sooner uttered, than his passionately expressed entreaties that his companion would desist from any further observations of a similar kind, clearly proved, that though it was on the eve of being invested with angelic light, the darkness of delusion still veiled his spirit. The clerical duties of his attendant occasioned his absence during the greater part of Sunday the 20th; but he learnt on his return that he had in some measure revived. He was, however, in bed, and asleep; which induced his kinsman to remain in the room, and watch by him. Whilst engaged in this melancholy office, and endeavouring to reconcile his mind to the loss of so dear a friend, by considering the gain which that friend would experience, his reflections were suddenly interrupted, by the unusual and singularly varied tone of his breathing, which had a striking resemblance to the confused notes of an organ. Inexperienced as he then was in the diversified approaches of the last messenger, he conceived it to be the sound of his immediate summons, and after listening to it for several minutes, he arose from the foot of the bed on which he was sitting, to take a nearer, and a last view of his departing relative, commending his soul in silence, to that gracious Saviour, whom in the fulness of mental health he had delighted to honour. As he put aside the curtain, he opened. his eyes; but closed them without speaking, and breathed as usual. In the early part of Monday the 21st, and indeed till toward the hour of dinner, he appeared to be dying, but he so far recovered as to be able to partake slightly of that meal. The near approach of his dissolution became more and more observable in every succceding hour of Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday the weakness was not at all diminished; but he sat up as usual for a short time in the evening. i In the course of the night, when he appeared to be exceedingly exhausted, some refreshment was presented to him by Miss Perowne. From a persuasion, however, that nothing could ameliorate his feelings, though without any apparent impression that the hand of death was already upon him, he rejected the cordial with these words, the very last that he was heard to utter, "What can it signify?" At five in the morning of Friday the 25th, a deadly change in his features was observed to take place. He remained in an insensible state from that time till about five minutes before five in the afternoon, when he ceased to breathe. And in so mild and gentle a manner did his spirit take its flight, that though the writer of this Memoir, his medical attendant Mr. Woods, and three other persons, were standing at the foot and side of the bed, with their eyes fixed upon his dying countenance, the precise moment of his departure was unobserved by any. From this mournful period, till the features of his deceased friend were closed from his view, the expression which the kinsman of Cowper observed in them, and which he was affectionately delighted to suppose an index of the last thoughts and enjoyments of his soul in its gradual escape from the depths of despondence, was that of calmness and composure, mingled, as it were, with holy surprise. He was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel, in the Church of East Dereham, on Saturday the 2d of May. Over his grave a Monument is erected, bearing the following inscription, from the of Mr. Hayley. In Memory Of WILLIAM CowPER, Esq. Born in Hertfordshire 1731. Buried in this Church 1800. Ye, who with warmth the public triumph feel Here, to devotion's bard devoutly just, Pay your fond tribute due to Cowper's dust! Ranks with her dearest sons his fav'rite name : pen CONTENTS. VE ERSES written on finding the Heel of a Shoe... Stanzas on the First Publication of Sir Charles Grandison... Fifth Satire of the First Book of Horace Ninth Satire of the First Book of Horace. . . . 1 4 6 11 22 68 ..... of Dryden's Epigram on Milton . To the Rev. Mr. Newton, on his Return from Ramsgate... ib. Love Abused Poetical Epistle to Lady Austen... .... On the Loss of the Royal George.. In Submersionem Navigii, cui Georgius Regale Nomen, inditum Song on Peace.. written at the request of Lady Austen Verses from a Poem entitled Valediction .......... In Brevitatem Vitæ Spatii Hominibus concessi On the Shortness of Human Life... To Miss C- on her Birth Day 70 |