——“He that depends
“Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,
“And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?
“With every minute you do change a mind,
“And call him noble that was now your hate;
“Him vile that was your garland.”
Coriolanus, Act I.
Even our immortal Cowper experienced the severity of popular caprice. So diffidently did he think of his abilities, that he offered his first poems to his publisher; reserving only as a remuneration, a few copies to present to his friends, from an apprehension that his works might produce rather loss than profit. These productions were, on their first appearance, very rudely handled by most of the reviewers, and nearly the whole of the copies lay like so much waste paper for a long time in the bookseller’s shop.
Some time afterwards, not wholly discouraged by this mortifying neglect, he presented through the hands of a friend, his manuscript copy of that divine poem, “The Task” upon the same terms, the merit of which, dispelled the folly or ignorance of the town, as the rays of the sun pierce through and absorb the mist, and Cowper took a high rank amongst the living great men of his century; the fame of “The Task” brought into light his former discarded productions, and their sale has ever since continued to augment the wealth of his bookseller, the venerable and much respected Johnson.
The following very interesting and extraordinary circumstance occurred at Dort in the year 1785, which is still the frequent narrative of the young and old of that city, who relate it with mingled sensations of awe and delight, as an interposition of Divine Providence in favour of a widow and her family of this city. This woman, who was very industrious, was left by her husband, an eminent carpenter, a comfortable house with some land, and two boats for carrying merchandize and passengers on the canals. She was also supposed to be worth ten thousand guilders in ready money, which she employed in a hempen and sail-cloth manufactory, for the purpose of increasing her fortune and instructing her children (a son and two daughters) in useful branches of business.