Cowper | Page 3

slave
trade was iniquitous hardly any one suspected; even men who deemed
themselves religious took part in it without scruple. But a change was
at hand, and a still mightier change was in prospect. At the time of
Cowper's birth, John Wesley was twenty-eight and Whitefield was
seventeen. With them the revival of religion was at hand. Johnson, the
moral reformer, was twenty-two. Howard was born, and in less than a
generation Wilberforce was to come.
When Cowper was six years old his mother died; and seldom has a
child, even such a child, lost more, even in a mother. Fifty years after
her death he still thinks of her, he says, with love and tenderness every
day. Late in his life his cousin Mrs. Anne Bodham recalled herself to
his remembrance by sending him his mother's picture. "Every creature,"
he writes, "that has any affinity to my mother is dear to me, and you,
the daughter of her brother, are but one remove distant from her, I love
you therefore, and love you much, both for her sake and for your own.
The world could not have furnished you with a present so acceptable to
me as the picture which you have so kindly sent me. I received it the
night before last, and received it with a trepidation of nerves and spirits
somewhat akin to what I should have felt had its dear original presented
herself to my embraces. I kissed it and hung it where it is the last object
which I see at night, and the first on which I open my eyes in the
morning. She died when I completed my sixth year; yet I remember her
well, and am an ocular witness of the great fidelity of the copy, I
remember too a multitude of the maternal tendernesses which I
received from her, and which have endeared her memory to me beyond
expression. There is in me, I believe, more of the Donne than of the
Cowper, and though I love all of both names, and have a thousand
reasons to love those of my own name, yet I feel the bond of nature
draw me vehemently to your side." As Cowper never married, there

was nothing to take the place in his heart which had been left vacant by
his mother.
My mother! when I learn'd that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou
conscious of the tears I shed? Hover'd thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son,
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun? Perhaps thou gayest me,
though unfelt, a kiss; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss-- Ah,
that maternal smile!--it answers--Yes. I heard the bell toll'd on thy
burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, And, turning
from my nursery window, drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!
But was it such?--It was.--Where thou art gone Adieus and farewells
are a sound unknown. May I but meet thee on that peaceful shore, The
parting word shall pass my lips no more! Thy maidens, grieved
themselves at my concern, Oft gave me promise of thy quick return.
What ardently I wish'd, I long believed, And disappointed still, was still
deceived; By expectation every day beguiled, Dupe of to-morrow even
from a child. Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went, Till, all my
stock of infant sorrows spent, I learn'd at last submission to my lot, But,
though I less deplored thee, ne'er forgot.
In the years that followed no doubt he remembered her too well. At six
years of age this little mass of timid and quivering sensibility was, in
accordance with the cruel custom of the time, sent to a large boarding
school. The change from home to a boarding school is bad enough now;
it was much worse in those days.
"I had hardships," says Cowper, "of various kinds to conflict with,
which I felt more sensibly in proportion to the tenderness with which I
had been treated at home. But my chief affliction consisted in my being
singled out from all the other boys by a lad of about fifteen years of age
as a proper object upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his
temper. I choose to conceal a particular recital of the many acts of
barbarity with which he made it his business continually to persecute
me. It will be sufficient to say that his savage treatment of me
impressed such a dread of his figure upon my mind, that I well
remember being afraid to lift my eyes upon him higher than to his
knees, and that I knew him better by his shoe-buckles than by any other
part of his dress. May the Lord pardon him, and may we meet in
glory!" Cowper