BY

WILLIAM COWPER,

OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQ.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

CONTAINING

HIS POSTHUMOUS POETRY,

AND

A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.

BY HIS KINSMAN,

JOHN JOHNSON, LL. D.

RECTOR OF YAXHAM WITH WELBORNE,
IN NORFOLK.

HIS VIRTUES FORM'D THE MAGIC OF HIS SONG.

COWPER'S EPITAPH

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; LAW AND WHITAKER; LONGMAN AND
CO.; CADELL AND DAVIES; BLACK, PARRY, AND CO.; J. BLACK; JOHN RICHARD-
SON; JAMES RICHARDSON; J. HATCHARD; SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES;
R, SCHOLEY; J. EDOKER; SUTTABY AND CO.; JOHN SHARP; BALDWIN,
CRADOCK, AND JOY; OALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER; T. HAMILTON; R, HUNTER;
GOWIE AND CO.; AND JOHN ROBINSON: AND FOR ROBINSON, SON, AND
BOLDSWORTH, LEEDS.

904294

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

EARL SPENCER.

MY LORD,

A GENERAL request having encouraged me to become the Editor of a more complete collection of the posthumous Compositions of my revered Relation, the Poet CowPER, than has hitherto appeared, I consider it as my duty to the deceased, to inscribe the Volume that contains them to his exalted Friend, by whom the genius of the Poet was as justly appretiated, as the virtues of the Moralist were effectually patronized. It would be impertinent in me to attempt any new encomium on a Writer so highly endeared cultivated mind in that country which it

to every was the favourite exercise of his patriotic spirit

to describe and to celebrate: but I may be allowed to observe, that one of the few additions inserted in this collection will be particularly welcome to every reader of sensibility, as an eulogy on that attractive quality so gracefully visible in all the writings of Cowper.

Permit me to close this imperfect tribute of my respect, by saying, it is my deep sense of those important services, for which the afflicted Poet was indebted to the kindness of LORD SPENCER, that impels me to the liberty I am now taking, of thus publicly declaring myself,

Your Lordship's

Highly obliged and

Very faithful servant,

JOHN JOHNSON.

1

P R E F A СЕ.

Ir is incumbent on me to apprize the Reader, that by far the greater part of the Poems, to which I have now the honour to introduce him, have been already published by Mr. Hayley. That endeared friend of the deceased Poet having enriched his copious and faithful Life of Him with a large collection of his minor Pieces, soon after his death, and having since given to the world a distinct Edition of his Translations from the Latin and Italian verses of Milton, every thing seemed accomplished that the merits and memory of a Poet so justly popular as Cowper, appeared to require. But of late years a fresh and detached Collection of all his Poems being wished for by his friends, I was flattered by their request, that I would present them to the public as the Editor of his third poetical volume.

Having accepted this honourable invitation, my first care was to assemble as many of the editions of the two former Volumes as I could possibly meet with, that nothing might be admitted into their projected companion, which the public