your influence, as far as it extends. If you mention that there is such a work on the anvil in this country, in yours perhaps you will meet somebody now and then not disinclined to favor it. I would order you a parcel of printed proposals, if I knew how to send it. But they are not indispensably necessary. The terms are, two large volumes, quarto, royal paper, three guineas; common, two.

I rejoice that you have a post, which, though less lucrative than the labors of it deserve, is yet highly honorable, and so far worthy of you. Adieu, my dear Rowley. May peace and prosperity be your portion.

Yours, very affectionately,

WM. COWPER.

Mr. Rowley, as might be expected, after this renewal of intercourse, took no little interest in procuring subscribers for his friend; and he met with good success. "I am very sensible of your kindness," says Cowper, "and, considering our long separation, am sensible of it the more. Thou art the only one of all my Temple connections who have, or seem to have, adverted to me since I left them, seven-and-twenty years ago. From many others I have received numerous acts of kindness, but none from them."

At this time also it was that Mrs. King, whose name frequently appears among Cowper's correspondents, introduced herself to him by letter, as having been intimately acquainted with his brother. This lady was wife of the Rev. John King,30 rector of Pertenhall,30 in Bedfordshire,

30 Not Dr. King, nor Perton-Hall, as erroneously printed by Dr. J. Johnson and Mr. Grimshawe.

It has been asserted, that "the perusal of Cowper's poems had been the means of conveying impressions of piety to this lady's mind, and it was to record her gratitude and to cultivate his acquaintance that she wrote to him." Certain readers might infer from these words, that Mrs. King was converted by Cowper's poems. But if any such insinuation be intended, it is merely gratuitous. Mrs. King was a pious and excellent woman, and had then been five-and-thirty years the happy wife of a clergyman.

More will be said of this lady in the notes to Cowper's Correspondence; the Rev. Dr. Gorham, of Maidenhead, to whom the letters addressed to her at this time appertain, having obligingly enabled me to print them from the originals, correctly and without mutilation, and favored me with two which have not before been published.

who was at Westminster with Cowper, but had had little acquaintance with him there, being three years his senior. He replied to it 31 mournfully, but with cordial kindness, expressed a desire to become better acquainted with one who had been his brother's friend, and subscribed himself, "early as it might seem to say it," hers affectionately. Mentioning this communication to Mr. Newton, he said, "She is evidently a Christian, and a very gracious one. -I would she had you for a correspondent rather than me. One letter from you would do her more good than a ream of mine."

Cowper seems to have taken little pleasure in conversing with Mr. Newton's immediate successor in the curacy of Olney; it was therefore no loss to him when Mr. Scott was removed to the chaplaincy of the Lock Hospital, which in those days was a post of honor for preachers of his description. The curate who succeeded him is only mentioned as having let part of the vicarage to Lady Hesketh on her first visit to these parts. Moses Browne was then, at eightyfour, so confident in the unimpaired vigor of his hale old age, that he promised himself, as has before been said, a lease of ten years longer; before two had elapsed, his lifetenure was at an end, and the living was given to Mr. Bean, who, with more ability than Mr. Scott, and more discretion than Mr. Newton, was not inferior in piety to either. Cowper said of him, as soon as they had exchanged visits on his arrival, "He is a plain, sensible man, and pleases me much; a treasure for Olney, if Olney can understand his value." 32 Three months later he writes to Mr. Newton, "Small as the distance from Olney is, it has too often the effect of a separation between the Beans and us. is a man with whom, when I can converse at all, I can converse on terms perfectly agreeable to myself; who does not distress me with forms, nor yet disgust me by the neglect of them; whose manners are easy and natural, and his observations always sensible. I often, therefore, wish them nearer neighbors.'

But Cowper had now no lack of society, and he was

31 Feb. 12, 1788.

32 To Lady Hesketh, March 12, 1788.

fully employed. In the preceding October, Johnson, who had probably been advised that it was expedient so to do, called his attention once more to the business of translation ; a task to which he applied himself forthwith, and with such resolution, that he said to his young friend Mr. Rose,33 The necessity of applying myself with all diligence to a long work that has been but too long interrupted, will make my opportunities of writing rare in future. Ten months have passed since I discontinued my poetical efforts. I do not expect to find the same readiness as before, till exercise of the neglected faculty, such as it is, shall have restored it to me." Hill and Lady Hesketh were both apprehensive that he might resume his work too soon, and pursue it too closely. To the former he said in reply,34 "I thank you for the solicitude that you express on the subject of my present studies. The work is undoubtedly long and laborious, but it has an end; and proceeding leisurely, with a due attention to the use of air and exercise, it is possible that I may live to finish it. Assure yourself of one thing, that though to a by-stander it may seem an occupation surpassing the powers of a constitution never very athletic, and at present not a little the worse for wear, I can invent for myself no employment that does not exhaust my spirits more. I will not pretend to account for this; I will only say that it is not the language of predilection for a favorite amusement, but that the fact is really so. I have even found that those plaything-avocations, which one may execute almost without any attention, fatigue me, and wear away, while such as engage me much, and attach me closely, are rather serviceable to me than otherwise."

