CHAPTER IV.

"TWELVE MORE EQUALLY MISSPENT IN THE TEMPLE."

(1752-63.)

9. The First Derangement.-1752.

AVING concluded the term of his engagement

with Mr. Chapman, Cowper in 1752, at the

age of 21, settled himself as a regular student of law in chambers in the Middle Temple, at which he had been entered three years previously, before he left school (April 29, 1748).

"This," says he ("Memoir"), "being a critical season of my life, and one upon which much depended, it pleased my all-merciful Father in Jesus Christ to give a check to my rash and ruinous career of wickedness at the very onset. I was struck, not long after my settlement in the Temple, with such a dejection of spirits, as none but they who have felt the same can have the least conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in horror, and rising up in despair."

In short, Cowper had been seized with what it is usual to call his First Derangement, though it must be remembered that he had several times previously given way, though for but very brief periods, to fits of despondency.

To imagine, as some have done, that the origin of this malady is to be sought in the grief felt by him when a child of six for the death of his mother, is simply ridiculous; nor need we suppose that the illusage he received at his first school had anything to do with it. By the time he was 21 he would certainly have got over the death of his mother, and as regards the school, it is certain that his time there was succeeded at Westminster by some very happy years. The cause of it appears to me very plain. The poet himself assures us that a tendency to lowness of spirits was observable in his family, and the case of his brother John, to inquire no further, at once occurs to the mind. This constitutional despondency, in a man of Cowper's morbid temperament, coupled with the fact of his having had far too much time at his disposal, is quite sufficient to account for what happened.

By the rash and ruinous career of wickedness he meant perhaps no more than his practice of abstaining from attending places of worship and from private devotion.

As his malady increased he lost all relish for the various studies, including the classics that had so often afforded him pleasure. He needed, he says, something more salutary than amusement, but had no one to direct him where to find it. At length, however, there fell into his hands a copy of Herbert's poems, and in

them, "gothic and uncouth as they were," he found a strain of poetry which he could not but admire.

It was a happy thought to commemorate Cowper and George Herbert in one window in Westminster Abbey, as was done by Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia, some years ago. They stand side by side, Herbert in clerical costume, by his "church porch," and Cowper in his well-known cap and dressing-gown, under the shadow of Olney steeple.

"

The two poets have much in common, and it is. pleasing to learn that "Holy George Herbert' afforded the latter poet so much pleasure, especially in so dark an hour. No other author then gave Cowper any delight, and he pored over the book all day long. "I found," he says, "not here what I might have found, a cure for my malady, yet it never seemed. so much alleviated as while I was reading him." Then he goes on to say, "In this state of mind I continued near a twelvemonth, when, having experienced the inefficacy of all human means, I at length betook. myself to God in prayer: such is the rank which our Redeemer holds in our esteem, never resorted to but in the last instance, when all creatures have failed to succour us. My hard heart was at length softened, and my stubborn knees brought to bow; I composed a set of prayers and made frequent use of them. Weak as my faith was, the Almighty, who will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, was graciously pleased to hear me."

10. "Causidice mi" gives himself an air at Southampton.-1753.

A change of scene having been recommended for him, Cowper seized the opportunity to make a visit to Southampton, in company with Mr. Thomas Hesketh (eight years later Sir Thomas), the affianced lover of his cousin Harriet, now "a brilliant beauty," in the height of her charms, who “attracted all eyes on her at Ranelagh" and other places of public resort.

Whilst at Southampton, where he remained several months, the chief pleasures Cowper indulged in were, to use his own words, "a walk to Netley Abbey, or to Freemantle, or to Redbridge, or a book by the fireside." Whatever other amusements the place afforded had but little charm for him. Nevertheless he "gave himself an air" and "wore trousers," and not infrequently sailed on the Hampton river with Mr. Hesketh's party. But he had no liking for the sea except in the finest weather, and never sailed so far as Portsmouth without feeling the confinement irksome. Poor Causidice mi (Italian, "My counsel "), indeed-which appellation Mr. Hesketh conferred upon his Templar friend in jest -was as glad to escape from "the good sloop the Harriet" as Noah may be supposed to have been "when he was enlarged from the ark, or Jonah when he came out of the fish." Little, however, as he distinguished himself on, or even cared for, salt water, he was master of one accomplishment, which even many sailors are unable to boast of-he was not a bad swimmer.