an eminent and learned divine of Scotland, at first attached to the
court of St. Germains, but obliged to quit it on account of his
inflexible adherence to the Protestant religion; then for some time
minister of the Episcopal church at Amsterdam, and at last collated to
the rectory of Northaw in Middlesex, by Dr. Robinson bishop of London,
at the recommendation of Queen Anne. Mr. Cockburn, his son, soon after
his marriage with our author, had the donative of Nayland in Sussex,
where he settled in the same year 1708; but returned afterwards from
thence to London, to be curate of St. Dunstan's in Fleet-street, where
he continued 'till the accession of his late majesty to the throne, when
falling into a scruple about the oath of abjuration, though he always
prayed for the King and Royal Family by name, he was obliged to quit
that station, and for ten or twelve years following was reduced to great
difficulties in the support of his family; during which time he
instructed the youth of the academy in Chancery-Lane, in the Latin
tongue. At last, in 1726, by consulting the lord chancellor King and his
own father, upon the sense and intent of that oath, and by reading some
papers put into his hands, with relation to it, he was reconciled to the
taking of it. In consequence of this, being the year following invited
to be minister of the Episcopal congregation at Aberdeen in Scotland, he
qualified himself conformably to the law, and, on the day of his present
Majesty's accession, preached a sermon there on the duty and benefit of
praying for the government. This sermon being printed and animadverted
upon, he published a reply to the remarks on it, with some papers
relating to the oath of abjuration, which have been much esteemed. Soon
after his settlement at Aberdeen, the lord chancellor presented him to
the living of Long-Horsely, near Morpeth in Northumberland, as a means
of enabling him to support and educate his family; for which purpose he
was allowed to continue his function at Aberdeen, 'till the negligence
and ill-behaviour of the curates, whom he employed at Long Horsely,
occasioned Dr. Chandler, the late bishop of Durham, to call him to
residence on that living, 1737; by which means he was forced to quit his
station at Aberdeen, to the no small diminution of his income. He was a
man of considerable learning; and besides his sermon abovementioned, and
the vindication of it, he published, in the Weekly Miscellany, A Defence
of Prime Ministers, in the Character of Joseph; and a Treatise of the
Mosaic Design, published since his death.
Mrs. Cockburn, after her marriage, was entirely diverted from her
studies for many years, by attending tending upon the duties of a wife
and a mother, and by the ordinary cares of an encreasing family, and the
additional ones arising from the reduced circumstances of her husband.
However, her zeal for Mr. Lock's character and writings drew her again
into the public light in 1716, upon this occasion.
Dr. Holdsworth, fellow of St. John's College in Oxford, had preached on
Easter-Monday, 1719 20, before that university, a sermon on John v. 28,
29, which he published, professing in his title page to examine and
answer the Cavils, False Reasonings, and False Interpretations of
Scripture, of Mr. Lock and others, against the Resurrection of the Same
Body. This sermon did not reach Mrs. Cockburn's hands 'till some years
after; when the perusal of it forced from her some animadversions, which
she threw together in the form of a letter to the Dr. and sent to him in
May 1724, with a design of suppressing it entirely, if it should have
the desired effect upon him. After nine months the Dr. informed her,
that he had drawn up a large and particular answer to it, but was
unwilling to trust her with his manuscript, 'till she should publish her
own. However, after a long time, and much difficulty, she at last
obtained the perusal of his answer; but not meeting with that conviction
from it, which would have made her give up her cause, she was prevailed
on to let the world judge between them, and accordingly published her
Letter to Dr. Holdsworth, in January 1726 7, without her name, but said
in the title page to be by the author of, A Defence of Mr. Lock's Essay
of Human Understanding. The Dr. whose answer to it was already finished,
was very expeditious in the publication of it in June 1727, in an 8vo
volume, under the title of A Defence of the Doctrine of the Resurrection
of the same Body, &c.
Mrs. Cockburn wrote a very particular reply to this, and entitled it, A
Vindication of Mr. Lock's Principles, from the injurious Imputations of
Dr. Holdsworth. But though it is an admirable performance, and she was
extremely desirous of doing justice to Mr. Lock and herself, yet not
meeting with any Bookseller willing to undertake, nor herself being able
to support the expence of the impression, it continued in manuscript,
and was reserved to enrich the collection published after her death.
Her Remarks upon some Writers in the Controversy concerning the
Foundation of Moral Duty and Moral Obligation were begun during the
winter of the year 1739, and finished in the following one; for the
weakness of her eyes, which had been a complaint of many years standing,
not permitting her to use, by candlelight, her needle, which so fully
employed her in the summer season, that she read little, and wrote less;
she amused herself, during the long winter-evenings, in digesting her
thoughts upon the most abstract subjects in morality and metaphysics.
They continued in manuscript till 1743, for want of a Bookseller
inclined to accept the publication of them, and were introduced to the
world in August that year, in The History of the Works of the Learned.
