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school. Westminster was fixed on, and there he enjoyed educa tional advantages, and formed friendships with some who were afterwards known as men of talent and position ; but there he was to so great an extent the victim of the " fagging" system as to feel through life a strong dislike to public schools. Hence his severe exposure of their evils in his " Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools," written in 1784. Of this book, he says : " The business and purpose of it are to censure the want of discipline and the scandalous inattention to morals that obtain in them, especially in the largest, and to recommend private tuition as a mode of education preferable on all accounts."
At the age of eighteen, Cowper was articled for three years to an attorney ; but, not liking the law and having good prospects in life, he was " constantly employed," as he says, " from morning to night in giggling and making giggle, instead of studying the law." His companion in the office was the future Lord Chan cellor Thurlow. Up to the age of thirty-two, Cowper was engaged in the Temple, nominally preparing himself for the pro fession of a barrister, but really doing little more than cultivate literary acquaintance with his old Westminster companions, and occasionally compose a few verses, or contribute to the periodi cals. But so unimportant were his literary productions at that period of his life, that when at the age of fifty he began to publish his works, they were regarded as those of a new writer.
After spending several years in this way without any special result, and when his resources began to be reduced, his influen tial relatives obtained for him the offices of Reading Clerk and Clerk of the Committees of the House of Lords. But as these appointments involved his frequent appearance before the House, his diffidence would not allow him to retain them. 11 e was next appointed Clerk of the Journals, an office that did not require such public appearances. But, unfortunately, in consequence of the right of nomination having been disputed, it was necessary for Cowper to appear at the bar of the House before he could receive the office. This untoward circumstance quite overset his
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