marriage with indifference. I wish you and your | led to his removal to St. Alban's, his brother had bride all the happiness that belongs to the state; and the still greater felicity of that state which marriage is only a type of. All those connections shall be dissolved; but there is an indissoluble bond between Christ and his church, the subject of derision to an unthinking world, but the glory and happiness of all his people."

watched over him with the tenderest solicitude; and it was doubtless owing, in a great degree, to this tenderness, that Cowper was placed under the care of Dr. Cotton. While he remained at St. Alban's, his brother visited him, and, as has been related above, became the means of contributing materially to his recovery. On Cowper's removal to Huntingdon, these affectionate brothers adopted a plan for a frequent and regular interchange of visits, so that they were seldom many days without seeing each other, though the distance between their places of abode was fifteen miles; and, even after Cowper's removal to Olney, his brother, during the first two years, paid him several visits; they seemed, indeed, mutually delighted with an opportunity of being in each other's company.

No one knew better how to administer consolation to those who were in distress, and certainly no one ever took a greater delight in doing it than Cowper. To his amiable cousin, Mrs. Cowper, who had been called to sustain a severe domestic affliction, he writes as follows:-"A letter from your brother, brought me yesterday the most afflicting intelligence that has reached me these many years; I pray God to comfort you, and to enable you to sustain this heavy stroke with that resignation to his will, which Cowper, on hearing of his brother's illness, imnone but himself can give, and which he gives to mediately repaired to Cambridge. To his inexpres none but his own children. How blessed and happy sible grief he found him in a condition that left little is your lot, my dear friend, beyond the lot of the or no hopes of his recovery. In a letter to Mrs. greater part of mankind: that you know what it is Cowper, he thus describes his case:-"My brother to draw near to God in prayer, and are acquainted continues much as he was. His case is a very with a throne of grace! You have resources in the dangerous one-an imposthume of the liver, attendinfinite love of a dear Redeemer, which are with-ed by an asthma and dropsy. The physician has held from millions: and the promises of God, which little hopes of his recovery; indeed I might say are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, are sufficient to none at all, only, being a friend, he does not formanswer all your necessities, and to sweeten the bit- ally give him over by ceasing to visit him, lest it terest cup which our Heavenly Father will ever put should sink his spirits. For my own part, I have no into your hand. May he now give you liberty to expectation of it, except by a signal interposition of drink at these wells of salvation till you are filled Providence in answer to prayer. His case is clearly, with consolation and peace, in the midst of trouble. out of the reach of medicine, but I have seen many He has said, When thou passeth through the fire, I a sickness healed, where the danger has been equally will be with thee, and when through the floods, they threatening, by the only Physician of value. I shall not overflow thee. You have need of such a doubt not he will have an interest in your prayers, word as this, and he knows your need of it; and as he has in the prayers of many. May the Lord the time of necessity is the time when he will be incline his ear, and give an answer of peace. I sure to appear in behalf of those who trust in him. know it is good to be afflicted; I trust you have I bear you and yours upon my heart before him, found it so, and that under the teaching of the night and day. For I never expect to hear of dis- Spirit of God, we shall both be purified. It is the tress, which shall call upon me with a louder voice desire of my soul to seek a better country, where to pray for the sufferer. I know the Lord hears me God shall wipe away all tears from the eyes of his for myself, vile and sinful as I am, and believe, and people, and where, looking back upon the ways by am sure, that he will hear me for you also. He is which he has led us, we shall be filled with everthe friend of the widow, and the father of the fa- lasting wonder, love, and praise." therless, even God in his holy habitation; in all our afflictions, he is afflicted; and when he chastens us, it is in mercy. Surely he will sanctify this dispensation to you, do you great and everlasting good by it, make the world appear like dust and vanity in your sight, as it truly is, and open to your view the glories of a better country, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor pain, but God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes for ever. O that comfortable word! 'I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction;' so that our very sorrows are evidences of our calling, and he chastens us because we are his children. My dear cousin, I commit you to the word of his grace, and to the comforts of his Holy Spirit. Your life is needful for your family; may God, in mercy to them, prolong it, and may he preserve you from the dangerous effects which a stroke like this might have upon a frame so tender as yours. I grieve for you, I pray for you; could I do more I would, but God must comfort you."

