From this brief account of the volume before the reader, I pass on to the memoir of its author. Had I not already embarked in a preparation of the poems, when I was requested to prefix a sketch of the poet's life, an unaffected distrust of my ability to achieve it would have precluded me from making such an attempt; but a peculiar interest in these relicks of Cowper having been wrought into my feelings, while I was arranging them for the press, I was unwilling to shrink from a proposed task, by which I might hope to contribute, in some degree, to the expanding renown of my revered relation. I therefore venture to advance on the only path in the wild field of biography, in which my humble steps could accompany Cowper, namely, that in which I could simply "retrace (As in a map, the voyager his course,) The windings of his way through many years." Into this path it might seem presumptuous in me to invite those whom my kind and constant friend, Mr. Hayley, has made intimately acquainted with Cowper, by his extensive and just biography; but to such readers as happen not to have perused his more copious work, I may venture to recommend the following "Map of Cowper's Life," as possessing one of its prime characteristicks, namely, fidelity of delineation. Bedford, April, 1815 |