LIFE OF WILLIAM COWPER. WILLIAM COWPER, the poet of religion and the domestic affections, was born on the 26th, or, by old style, as some date, on the 15th of November, 1731, at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire. His birth was not without distinction, since, by immediate descent, it allied him to nobility, while the respectable rank of his ancestors has been traced to a remote period. The family, originally of Sussex, is honourably mentioned so early as the reign of Edward IV; and, subsequently, several of its members appear on the roll among the sheriffs of London. In 1641, the representative of the name, Sir William Cowper, a pious man, and a lover of the muses, as the monument and epitaph prove, which he placed over the remains of the venerable Hooker, was knighted for his loyalty to the unfortunate Charles. In the succeeding century, two of the nearest relatives of our author attained seats in the House of Peers. Spencer Cowper, his grandfather, who died in 1728, held, by special licence of the Crown, the joint offices of Chief-Justice of the palatinate of Chester, and Judge in the Common Pleas; his granduncle, the elder brother of the preceding, was William, first Earl Cowper, and Lord High B Chancellor of England at the Union. His father, the second son of the Judge, by a first marriage with Dame Judith Pennington, was the Reverend John Cowper, D.D. of Oxford, one of the royal chaplains to George the Second, and rector of Berkhampstead. The maternal lineage of Cowper, if not so directly connected with dignified rank as his paternal ancestry, has been referred to a source still more illustrious. His mother was Anne, daughter of Roger Donne of Ludham Hall, in the county of Norfolk. There the family had been settled for centuries before, and the property yet remains in lineal possession. We learn, however, from Walton's Life of Dr Donne a statement corroborated by the letters of our author himself—that his progenitors in this line were originally of Wales. It is added, that through collateral descent from the Mowbrays and Howards, in four different branches, they claimed a royal founder in the person of Henry the Third. Biographers have urged these inquiries probably as far as they could well be carried; yet even kingly descent can add nothing to the respect or reputation due to the author of the Task. Such pretensions, too, seem doubly vain, if insisted upon in favour of one who, so far from courting worldly honours, would have withdrawn himself from the merely temporal distinctions of talent itself, Content, if all sequester'd he might raise To close life wisely — might not waste his own. There is cause, too, for gratulation, and of high encouragement, in the reflection, that virtue thus occupied has achieved for the votary of Heaven an earthly renown far surpassing all the conventional eminence to which rank, or wealth, or power can elevate. Not, however, that Cowper is to be understood as having been insensible to the advantages of honourable birth. On the contrary, he frequently recurs with satisfaction to the details now given, and shews evidently that he had bestowed no small research on the subject of family descent. But this distinction, like every other possession, he esteemed chiefly as calculated to awaken fresh gratitude to the Giver of all good. Often and fervently does he thank God for the refined friendships he thence enjoyed-for the pure tastes he had thus been early led to cultivate. and for the wider influence which religious example might by this means exercise. But in no view is he ever inclined to regard his claims to high descent as a matter of pride. In writing to a youthful relative, for instance, he thus expresses himself: "My dear Johnny,- The long muster-roll of my great and small ancestors, I signed and dated, and sent up to Mr Bluemantle on Monday, according to your desire. Such a pompous affair, drawn out for my sake, reminds me of the old fable of the mountain in parturition, and a mouse the produce. Rest undisturbed, say I, their lordly, ducal, and royal dust! Had they left me something handsome, I should have respected them more. But perhaps they did not know that such a one as I should have the honour to be numbered among their descendents. Well! I have a little bookseller that makes me some amends for their deficiency." Resuming, however, his habitual seriousness of purpose, he hastens, in the conclusion of the same epistle, to impress upon his young kinsman the true and valuable end of inquiries into the history of our forefathers, as teaching the superiority of virtue and talent over greatness, and the duty of forming our own life by the example of theirs. "What you say of your determined resolution, with God's help, to take up the cross and despise the shame, gives us both real pleasure. In our pedigree is found one at least who did it before you. Do you the like, and you will meet him in heaven as sure as the Scripture is the word of God." This refers to Dr Donne, the celebrated satirist, and Dean of St Paul's, whom Cowper delighted to reckon among his maternal relatives; thus dating the poetical reputation of his family from the sixteenth century. The "pious Dean," as is well known, was exposed to much distress on account of having abjured, in early life, the Catholic faith, the belief of his ancestors; and afterwards, at an advanced age, suffered Chancellor of England at the Union. His father, the second son of the Judge, by a first marriage with Dame Judith Pennington, was the Reverend John Cowper, D.D. of Oxford, one of the royal chaplains to George the Second, and rector of Berkhampstead. The maternal lineage of Cowper, if not so directly connected with dignified rank as his paternal ancestry, has been referred to a source still more illustrious. His mother was Anne, daughter of Roger Donne of Ludham Hall, in the county of Norfolk. There the family had been settled for centuries before, and the property yet remains in lineal possession. We learn, however, from Walton's Life of Dr Donne a statement corroborated by the letters of our author himself-that his progenitors in this line were originally of Wales. It is added, that through collateral descent from the Mowbrays and Howards, in four different branches, they claimed a royal founder in the person of Henry the Third. Biographers have urged these inquiries probably as far as they could well be carried; yet even kingly descent can add nothing to the respect or reputation due to the author of the Task. Such pretensions, too, seem doubly vain, if insisted upon in favour of one who, so far from courting worldly honours, would have withdrawn himself from the merely temporal distinctions of talent itself, Content, if all sequester'd he might raise There is cause, too, for gratulation, and of high encouragement, in the reflection, that virtue thus occupied has achieved for the votary of Heaven an earthly renown far surpassing all the conventional eminence to which rank, or wealth, or power can elevate. Not, however, that Cowper is to be understood as having been insensible to the advantages of honourable birth. On the contrary, he frequently recurs with satisfaction to the details now given, and shews evidently that he had bestowed no small research on the subject of family descent. But this distinction, like every other possession, he esteemed chiefly as calculated to awaken fresh gratitude to the Giver of all good. Often and fervently does he thank God for the refined friendships he thence enjoyed-for the pure tastes he had thus been early led to cultivate and for the wider influence which religious example might by this means exercise. But in no view is he ever inclined to regard his claims to high descent as a matter of pride. In writing to a youthful relative, for instance, he thus expresses himself: "My dear Johnny,- The long muster-roll of my great and small ancestors, I signed and dated, and sent up to Mr Bluemantle on Monday, according to your desire. Such a pompous affair, drawn out for my sake, reminds me of the old fable of the mountain in parturition, and a mouse the produce. Rest undisturbed, say I, their lordly, ducal, and royal dust! Had they left me something handsome, I should have respected them more. But perhaps they did not know that such a one as I should have the honour to be numbered among their descendents. Well! I have a little bookseller that makes me some amends for their deficiency." Resuming, however, his habitual seriousness of purpose, he hastens, in the conclusion of the same epistle, to impress upon his young kinsman the true and valuable end of inquiries into the history of our forefathers, as teaching the superiority of virtue and talent over greatness, and the duty of forming our own life by the example of theirs. "What you say of your determined resolution, with God's help, to take up the cross and despise the shame, gives us both real pleasure. In our pedigree is found one at least who did it before you. Do you the like, and you will meet him in heaven as sure as the Scripture is the word of God." This refers to Dr Donne, the celebrated satirist, and Dean of St Paul's, whom Cowper delighted to reckon among his maternal relatives; thus dating the poetical reputation of his family from the sixteenth century. The "pious Dean," as is well known, was exposed to much distress on account of having abjured, in early life, the Catholic faith, the belief of his ancestors; and afterwards, at an advanced age, suffered |