"So may'st thou prove her bounteous worth, "Dear spotless votary at her shrine, "So relish the prime sweets of earth, "Endear❜d to thee as gifts divine. "Thou to thyself these precepts suit! "Armour to grace thee, or defend ! "And when thy poet's lyre is mute, "Find in his verse a bosom friend!" END OF THE FIRST PART. PART THE SECOND. At tibi Pieriæ tenero sub pectore curæ, Et pudor, et docti legem sibi dicere mores; Tunc hilaris probitas, et frons tranquilla, nitorque STATIUS, Sylv. Lib. v. To visit a poet so illustrious as Cowper, and to reside a few months in a northern academy, appeared great events to the young sprightly scholar of Eartham, and prevented his feeling any melancholy sensation in bidding adieu to that favourite spot, especially as he quitted it in the society of his father. It was their felicity and their pride to prove, in all seasons, most agreeable companions to each other. A letter to Mrs. Hayley at Derby, dated October 21, 1793, gives the following account of their arrival at Weston: “I hasten to inform you that we reached the dear bard of. "Weston last night, and found him as well as a very feeling 66 mortal can be, who is watching with affectionate care a life " inexpressibly valuable to him, and suspended by a thread so singularly worn, that its duration is wonderful. 66 66 66 66 "We are tolerably well after our journey, and the dear "little traveller has supported his fatigue better than I expected, for, unfortunately, he was somewhat of an invalid "just before we began to prepare for our excursion, and his indisposition afflicted me the more, as I was chiefly the cause "of it. In my zeal to blend for him as much pleasure and improvement as I could, before he departed from the South, "I suffered him to attend some lectures of Walker, the respectable philosopher, at Chichester, and also to bathe "at Felpham. His spirit carried him beyond his strength, "in daily exercise, and for a few days he alarmed me much "with symptoms of fever, and a severe headache, but season"able care has (I thank Heaven) so far restored him, that "he suffered but little from one fatiguing day in London, 66 66 66 and, I trust, about a week's rest here will make him as stout as we can wish. He is at present perfectly free "from pain, and indeed from all appearance of illness, "except a degree of languor and internal chilliness, which "is not usual with him, and which I attribute, partly to his late disorder, and partly to those sensations of the heart, which naturally belong to a youth, on the point "of removing, for the first time, to a considerable distance from the nest in which he has been reared. We "are too manly, however, to allow any undue influence to "those sensations." 66 A subsequent letter to the same lady describes the young traveller's recovery, and employment at Weston. "He has been very well (I thank Heaven) since he got some comfortable rest, in this quiet, and friendly retreat. He has " also been honoured with the occupation of transcribing cor"rections of the English Homer, for our dear bard of Weston, " and I hope we shall dispatch him to you, quite himself, the 66 beginning of next week. He is bold, and economical enough "to wish that I would save a few shillings, in letting him pro"ceed alone, by some chance carriage, to Northampton, where he must sleep, and be ready for the mail-coach, between five " and six in the morning; but as he has been so lately an invalid, I shall send him, I believe, with an attendant in a chaise. I flatter myself, he may find the little academy of Mr. Ward so pleasing and so advantageous a situation, that I shall, perhaps, be contented to let him remain there for three, or possibly for six months; and, as his primary object, in travelling to the North, is to pay his tender respects to you, "I decidedly wish him to visit you exactly as you yourself may 66 66 66 think most for your pleasure and convenience; and to pay such attention to his books, as you, I am confident, will "kindly recommend to him." The father of Alphonso, perfectly conscious of the extreme solicitude with which Mrs. Hayley had cultivated his early childhood, and of her affectionate desire to see him rendered, by the most careful education, an accomplished character, was anxious to indulge her in her wish. In doing so, he was obliged to combat his own tenderness, for, satisfied as he was in regard to the intelligent care that he knew she would take of her young visitor, his own delight in the daily society of this engaging disciple was so great, that to part with him for months, was, in truth, an effort of painful resolution. That it was so, appears forcibly in the following close of the letter last quoted. That letter had been kept open for the arrival of the post from Derby, and, in his instant reply, Hayley said, 66 As your kind letter expresses a desire to see your little "visitant so soon, and as my parting from him is something like 66 66 a chirurgical operation, and the sooner it is over the better, "we have decided to dispatch him this very day. I will write again very soon, when I hope to have more tranquillity of "head and heart than I possess in this moment, of bidding my "dear disciple adieu." In his next letter to the same correspondent, the father says, 66 66 66 66 "I dispatched my dear disciple so speedily on your kind summons, that I had neither time nor tranquillity enough to thank you, as I ought, for the considerate kindness of all your plan to render his arrival and settlement in a new system both pleasant and profitable. You will easily believe, “that I felt his departure like the amputation of a limb. "It was painful enough to both, and indeed, as the feeling Cowper observed, 'It would have done our hearts no credit " to have bid adieu to each other, without a pang of tenderness and regret.'" 66 Several incidents conspired to make this parting peculiarly |