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[9 th 8. V. APRIL 21, 1900.
choudria, having its source in delicacy of
constitution and weakness of digestion, com-
bined with the influence of melancholy
surroundings."
Looking carefully through all the informa- tion we now possess, it would seem to be a matter of deep thankfulness that the memory of the poet of the Christian revival is not clouded by a catastrophe. A child of highly sensitive temperament, Cowper was, at the early age of six just after the death of his devoted mother, when he lost that
Constant flow of love that knew no fall sent to a large boarding school of older and rougher boys, where, although he experienced most cruel treatment, he was allowed to remain two years, and was only removed on account of serious inflammation in the eyes. At the age of ten he was entered to West- minster, where, according to his own forcible expression, " he dared not raise his eye above the shoe-buckle of the elder boys.' When the boy was only eleven his father gave him a treatise in favour of suicide, and requested him to pronounce his opinion upon it. Canon Benham well remarks on this, " It does not seem a high proof of parental wisdom."
Although Cowper had constantly suffered from depression of spirits and had had melan- choly fits at school, the first serious outburst of madness was not until his thirty -second year, when on his appointment to be Clerk of the Journals, finding that he would have to appear at the Bar of the House of Lords, he attempted suicide rather than face the ordeal, and wrote, " They whose spirits are formed like mine, to whom a public exhibition is mental poison, may have some idea of the horrors of my situation others can have none."
It was at this time that he wrote those terrible lines,
Hatred and vengeance my eternal portion- Scarce can endure delay of execution, Wait with impatient readiness to seize my Soul in a moment.
Damned below Judas ; more abhorred than he was, Who for a few pence sold his holy Master ! Twice-betrayed Jesus me, the last delinquent, Deems the profanest.
John Cowper, his brother, and Martin Madan, his cousin, a strong Calvinist, vainly endeavoured to comfort him, and on the 7th of December, 1763, it became neces- sary to place him in an asylum at St. Albans, uncler Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, whose kind and judicious treatment had a most beneficial effect. In the following July, while reading the third chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the words of the twenty-fifth verse
riveted his attention. "In a moment," says-
Cowper, " I believed and received the gospel,"
and his joy was so great that his physician
feared lest it might terminate in a fatal
frenzy.
The influence of John Newton upon Cowper dates from the 14th of October, 1767, when the poet and Mrs. Unwin went to Olney and occupied the house taken for them by Newton. Many have considered that New- ton's influence had an ill effect on Cowper ; but I think that careful investigators will find it to have been the reverse, and Cowper's. more active life as an unwearied assistant to his friend must have been a beneficial change from the way he had passed his days at Hunt- ingdon, as described in the following letter :
" We breakfast commonly between eight and nine ; till eleven we read either the Scripture or the sermons of some faithful preacher of those holy mysteries ; at eleven we attend divine service,
which is performed here twice every day After
dinner to the garden, where, with Mrs. Unwin and her son, I have generally the pleasure of religious conversation till teatime. If it rains, or is too windy for walking, we either converse within doors, or sing some hymns of Martin's collection, and, by the help of Mrs. Unwin's harpsichord, make up a
tolerable concert At night we read and converse
as before, till supper, and commonly finish the evening either with hymns or a sermon ; and, last of all, the family are called to prayers." Letter to his cousin, Mrs. Cowper, dated Huntingdon, Oct. 20, 1766. ' The Works of Cowper,' edited by the Rev. T. S. Grimshawe, vol. i. p. 82.
The first years at Olney were among the happiest and most peaceful of Cowper's life, and his friendship with Newton was, indeed, a
True bliss.
Of hearts in union mutually discloa'd.
Newton, desirous of a monument to per- petuate the remembrance of this intimate and endearing friendship, suggested the joint composition, in 1771, of the 'Olney Hymns.' The morbid depression of the poet prevented the fulfilment of his share of the engage- ment, and of the 348 but 68 are by Cowper. Of these only the five following have found general favour : " Oh ! for a closer walk with God," "Hark, my soul! it is the Lord," " Jesus ! where'er Thy people meet," " Some- times a light surprises," "God moves in a mysterious way." The whole of the hymns, however, are full of interest to a student of Cowper, as they reveal, quite as much as his letters do, the inner workings of his mind.
In 1773 Cowper's terrible malady returned ; he was at the time engaged to Mrs. Unwin, but the marriage had to be broken off. The paroxysms of religious despondency became most severe. He believed that it was the will
