HIM OUB HYMNS :
the labour of their production, but before he had contributed many hymns, he was visited with a second attack of insanity, and compelled to desist from his work. The " Olney Collection" was published in 1779, and before Cowper was known as a poet. To it Cowper contributed sixty-two hymns, and Newton 286.
In the year 1770, Cowper was distressed by the loss of his brother, to whom he was much attached, and in 1773 he sank into a state of despondency. For a long time the kindness of his friends was unavailing for his restoration. Ceasing from literary occupation, and amusing himself with his hares, whose memory he has immortalized by what he has written of them, he at length, in 1778, recovered. But it was not till 1780, and when he was nearly fifty years of age, that he began to write his poems. He says of himself: "At fifty years of age I com menced as an author ; it is a whim that has served me longest and best, and will probably be my last." He was urged to engage in the production of poetry, to occupy and amuse his mind, and to prevent it from despondency. His first volume, published in 1782, included " The Progress of Error," "Truth," "Expos tulation," " Hope," " Charity," " Conversation," and " Retire ment." On the departure of Newton to London, in 1780, his place had been supplied by the Rev. William Bull ; and, in 1781, the poet s small circle was increased by the addition of Lady Austen a lady whose vivacity and genius qualified her to cheer him in his melancholy gloom. The amusing poem. " John Gilpin," arose from a story Lady Austen related to Cowper, and at her suggestion he began, in 1784, his work, " The Task." It was at the request of Mr. Bull, that Cowper made, in 1782, his translations from the poems of Madame Guyon. Of her poetry, he says, " her verse is the only French verse I can read that I find agreeable, and there is a neatness in it equal to that which we applaud with so much reason in the composition of Prior." And on reading to his friends Pope s translation of Homer, and having often to complain of its deviations from the original, Lady Austen proposed that he should write another
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