Cowper had scarcely forwarded this consolatory and truly Christian letter, when he was himself visited with a trial so severe as to call into exercise all that confidence in the Almighty which he had endeavored to excite in the mind of his amiable relative. He received a letter from his brother, then residing as a Fellow in Bene't. College, Cambridge, between whom and himself there had always existed an affection truly fraternal, stating that he was seriously indisposed. No brothers were ever more warmly interested in each other's welfare. At the commencement of Cowper's affliction, which

Finding his brother on the verge of the grave, Cowper discovered the greatest anxiety respecting his everlasting welfare. He knew that his sentiments on some of the most important truths of religion had been long unsettled; and fully aware that while such was the case, he could experience no solid enjoyment in the present life, whatever might be his condition in future, he labored diligently to give him those views of the gospel which he had himself found so singularly beneficial; nor did he labor in vain. He had the unspeakable gratification to witness the complete triumph of the truth, and its consolatory influence upon the mind of his beloved brother, in his dying moments. Writing to Mr. Hill, he says:-"It pleased God to cut short my brother's connections and expectations here, yet, not without giving him lively and glorious views of a better happiness, than any he could propose to himself in such a world as this. Notwithstanding his great learning, (for he was one of the chief men in the University in that respect,) he was candid and sincere in his inquiries after truth. Though he could not agree to my sentiments when I first acquainted him with them, nor in many conversations which I afterwards had with him upon the subject, could he be brought to acquiesce in them as scriptu ral and true, yet I had no sooner left St. Alban's, than he began to study with the deepest attention those points on which we differed, and to furnish himself with the best writers upon them. His mind was kept open to conviction for five years, during all which time he labored in this pursuit with un

wearied diligence, whilst leisure and opportunity were afforded. Amongst his dying words were these-Brother, I thought you wrong, yet wanted to believe as you did. I found myself not able to believe, yet always thought I should be one day brought to do so.' From the study of books, he was brought, upon his death-bed, to the study of himself, and there learnt to renounce his righteousness, and his own most amiable character, and to submit himself to the righteousness which is of God by faith. With these views, he was desirous of death: satisfied of his interest in the blessing purchased by the blood of Christ, he prayed for death with earnestness, felt the approaches of it with joy, and died in peace."

and will be so; I know it will; I have felt that which I never. felt before; and am sure that God has visited me with this sickness, to teach me what I was too proud to learn in health. I never had satisfaction till now, having no ground to rest my hopes upon; but now I have a foundation which nothing can shake. I have peace in myself; and if I live, I hope it will be that I might be a messenger of peace to others. I have learned that in a moment, which I could not have learned by reading many books for many years. The light I have received comes late, but not too late, and it is a comfort to me that I never made the gospel truths a subject of ridicule. This bed would be to me a bed of misery, and it is so; but it is likewise a bed of joy, and a bed of discipline. Was I to die this night, I know I should be happy. This assurance, I hope, is quite consistent with the word of God. It is built upon a sense of my own utter insufficiency, and all-sufficiency of Christ. There is but one key to the New-Testament; there is but one interpreter. I cannot describe to you, nor shall I ever be able to describe to you, what I felt when this was given to me. May I make good use of it! How I shudder when I think of the danger I have just escaped! How wonderful is it that God should look upon me! Yet he sees me, and takes notice of all that I suffer. I see him too, and can hear him say, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you peace." He survived this change only a few days, and died happily, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.

