ter was, in general, particularly unfavourable to the health of the Poet. In the commencement of the poem he marks both the season and the year, in the tender addrefs to his companion. "Whofe arm this twentieth winter I perceive If fuch can be the proper date of this most interesting poem, it must have been written with inconceivable rapidity, for it was certainly finished very early in November. This appears from the following paffage in a letter of the Poet's to his friend Mr. Bull, in which he not only mentions the completion of his great work, but gives a particular account of his next production. "The Tafk, as you know, is gone to the prefs: fince it went I have been employed in writing another poem, which I am now transcribing, and which in a fhort time, I defign, fhall follow. It is entitled Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools: the bufinefs and purpose of it are to cenfure the want of discipline, and the fcandalous inattention to morals, that obtain in them, especially in the largest; and to recommend private tuition as a mode of education preferable on all accounts; to call upon fathers to become tutors of their own fons, where that is practicable; to take home to them a domeftic tutor, where it is not; and if neither can be done, to place them under the care of such a man, as he, to whom I am writing; fome rural Parfon, whofe attention is limited to a few.” The date of this letter, (Nov. 8, 1784) and the information it contains, induce me to imagine that The Task was really begun before the winter of 1784, and that the paffage which I have cited, as marking the era of its compofition, was added in the course of a revifal. The following paffages from Cowper's letters to his laft mentioned correfpondent, confirm this conjecture. August 3, 1783. "Your fea-fide fituation, your beautiful profpects, your fine rides, and the fight of the palaces, which you have seen, we have not envied you; but are glad that you have enjoyed them. Why should we envy any man? Is not our green-house a cabinet of perfumes? It is at this moment fronted with carnations and balfams, with mignonette and roses, with jeffamine and woodbine, and wants nothing but your pipe to make it truly Arabian ;-a wilderness of fweets! The Sofa is ended but not finished, a paradox, which your natural acumen, sharpened by habits of logical attention, will enable you to reconcile in a moment. Do not imagine, however, that I lounge over it-on the contrary, I find it severe exercise, to mould and fashion it to my mind!" Feb. 22, 1784. "I congratulate you on the thaw-I fuppofe it is an univerfal bleffing, and probably felt all over Europe. I myself am the better for it, who wanted nothing, that might make the froft supportable; what reason, therefore, have they to rejoice, who being in want of all things, were expofed to its utmoft rigour ?-The ice in my ink, however, is not yet diffolved. It was long before the froft feized it, but at laft it prevailed. The Sofa has confequently received little or no addition fince. It confifts at prefent of four Books, and part of a fifth when the fixth is finished, the work is accomplished; but if I may judge by my present inability, that period is at a confiderable distance." The year 1784 was a memorable period in the life of the Poet, not only as it witneffed the completion of one extenfive work, and the commencement of another, (his translation of Homer) but as it terminated his intercourse with that highly pleafing and valuable friend, whofe alacrity of attention and advice had induced him to engage in both. Delightful and advantageous as his friendship with Lady Auften had proved, he now began to feel, that it grew impoffible to preferve that triple cord, which his own pure heart had led him to fuppofe, not speedily to be broken. Mrs. Unwin, though by no means destitute of mental accomplishments, was eclipsed by the brilliancy of the Poet's new friend, and naturally became uneafy under the apprehenfion of being so; for to a woman of fenfibility, what evil can be more afflicting, than the fear of lofing all mental influence over a man of genius and virtue, whom she has been long accustomed to in fpirit and to guide ? Cowper perceived the painful neceffity of facrificing a great portion of his present gratifications. He felt, that he must relinquish that ancient friend, whom he regarded as a venerable parent; or the new associate, whom he idolized as a fifter, of a heart and mind peculiarly congenial to his own. His gratitude for pat fervices of unexampled magnitude and weight, would not allow him to hefitate, and with a refolution and delicacy, that do the highest honour to his feelings, he wrote a farewel letter to Lady Auften, explaining and. lamenting the circumstances, that forced him to renounce the fociety of a friend, whofe enchanting talents and kindness had proved fo agreeably inftrumental to. the revival of his fpirits, and to the exercise of his fancy. The letters addreffed to Mr. Hill at this period, exprefs in a moft pleafing manner, the fenfibility of Cowper. LETTER XXXVII. To JOSEPH HILL, Efq. MY DEAR FRIEND, Sept. 11, 1784. I HAVE never feen Dr. Cotton's book, concerning which your fifters question me, nor did I know, till you mentioned it, that he had written any thing newer than his Visions; I have no doubt that it is fo far worthy of him, as to be pious and fenfible, and I believe, no man living is better qualified to write on fuch fubjects, as his title feems to announce. Some years have paffed fince I heard from him, and, confidering his great age, it is probable that I fhall hear from him no more, but I shall always respect him. He is truly a philofopher according to my judgment of the character, every tittle of his knowledge in natural fubjects, being connected in his mind, with the firm belief of an Omnipotent Agent. Yours, &c. W. C. LETTER XXXVIII. To JOSEPH HILL, Esq. MY DEAR FRIEND, TO condole with you on the death of a Mother aged 87 would be abfurd--Rather therefore, as is reafonable, I congratulate you on the almoft fingular felicity of having enjoyed the company of fo amiable, and fo near a relation fo long. Your lot and mine in this respect have been very different, as indeed in almost every other. Your mother lived to fee you rife, at least to fee you comfortably established in the world. Mine dying when I was fix years old, did not live to fee me fink in it. You may remember with pleasure while you live, a bleffing vouchfafed to you fo long, and I, while I live, must regret a comfort, of which I was deprived fo early. I can truly say that not a week passes, (perhaps I might with equal veracity fay a day) in which I do not think of her. Such was the impreffion her tenderness made upon me, though the opportunity she had for fhewing it was fo fhort. But the ways of God are equal-and when I reflect on the pangs fhe would have fuffered, had she been a witness of all mine, I see more cause to rejoice than to mourn that she was hidden in the grave fo foon. We have as you fay loft a lively and fenfible neighbour in Lady Auften, but we have been long accustomed to a state of retirement, within one degree of folitude, and being naturally lovers of still life, can relapse into our former duality, without being unhappy at the change. To me indeed a third is not necessary, while I can have the companion I have had these twenty years. I am gone to the prefs again; a volume of mine will greet your hands fome time either in the course of the winter, or early in the fpring. You will find it perhaps on the whole more entertaining than the former, as it treats a greater variety of fubjects, and thofe, at least the moft, of a fublunary kind. It will confift of a Poem in fix books, called, The Tafk. To which will be added another, which I finished yesterday, called I be lieve Tirocinium, on the subject of education. You perceive that I have taken your advice, and given the pen no rest. LETTER XXXIX. To JOSEPH HILL, Efq. MY DEAR FRIEND, June 25, 1785. I WRITE in a nook that I call my Bou doir. It is a fummer-house not much bigger than a fedan-chair, the door of which opens into the garden |