Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/311

 of God that he should, after the example of Abraham, perform an expensive act of obedience, and offer not a son, but himself. Mrs. Un win and Newton did all that affection could do, but it was by very slow degrees that he recovered from his deep dejection. Newton's influence would, undoubtedly, be for the best ; but Cowper was not one to be easily led, and his correspondence with his friend shows that he would take his own course, and abide by his own views. In a letter to John Newton, dated August 21, 1781, he writes :

"Here lies the difference between you and me. My thoughts are clad in a sober livery, for the most part as grave as that of a bishop's servants. They turn, too, upon spiritual subjects, but the tallest fellow and the loudest amongst them all is he who is continually crying with a loud voice, ' Actum est de te, periisti.' "

The fact is that Newton's thoughts were not "clad in a sober livery." There was nothing about him dull, or gloomy, or puri- tanical according to the common meaning of the term ; he was full of goodnature, much pleasantry, and humour ; his Calvinism was moderate, he would say that he "used it in his writings," but in his preaching he " would mix and dilute it." The Rev. William Jay, of Bath, who had a great affection for him, remarked in reference to his intimate con- nexion with Cowper :

" Some have thought the divine was hurtful to the poet. How mistaken were they ! He was the very man, of all others, I should have chosen for him. He was not rigid in his creed. His views of the Gospel were most free and encouraging. He had the tenderest disposition ; and always regarded his friend's depression and despondency as a physical effect, for the removal of which he prayed, but never reasoned or argued with him concerning it."*

Cowper was, no doubt, a Calvinist long before he became acquainted with Newton; it is highly probable that the first seeds of his depressing belief were sown by his cousin, Martin Madan, whose Calvinism was very strict and altogether of a different type from that of Newton.

Cowper's return to health was but slow, and it was only by degrees that he recovered from his deep dejection ; his three tame hares, Mrs. Unwin, and Newton were for long his sole companions. When Newton left Olney in 1780 he induced Cowper to see a stranger, and introduced the Rev. W. Bull to him, who became a useful friend, walking over once a fortnight from Newport Pagnell in order to

edited by George Redford, D.D., LL.D., and John
 * ' The Autobiography of the Rev. William Jay,'

Angell James, p. 278.

cheer the invalid ; but on the 12th of July, 1780, Cowper writes to Newton :

"Such nights as I frequently spend are but a miserable prelude to the succeeding day, and indis- pose me above all things to the business of writing, yet with a pen in my hand, if I am able to write at

all, I find myself gradually relieved Things seem

to be as they were, and 1 almost forget that they never can be so again."

At the close of the year, however, he wrote ' The Progress of Error,' ' Truth,' ' Table-Talk,' and 'Expostulation.' On the 21st of Novem- ber, 1784, he commenced the translation of Homer, and completed it on the 25th of August, 1790. ' The Task ' was published in the meanwhile (1785). He writes to Newton on the 5th of August, 1786 :

" The dealings of God with me are to myself utterly unintelligible. I have never met either in books or in conversation with an experience at all similar to my own."

Then he refers with the warmest gratitude to Mrs. Unwin and Lady Hesketh, and their kindness to him in his distress. In 1787 he had an attack of insanity, lasting six months, and for some time previously there had been great depression.

In 1794 he had a bad relapse, refusing all food. Hayley visited him, but he showed no satisfaction at his presence. Lord Thurlovv, who had neglected nis old schoolfellow until now, requested Dr, Willis to go to Weston to see him, and a few days afterwards a letter from Lord Spencer announced a pension of 300. per annum ; but it came too late to cheer the poet, and it had to be made payable to Mr. Rose as trustee. On the 17th of December, 1796, Mrs. Unwin died, and in the dusk of the evening he, attended by Dr. Johnson, took his farewell look at the face so dear to him. " After looking at it a few moments, he started suddenly away, with a vehement but unfinished sentence of pas- sionate sorrow. He spoke of her no more." In order that Cowper should be kept in ignorance as to the funeral, it took place by torchlight. She was buried in the north aisle of Dereham Church on the 23rd of December.

During this time Lady Hesketh, Cowper's "dearest coz," and the elder sister of his be- loved Theodora, was his faithful counsellor ; her influence on Cowper had always been for good, and her bright, genial disposition had a most beneficial effect ; his numerous letters to her are full of affection. On the 9th of August, 1763, he writes, "So much as I love you, I wonder how it happened that I was never in love with you"; and on the 22nd of August, 1792, "Though nature designed you only for my cousin, you have had a sister's place for