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    ttottf thatwere previously uqpublish-^ some readers will regard , tl * e editor as sufficiently bountiful * But we feet so greatly indebted to him for his fketch of bis kinsman ' s life , which we shall soon notice , that we are not disposed to , make any complaints or

    pass any censures . Cciwper ' s admirable good sense qualified him for placing in a clear and striking light every subject in which the manners of men are concerned : nor would it be easy to mention any poem , -of its class * at once so

    instructive and- interesting ' as the verses on Frieitdshipf preserved , though not for the first time printed , in the present volume . The following stanzas * in particular , are deserving of being impressed on the memory , and will indeed -be very easily retained : a As similarity of mind , Or something not to be defin'd , First rivets our -attention j So , manners decent and polite , The same we practis ed at first sight , Must save it from declension . The man who hails you Tom—or Jack , And proves , by thumping on your back , His sense of your great merit , Is such a friend , that one had need Be very much his friend indeed . To pardon , or to bear It . "

    In these lines there are singular justness of thought , fidelity of description , poignancy of satire and spright-Uness and terseness of expression . Theopkrastiis himself was never more successful .

    The Montis * Glaciates , a truly classical poem , ; was written by- Cowper m 1799 , at a time when his health , both of body and mind , was consider abl y i mpai red . But he appears to

    foive been fond of composing Latin Wjses * which he framed with a readmesis and felicity demonstrative of his having left Westminster , school with ^ scholastic attainments of the first © wW f ,

    • Hk » lines on the loss of - th&Rv&al George (/ Aug . 20 * 178 S (]* i he translated itito tih& t language > q £ ancient , JloukQ : and » he * has * well pi « aeryed tljq a impjicity , pathos , tuidi « upce \ of the original ; arn elegiao ^ baUaA ^ u » ot > ininoj ^ merit . Let the rendering of the following stanzas be a specimen :

    * fc * l # ea ofUth&fippotkiv not hwiag been tefor& pi&l ! &hl& . . 0 * v * - v x- t ; -wh ^

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    " Toll for the brave ! BfraVe Kempenfelt ig g-oae ; His last sea-fi ^ ht is fo n ^ it - His Work of jaftoiy dotte . It was not in the battle ; No tempest g ^ a ve the shock * She sprang no fatal leak ; She ran upon no rock .

    His sword was in its sheath $ Hife fingers held the pen , When K em pen felt went down , With twice four hundred men . Magne , qui nomen , licet incanoruro , Traditum ex multis atavts tulisti ^ At tuos olim memorabit aevum Omne triiimphos .

    Non hyems illos furibunda mersit , Non mari in clauso scopuli latentes Fissa non rim is abies nee atrox Abstulit ensis . Navitae sed turn minium jocosi Voce fallebant hilari laborem , Et quiescebat , calamoque dextram . im pleFeratheros . *^ ( 96 . )

    . Some of our-readers will here Gall to mind the frequent recurrence , of the compellation Magne in the Pharsalia of L , uean and the dignified aQli plaintive manner in which that poet applies it . With the life of G wper the public had already been made acquainted

    by Mr . Hay ley . There was ; ntill wanting , however , the sketch of , ; it which Dr . Johnson has exhibited in the present volume . He speaks of this composition with the greatest modesty . Yet , in truth , it possesses

    distinguished excellence as a biographical narrative ^ and is characterized not only by faithfulness of delineation * but also by that simple and artless that lively and' decorously' mtftpte relation of circumstances which r ^ eo

    ders us , for the time , the conxpa « iona ofCo \ vperand his kinsman , la illustration of this remark w ^ e transcribe a passage descriptive of some / iqcidents on the journey of the poet , and of Mrs . Unwin from Weston into Norfolk ; whither they were attended by the editor t Hi .

    c < As it was highly important to guard against the effect of noise and tutnult on the shattei ed nerves pf the desponding traveller ^ care wap taken ^ bat a re l ay of horses shoujd h $ ready on the skirts of tfae town ** of Bedford ' and Cana ) bridge j by Vfhi ^ i ^ eang h ^ ., passed t ^ rauffb those places without stopping . Oujfb ^ e ^ « eja ^ jj af the firM day , the quiet vilU ^ f St ,

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    Rtvitw—^ Cowper * * Poems . 163

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1816, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2450/page/35/