No. 3. Translations from Horace and Virgil ib. Horace, Book I, satire 5, a humorous description of the au- thor's journey from Rome to Brundusium ib. Book 1, satire 9, the description of an impertinent. No. 4. Translations from various Latin poems of Vincent Bourne, and a few epigrams of Owen 622 AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL COWPER. YOUR family, my Lord, our country itself, and the whole literary world, sustained so great a loss in the death of that amiable man and enchanting author, who forms the subject of these volumes, as to inspire the friends of genius and virtue with universal concern. It soon became a general wish that some authentic and copious memorial of a character so highly interesting should be produced with all becoming despatch; not only to render due honour to the dead, but to alleviate the regret of a nation taking a just and liberal pride in the reputation of a poet who had obtained and deserved her applause, her esteem, her affection. If this laudable wish was very sensibly felt by the public at large, it glowed with peculiar eagerness in the bosom of the few who had been so fortunate as to enjoy an intimacy with Cowper in some unclouded periods of his life; and who knew, from such an intimacy, that a lively sweetness and sanctity of spirit were as truly the characteristics of his social enjoyments as they are allowed to constitute a principal charm in his poetical productions. It has justly been regarded as a signal blessing to have possessed the esteem and confidence of such a man; and not long after his decease, one of his particular friends presumed to suggest to an accomplished lady, nearly related both to him and to your Lordship, that she might be the biographer most worthy of the poet. The intimacy and correspondence which she enjoyed with him, both in their lively hours of youthful friendship, and in the dark evening of his wonderfully chequered life; her cultivated and affectionate mind, which led her to take peculiar delight and interest in the merit and reputation of his writings; and lastly, that generous attachment to her afflicted relation, which induced her to watch over his disordered health in a period of its most calamitous depression,-these circumstances united seemed to render it desirable that she should assume the office of Cowper's biographer, having such advantage for the perfect execution of that very delicate task, as perhaps no other memorialist could possess in an equal degree. For the interest of literature, and for the honour of many poets, whose memories have suffered from some biographers of a very different description, we may wish that the extensive series of poetical biography had been frequently enriched by the memoirs of such remembrancers as feel only the influence of tenderness and truth. Some poets, indeed, of recent times, have been happy in this most desirable advantage. The Scottish favourite of nature, the tender and impetuous Burns, has found in Dr. Currie an ingenuous, eloquent, affectionate biographer; and in a lady also (whose memoir of her friend, the bard, is very properly annexed to his life) a zealous and graceful advocate, singularly happy in vindicating his character from invidious detraction. We may observe, to the honour of Scotland, that her national enthusiasm has for some years been very laudably exerted in cherishing the memory of her departed poets. But to return to the lady who gave rise to this remark. The natural diffidence of her sex, uniting with extreme delicacy of health, induced her (eager as she is to promote the celebrity of her deceased relation) to shrink from the idea of submitting herself as an author to the formidable eye of the public. Her knowledge of the very cordial regard with which Cowper had honoured me, as one of his most confidential friends, led her to request that she might assign to me that arduous office, which she candidly confessed she had not the resolution to assume. She confided to my care such materials for the work in question as her affinity to the deceased had thrown into her hands. In receiving a collection of many private letters, and of several posthumous little poems, in the well-known characters of that beloved correspondent, at the sight of whose hand I have often exulted, I felt the blended emotions of melancholy regret, and of awful pleasure! Yes; I was pleased that these affecting papers were entrusted to my care, because some incidents incline me to believe, that if their revered author had been solicited to appoint a biographer for himself he would have assigned me this honourable task: yet honourable as I considered it, I was perfectly aware of the difficulties and dangers attending it: one danger indeed, appeared to me of such a nature as to require perpetual caution as I advanced; I mean the danger of being led, in writing, as the biographer of my friend, to speak too frequently of myself. To avoid the offensive failing of egotism, I had resolved at first to make no inconsiderable sacrifice, and to suppress in his letters every particle of praise bestowed upon me. I soon found it impossible to do so without injuring the tender and generous spirit of my friend. I have, therefore, suffered many expressions of his affectionate partiality towards me to appear, at the hazard of being censured for inordinate vanity. To obviate such a censure, I will only say that I have endeavoured to execute what I regard a a mournful duty, as if I were under the immediate and visible direction of the most truly modest, and the most gracefully virtuous mind that I had ever the happiness of knowing in the form of a manly friend. It is certainly my wish that these volumes may obtain the entire approbation of the world; but it is much more my desire and ambition to render them exactly such as I think most likely to gratify the conscious. spirit of Cowper himself, in a superior existence. The person who recommended it to his female relation to continue her exemplary regard to the poet by appearing as his biographer, advised her to relate the particulars of his life in the form of letters addressed to your Lordship. He cited on the occasion a striking passage from the Memoirs of Gibbon, in which that great historian pays a just and a splendid compliment to one of the early English poets, who, in the tenderness and purity of his heart, and in the vivid powers of description, may be thought to resemble Cowper. The passage alluded to is this: "The nobility of the Spencers has been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of Marlborough, but I exhort them to consider the Fairy Queen' as the most precious jewel of their coronet." If this lively metaphor is just in every point of view, we may regard 'The Task' as a jewel of pre-eminent lustre in the coronet belonging to the noble family of Cowper. Under the influence of this idea, allow me, my Lord, to address to you such Memoirs of your admirable relation, as my own intimacy with him, and the kindness of those who knew and loved him most truly, have enabled me to compose! I will tell you, with perfect sincerity, all my motives for addressing them to your Lordship. First, I flatter myself it may be a pleasing, and permit me to say, not an unuseful occupation to an ingenuous young nobleman, to trace the steps by which a retired man, of the most diffident modesty, whose private virtues did honour to his name, raised himself to peculiar celebrity. My second motive is, I own, of a more selfish nature; for I am persuaded, that in addressing my work to you, I give the public a satisfactory pledge for the authenticity of my materials. will not pretend to say, that I hold it in the power of any title or affinity to reflect an additional lustre on the memory of the departed poet, for I think so highly of poetical distinction, when that distinction is pre-eminently obtained by genius, piety, and benevolence, that all common honours appear to be eclipsed by a I |