TWO COWPER LETTERS.

[To um EDITOR or Tin "Sescrermt."3

Sra,—In the Roberts Collection at Haverford College, Pennsyl- vania, there are two manuscript letters of William Cowper. One of these has never been published, and of the second only two brief extracts have been published by Thomas Wright in The Correspondence of William Cowper (1904), Vol. IV., 407. The sentences already published from the second letter are shown below in brackets. This second letter is addressed to Samuel Rose according to Mr. Wright, and I see no reason to ioubt the statement, though there is no indication of the iddressee in the letter itself. Any specimens of Cowper's iterary style hitherto unpublished are worthy of the light.—I

"The Reverend MARTIN MADAN, Epsom, Surrey.

Weston Underwood, June 8, 1789. MT DEAR COUSIN,—I am much obliged to you for your late Publication which I received a few days Gime from the hands of Mr. Bean, my neighbour, the Vicar of Olney, by whom Mr. Newton transmitted it to me. You have bestowed much pains on two valuable Writers, and to very good purpose. It will not be your fault if they are not more generally rend than they have been, and better understood. As for me my time is CO much occupied with Homer that I have not yet found leisure to read more than the first Satyr of Juvenal and the chief part of the second; such a sample as this however warrants suffi- ciently the judgment which I have formed of the whole, which is that you have executed your undertaking well, and that not the Illiterati only but the Literati themselves also are much obliged to you; for few even of them are so familiar with Juvenal and Persius as to be superior to the aids which your version and your notes will afford them. Dr. Earl, I remem- ber, was a Master of both these authors, and could perhaps have repeated the greatest part of Juvenal, but of all the Scholars I have ever known he was the only one so well acquainted with him. Juvenal, of all the Roman Writers, was most his Favorite.

My labours, I hope, are drawing to a conclusion. I have begun the 19th Book of the Odyssey, and expect to finish the translation of that poem in about three months; I shall then proceed to a revisal of the whole and to press with it as soon as possible. Life wears away, and I have a curiosity to know the success of my long and arduous undertaking. In the grave there is no remembrance of Homer. I beg my affectionate complimts to Mrs. and Miss Mader, and to Mr: Cowper if Ile be with you, and remain, My deer

Cousin. Truly yours, Wis. COWPER."

"The Lodge, Nor. 22, 1789.

My DEAR mean to write to you, if a cough that inter- rupts 1310 continually will permit. It is a sort of exercise which, whether I will or not, I generally find myself obliged to take in the beginning of Winter, and which may perhaps be necessary to compensate the loss of my evening-walks, no longer possible.

[I thank you for your history of Dr. White and his borrowsd plumes. The man who could with any degree of complacence dress himself in a plumage so procured, was very likely to refuse payment for it when demanded.] The same want of delicacy is observable on both occasions. He is I suppose the same Doctor whom I see mentioned in a note of Holes sub- joined to a passage in his preface to his poen. called Arthur. In that note he calls him Arabic Professor in the University of Oxford,•aml expresses somethinglike n wish that he would favour the world with a new English version of the Arabian Nights entertainments, a work for which Ile is, probably, better qualified than for the composition of sermons. Though his Arabic knowledge may perhaps prove at least as unreal a mockery as his Theological. The next time I dined at the Hall after the receipt of this intelligence. I promised myself that I should figure away with it and treat my host with a new story.

To find already known what I for news Had thought to have reported.

Indeed I never touched a subject yet which I found new to our neighbour, and on most, his information is accurate to a degree that surprises one considering his retired situation.

We are now reduced from our square table to a small oval one, and from a party of sometimes four, and sometimes three. to our original duality. [London is not only an abomination in my account, because it runs away with my friends, but because it steals them at a season when we should be especially glad of their company.] But if we live in the country we must he contented to bear the inconveniences of a situation which is not chargeable with many. PerhapsT have named the only one of any importance. For though the trees are now leafless. the days short and gloomy, and the walks dirty, there never was nor will be that metropolis on earth which I would prefer to the country even in this condition.

I promised you the Northampton verses, and should have transcribed them into this sheet, but my cousin who has them. has undertaken to furnish you with a copy. I am glad that you were pleased with those which I sent Is Johnson. I have two or three friends in the world, whom if I can please before publication, I give myself no trouble about the fate of the piece which has once had their approbation.

When my cousin wrote to tell me of her safe arrival, she informed me that she hail seen you, and you only. I rejoiced that you had given her so early a call, and should have rejoiced more had she seen you in the best health and spirits. We feet ourselves much interested in your welfare, and few days pass in which you do not furnish part of our conversation. This accompanies a Turkey of which we beg year acceptance. Mrs. 11. bids me say that you will perhaps lield the fat of it some- what yellow, hut let not that discourage you when it appears on your table. It is owing to the particular manner of feeding it Mr. Rye told me a few days since that he saw your uncle Clarke lately (at Lord Spencer's if I am not mistaken) and that be was in perfect health and very cheerful.

Pardon a dull letter. My cold makes me uncommonly stupid. —With Mrs. Unwin's compts. I am Sincerely yours,

Was. COWPER."