On the 20th of May Cowper told Lady Hesketh : 'My sonnet, which I sent you, was printed in the Northampton paper last week, and this week it produced me a complimentary one in the same paper, which served to convince me at least, by the matter of it, that my own was not published without occasion, and that it had answered its purpose.'

The complimentary sonnet referred to was follows:

TO WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ.

as

ON READING HIS SONNET OF THE SIXTEENTH INSTANT ADDRESSED TO MR. WILBERFORCE.

"Desert the cause of liberty !—the cause

Of human nature !-sacred flame that burn'd

So late, so bright within thee !—thence descend

The monster Slavery's unnat❜ral friend!
'Twere vile aspersion! justly, while it draws
Thy virtuous indignation, greatly spurn'd.

As soon the foes of Afric might expect
The altar's blaze, forgetful of the law
Of its aspiring nature, should direct
To hell its point inverted; as to draw
Virtue like thine, and genius, grovelling base,
To sanction wrong, and dignify disgrace.

Welcome detection! grateful to the Cause,
As to its Patron, Cowper's just applause !"

April 25, 1792.

S. M'CLELLAN.

173. Hayley's First Visit.-May, 1792.

For some time Cowper had been looking forward to Hayley's promised visit. On April 26th he says: "I will endeavour when Hayley comes to greet him with a countenance that shall not stiffen him into free

stone, but cannot be answerable for my success. It will depend in some measure on the countenance that he presents himself; for whether I will or not, I am always a physiognomist, and if I dislike a man's looks, am sure to assume such as he will find equally disagreeable. But I hope better things from my friend Hayley. It seldom happens that a person so amiable in his disposition is very Gorgonian in his aspect.”

Cowper, however, need have had no fears, for the fine open face of Hayley, who arrived in the middle of May, was the very reflection of the mind within. Hayley, whose own age, by the by, was forty-seven, gives to his friend Romney the painter the following account of this visit :

"My host, though now in his sixty-first year, appeared as happily exempt from all the infirmities of advanced life as friendship could wish him to be; and his more elderly companion, not materially oppressed by age, discovered a benevolent alertness of character that seemed to promise a continuance of their domestic comfort. Their reception of me was kindness itself. I was enchanted to find that the manners and conversa

tion of Cowper resembled his poetry, charming by unaffected elegance, and the graces of a benevolent spirit. I looked with affectionate veneration and pleasure on the lady who had devoted her life and fortune to the service of this tender and sublime genius.

"The delight that I derived from a perfect view of the virtues, the talents, and the present domestic enjoyments of Cowper, was suddenly overcast by the darkest and most painful anxiety.

"After passing our mornings in social study, we usually walked out together at noon. In returning from one of our rambles around the pleasant village of Weston, we were met by Mr. Greatheed, an accomplished minister of the gospel, who resides at Newport Pagnel, and whom Cowper described to me in terms of cordial esteem.

"He came forth to meet us as we drew near the house, and it was soon visible from his countenance and manner that he had ill news to impart. After the most tender preparation that humanity could devise, he acquainted Cowper that Mrs. Unwin was under the immediate pressure of a paralytic attack.

"My agitated friend rushed to the sight of the sufferer he returned to me in a state that alarmed me in the highest degree for his faculties-his first speech to me was wild in the extreme-my answer would appear little less so; but it was addressed to the predominant fancy of my unhappy friend, and, with the blessing of Heaven, it produced an instantaneous calm in his troubled mind.

"From that moment he rested on my friendship, with such mild and cheerful confidence, that his affectionate spirit regarded me as sent providentially to support him in a season of the severest affliction."

The results of Mrs. Unwin's seizure were of a most painful nature. Her speech was almost unintelligible from the moment that she was struck; it was with difficulty that she opened her eyes, and she could not keep them open; and as to self-moving powers from place to place, and the use of her right hand and arm, she had entirely lost them.

Cowper wished to send to Northampton for Dr. Kerr, but Mrs. Unwin was unwilling. Hayley, who had no inconsiderable knowledge of medicine and the art of healing, inquired if there was an electrical machine in the village. To the surprise of everybody there happened to be one, belonging to a neighbour named Sockett. Hayley then wrote a representation of the case to his friend Dr. Austen (the same that had cured the king), who recommended a course of medicine. Thanks to this and the electrical machine, Mrs. Unwin began to acquire strength again.

Grateful for the kindness of Dr. Austen, who gave his valuable services gratuitously, and delighted at the progress made by Mrs. Unwin, Cowper on May 26th composed the following sonnet, which is entitled, "To Dr. Austen, of Cecil Street, London":

"Austen! accept a grateful verse from me!
The poet's treasure! no inglorious fee!
Lov'd by the Muses, thy ingenuous mind
Pleasing requital in a verse may find;

Verse oft has dash'd the scythe of Time aside,
Immortalizing names, which else had died:
And, oh! could I command the glittering wealth
With which sick kings are glad to purchase health:
Yet, if extensive fame, and sure to live,

Were in the power of verse like mine to give,

I would not recompense his art with less,

Who, giving Mary health, heals my distress.

Friend of my friend! I love thee though unknown,
And boldly call thee, being his, my own."

Before Hayley left Weston, he had exacted a promise from Cowper to make a return visit to Eartham.

The first letter that Cowper wrote to Hayley (dated

June 4th), after the departure of the latter, begins as follows:

"ALL'S WELL.

"Which words I place as conspicuously as possible, and prefix them to my letter, to save you the pain, my friend and brother, of a moment's anxious speculation. Poor Mary proceeds in her amendment still, and improves, I think, even at a swifter rate than when you left her. The stronger she grows the faster she gathers strength, which is perhaps the natural course of recovery. She walked so well this morning, that she told me at my first visit she had entirely forgot her illness, and she spoke so distinctly, and had so much of her usual countenance, that had it been possible she would have made me forget it too."

By June 11th Dr. Austen (the good Samaritan, as Cowper called him) had no doubt of Mrs. Unwin's ultimate recovery. The day before, the poet had written, "It is a great blessing to us both that, poor feeble thing as she is, she has a most invincible courage, and a trust in God's goodness that nothing shakes ;" and a week later he wrote: "Be it known to you that we have these four days discarded our sedan with two elbows. Here is no more carrying, or being carried, but she walks upstairs boldly, with one hand upon the balustrade, and the other under my arm, and in like manner she comes down in the morning."

Mrs. Unwin's attack had quite put a stop to Milton. Writes Cowper on July 8th to his publisher: "Days, weeks, and months escape me, and nothing is done, nor is it possible for me to do anything that demands study and attention in the present state of our family.