStitution,
and had he been prosperous in early love, it is pro-
bable that he Might have enjoyed a more uniform
and happy tenor of health. But a disappointment
1 of the heart, arising from the cruelty of fortune, •
threw a cloud on his juvenile spiry. Thwarted ire
love, the native &re of his temperament turned im-
petuously into the kindred channel of devotion.—
The smothered flames of desire uniting with the va-
pours of constitutional melancholy, and the fer-
vency of religious zeal, produced altogether ...hat
irregularity of corporeal sensation, and of mental
health, which gave such extraordinary vicissitudes
of splendor-and of darksess to his mortal career,
and made Cowper at times an idol of the purest
admirationk and at times an objet of the sincerest
pity.
" As a sufferer, indeed, no man could be more
entitled to compassion, for no man was ever more
truly compassionate to the sufferings of others. ill,'
was that rare portion of benevolent sensibility in
his nature, which endeared him to persont of all
ranks, who had opportunities of observing him in
private life. The great Prince of Conde used to
say, " No man is a hero to his familiar domestic :"
but Cowper was really more. He was beloved and
revered with a sort of idolatry in his family ; not
from any romantic ideas of his magical powers as a
Poet, but from that evangelical gentleness of man-•
ners, and purity of conduda which illumined tae'
shade of his sequestered life.
I may be suspeded of speaking with the fond
partiality—the unperceived exaggerations of friend-
ship ; but the fear of such censure shall not deter
me from bearing my most deliberate testimony to
the excellence o: him whose memory I revere, and
saying, that as a man, he made, of all men whom I
have ever had opportunities to observe so minutely,
the nearest approaches to moral perfedion. Indeed
a much mare eaperienced judge of mankind, and
Cowper's associate in early life (Lord Thurlow,) has t
expressed the same idea of his character ; for being t.
once requested to describe him, he replied, with that'
solemn energy of dignified elocution, by which he
is accestomed to give a very forcible effed to a
few simple words—" Cowper is truly a good man."
.6 His daily habits of study and exercise, his
whole domestic life is so minutely and agreeably
delineated in the series of his Letters, that it is un-
necessary for his Biographer to expatiate upon them.
I have little occasion indeed to dwell on this topic,
but let. me apply to my young readers a few ex-
pressive-words of Louis Racineain addressing to his
own bcnahe Life and Letters of his illustrious 'Father.
" Quand vous l'aarez connu dans sa famille, vous le
goinerez mieux, lorsqi,a vous viendrez I le connoi-
tre stir le Parnasse voat scaurea.pourquoi ses ners
sent foujours pleinsde sentiment.."—l might add, in
alluding to a few of his most tender and pathetic let-
ters: " C'est time simplicite de mews si admirable
dans tin homme tout sentiment et tout eccur, qui,est
cause, Tien copiant pour vous sus lcttres, je verse a
tous momens des larmes,,parcecpeil me communique
L tendresse, dont it &Mt renipb."—Cowper greatly
resembled his eminent and exemplary brothers of
Parnassus, Racine and Metastasio, in the simplicity
and tenderness of his domestic character.


His-voice conspired with his features to announce
to all who saw and heard him, the extreme sensibi-
lity of his heart : and in reading aloud lie furnished
the chief delight•of those social, enchanting Winter
evenings, which he hao described so happily in the
fourth book of the Task. He had been- taught by
his 'parents at home to recite English verse, in the
early years of his childhood ; and acquired consi-
derable applause, as a shild, in the recital- of Gay's
popular }able, " The Here and many Friends."
A circumstance that, probably, had great influence
in raising his passion for Poetry, and in giving him
a peculiar fondness for the wild, persecuted animal,
that he converted into a very gratefuLd=estic com-
panion.
Secluded from the world, as Cntvger had long;
been, he *yet retained in advanced life uncommons
-talents for conversation ; and his conversation
dia.tinguishad by

delicate humour peculiar to himself, or by a higher
tone of w.s.rious good-sense, and those united charms
of a cultivated mind, which he has himself very hap-
described in drawing the colloquiiil charafter of
a venerable Divine.
Grave, without dullness learned, without pride;
Exatt, yet notprecise: 'filo' meek, keen-eyed 7
Who, when occasiAn justified its use,
I IA wit, as bright as ready, t.) produce;
Could fetch from records of all earlier age,.
Or from Philosophy's enlrehten'd ;rage,
11is rich materials, and regale your ear
With strains, it was a privilege to hear:
Yet above all, his luxury supreme,
And his chid Flory was the Gospel theme:
Ambitious not to shine, or to excell,
But to treat justly, what he lord so well.

