ON THE PROMOTION OF

EDWARD THURLOW, ESQ.

TO THE

LORD HIGH CHANCELLORSHIP OF ENGLAND.

[The first mention of these verses occurs in a note to Mr Hill, dated November 14, 1779, in which the author feelingly says,

I wrote them, indeed, on purpose for you; for my subjects are not always such as I could hope would prove agreable to you. My mind has always a melancholy cast, and is like some pools I have seen, which, though filled with a black and putrid water, will, nevertheless, in a bright day, reflect the sunbeams from their surface." Thurlow's ungenerous neglect of the disinterested and elegant compliment, was alike dishonourable to his own heart, and distressing to Cowper's affectionate temper. See Life and Letters.]

ROUND Thurlow's head in early youth,
And in his sportive days,

Fair Science pour'd the light of truth,
And Genius shed his rays.

See! with united wonder cried
The experienced and the sage,

Ambition in a boy supplied
With all the skill of age!

Discernment, eloquence, and grace
Proclaim him born to sway
The balance in the highest place,
And bear the palm away.

The praise bestow'd was just and wise;
He sprang impetuous forth
Secure of conquest, where the prize
Attends superior worth.

So the best courser on the plain
Ere yet he starts is known,
And does but at the goal obtain
What all had deem'd his own.

ODE TO PEACE.

[These verses were composed in the commencement of Cowper's second attack of mental indisposition.]

COME, peace of mind, delightful guest!
Return, and make thy downy nest

Once more in this sad heart:

Nor riches I nor power pursue,
Nor hold forbidden joys in view;
We, therefore, need not part.

Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From avarice and ambition free,
And pleasure's fatal wiles?

For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweet, that I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?

The great, the gay, shall they partake
The heaven that thou alone canst make?
And wilt thou quit the stream,

That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove and the sequester'd shed,
To be a guest with them?

For thee I panted, thee I prized,
For thee I gladly sacrificed

Whate'er I loved before;
And shall I see thee start away,

And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say -
"Farewell! we meet no more!"

From morn to dewy eve,

With open hand she showers
Fresh blessings, to deceive

And soothe the silent hours.

It is content of heart

Gives Nature power to please;
The mind that feels no smart
Enlivens all it sees;
Can make a wintry sky

Seem bright as smiling May,
And evening's closing eye
As peep of early day.

The vast majestic globe,

So beauteously array'd
In Nature's various robe

With wond'rous skill display'd,

Is to a mourner's heart

A dreary wild at best;

It flutters to depart,

And longs to be at rest.

THE MODERN PATRIOT.

[The poet speaks of verses under the same title, suggested by some of Burke's political schemes, but adds, that he burned them next morning. These seem, however, to be the same; they were composed in 1780.]

REBELLION is my theme all day,

I only wish 'twould come

(As who knows but perhaps it may?)

A little nearer home.

Yon roaring boys, who rave and fight
On t'other side the Atlantic,

I always held them in the right,

But most so when most frantic.

When lawless mobs insult the court,
That man shall be my toast,

If breaking windows be the sport,
Who bravely breaks the most.

But oh! for him my fancy culls
The choicest flowers she bears,
Who constitutionally pulls

Your house about your ears.

Such civil broils are my delight,

Though some folks can't endure them,
Who say the mob are mad outright,
And that a rope must cure them.

A rope! I wish we patriots had
Such strings for all who need 'em-
What! hang a man for going mad!
Then farewell British freedom.

ON OBSERVING SOME

NAMES OF LITTLE NOTE

RECORDED IN THE BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA.

[Cowper had borrowed the Biographia Britannica from Mr Unwin, to whom, in consequence, these admirably sarcastic lines were sent in September, 1780.]

Он, fond attempt to give a deathless lot
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
In vain, recorded in historic page,
They court the notice of a future age:
Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land
Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;
Lethæan gulfs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.

-

So when a child, as playful children use,
Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news,
The flame extinct, he views the roving fire
There goes my lady, and there goes the squire;
There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk!

REPORT

OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, NOT TO BE FOUND IN

ANY OF THE BOOKS.

[This piece, which a critic has pronounced, "in gravity of ridicule unexcelled," appears to have been a favourite with the author; for in his letters it is more than once transcribed. The first copy was sent to Mr Hill, December, 1780.

BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning;
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

"In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,

And your lordship,” he said, “will undoubtedly find, That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession, time out of mind.”

Then holding the spectacles up to the court"Your lordship observes they are made with

straddle,

As wide as the ridge of the nose is; in short
Design'd to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

66

Again, would your lordship a moment suppose ('Tis a case that has happen'd, and may be again) That the visage or countenance had not a nose,

a

Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?

"On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,

And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.”