THE LIFE, AND POSTHUMOUS WRITINGS, OF WILLIAM COWPER, EsQR. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL COWPER. BY WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQR. "Observatur oculis ille vir, quo neminem ætas nostra graviorem, sanctiorem, FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, LONDON. 1806. LIFE OF OF COWPER. PART THE SECOND. Ανης ήδιστος αοιδων. A New æra opens in the history of the poet, from an incident that gave fresh ardour and vivacity to his fertile imagination. In 1781, he became acquainted with a lady, highly accomplished herself, and singularly happy in animating and directing the fancy of her poetical friends. The world will perfectly agree with me in this eulogy, when I add, that to this lady we are primarily indebted for the poem of the Task, for the ballad of John Gilpin, and for the translation of Homer. But in my lively sense of her merit, I am almost forgetting my imme |