Men, who withdraw themselves from the ordi-
nary forms of SocietY,whether delicacy of health, or
1 passion for study, or both united, occasion their
retirement from the world, are generally obliged to
pay a heavy tax for the privacy they enjoy, is hav-
ing their habits of life, and their temper, very darkly
misrepresented by the ignorant malice of ofiencled
pride. The sweeLness and purity of Cowper's real
charaaer did not perfetr.kly preserve him from such
misrepresentation. Many persons have been misled
so far as to suppose hint a severe, and sour seEtary
though gentleness and good-nature were among his
pre-eminent qualities, and t'.!ough he was deliberately
attached to the established religion of his country.
The reader may recolle& a letter to his young kins- •
man, who was then on the point of taking orders, -
in which Cowper sufficiently proves his attachment
to the Church of England and he speaks so de-
cidedly on the subject, than certainly none of the
sedarics have a right to reckon him in their num-
ber. He was, however, as his Poetry his most ele-
gantly testified, a most ardent friend to liberty, both
civil and religious ; and his love of freedom induced
him to animadvert with lively indignation on every
officious and oppressive exercise of episcopal autho-
rity. Few Ministers of the Gospel have searched
the Sesipture more diligently than Cowper ; and in
his days of health, with a happier effet9 ; tor a spirit
of evangelical kindness' and purity pervaded the
whole tenor of has language, and all the condat of
his life.
His infinite good-nature, as a literary man, is strik-
ingly displayed in the indulgent condescension with
'which he giatified two successive Clerks oflsior-
thampton, in writing for them their annual copies of
mortuary verses. He thought, like the amiable Plu-
tarch, that the most ordinary office may be dignified
by a benevolent spirit.
In describing Mmself to his amiable friend, Mr.
Park the engraver, he spoke too slightingly of his
own learning ; for he was in truth a scholar, as any
man may fairly be called who is master of four lan-
guagesbesides hisown. Cowper read Greek and Latin,
ereneli and Italian ; but the extraordinary -incidents
of his life preclude& him from indulging himself in
a multiplicity of books, and his reading was con-
formable to the rule of Pliny; ,4 Nan multa, nd mul-
tum."

IMPERIAL PiIRLMMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

rvtsa*Ay, MARC.(

Their Lordships, in a Committee of Privilegesi.
heard Counsel at considerable length respecting the
claim of Rev. Mr. Edw.. Brydges to the Barony of
Chandos. The further consideration- of the case
was adlotarned till Thursday.
The 'Bills upon-the table were forwarded each a
stage.
Lord RAIXIOR introduced a Bill. of a similar
nature with those he lied on one or two former oc-
casions the honour of proposing ; the objeEt of which
he stated to be, the relief of woundeil soldiers
and sailors—principally in the instance of requiring
Magistrates to order them to be conveyed to -the
place of their legal settlement from the town, port,
•or place, where'they should be discharged. The
Bill .has forthwith read a first time and ordered to
.be printed.
Mr. Ai-examine and others brou,,,-rlit up several
Bills from the.Commonc_; among which- was the
Clergy Non-Residence Bill.
The Bills were respeetively read a first time.
On the question for the Era reading of the Clergy
Non-Residence Bill,.

The Bishop of Sr. ASAPH observed, that he
should move to have the Bill printed ; and, on its
second reading, offer his objeedons to the measure,
which, in its present shape, he thought should not
pass the House.
These observations gave rise to a short, but ra-
ther irregular kind of betwee❑ Lords
Rosstvu, the Lord- CHANCELLOR, Lord ALVAN-
LILY, and the Right Rev. Prelate ;• the result of
which was, as it appeared, that the present suspen-
sion Bill would expire on the Bth instant ; that it
was agreed the Bill should be read a second time
to-morrow, and understood that .it would be.com-
mined for Thursday.
Mr. Quintin Kennedy, from the Court of Chancery
in Ireland, presented certain documents relative to
the Appeal—D'Arcy v. D'Arcy.
Mr. Porter, of the Custom House, presented
sundry accounts from the respdtive Colldtors of
the Customs, to the- sth January, 1803, as- far as
the same could be made up.
Private business was disposed 1, and the;;-:-Lord--
ships adjourned tillto.morrow.

HOIJ3E OF CONI2ONS.
TUESDAY, m Aacii 429.
In pursuance of an Order made yesterday,
consequence of the Reporst of the Chippenham Com-
mittee, the Deputy Clerk of the Crown this day at-
tended, • and amended the return of the Writ, by:
erasing the name of CHARLES BROOKE, .Esq.
subnituting. that of Tlioll4 AS MAITLA.Nu,, Esq.
The Hnuse.having resolved itself, into a.Commit-
tee, on.the Rortan Catholic Oath :1111k Mr. .13oND