The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper, Esqr

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: These tender and confidential letters describe, in the clearest light, the singularly peaceful and devout life of this amiable writer during his residence at Huntingdon, and the melancholy accident which occasioned his removal to a distant county. Time and chance now introduced to the notice of Cowper the zealous and venerable iriend, who became his intimate associate for'many years, after having advised and assisted him in the important concern of fixing his future residence. Mr. Newton, then Curate of Olney, in Buckinghamshire, had been requested, by the late Ur. Conyers (who, in taking his degree in Divinity at Cambridge, had formed a friendship with young Mr. Unwin, and learned from him the religious character of his mother), to seize an opportunity, as he was passing through Huntingdon, of making a visit to an exemplary lady. This visit (so important in its consequences to the lestiny of Cowper !) happened to take place within a few days after the calamitous death of Mr. Unwin. As a change of scene appeared desirable both to Mrs. Unwin and to the interesting Recluse, whom she had generously requested to continue under her care, Mr. Newton offered to assist them in removing to the pleasant and picturesque county in which he resided. They were willing to enter into the flock of a benevolent and animated pastor, whose religious ideas were so much in harmony with their own. He engaged for them a house at Olney, where they arrived on the 14th of October, 1767. The time of Cowper, in his new situation, seems to have been chiefly devoted to religious contemplation, to social prayer, and to active charity. To this first of Christian virtues his heart was eminently inclined, and Providence very graciously enabled him to exercise and enjoy it to an extent far superipf to what his ov...