It afforded Cowper inexpressible delight to witness, in his brother's case, the consoling and animating power of those principles, which he had himself found to be so highly beneficial. This had been the object of his most anxious solicitude, from the period that God was pleased to visit him with the consolations of his grace. From that time he took occasion to declare to his brother what God had done for his soul; and neglected no opportunity of attempting to engage him in conversation of a spiritual kind. On his first visit to him at Cambridge, after he left St. Alban's, his heart being then full of the subject, he poured it out to his brother without reserve, taking care to show him, that what he had received was not merely a new set of notions, but a real impression of the truths of the gospel. His brother listened to his statements at first with some attention, and often labored to convince him, An event like this could not fail to make a deep that the difference in their sentiments was much less impression upon the tender spirit of Cowper, and real than verbal. Subsequently, however, he be- his feelings on the occasion were such as are not came more reserved; and though he heard patient- experienced by ordinary minds. The following letly, he never replied, nor ever discovered a desire to ter to his amiable cousin shows clearly the state of converse on the subject. At the commencement of his mind:-"You judge rightly of the manner in his affliction, little as was the concern he then felt which I have been affected by the Lord's late disfor his spiritual interests, the thoughts of God, and pensation towards my brother. I found it a cause of eternity, would sometimes force themselves upon of sorrow that I lost so near a relation, and one so his mind; at every little prospect of recovery, how-deservedly dear to me, and that he left me just when ever, he found it no difficult matter to thrust them out again. It was evident that his mind was very far from being set on things spiritual and heavenly, as on almost every subject but that of religion, he could converse fluently. At every suitable opportunity, Cowper endeavored to give a serious turn to the discourse, but without any apparent success. Having obtained his permission, he prayed with him frequently; still, however, he seemed as careless and unconcerned as ever.

our sentiments upon the most interesting subject became the same. But it was also a cause of joy, that it pleased God to give me a clear and evident proof that he had changed his heart, and adopted him into the number of his children. For this I hold myself peculiarly bound to thank him, because he might have done all that he was pleased to do for him, and yet have afforded him neither strength nor opportunity to declare it. He told me, that from the time he was first ordained, he began to be dissatisfied On one occasion, after his brother had, with much with his religious opinions, and to suspect that there difficulty, survived a severe paroxysm of his disor- were greater things revealed in the Bible, than were der, he observed to him as he sat by his bed-side, generally believed or allowed to be there. From the "that, though it had pleased God to visit him with time when I first visited him, after my release from great afflictions, yet mercy was mingled with the St. Alban's, he began to read upon the subject. It dispensation. You have many friends that love you, was at that time I informed him of the views of diand are willing to do all they can to serve you, and vine truth, which I had received in that school of so, perhaps have many others in the like circum- affliction. He laid what I said to heart, and began stances; but it is not the lot of every sick man, how to furnish himself with the best writers on the conmuch soever he may be beloved, to have a friend troverted points, whose works he read with great that can pray for him." He replied, "That is true; diligence and attention, carefully comparing them and I hope God will have mercy upon me." His with the Scriptures. None ever truly and ingenulove to Cowper, from that time, became very re-ously sought the truth, but they found it. A spirit markable; there was a tenderness in it more than of earnest inquiry is the gift of God, who never was merely natural; and he generally expressed it says to any, Seek ye my face in vain. Accordby calling for blessings upon him in the most affec-ingly, about ten days before his death, it pleased tionate terms, and with a look and manner not to be described. One afternoon, a few days before he died, he suddenly burst into tears, and said, with a loud cry, "O forsake me not!" Cowper went to the bed-side, grasped his hand, and tenderly inquired why he wished him to remain. "O brother," said he, "I am full of what I could say to you; if I live, Of the character of his much beloved brother, you and I shall be more like one another than we whose death filled him with mingled emotions of have been; but whether I live or not, all is well, | joy and grief, Cowper has given the following inte

the Lord to dispel all his doubts, to reveal in his heart the knowledge of the Saviour, and to give him that firm and unshaken confidence in the ability and willingness of Christ to save sinners, which is invariably followed by a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory."

