insight. In his own time he was more celebrated as the author of the "Essay on Truth" (a reply to the philosophical speculations of Humne regarding miracles) than as the writer of the "Minstrel "-a curious instance of how incorrect contemporary judgments may be. The "Essay on Truth," though extravagantly praised by Dr. Johnson and many other celebrated men of the time, and read with great admiration by that worthy monarch, George III., who bestowed a pension on its orthodox author, has long since taken its due place as a weak and insufficient handling of an important and difficult theme; while the "Minstrel" still retains its far from unimportant place in the history of English poetry.

Another poet, of a much more unique genius than Beattie, was William Blake (1757-1828), who occupies a place by himself among the forerunners of the new era. Charles Lamb rightly regarded him as "one of the most extraordinary personages of the age," for both as poet and painter his work was altogether original. His "Poetical Sketches," published in 1777, bear trace of the reviving influence of the Elizabethan poets; and the union of simplicity of language with truly poetical thoughts upon ordinary subjects in them and in his "Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul," anticipate Wordsworth. Blake's reputation stands much higher now than it did during his life, or for some time after his death. Of late years, the enthusiasm of many writers of high culture, who have found in him a vein of power marking him off from his contemporaries, have done much to bring into vogue the drawings and the poetry of this strange child of genius.1

The "Poetical Sketches" are all the more remarkable when we re member that they were written between the twelfth and the twentieth year of his age. "Blake, in truth, when in his teens," says Mr. W. M. Rossetti (Prefatory Memoir to the Aldine Edition of Blake, p. cxv.), was a wholly unique poet; far ahead of his contemporaries, and of his predeces. sors of three or four generations, equally in what he himself could do, and in his sympathy for oiden sources of inspiration. In his fragmentary drama of Edward the Third' we recognise one who has loved and studied Shakespeare to good purpose; and several of the shorter lyrics in the

Such is a brief outline of the more prominent minor poets of the latter part of the eighteenth century. We now come to William Cowper, whose character, alike as a man and a poet, is a singularly interesting and attractive one. A man of genius, but not of very powerful or original genius; full of good taste, and grace, and tenderness, but almost altogether destitute of fire and passion; fond of the country and of country things, yet far from being imbued with Wordsworth's passionate love of Nature, he was not at all the sort of writer whom we should expect to be one of the leaders in a literary revolution. Yet this position Cowper unconsciously occupied, partly by natural genius, partly by the accidents of his career. The story of his life, darkened as it was by frequent thunderclouds of insanity, through which the blue sky of hope was unable to pierce, is a very touching one. Born in 1731, a descendant of an ancient family, which ranked not a few distinguished names among its members, the shrinking, sensitive boy had early experience of those hardships of life which he was so ill fitted to struggle against. At an elementary school to which he was sent, he was brutally tormented by one of the boys, whom he held in such dread that he did not dare to lift his eyes to his face, and knew him best by his shoe-buckle. Removed from this school, Cowper's spirits recovered their tone, and at the age of ten he was sent to Westminster, where he seems to have led a happy life enough, not studying very hard, but acquiring a competent knowledge of Greek and Latin, and distinguishing himself as a cricketer and football-player. After leaving Westminster, he was entered of the Inner Temple, and passed three very pleasant and very idle years as a law-clerk, making love to his cousin Theodora, and associating much with Edward Thurlow, 'Poetical Sketches' have the same sort of pungent perfume-undefinal le but not evanescent-that belongs to the choicest Elizabethan songs; the like play of emotion,-or play of colour, as it might be termed; the like ripeness and roundness, poetic, and intolerant of translation into prose. At the time when Blake wrote these songs, and for a long while before, no one was doing anything at all of the same kind. Not but that, even in Blake, lines and words occur here and there betraying the fadeur of the eighteenth century."

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who, though insubordinate and fond of amusement and dissipation, already gave signs of that strength of character and power of strenuous exertion which afterwards made him Lord Chancellor. When, in 1752, Cowper, his clerkship over, went into residence at the Temple, the seclusion of his abode so weighed on him as to bring on the first of those fits of deep melancholy which afterwards darkened into madness. A prolonged residence in the country cured him; and on his return to London in 1754, he was called to the Bar. But his illness put an end to his hopes of marrying Theodora Cowper. Her father refused to sanction the engagement, and Theodora and Cowper never saw each other again. But in both of them the old love remained deeply rooted till the close of their lives: Theodora, who never married, fondly treasured up the letters and poems she had received from Cowper, and always took the warmest interest in his welfare.

