Translation of Prior's Chloe and Euphelia,.. The diverting History of John Gilpin,..... MEMOIR OF WILLIAM COWPER, OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQ. THAT the temperament of genius is akin to that of insanity, or, as Dryden more vividly expresses it, that "Great wits are sure to madness near allied, is an observation eminently calculated to check the enthusiasm of those who, in their passion for distinction, look with disdain upon the possessor of common qualities, and the happiness of a private station. The transition from the philosopher in his study, who, with Newton, expounds the laws of the universe, to the bedlamite, who has renewed his childhood and spends his hours in the employments of the nursery, is a spectacle so mortifying to the pride of intellect, and, like the doctrine of miracles, implies such a departure from the established order of the moral world, that were it not for the frequency of its occurrence, it would probably challenge an equal portion of unbelief. Yet the lives of literary men have too often confirmed the remark of the poet, and afforded at once a triumph to dulness, and a salutary caution to those who inherit the excitable constitution of genius. The most admirable mechanism is soonest liable to derangement, and the fancy that soars to the farthest verge of reason may easily penetrate the "thin partitions," and plunge into the dreadful abyss beyond. B Never were these remarks more strikingly exemplified than in the experience of WILLIAM COWPER,an author equally celebrated for the splendour of his talents and the piety and innocence of his life. Possessing a mind deeply imbued with knowledge, not unfortified by philosophy, and latterly the seat of the purest religion, he early fell a victim to that morbid sensibility which renders high intellect of small avail, and united in his own character qualities which by turns lead us to exult in the dignity and mourn over the weakness of human nature. This interesting writer was born at Great Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire, on the 26th of November (N. S.), 1731. His father, John Cowper, D. D., Rector of that parish and Chaplain to George the Second, was the second son of Spencer Cowper, a Judge in the Court of Common Pleas, and nephew of the Lord Chancellor of the same name. His mother, Anne, daughter of Roger Donne, Esq. of Ludhamhall, in the county of Norfolk, was allied to several noble houses, which in their turn traced their pedigree to Henry the Third, king of England; and in this way, we are told, "the highest blood in the realm flowed in the veins of the modest and unassuming Cowper." It is fortunate, however, for posterity and his own fame, that he was destined to aspire to a more imperishable, as well as more exalting, species of distinction. The eclat of tracing his immediate descent from two brothers who had both obtained seats in the House of Peers, might weigh with his contemporaries, but is quite lost upon posterity; and it is edifying to reflect that, so nobly has genius repaid its borrowed lustre, after a brief lapse of time, the name of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, beyond the pale of political history and legal knowledge, owed its chief distinction to William Cowper, his Lordship's poetical and gifted friend. And in this undoubtedly the historian did well; for what are all the perishing honours which the breath of royalty can confer, compared to that divine afflatus—that undying halo, which, like the soul from which it emanates, is immortal and indestructible ? Where are now the long line of Babylonian princes, with their gorgeous palaces and cloud-capped towers ? What has become of the whole race of the Ptole mies? Alas! so little do we know of the once mighty Babel, that geometry itself is puzzled to detect with certainty the spot where it stood; while even the pyramids of Egypt, those stupendous piles which appear to be as enduring as the everlasting hills, have been unable to transmit to posterity the names of the founders. But amidst the lapse of ages and the revo❤ lutions of empires, something is still preserved in the Ark of genius; and such is the omnipotence of mind compared to matter, that even the little pencil of Apelles, the chisel of Phidias, the ballads of the mendicant Homer, and the improvising of the martyred Socrates, have been able to effect more than all the towers and temples of Tyre and Thebes, Palmyra and Babylon. The author of the "Fairy Queen" was similarly situated with regard to the Spencers; and the historian Gibbon spoke well and wisely, when he admonished the members of that ancient family to prize the poem alluded to as by far the richest gem in their coronet. Cowper's mother, who died in 1737, at the early age of thirty-four, appears to have been a woman of great sweetness of temper, as well as considerable mental endowments. Of several children, the fruit of her union with Dr Cowper, two only survived their pa rents; William, the subject of this memoir, and John, who afterwards became a clergyman, and a fellow of Bene't (now Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge. But although this excellent and affectionate parent was torn from the future poet before he had completed his |