resting description:-" He was a man of a most | As such they are frequently applicable to every be candid and ingenuous spirit; his temper remarka- liever's feelings, and touch, unexpectedly, the most bly sweet, and in his behavior to me he had always secret springs of joy and sorrow, faith, fear, hope, manifested an uncommon affection. His outward love, trial, despondency and triumph. Some alconduct, so far as it fell under my notice, or I could lude to infirmities, the most difficult to be describlearn it by the report of others, was perfectly decent ed, but often the source of excruciating anguish and unblameable. There was nothing vicious in to the tender conscience. The 72d hymn, Book I. any part of his practice, but being of a studious, is written with the confidence of inspiration, and the thoughtful turn, he placed his chief delight in the authority of a prophet. The 96th hymn of the same acquisition of learning, and made such progress in book, is a perfect allegory in miniature, without a it, that he had but few rivals. He was critically failing point, or confusion of metaphor, from beskilled in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; ginning to end. Hymn 51, Book III. presents a was beginning to make himself master of the Syri- transformation, which, if found in Ovid, might have ac, and perfectly understood the French and Italian, been extolled as the happiest of his fictions. Hymn the latter of which he could speak fluently. Learn- 12, Book II. closes with one of the hardiest figures ed, however, as he was, he was easy and cheerful to be met with out of the Hebrew Scriptures. None in his conversation, and entirely free from the stiff but a poet of the highest order could have written it; ness which is generally contracted by men devoted verses cannot go beyond it, and painting cannot apto such pursuits." proach it. Hymn 38, Book II. is a strain of most noble simplicity, expressive of confidence the most remote from presumption, and such as a heart at peace with God alone could enjoy and utter. Who can read the 55th hymn, Book II. without feeling as if he could, at that moment, forsake all, take up his cross, and follow his Saviour? The 19th hymn, Book III. is a model of tender pleading, of believing, persevering prayer in trouble; and the following one is a brief parody of Bunyan's finest passage, and is admirable of its kind. The reader might almost imagine himself Christian on his pilgrimage, the triumph and the trance are brought so home to his bosom. Hymn 15, of the same book, is a lyric, of high tone and character, and rendered awfully interesting, by the circumstances under which it was written-in the twilight of departing reason."*

"I had a brother once; Peace to the memory of a man of worth! A man of letters and of manners too! Of manners, sweet, as virtue always wears, When gay good humor dresses her in smiles! He grac'd a college, in which order yet Was sacred, and was honor'd, lov'd, and wept By more than one, themselves conspicuous there." Notwithstanding the cheerfulness with which Cowper bore up under this painful bereavement, when it first occurred, owing to the happy circumstances related above, with which it was attended, yet there is reason to believe that it made an impression upon his peculiarly sensitive mind, more deep than visible; and it was not soon to be effaced. It unquestionably diminished his attachment to the world, and made him less unwilling to leave it. Writing to his friend, Mr. Hill, at this time, he says:-I have not done conversing with terrestrial objects, though I should be happy were I able to hold more continual converse with a friend above the skies. He has my heart, but he allows a corner of it for all who show me kindness, and therefore one for you. The storm of 1763, made a wreck of the friendships I had contracted in the course of many years, yours only excepted, which has survived the tempest."

The benevolent heart of Cowper was delighted in a high degree to co-operate with a man of Mr. Newton's talents and piety, in promoting the advancement of religion in his neighborhood. It is deeply to be regretted, that when he had only composed sixty-eight hymns, all of which were uncommonly excellent, and were afterwards published by Mr. Newton, in the Olney collection, he was laid aside from the interesting employment by serious indisposition. It pleased God, for reasons inscrutable to us, and which it would be impious to arraign, to visit the afflicted poet with a renewed attack of his former hypochondriacal complaint, more protracted, and not less violent, than the one he had before experienced. Just on the eve of the attack he com inenced the following sublime hymn:

"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

It appears not improbable that his friend, Mr. Newton, might have witnessed, in the morbid tendency of his mind to melancholy, of which he then discovered symptoms, some traces of the deep and extensive wound which his mind had received by this event, though his efforts to conceal it were incessant. Hence, he wisely engaged him in a literary undertaking, congenial to his taste, suited to his admirable talents, and, perhaps, more adapted to alleviate his distress than any other that could have been selected. Mr. Newton had felt the want of a volume of evangelical hymns, on experimental subjects, suited for public and private worship; he mentioned the subject to Cowper, and pressed him to undertake it, and the result was, a friendly compact to supply the volume between them, with an understanding that Cowper was to be the principal composer. He entered upon this work with great pleasure; and though he does not appear, previous to this, to have employed his poetical talents for a considerable time, yet the admirable hymns he composed, show with what ease he could write upon the doctrinal, experimental, or practical parts of Christianity. One of our best living poets, whose writings more frequently remind us of Cowper's than any we have ever read, in an essay on the poet's productions, remarks:-"Of these hymns, it must suffice to say, that, like all his best compositions, they are principally communings with his own heart, or avowals of personal Christian experience. gomery.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take'
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes all ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;

