Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/131

 NOTES BY THE WAY. 61

" 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 despond- ency 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 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 indispose 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 I 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 November, 1784, he commenced the translation of Homer, and completed it on the 25th of August, 1790. ' The Task ' was pub- lished 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 His gratitude Hesketh, and their kindness to him in his distress. In 1787 he to Mrs. Unwin had an attack of insanity, lasting six months, and for some time and ^^7 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 Thurlow, who had neglected his 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

Bedford, D.D., LL.D,, and John Angell James, p. 278,
 * ' The Autobiography of the Eev. William Jay,' edited by George

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