During the years he spent in the character of a briefless barrister, Cowper made his first attempts at literature by contributing a few papers to the Connoisseur and the St. James's Chronicle, then under the management of certain of his friends. But his contributions put no money into his pocket, and as his father's death in 1756 had left him poor, he was obliged to look to the more influential members of his family for aid. In 1763 the offices of Clerk of the Journals, Reading Clerk, and Clerk of Committees of the House of Lords became vacant; and Major Cowper, in whose disposal they were, offered the two latter to his cousin. The offer was accepted-unfortunately, as it proved. Their duties required that Cowper should frequently appear before the House of Lords, and the thought. of doing so was so abhorrent to his retiring, nervous nature, that he almost immediately resigned them, accepting instead the office of Clerk of Journals. But in this case the Major's right to nominate was questioned, and Cowper was called upon to submit to the ordeal of an examination at the bar of the House before being allowed to take office. "To require from me," he says in his Autobiography, "my attendance at the bar of the House, that I might there publicly entitle myself

to the office, was in effect to exclude me from it. In the meantime, the interest of my friend, the honour of his choice, my own reputation and circumstances, all pressed me to undertake that which I saw was impracticable." A fearful mental struggle, during which he several times attempted suicide, ensued, and ended in his becoming quite insane. He was placed in an asylum, where, under kindly and judicious treatment, he gradually recovered, after a residence of about a year and a half.

It was now, of course, painfully obvious to all Cowper's friends that he was totally unfit for an active life. They accordingly subscribed together to make him an annual allowance, and a quiet lodging was procured for him in the town of Huntingdon, where he went to reside in 1765. After a few months' experience of housekeeping, he found that he would live much more economically and comfortably if he became a boarder in some suitable family; and towards the end of the year became a lodger in the family of the Rev. John Unwin, the clergyman of the place. He soon became very much attached to the Unwins, who were excellent and cultivated people, and his attachment was reciprocated. In 1767 Mr. Unwin was killed by a fall from his horse, and the household was broken up. Mrs. Unwin had to remove, and Cowper, to whom her behaviour had "always been that of a mother to a son," determined to accompany her. Shortly after Unwin's death, the Rev. John Newton, Rector of Olney, in Buckinghamshire, had called on Mrs. Unwin, and promised to look out a house for her at Olney. To Olney, accordingly, in September 1767, she and Cowper removed.

Now began Cowper's connection with Newton, which exercised a powerful, and, upon the whole, an unfortunate influence on his life. No two men could well be imagined more different than the shrinking, nervous, desponding poet, and the strong-minded, strong-willed, energetic Rector of Olney. Newton had in his youth been a sailor, of wild and dissipated habits, but a narrow escape from death changed his character, and he became a highly religious man, of strong Calvinistic opinions. For some time he was master of a

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vessel engaged in the slave-trade, but ill-health brought his life as a sailor to an end; and, after many difficulties, he was in 1764 ordained to the curacy of Olney. Cowper and he soon became fast friends, and in 1771 Newton proposed that they should write together a volume of hymns. But ere it was completed, Cowper, harassed by religious doubts and difficulties, again became insane. For four years his mental derangement continued, but at length, largely owing to the assiduous attention of Mrs Unwin, light dawned upon his troubled faculties. The "Olney Hymns" were published in 1779, Cowper's poems being distinguished by the letter C. Many of them are beautiful, and have passed into universal use, but the despairing tone of some shows the mental anguish which Cowper went through at the time of their composition. In 1779, also, Newton left Olney, an event which probably may be regarded as conducive to Cowper's happiness; as Newton's austere Calvinism was ill adapted to deal with the terrible religious doubts which often beset the clouded mind. of the poet.

In 1780 Mrs. Unwin suggested to Cowper that he should. employ his mind by engaging in the composition of some work of greater importance than he had yet attempted. He consented, and in a few months the "Progress of Error," "Truth," "Table-Talk," and "Expostulation," were completed. These, together with some shorter poems, of which " "Hope" and "Charity" are the most important, were published in 1782. They attracted little attention among readers in general, but had the good fortune to win the favourable opinion of Benjamin Franklin, one of the most sagacious men of his time. Soon after, at the suggestion of Lady Austen, a widow, who had come to reside near Olney, and who soon became a great friend of the poet, Cowper began his greatest work, "The Task." It was published in 1785, along with some other poems, including the famous "John Gilpin," which also owed its origin to a suggestion of Lady Austen. It met with a most enthusiastic reception, putting Cowper at once at the head of the poets of the age.