321 Sketch of the character, and account of the last illness of Particulars concerning the person and character of Cowper 365 Cowper's personal character illustrated by extracts from Original poem on the subject, by the late Samuel Whit-⚫ bread, Esq. Cowper's moderation amidst literary fame Anecdote of Dr. Parr Cowper's sensibility to unjust censure Letter to John Thornton, Esq. on a severe criticism of his first volume of poems in the "Analytical Review" Sublime piety and morality of Cowper's works ib. . 389 C THE LIFE OF COWPER. Part the Third--Continued. IN detailing the incidents that occur in the life of Cowper, we recorded, in the close of the last volume, a malevolent report highly injurious to his integrity and honour. In order to recall the fact to the memory of the reader, we insert the statement itself, in the words of Cowper: "A report is, and has been some time current, in this and the neighbouring counties, that, though I have given myself the air of declaiming against the slave trade, in · The Task,' I am in reality a friend to it; and last night I received a letter from Joe Rye, to inform me, that I have been much traduced and calumniated on this account." That the author of "The Task," a poem distinguished by its tone of pure and elevated morality, and breathing a spirit of most uncompromising hostility against the slave trade-that such a man, at that time in the very zenith of his fame, should be VOL. V. B publicly accused of favouring the very cause which he had so eloquently denounced, is one of those circumstances which, for the honour of human nature, we could wish not to have been compelled to record. With this painful fact before us, we would ask, what is popularity, and what wise man would attach value to so fleeting a possession? It is a gleam of sunshine, which embellishes for a moment the object on which it falls, and then vanishes away. In the course of a life not passed without observation, we have had occasion to remark, in the political, the literary, and even in the religious world, the evanescent character of popular favour. We have seen men alternately caressed and deserted, praised and censured, and made to feel the vanity of human applause and admiration. The idol of today is dethroned by the idol of to-morrow, which in its turn yields to the dominion of some more favoured rival. The wisdom of God evidently designs, by these events, to check the thirst for human praise and distinction, by showing us the precarious tenure by which they are held. We are thus admonished to examine our motives, and to be assured of the integrity of our intentions; neither to despise public favour, nor yet to overvalue it; but to preserve that calm and equable temper of mind, and that full consciousness of the rectitude of our principles, that we may learn to enjoy it without triumph, or to lose it without dejection. "Henceforth Thy patron He whose diadem has dropp'd The reader will be amused in finding the origin of the injurious report above mentioned disclosed in the following letter. Mr. Rye was unjustly supposed to have aided in propagating this misconception, but Cowper fully vindicates him from such a charge. TO THE REV. J. JEKYLL RYE.* Weston, April 16, 1792. My dear Sir-I am truly sorry that you should have suffered any apprehensions, such as your letter indicates, to molest you for a moment. I believe you to be as honest a man as lives, and consequently do not believe it possible that you could in your letter to Mr. Pitts, or any otherwise, wilfully misrepresent me. In fact you did not; my opinions on the subject in question were, when I had the pleasure of seeing you, such as in that letter you stated them to be, and such they still continue. 1 If any man concludes, because I allow myself the use of sugar and rum, that therefore I am a friend to the slave trade, he concludes rashly, and does me great wrong; for the man lives not who abhors it more than I do. My reasons for my own practice are satisfactory to myself, and they whose practice is contrary, are, I suppose, satisfied with * Vicar of Dalington, near Northampton. 1 |