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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. SEPT. 10, MM.
servant, whose body putrified before she died,
and are just returned to it again. Such a spectacle
I never saw ! but the Lord filled her with the spirit
of gladness, enabled her to sing the praises of
redeeming love, and gave her an abundant entrance
.into His kingdom.
I beg you will give my love to my aunt ; Mr. Newton designs to call upon her. He is not as yet
(as you imagine) prepared with a second volume. Writing is slow work, when the charge of a numerous people, so often interferes with it.
Believe me sincerely yours, etc.
Pp. 164-5 :
April 19, 1771. Died that sweet inimitable saint,
my dear nephew, James Martin Maitland aged
ten years and ten months Three days before he
died he told his Mama, he had a mind to make his will, and desired her to come to his bedside with pen and ink for that purpose. She accordingly took from his own mouth as follows :
"In the Name of God, Amen. I James Martin
Maitland bequeath to my Cousin William
Cowper my microscope because" (added he) "you know he is sensible and ingenious." Pp. 171-2.
P. 168 is wholly blotted out; pp. 169-70 have been cut out, and portions of the fol- lowing letter, apparently to Cowper from his cousin Mrs. Cowper, have been erased or blotted out:
Cotty of letter to after the melancholy event
of [blotted out] dated Feb. 21.
On the happy event of this day twelvemonth,*
I wrote to you, my dear cousin, to join you in the
kind circle of my rejoicing friends. How was the
goodness of our heavenly Father manifested in
- exalting me, the most unworthy of His creatures, to the most promising scene of happiness, which, in my situation, the world had to bestow : the com- pletion of which was expected with unspeak- able delight throughout our whole family ! every point gained, and every difficulty surmounted. [Two lines erased or blotted out] all things smiled, and every heart exulted at the approach of the important period ! when but, my dear cousin,
i permit me now to cast a veil on all that followed it seems you have been informed of the unhappy tale. Righteous and just, o Lord, are all Thy ways, and our part, patience, meekness and sub- mission ! Mayst Thou give us under this humiliat- ing dispensation, hearts to acknowledge Thine unerring wisdom and silently to adore Thy mys- terious appointments ! Aweful and dark as they seem to us, 1 doubt not but all is rectitude and love: Pray for me, my dear Cousin, "bear my sorrows as suitors to His throne," and teach me
-still to praise and glorify His Name. pray that my "faith maybe found as strong as my trial is sharp," and the issue of it happy. My mother desires her love to you : her very long silence has proceeded chiefly from a nervous weakness in her eyes : but indeed, my dear cousin, another reason has been, that none of us have had courage to take up a pen, upon this very melancholy occasion, and it has not, I assure you, without some conflict that I have been able now to do it, etc.
- Marginal note : " The day" [erasure].
Pp. 172-5 :
The answer dated Feb. 25, 1772.
Letter 18* [should be 22].
MY DEAR COUSIN, It never grieved me that I did not hear from you, or my aunt, upon this most melancholy occasion. Great sorrows are best spoken of to Him, who alone can relieve us from them, but do not easily express themselves either in conversation or by letter. Your writing to me at all upon this subject, strikes me as a most valuable and convincing proof of your friendship for me, who am so unworthy of it : not but that I may truly say I have a share in your sorrows, and my poor kinsmen are upon my heart all the day long, and night and day my subject at the throne of grace. [Three lines blotted out.]
Whether on the rolling wave,
Or in distant lands he stray,
Lord, I cry, be near to save,
Guard him and direct his way. How true is that word of the prophet :f " God hath His way in the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust of His feet"; but He has told us for our comfort,J that He will not contend for ever, for the spirit should fail before Him, and the souls which He has made. The support He has graciously afforded you, my dear cousin, in your most trying circumstances, is an amazing proof of His com- passion, faithfulness and power. He is glorified by the faith and patience of His saints ; and how great is the honour He has done you, by enabling
Jou to praise Him in such a furnace of affliction ! thank Him on your behalf, and I could praise Him too; but it is a time of great darkness and trouble in my soul, so that I am hardly able to lift up a thought towards Him. It is with the utmost difficulty I write a short answer to your kind letter : but assure yourself, that while I have power to pray at all, I shall not cease to do it, that you may still be supported, that He would still place beneath you the everlasting arm, and make your strength equal to your day. May He watch over our dear with a Father's love, preserve the poor wander- ing bird cast out of its nest, and restore him to you in peace and safety. God does know, that if I could pray with all the fervency of all the saints that ever lived, I would beg, with constant im- portunity, that he might return, if not to be enriched with the treasures of this spiritual Egypt, yet filled with all the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. Then perhaps I should be enabled to praise Him too ; for of a truth, I had rather see him at the foot of a Redeemer's cross, as I had rather be there myself, than placed upon the very pinnacle of all earthly grandeur and prosperity. I beg my love to my dear aunt. I have more need to apologise for my silence, than she for hers, but
- As the letter is numbered, there is no doubt
that it is from Cowper to his cousin Maria. ' Commonplace Book,' vol. iv. p. 163, lifts up the veil: "Verses upon the untimely death of my dear nephew, W. Maitland, who was drowned when the Dartmouth East Indiaman was shipwrecked [he was then third mate], February, 1772. Written by his afflicted mother." The cargo valued at 200,000^. Lost on the coast of Peyu (?) in Africa."
t Nahum i. 3.
t Is. Ivii. 16.
See Cowper's * Letters,' ed. Wright, i. 127-8.
