all the diversity of diction, was in all equally success ful. WILLIAM COWPER, the subject of the present sketch was born on the 26th of November, N. S. 1731; h father, the Rev. John Cowper, D. D. was rector Great Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, and chaplai to King George II. His grandfather, Spencer Cowper was appointed chief judge of Chester in 1717: h afterwards became a judge in the court of Commo Pleas; and the family may be traced, of respectabl rank, through many ages. The poet's mother wa Ann, the daughter of Roger Donne, esq. of Ludhan Hall, in Norfolk, who died when her son William was about six years old; and her early death, it is presume. contributed in a great degree to the dark colouring of his subsequent life; for, though bereft of her at so tender an age, her maternal affection left such impressive traces on his memory as were never eradicated, and the sight of her picture, nearly fifty years afterwards, occasioned one of his most exquisite poems, in which he celebrates, with ardor, this guardian of his early years. When Cowper first quitted the house of his surviving rent, he was sent to a respectable school in Market reet, Hertfordshire; from which he appears to have en removed to the house of a celebrated female culist, for the benefit of his eyes, but without exeriencing any essential relief. From her he went to Westminster school, where he caught the small-pox, hich entirely removed his complaint. During his stay at Westminster, he experienced uch of the tyranny of the elder boys, which served ill more to depress a mind unassuming and timid in e extreme; yet, notwithstanding these disadvanges, he there acquired great reputation as a scholar. _t the age of eighteen, he was removed to the office Mr. Chapman, an attorney, to whom he was artied for three years. This connection was formed ontrary to his inclination, and tended to increase his atural melancholy, which, as he advanced in years, nbittered his existence, and rendered life a burthen. fter quitting the house of Mr. Chapman, he settled imself in the Inner Temple, as a regular student at law, here he cultivated the friendship of his old Westinster schoolfellows, Bonnel Thornton and Colman, now eminent for their literary attainments,) whom hẹ assisted in their periodical paper, entitled the Connoisseur; and it is supposed that his talents, for that pleasing and useful species of composition, were equalled only by those of Addison himself. By the interest of his family, Cowper had great prospects of advancement, and, in the year 1762, he was appointed to the office of Reading Clerk and Clerk of the Private Committees in the House of Lords; this station his peculiar disposition made extremely perplexing, and finding himself unable to support its most essential duty, that of reading in public, he resigned, and his friends endeavoured to procure for him a situation more consonant to the tenor of his disposition. Their good intentions were again defeated, for Cowper being promoted, in the same assembly, to the office of Clerk of the Journals, and an unexpected event making his attendance indispensible, his apprehension and alarm on the occasion so absolutely overpowered his reason, as to render him incapable of that honourable employ. The situation of Cowper at this period was so distressing, that his relatives were induced to remove him to St. Albans, and place him under the care of Dr. Cotton, a gentleman remarkable for the |