From a Portrait in Crayons Drawn from the Life by Romney in 1792 Engravd by WBlake 1802

THE

LIFE,

AND

POSTHUMOUS WRITINGS,

OF

WILLIAM COWPER, ESQR.

WITH AN

INTRODUCTORY LETTER,

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL COWPER,

BY WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQR.

"Obversatur oculis ille vir, quo neminen ætas nostra graviorem, sanctiorem, subtiliorem
denique tulit: quem ego quum ex admiratione diligere cœpissem, quod evenire contra solet,
"magis admiratus sum, postquam penitus inspexi. Inspexi enim penitus: nihil a me ille secretum,
non joculare, non serium, non triste, non lætum."

PLINII EPIST. Lib. 4. Ep. 17.

VOL. I.

SECOND EDITION.

Chichester:

PRINTED BY J. SEAGRAVE;

FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, LONDON,

VVW

LENOP

CONTENTS

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

The Life, Part the First The Family, Birth, and First Residence of CowperHis Eulogy on

the Tenderness of his Mother, pages 1, 2, 3- Her Portrait-Her Epitaph by her Niece,

4, 5-The Schools that Cowper attended His sufferings in Childhood, 7, 8, 9-Leaves

Westminster and is stationed in the house of an Attorney, 11-Verses on his early Afflictions,

12, 13-Settles in the Inner Temple - His Acquaintance with eminent Authors, 14-

His Epistle to Lloyd, 15-His Translations in Duncombe's Horace, 19- His own Account

of his early Life, 19-Stanzas on Reading Sir Charles Grandison, 20-Verses written at

Bath, 1748-His Nomination to the Office of Reading Clerk in the House of Lords, 24-

His extreme dread of appearing in Public, 25 His Health deranged - His Retirement to
the House of Dr. Cotton at St. Alban's, 26-His Recovery, 28-He settles at Huntingdon
to be near his Brother residing in Cambridge, 29-The Two Brothers employed on a Transla-
tion of Voltaire's Henriade, 29-The Origin of Cowper's Acquaintance with the Family of
Unwin, 30- He becomes a Part of that Family, 32-His early Friendship with Lord
Thurlow and Joseph Hill, Esqr. 33-Commencement of his Letters,

The origin of Cowper's Acquaintance with the Revd. Mr. Newton, 65-His Removal with Mrs.

Unwin on the Death of her Husband to Olney in Buckinghamshire-His Devotion and

Charity in his New Residence - Continuation of his Letters.

A Poem in Memory of John Thornton, Esqr. 68-Cowper's Beneficence to a Necessitous Child,

71-Composes a Series of Hymns-Continuation of his Letters.

.......... March 5, 1770 .... 19

Cowper is hurried to Cambridge by the dangerous Illness of his Brother, 76

To Mrs. Cowper.......

A brief Account of the Revd. John Cowper, who died March 20, 1770-and the Tribute paid to

The Collection of the Olney Hymns interrupted by the Illness of Cowper, page 86-His long

and severe depression His tame Hares one of his first amusements on his revival, 89, 90-

Continuation of his Letters.

To