The Works of William Cowper - William Cowper

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spreads at length before the soul, A beautiful and perfect whole, Which busy man's inventive brain Toils to anticipate in vain.

      Say, Anna, had you never known

       The beauties of a rose full blown,

       Could you, tho' luminous your eye,

       By looking on the bud descry,

       Or guess with a prophetic power,

       The future splendor of the flower

       Just so, th' Omnipotent, who turns

       The system of a world's concerns,

       From mere minutiæ can educe

       Events of most important use;

       And bid a dawning sky display

       The blaze of a meridian day

       The works of man tend, one and all,

       As needs they must, from great to small;

       And vanity absorbs at length

       The monuments of human strength.

       But who can tell how vast the plan

       Which this day's incident began?

       Too small perhaps the slight occasion

       For our dim-sighted observation;

       It pass'd unnotic'd, as the bird

       That cleaves the yielding air unheard,

       And yet may prove, when understood,

       An harbinger of endless good.

      Not that I deem or mean to call

       Friendship a blessing cheap or small;

       But merely to remark that ours,

       Like some of nature's sweetest flowers,

       Rose from a seed of tiny size,

       That seemed to promise no such prize:

       A transient visit intervening,

       And made almost without a meaning,

       (Hardly the effect of inclination,

       Much less of pleasing expectation!)

       Produced a friendship, then begun,

       That has cemented us in one;

       And plac'd it in our power to prove,

       By long fidelity and love,

       That Solomon has wisely spoken;

       "A three-fold cord is not soon broken."

      In this interesting poem the author seems prophetically to anticipate the literary efforts that were to spring, in process of time, from a friendship so unexpected and so pleasing.

      Genius of the most exquisite kind is sometimes, and perhaps generally, so modest and diffident as to require continual solicitation and encouragement from the voice of sympathy and friendship to lead it into permanent and successful exertion. Such was the genius of Cowper; and he therefore considered the cheerful and animating society of his new and accomplished friend as a blessing conferred on him by the signal favour of Providence.

      We shall find frequent allusions to this lady in the progress of the following correspondence.

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      Olney, July 7, 1781.

      My dear Friend—Mr. Old brought us the acceptable news of your safe arrival. My sensations at your departure were far from pleasant, and Mrs. Unwin suffered more upon the occasion than when you first took leave of Olney. When we shall meet again, and in what circumstances, or whether we shall meet or not, is an article to be found no where but in that volume of Providence which belongs to the current year, and will not be understood till it is accomplished. This I know, that your visit was most agreeable here. It was so even to me, who, though I live in the midst of many agreeables, am but little sensible of their charms. But, when you came, I determined, as much as possible, to be deaf to the suggestions of despair; that, if I could contribute but little to the pleasure of the opportunity, I might not dash it with unseasonable melancholy, and, like an instrument with a broken string, interrupt the harmony of the concert.

      Lady Austen, waving all forms, has paid us the first visit; and, not content with showing us that proof of her respect, made handsome apologies for her intrusion. We returned the visit yesterday. She is a lively, agreeable woman; has seen much of the world, and accounts it a great simpleton, as it is. She laughs and makes laugh, and keeps up a conversation without seeming to labour at it.

      I had rather submit to chastisement now than be obliged to undergo it hereafter. If Johnson, therefore, will mark with a marginal Q, those lines that he or his object to as not sufficiently finished, I will willingly retouch them, or give a reason for my refusal. I shall moreover think myself obliged by any hints of that sort, as I do already to somebody, who, by running here and there two or three paragraphs into one, has very much improved the arrangement of my matter. I am apt, I know, to fritter it into too many pieces, and, by doing so, to disturb that order to which all writings must owe their perspicuity, at least in a considerable measure. With all that carefulness of revisal I have exercised upon the sheets as they have been transmitted to me, I have been guilty of an oversight, and have suffered a great fault to escape me, which I shall be glad to correct, if not too late.

      In the "Progress of Error," a part of the Young Squire's apparatus, before he yet enters upon his travels, is said to be

      ——Memorandum-book to minute down

       The several posts, and where the chaise broke down.

      Here, the reviewers would say, is not only "down," but "down derry down" into the bargain, the word being made to rhyme to itself. This never occurred to me till last night, just as I was stepping into bed. I should be glad, however, to alter it thus—

      With memorandum-book for every town,

       And ev'ry inn, and where the chaise broke down.

      I have advanced so far in "Charity," that I have ventured to give Johnson notice of it, and his option whether he will print it now or hereafter. I rather wish he may choose the present time, because it will be a proper sequel to "Hope," and because I am willing to think it will embellish the collection.

      Whoever means to take my phiz will find himself sorely perplexed in seeking for a fit occasion. That I shall not give him one, is certain; and if he steals one, he must be as cunning and quicksighted a thief as Autolycus himself. His best course will be to draw a face, and call it mine, at a venture. They who have not seen me these twenty years will say, It may possibly be a striking likeness now, though it bears no resemblance to what he was: time makes great alterations. They who know me better will say, perhaps, Though it is not perfectly the thing, yet there is somewhat of the cast of his countenance. If the nose was a little longer, and the chin a little shorter, the eyes a little smaller, and the forehead a little more protuberant, it would be just the man. And thus, without seeing me at all, the artist may represent me to the public eye, with as must exactness as yours has bestowed upon you, though, I suppose, the original was full in his view when he made the attempt.

      We are both as well as when you left us. Our hearty affections wait upon yourself and Mrs. Newton, not forgetting Euphrosyne, the laughing lady.

      Yours, my dear Sir,

       W. C.

      The playfulness of Cowper's humour is amusingly exerted in the following letter:—

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      Olney, July 12, 1781.

      My very dear Friend—I am going to

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