had devoted herself to him at the cost of her health, and the debt of gratitude was repaid by his devoting himself to her at a greater sacrifice. From the time that she had taken him under her care, as long as her mind was unimpaired, she had had no will but his, no "shadow of inclination" but for his good, or for whatever might minister to his comfort. Never was any affection more free from all taint of selfishness, more perfectly disinterested. When his malady required continual vigilance, her days and nights were given to him, regardless of the consequences to herself. But now, as her reasoning faculties decayed, her character underwent, in this respect, a total change, and she exacted constant attention from him, without the slightest consideration for his health, or state of mind, or any regard to the injurious effect which was perceptibly produced. Poor creatures that we are, even the strength of religious principle and virtuous habit fails us if reason fails! But there

is this consolation for those who contemplate the most humiliating condition to which human nature can be reduced, that when that fails, moral responsibility ceases; and there remain for the afflicted, in sure reversion, deliverance in the course of nature,—and in the course of providence, God's mercy and the reward of the righteous.

"I wish," says Cowper to Mr. Rose,20 “that I were as industrious and as much occupied as you, though in a different way; but it is not so with me. Mrs. Unwin's great debility (who is not yet able to move without assistance) is of itself a hinderance such as would effectually disable me. Till she can work and read, and fill up her time as usual, (all which is at present entirely out of her power,) I may now and then find time to write a letter, but I shall write nothing more. I cannot sit with my pen in my hand, and my books before me, while she is in effect in solitude, silent, and looking at the fire. To this hinderance that other has been added, of which you are already aware a want of spirits, such as I have never known, when I was not absolutely laid by, since I commenced an author. How long I shall be continued in these uncomfortable circumstances, is known only to Him who, as he will, disposes of us all."

20 Nov. 9.

In the same melancholy strain he writes to Mr. New

ton:

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Nov. 11, 1792.

I am not so insensible of your kindness in making me an exception from the number of your correspondents, to whom you forbid the hope of hearing from you till your present labors are ended, as to make you wait longer for an answer to your last; which, indeed, would have had its answer before this time, had it been possible for me to write. But so many have demands upon me of a similar kind, and while Mrs. Unwin continues an invalid, my opportunities of writing are so few, that I am constrained to incur a long arrear to some with whom I would wish to be punctual. She can at present neither work nor read; and till she can do both, and amuse herself as usual, my own amusements of the pen must be suspended.

I, like you, have a work before me, and a work to which I should be glad to address myself in earnest, but cannot do it at present. When the opportunity comes, I shall, like you, be under a necessity of interdicting some of my usual correspondents, and of shortening my letters to the excepted few. Many letters and much company are incompatible with authorship, and the one as much as the other. It will be long, I hope, before the world is put in possession of a publication which you design should be posthumous.

O for the day when your expectations of my complete deliverance shall be verified! At present it seems very remote; so distant, indeed, that hardly the faintest streak of it is visible in my horizon. The glimpse with which I was favored about a month since, has never been repeated; and the depression of my spirits has. The future appears gloomy as ever; and I seem to myself to be scrambling always in the dark, among rocks and precipices, without a guide, but with an enemy ever at my heels, prepared to push me headlong. Thus I have spent twenty years, but thus I shall not spend twenty years more. Long ere that period arrives, the grand question concerning my everlasting weal or woe will be decided.

Adieu, my dear friend. I have exhausted my time, though not filled my paper.

Truly yours,

W. C.

At this time Teedon seems to have advised that he should send to the press such notes on the two first books of the Paradise Lost as he had made. To this he objected,21 because the splendor of the edition required that the page should be kept clear; because almost all that could be done in the way of notes had been done by very able hands, and because it was impossible in notes to do justice to the doctrinal passages, which, he said, was the most important consideration of all. "But what," said he, "is my hope that I shall ever execute my intentions? Truly a leaf driven by the wind of a thousand tempests. The fever on my spirits, from which, except in the heat of the first part of August, I have hardly been free this half year, still continues, and distressed me more last night than at any period in all that time. I waked very often, and always after waking was almost bent double with misery. Yet in one of my short sleeps I dreamed that I had God's presence in a slight measure, and exclaimed under the impression of it,

66

"I know that Thou art infinitely gracious; but what will become of me?'

