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attempt the desirable excision. Let the good man, however, speak for himself: "My part would have been much smaller than it is, and the book would have appeared in a very different form, if the wise though mysterious providence of God had not seen fit to cross my wishes. We had not proceeded far upon our proposed plan before my dear friend was prevented, by a long and affecting indisposition, from affording me any further assistance. My grief and disappointment were great; I hung my harp upon the willows, and for some time thought myself determined to proceed no farther without him. Yet my mind was afterwards led to resume the service."— It was well for him, and well for the world, that he did so. The blessings of millions, on his memory, among the dead, the living, and the unborn, will justify his courage and perseverance in finishing, at his peril, an enterprise so auspiciously begun, and so lamentably interrupted. The suspension of Cowper's labours is the more to be regretted as the pieces which he did furnish towards the work few— (about sixty) in comparison with Newton's— were, nevertheless, sufficient to prove his own peculiar talent for this species of sacred song, and to disprove the unwarrantable canon of criticism which his friend thus lays down:— "There is a style and manner suited to the composition of hymns, which may be more successfully or at least more easily attained by a versifier than a poet. They should be Hymns, not Odes, if designed for public worship, and the use of plain people. Perspicuity, simplicity, and ease, should be chiefly attended to; and the imagery and colouring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged very sparingly, and with great judgment."— What does all this mean? Certainly not that mere versifiers can write hymns