Essay on Cowper's Productions, by James Mont

The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain."

CHAPTER. VII.

Great severity of Cowper's mental depression. His presentiment of it. Its consequences. Remarks upon its probable cause. Absurdity of attributing it, in any degree, to religion. Mrs. Unwin's great attention to him. His aversion to the company of strangers. Symptoms of him. Mr. Newton's removal from Olney Introduction of Mr. Bull, to Cowper. His translation of Madame de la Guyon's poems, at Mr. Bull's request. Commences his original productions, at the suggestion of Mrs. Unwin. Renews his correspondence with Mr. and Mrs. New.

his recovery. Domesticates three leverets. Amusement they afford

ton. Describes the state of his mind.

mind, which covld formerly soar on the wings of faith and love, to the utmost limits of Christian knowledge and enjoyment, now sunk into the lowest depths of depression, and here seemed as if it would remain immovably fixed; rejecting, with deplorable firmness, every species of consolation that was attempted to be administered.

Various causes have been assigned, by different writers, for the melancholy aberration of mind of which Cowper was now, and at other seasons of his life, the subject; but none are so irreconcilable to every thing like just and legitimate reasoning, as the attempt to ascribe it to religion. That unjust views of the character of God, and of the nature of the gospel, may never have been the predisposing causes of great and severe mental dePression, we are not disposed to deny, though we think this a case of very rare occurrence, and one in which the subject of it must be in a state of great ignorance respecting the fundamental truths of relibe identified with religion, of which, at the best, it can only be regarded as a mere caricature? There bore the slightest resemblance to this. Making some was evidently, in the case of Cowper, nothing that allowances for expressions occasionally employed by him peculiar to the system which he had embraced, perhaps it will not be saying too much to affirm, that no individual ever entertained more scriptural views of the gospel dispensation in all its parts, and of the perfections and attributes of its great Author, than this excellent man. The letters he wrote to his correspondents, and the hymns he composed, that his views of religion were at the remotest disprior to this second attack, prove unquestionably tance from what can be termed visionary or enthu

WE are again arrived at another of those melan-gion. Ought this, however, when it does happen, to choly periods of Cowper's life, over which it must be alike the duty of the biographer, and the wish of the reader, to cast a veil. Mental aberration, whoever may be the subject of it, excites the tenderest commiseration of all; but if there be a time when it may be contemplated with emotions more truly distressing than another, it is when it attacks those who are endowed with talents the most brilliant, with dispositions the most amiable, and with piety the most ardent and unobtrusive. Such was eminently the case in the present instance. To see a mind like Cowper's enveloped in the thickest gloom of despondency, and for several years, in the prime of life, remaining in a state of complete inactivity and misery, must have been distressing in no ordinary de-siastic; on the contrary, they were perfectly scriptu

gree.

ral and evangelical, and were, consequently, infinitely more adapted to support than to depress his mind.

A short time previous to the afflictive visitation, Cowper appears to have received some presentiment of its approach, and during a solitary walk in the fields, as was hinted above, he composed that beautiful hymn in the Olney collection with which we closed our last chapter. On this occasion, acute as may have been his feelings, he must have experienced an unshaken confidence in God; for it is scarcely possible to read this admirable production, however dark and distressing the dispensations of Divine Providence towards us may be, without enjoying the same delightful emotions. About the same time, he composed the hymn entitled "Temptation," the following lines from which will show how pow-ciples of Christian obedience, he was so submissive erfully his mind was then exercised:

"The billows swell, the winds are high,
Clouds overcast my wintry sky;
Out of the depths to thee I call,
My fears are great, my strength is small.