"This fever keeps me always in terror, for it has ever been the harbinger of my worst indispositions. As to prayer, the very Collects you mention have been the prayers that I have generally used when I have felt the least encouragement to pray at all; but I may add, never with any sensible effect. In compliance, however, with your call to that service, I will use them again, and be careful not to omit them, at least till the time you mention is expired. Yet if faith be necessary to effectuate prayer, alas, what chance have mine!"

Poor Cowper's malady was too strong to be overcome by the faith which he would fain have placed in Teedon. After obeying his injunction more than a week, he reported

21 Nov, 13,

to him the result.22 "I have now persevered in the punctual performance of the duty of prayer as long, and I believe longer, than the time which you specified. Whether any beneficial effect has followed, I cannot say. My wakings in the night have certainly been somewhat less painful and terrible than they were; but this I cannot help ascribing to the agency of an anodyne which I have constantly used lately at bed-time. Of one thing, however, I am sure, which is, that I have had no spiritual anodyne vouchsafed to me. My nights having been somewhat less disturbed, my days have of course been such likewise; but a settled melancholy overclouds them all; nothing cheers me, nothing inspires me with hope. It is even miraculous in my own eyes that, always occupied as I am in the contemplation of the most distressing subjects, I am not absolutely incapacitated for the common offices of life.

'My purpose is to continue such prayer as I can make, although with all this reason to conclude that it is not accepted, and though I have been more than once forbidden, in my own apprehension, by Him to whom it is addressed. You will tell me, that God never forbids any body to pray, but on the contrary, encourages all to do it. I answerNo. Some he does not encourage, and some he even forbids; not by words perhaps, but by a secret negative found only in their experience."

It is a proof of Cowper's good nature, that when the successor of the Northampton Clerk came with a petition at this time that he would be pleased to assist him with "a copy of Mortuary Verses, as he had assisted his predecessor,'

though two years had elapsed without such an application, and he had "well hoped that he was out of his office," and though "involved in many arrears on other subjects, and having very little dependence on his ability to write at all," he yet" reluctantly promised to comply," and ful

filled his promise.

"I proceed," says he to his cousin Johnson,23 "exactly as when you were here, a letter now and then before breakfast, and the rest of my time all holiday; if holiday

22 Nov. 21.

23 Nov. 20.

it may be called, that is spent chiefly in moping and musing, and forecasting the fashion of uncertain evils."" Now and then something like a secret whisper appeared, and encouraged him that his engagement concerning Milton would yet be performed. "You wish me warm in my work,” said he to Hayley,24" and I ardently wish the same; but when I shall be so, God only knows. My melancholy, which seemed a little alleviated for a few days, has gathered about me again, with as black a cloud as ever: the consequence is absolute incapacity to begin."

The sanest patient could not have observed his own symptoms more carefully, nor given a more clear and coherent account of them to his physician, than Cowper noticed his own sleeping and waking imaginations, and reported them to the poor, vain man whom he had taken for his spiritual adviser. “Dear sir,” he says,25 “since I wrote last, my experience has held the same tenor of despair, despondence, and dejection; but having had a quiet night, my spirits are a little raised this morning. My nights, indeed, have lately been less infected with horrid dreams and wakings, and I would willingly hope that it is an answer to the prayers I offer, lifeless as they are. I shall not discontinue the practice, you may be sure, so long as I have even this encouragement to observe it.

"Two or three nights since, I dreamed that I had God's presence largely, and seemed to pray with much liberty. I then proceeded dreaming about many other things, all vain and foolish; but at last I dreamed that, recollecting my pleasant dream, I congratulated myself on the exact recollection that I had of my prayer, and of all that passed in it. But when I waked, not a single word could I remember. These words were, however, very audibly spoken to me in the moment of waking

Sacrum est quod dixi.

"It seems strange that I should be made to felicitate myself on remembering what in reality it was designed that