But the success of Leonidas, like that of Cato, had been factitious, and though it had hitherto supported itself, it could not buoy up the Athenaid. Glover had been an influential man in the city at a time when parties in the state ran high, and were nearly equally poised; he was possessed of more than ordinary talents and learning, as well as great mercantile knowledge, and just weight of character; and the party with which he acted rewarded his services against Sir Robert Walpole's administration, by extolling a respectable poem far above its deserts. Those passions had long since passed away; the latter part of his public life had been highly creditable to him in every point of view; but it was not of a kind to captivate popular applause, nor was there any knot of statesmen who had an interest in keeping up his celebrity:.. when that has fallen asleep, the tem

porary interest that may be excited by an author's death, is not sufficient to revive it. His poems never theless well deserve to be included in the next great collection of the English poets, and it is to be regretted that the whole of his works have not been collected.

"This reviewing business," said Cowper, "I find too much an interruption of my main concern, and when I return the books to Johnson, shall desire him to send me either authors less impatient, or no more

62 There is no other mention of his engagement with the Analytical Review in the letters which have come to my hands. But in July, 1791, he speaks of "loose cash in the hands of his bookseller," "a purse at Johnson's to which if need should arise he could recur at pleasure."-As the bargain for his Homer had not then been concluded, and he had given away the copyright of his two volumes, this I think must allude to the proceeds of his reviewing.

till I have finished Homer 63" Occasional verses, on public events, or incidents arising in his own little circle, took up some portion of his time. These he was fond of writing, .. seeing and partaking in the pleasure they gave to the persons to whom they were addressed, and to those acquainted with the circumstances that gave rise to them. Lady Hesketh, proud of his fame, and eager for any thing which she thought likely to extend it, advised him to think of another volume. He replied, "I have considered, and had indeed before I received your last, considered of the practicability of a new publication; and the result of my thoughts on that topic is, that with my present small stock of small pieces the matter is not feasible. I have but few, and the greater part of those few have already appeared in the magazine; a circumstance which of itself would render a collection of them, at this time, improper. It is, however, an increasing fund; and a month perhaps seldom passes in which I do not add something to it. In time their number will make them more important, and in time possibly I may produce something in itself of more importance; then all may be packed off to the press together; and in the interim, whatsoever I may write shall be kept secret among ourselves, that being new to the public, it may appear, when it appears, with more advantage 64 "

In another letter to the same dear kinswoman he says, "Running over what I have written, I feel that I should blush to send it to any but thyself. Another

S. C.-2.

63 To Lady Hesketh, Feb. 15, 1789.

64 April 14, 1789.

Y

would charge me with being impelled by a vanity from which my conscience sets me clear, to speak so much of myself and my verses as I do. But I thus speak to none but thee, nor to thee do I thus speak from any such motive. I egotize in my letters to thee, not because I am of much importance to myself, but because to thee both Ego, and all that Ego does is interesting. God doth know that when I labour most to excel as a poet, I do it under such mortifying impressions of the vanity of all human fame and glory, however acquired, that I wonder I can write at all 65"

His greatest pleasure was in the society of those whom he loved. When Rose's visit in the summer of this year was postponed from June till August, he said to him, " a month was formerly a trifle in my account; but at my present age, I give it all its importance, and grudge that so many months should yet pass in which I have not even a glimpse of those I love, and of whom, the course of nature considered, I must ere long take leave for ever.-But I shall live till August 66," When Lady Hesketh arrived, he said, "This is the third meeting that my cousin and we have had in this country; and a great instance of good fortune I account it in such a world as this, to have expected such a pleasure thrice without being once disappointed"." And after both had departed, at the commencement of winter, his observation was, “ When a friend leaves us in the beginning of that season, I always feel in my heart a perhaps, importing that we

have possibly met for the last time, and that the robins may whistle on the grave of one of us before the return of summer 68.

"

But it was his lot, happy indeed in this respect, to form new friendships as he advanced in years, instead of having to mourn for the dissolution of old ones by death. During seven-and-twenty years he had held no intercourse with his maternal relations, and knew not whether they were living or dead; the malady which made him withdraw from the world, seems in its milder consequences to have withheld him from making any inquiry concerning them; and from their knowledge he had entirely disappeared till he became known to the public. One of a younger generation Iwas the first to seek him out. This was Mr. John Johnson, grandson of his mother's brother, Roger Donne, who had been rector of Catfield, in Norfolk. The youth was then a Cambridge student, and made the best use of a Christmas vacation by seeking and introducing himself to his now famous kinsman. Cowper's latent warmth of family feeling was immediately quickened; and he conceived an affection for "the wild, but bashful boy," as he called him, which increased in proportion as he knew him more, and which was amply requited.

Young Johnson had some poetical ambition at that time; he brought with him a manuscript poem of the pastoral kind, entitled the Tale of the Lute, or the Beauties of Audley End, and he produced it as coming from Lord Howard, with his lordship's request that Cowper would revise it. Cowper read it attentively, 68 Jan. 3, 1790.

was much pleased with some parts, equally disliked others, and told him so "in such terms as one naturally uses when there seems to be no occasion to qualify or to alleviate censure."-It then came out that the youth was himself the writer,.. that Lord Howard not approving it altogether, and some friends of his own age having, on the contrary, commended it highly, he had come to a resolution of abiding by the judgement of the author of the Task, a measure to which Lord Howard had indeed advised him. Upon his expressing afterwards, by letter, some degree of compunction for this artifice, Cowper replied, "Give yourself no trouble on the subject of the politic device you saw good to recur to, when you presented me with your manuscript. It was an innocent deception, at least it could harm nobody save yourself; an effect which it did not fail to produce; and since the punishment followed it so closely, by me at least it may very well be forgiven. You ask how I can tell that you are not addicted to practices of the deceptive kind? And certainly if the little time that I have had to study you were alone to be considered, the question would not be unreasonable; but in general a man who reaches my years finds,

'That long experience does attain

To something like prophetic strain.'

"I am very much of Lavater's opinion, and am persuaded that faces are as legible as books, only with these circumstances to recommend them to our perusal, that they are read in much less time, and are much less likely to deceive us." With regard to the poem itself he gave him this golden advice,-" remember that