O Lord, the pilot's part perform,
And guide and guard me through the storm;
Defend me from each threatening ill,
Control the waves, say 'Peace, be still.

Amidst the roaring of the sea,
My soul still hangs her hope on thee;
Thy constant love, thy faithful care,
Is all that saves me from despair."

He now relapsed into a state very much resembling that which had previously occasioned his removal to St. Alban's. This second attack occurred in 1773: he remained in the same painful and melancholy condition, without even a single alleviation of his sufferings, for the protracted period of five years; and it was five years more before he wholly recovered the use of his admirable powers. His

The living poet whom we have before quoted, remarks:-"With regard to Cowper's malady, there scarcely needs any other proof that it was not occasioned by his religion than this, that the error on which he stumbled was in direct contradiction to his creed. He believed that he had been predestinated to life, yet under his delusion imagined that God, who cannot lie, repent, or change, had, in his sole instance, and in one moment, reversed his own decree, which had been in force from all eternity. At the same time, by a perversion of the purest prin

to what he erroneously supposed was the will of God, that, to have saved himself from the very destruction which he dreaded, he would not avail himself of any of the means of grace, even presuming they might have been efficacious, because he believed they were forbidden to him. Yet, in spite of the selfevident impossibility of his faith affecting a sound mind with such a hallucination-though a mind previously diseased might as readily fall into that as the other; in spite of chronology, his first aberration having taken place before he had 'tasted the good word of God;' in spite of geography, that calamity having befallen him in London, where he had no acquaintance with persons holding the reprobated doctrines of election and sovereign grace; and in spite of fact, utterly undeniable, that the only effectual consolations which he experienced under his first or subsequent attacks of depression, arose from the truths of the gospel;-in spite of all these unanswerable confutations of the ignorant and malignant falsehood, the enemies of Christian truth persevere in repeating, 'that too much religion made poor Cowper mad.' If they be sincere, they are themselves under the strongest delusion; and t will be well if it prove not, on their part, a wilful one-it

will be well if they have not reached that last perversity of human reason, to believe a falsehood of their own invention. 22

The remarks of Mr. Hayley, in his admirable life of the poet, page 144, vol. 1, are, we think, liable | to some objection. He says "So fearfully and wonderfully are we made, that man in all conditions ought, perhaps, to pray that he never may be led to think of his Creator and of his Redeemer, either too little or too much, since human misery is often seen to arise equally, from an utter neglect of all spiritual concerns, and from a wild extravagance of devotion."

It is surely needless to observe, that the devotion of Cowper was as much unlike what could, with any After enduring an accumulation of anguish, aldegree of propriety, be termed wild or extravagant, most inconceivable, for the long space of five years, as can well be imagined. To what description of unalleviated by a single glimpse of comfort, the indevotion Mr. Hayley would apply these epithets we teresting sufferer began at length gradually to recocannot tell, but surely not to that which is scriptu- ver. He listened to the advice of Mrs. Unwin, and rally evangelical, which was eminently the charac-allowed her, occasionally at least, to divert his mind ter of Cowper's and which is of a nature so heaven- from those melancholy considerations by which he ly and spiritual, so perfectly adapted to the circum- had so long been burdened. It now occurred to Mrs. stances of mankind, and withal so soothing and con- Unwin that he might probably find it beneficial to be soling, that it can never be carried to excess. The employed in some amusing occupation. She sugmore powerfully its influence is felt upon the mind, gested this to some of her neighbors, who all deplorthe more extensive must be the enjoyment it pro-ed the poet's case, felt a lively interest in his welfare, duces, unless when it pleases God, as in the case of Cowper, to disorganize the mental powers, and thereby unfit it for the reception of that comfort which it would otherwise experience.

Cowper, throughout the whole of this severe attack, was inaccessible to all, except his friend Mr. Newton who, during the whole of its continuance, Of this gentleman, Cowper, in one of his letters, watched over him with the greatest tenderness, and I gives the following playful and amusing description i