the reader a fondness of the same kind; and if 1 were not assured that a careless or slovenly habit, in the production of his verses, has never been imputed to the author of the Task. The materials of the volume being thus provided, the ascertaining their dates was my remaining concern. In a few instances I found them affixed to the poems by their author; a few more I collected from intimations in his letters; but in several, the difficulty of discovering them pressed upon myself. This was especially the case with the very interesting additional poem addressed by Cowper to an unknown lady on reading "the Prayer for Indifference." Of the existence of these verses I had not even heard till I was called on to superintend the volume, in which they make their first publick appearance. I am inclined to believe, that during the ten years of my domestick intercourse with the poet, they had never occurred to his recollection. He appears to have imparted them only to his highly valued and affectionate relative, the Reverend Martin Madan, brother of the late Bishop of Peterborough, from whose Common-place Book' they were transcribed by his daughter, and kindly communicated to me. There being nothing in Mr. Madan's copy of these verses from which their date could be inferred, it was only by a minute comparison of the poem itself with the various local and mental circumstances, which his life exhibits, that I was enabled' to discover the year of their production. The labour attending this and other instances of research, in which I have been obliged to engage for the purpose of ascertaining the dates of several minor poems, will be best understood by those who are practically acquainted with similar investigations. After all, there are some of which no diligence of mine could develope the exact time; but with the greater number I trust their proper order of succession has been care fully secured to them. 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 |