Distant he droops, and that once gladdening eye Now languid gleams, e'en when his friends are nigh. Through this known walk, where weedy gravel lies, Stray through the darken'd chambers' naked bound, Ere yet I go, who may return no more, Now the low beams, with paper garlands hung, 1. 19. Now the low beams-The ancient custom of hanging a garland of white roses, made of writing paper, and a pair of white gloves, over the pew of the unmarried villagers, who die in the flower of their age, is observed to this day in the village of EYAM, and in most other villages and little towns in the Peak. Draw the soft tear, from thrill'd remembrance sprung, But O! thou blank, and silent pulpit !—thou, Of eloquence paternal, nervous, clear, Dim Apparition thou-and bitter is my tear! REMONSTRANCE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ. IN 1788, ON THE SARCASMS LEVELLED AT NATIONAL GRATITUDE IN THE TASK.* 'I WOULD not enter on my list of friends, "Tho' grac'd with polish'd manners," tho' endow'd With talents destin'd to immortal fame, But wanting generosity, the man Who darts the blighting of satiric wit, Lanc'd from a spleenful heart, or sullen weaves Against a nation's praise, its grateful praise, * These verses were not sent to Mr Cowper, on account of the reported depression on his spirits, and were during his lifetime, for the same reason, with-held from the press. 1. 1. I would not enter, &c.-The line and half, with which this poem opens, are taken from the TASK. So says its author of those who feel no pang of conscience for having set their foot upon a noisome reptile. Pour'd for the assiduous culture of those gifts The fervent tribute of each thankful heart For true delights and pure, receiv'd from Man, For happiness and HEAVEN. O! wintry Spirit, Against the loveliest and most generous rites 1. 22. Bolt of sarcasm-See the invidious ridicule of the Stratford jubilee in the 6th Book of the TASK, a poem whose descriptive powers are always admirable, and whose morality and piety are often sublime. At the bright shrine of Genius! Look'st thou back 1. 2. Grudging eyes-The use of that word here has been objected to, as too low an expression and unmusical ; but surely it had been unwise to have expunged it, because it may be familiar in the dialect of our peasantry, since the English vocabulary has no word which would exactly give its meaning in the two passages where it occurs in this Remonstrance. Learned men have asserted, that grudge has no precise synonime in any language. Its harsh sound, where an harsh feeling is to be expressed, cannot be a just objection. Neither the words en vious, or malignant, nor yet unwilling, or reluctant, convey its perfect meaning. The two first are too strong, the second not strong enough. Grudge is a word so peculiar in its signification, that it should not be banished from serious poetry. It stands between unwillingness that our neighbour should possess a certain good, and hating, or envying him its possession. Grudge denotes a feeling stronger than reluctance, yet less bitter than hatred, less vile than envy; and finally, it has been used by our best writers in their serious strains, as the authorities in Johnson's Dictionary prove. If false refinement has rejected any word, the loss of which cannot with precision be supplied, and which has no indecent meaning, those who wish rather to write nervously than nicely, should endeavour, by using it themselves, to recall the exile. Cowper, in the Task, has the word grudge twice, see book iii. page 119, first edition, |