To Lady Hesketh he says,35 You need not, my dear, be under any apprehensions lest I should too soon engage in the translation of Homer. My health and strength of spirits for this service are, I believe, exactly in statu quo prius. But Mrs. Unwin having enlarged upon this head,

will therefore say the less. Whether I shall live to finish it, or whether, if I should, I shall live to enjoy any fruit of my labors, are articles in my account of such extreme un

33 Oct. 19, 1787.

34 Nov. 16.

35 Oct. 27.

certainty, that I feel them often operate as no small discouragement. But uncertain as these things are, I yet consider the employment as essential to my present well-being, and pursue it accordingly. But had Pope been subject to the same alarming speculations, had he, waking and sleeping, dreamt as I do, I am inclined to think he would not have been my predecessor in these labors. For I compliment myself with a persuasion, that I have more heroic valor, of the passive kind, at least, than he had; perhaps than any man: it would be strange had I not, after so much exercise."

Cowper did not know that Pope also was troubled with dreams while employed upon these labors; that the translation, which in his own case was the anodyne remedy, was in his predecessor's the cause of them; and that Homer, as if in vengeance for being so metamorphosed in his version, visited him like a nightmare. Pope's own account of these visitations had not then been published. "What terrible moments," said he, "does one feel after one has engaged for a large work! In the beginning of my translating the Iliad, I wished any body would hang me a hundred times. The Iliad took me up six years, and dur ing that time, and particularly the first part of it, I was often under great pain and apprehension. Though I conquered the thoughts of it in the day, they would frighten me in the night. I dreamed often of being engaged on a long journey, and that I should never get to the end of it. This made so strong an impression upon me, that I sometimes dream of it still;—of being engaged in the translation, of having got above half way through it, and being embarrassed, and under dread of never completing it." 36

Pope acquired his love of Homer, in early boyhood, from Ogilby's translation; 37 in gratitude for which he ought not to have spoken contemptuously of him in the Dunciad, 36 Spence's Anecdotes, pp. 23, 53.

37 Sir William Forbes notices the remarkable fact, that Ogilby's Homer should have been "the first book by which Pope was initiated in poetry, and Ogilby's Virgil, the first book in English verse that Beattie met with. Beattie was made very happy, when, in the latter part of his life, a friend who knew this, presented him with a copy of the book."-Life of Beattie, vol. i. p. 4.

even if Ogilby had not deserved rather to be held up as an example of laudable perseverance and moral worth. It was the story which charmed him in this version; of the character of the original he could have perceived as little

38

as is to be perceived in his own. But Cowper, when he learned the tale of Troy divine," and followed Ulysses in his wanderings, was at the same time familiarized with the spirit of the Homeric poems; and in his deep perception of their character and beauty, his undertaking originated. Pope has said that his impelling motive to a work not much suited to his inclination, "was purely the want of money at a time when he had none, not even to buy books." This was said in conversation; and there is nothing derogatory in the plain truth thus bluntly told. His object was to render himself independent by employing his great talents in the way which was likely to procure for him the largest reward. With Cowper it was a labor of love. "This notable job," said he, "is the delight of my heart, and how sorry shall I be when it is ended! " 39 The hope of profit was an after-thought with him.

40 ܕ

Pope's usual method was to take advantage of the first heat, and then to correct each book first by the original, next by other translations, and lastly to give it a reading for the versification only.' Cowper appears never to have seen any preceding version, except Pope's, to which he never looked for assistance of any kind. Both proceeded at nearly the same rate, and corrected with equal diligence. But Cowper never lost sight of the original in his corrections, and Pope utterly disregarded it; the one endeavored to represent it as faithfully as he could, the other ambitiously labored to embellish and improve it.

It is remarkable that Cowper, who took as much pleasure in correcting his verses as in composing them, (when

38 Spence's Anecdotes, p. 64.

39 To Lady Hesketh, Dec. 10, 1787.

40 Spence's Anecdotes, p. 41.

41 Pope says, "When I fell into the method of translating thirty or forty verses before I got up, and piddled with it the rest of the morn ing, it went on easily enough; and when I was thoroughly got into the way of it, I did the rest with pleasure."-Spence, p. 29.