His voice conspired with his features to announce to all who saw and heard him the extreme sensibility of his heart; and in reading aloud he furnished the chief delight of those social, enchanting winter evenings, which he has described so happily in the fourth book of "The Task." Secluded from the world, as he had long been, he yet retained in advanced life singular talents for conversation; and his remarks were uniformly distinguished by mild and benevolent pleasantry, by a strain of delicate humour, varied by solid and serious good-sense, and those united charms of a cultivated mind, which he has himself very happily described in drawing the character of a venerable friend. Grave without dulness, learned without pride; Had wit, as bright as ready, to produce; But to treat justly what he lov'd so well. But the traits of his character are nowhere developed with happier effect than in his own writings, and especially in his poems. From these we shall make a few extracts, and suffer him to draw the portrait for himself. His admiration of the works of Nature: I never fram'd a wish, or form'd a plan, My fancy, ere yet liberty of choice Had found me, or the hope of being free. My very dreams were rural; rural too Ere yet her ear was mistress of their pow'rs. No bard could please me but whose lyre was tun'd Task, book iv. The love of Nature's works Is an ingredient in the compound man, Infus'd at the creation of the kind. This obtains in all, That all discern a beauty in his works, And all can taste them. Minds, that have been form'd And tutor'd with a relish more exact, But none without some relish, none unmov'd. It is a flame that dies not even there Where nothing feeds it: neither business, crowds, Whatever else they smother of true worth The villas, with which London stands begirt, Prove it. A breath of unadult'rate air, The glimpse of a green pasture, how they cheer Book iv. God seen, and adored, in the works of Nature: Not a flow'r But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain, Of his unrivall'd pencil. He inspires Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues, His fondness for retirement: Since then, with few associates, in remote Book vi. And still they dream that they shall still succeed, And add two-thirds of the remaining half, And find the total of their hopes and fears His love for his country: Book iii. England, with all thy faults, I love thee still- VOL. V. Book ii. BB His humane and generous feelings: I was born of woman, and drew milk His love of liberty: Book iii. Oh Liberty! the prisoner's pleasing dream, And I will sing at liberty's dear feet, In Afric's torrid clime, or India's fiercest heat. 'Tis liberty alone, that gives the flow'r Table Talk. Task, book v. His depressive malady and the source of its cure : I was a stricken deer, that left the herd There was I found by one, who had himself He drew them forth, and heal'd, and bade me live. Book iii. The employment of his time, and design of his life and writings: Me therefore studious of laborious ease, When He shall call his debtors to account, Book iii. But all is in his hand, whose praise I seek. Book vi. The office of doing justice to the poetical genius of Cowper has been assigned to an individual so well qualified to execute it with taste and ability, that the Editor begs thus publicly to record his * The Saviour. |