Her name did not go with them, but they were Inscribed with the utmost
Deference to Alexander Pope, Esq; by an Admirer of his moral Character;
for which she shews a remarkable zeal in her letters, whenever she has
occasion to mention him. And her high opinion of him in that respect,
founded chiefly on his writings, and especially his letters, as well as
her admiration of his genius, inspired her with a strong desire of being
known to him; for which purpose she drew up a pretty long letter to him
about the year 1738: but it was never sent. The strength, clearness, and
vivacity shewn in her Remarks upon the most abstract and perplexed
questions, immediately raised the curiosity of all good judges about the
concealed writer; and their admiration was greatly increased when her
sex and advanced age were known. And the worthy Dr. Sharp[3], archdeacon
of Northumberland, who had these Remarks in manuscript, and encouraged
the publication of them, being convinced by them, that no person was
better qualified for a thorough examination of the grounds of morality,
entered into a correspondence with her upon that subject. But her ill
state of health at last interrupted her prosecution of it; a
circumstance to be regretted, since a discussion carried on with so much
sagacity and candour on both sides, would, in all probability, have left
little difficulty remaining on the question.
Dr. Rutherforth's Essay on the Nature and Obligations of virtue,
published in May 1744, soon engaged her thoughts, and notwithstanding
the asthmatic disorder, which had seized her many years before, and now
left her small intervals of ease, she applied herself to the confutation
of that elaborate discourse; and having finished it with a spirit,
elegance, and perspicuity equal, if not superior to all her former
writings, transmitted her manuscript to Mr. Warburton, who published it
in 8vo. with a Preface of his own, in April 1747, under the title of
Remarks upon the Principles and Reasonings of Dr. Rutherforth's Essay on
the Nature and Obligations of Virtue, in Vindication of the contrary
Principles and Reasons inforced in the Writings of the late Dr. Samuel
Clark.
The extensive reputation which this and her former writings had gained
her, induced her friends to propose to her, the collecting and
publishing them in a body. And upon her consenting to the scheme, which
was to be executed by subscription, in order to secure to her the full
benefit of the edition, it met with a ready encouragement from all
persons of true taste; but though Mrs. Cockburn did not live to
discharge the office of editor, yet the public has received the
acquisition by her death, of a valuable series of letters, which her own
modesty would have restrained her from permitting to see the light. And
it were to be wished that these two volumes, conditioned for by the
terms of subscription, could have contained all her dramatic writings,
of which only one is here published. But as that was impossible, the
preference was, upon the maturest deliberation, given to those in prose,
as superior in their kind to the most perfect of her poetical, and of
more general and lasting use to the world.
The loss of her husband on the 4th of January 1748, in the 71st year of
his age, was a severe shock to her; and she did not long survive him,
dying on the 11th of May, 1749, in her 71st year, after having long
supported a painful disorder, with a resignation to the divine will,
which had been the governing principle of her whole life, and her
support under the various trials of it. Her memory and understanding
continued unimpaired, 'till within a few days of her death. She was
interred near her husband and youngest daughter at Long-Horsley, with
this short sentence on their tomb:
Let their works praise them in the gates.
Prov. xxxi. 31.
They left only one son, who is clerk of the cheque at Chatham, and two
daughters.
Mrs. Cockburn was no less celebrated for her beauty, in her younger
days, than for her genius and accomplishments. She was indeed small of
stature, but had a remarkable liveliness in her eye, and delicacy of
complexion, which continued to her death. Her private character rendered
her extremely amiable to those who intimately knew her. Her conversation
was always innocent, useful and agreeable, without the least affectation
of being thought a wit, and attended with a remarkable modesty and
diffidence of herself, and a constant endeavour to adapt her discourse
to her company. She was happy in an uncommon evenness and chearfulness
of temper. Her disposition was generous and benevolent; and ready upon
all occasions to forgive injuries, and bear them, as well as
misfortunes, without interrupting her own ease, or that of others, with
complaints or reproaches. The pressures of a very contracted fortune
were supported by her with calmness and in silence; nor did she ever
attempt to improve it among those great personages to whom she was
known, by importunities; to which the best minds are most averse, and
which her approved merit and established reputation mould have rendered
unnecessary.
The collection now exhibited to the world is, says Dr. Birch, and we
entirely agree with him, so incontestable a proof of the superiority of
our author's genius, as in a manner supersedes every thing that can be
said upon that head. But her abilities as a writer, and the merit of her
works, will not have full justice done them, without a due attention to
the peculiar circumstances, in which they were produced: her early
youth, when she wrote some, her very advanced age, and ill state of
health, when she drew up others; the uneasy situation of her fortune,
during the whole course of her life; and an interval of near twenty
years in the vigour of it, spent in the cares of a family, without the
least leisure for reading or contemplation: after which, with a mind so
long diverted and incumbered, resuming her studies, she instantly
recovered its intire powers, and in the hours of relaxation from her
domestic employments, pursued, to their utmost limits, some of the
deepest enquiries of which the human mind is capable!
CONTENTS of the First Volume of Mrs. COCKBURN'S Works.
I. A Discourse concerning a Guide in Controversy. First published in
1707, with a preface by bishop Burnet.
II. A Defence of Mr. Lock's Essay of Human Understanding. First
published in 1702.
III. A Letter to Dr. Holdsworth, concerning the Resurrection of the
same Body. First published in 1726.
IV. A Vindication of Mr. Lock's Christian Principles, from the
injurious Imputations of Dr. Holdsworth. Now first published.
V. Remarks upon some Writers in the Controversy, concerning the
Foundation of Moral Virtue, and Moral Obligation. With some Thoughts
concerning Necessary Existence; the Reality and Infinity of Space; the
Extension and Place of Spirits; and on Dr. Watts's Notion of Substance.
First published in 1743.
CONTENTS of the Second Volume.
I. Remarks upon Dr. Rutherforth's Essay on the Nature and Obligations of
Virtue. First published in the year 1747.
II. Miscellaneous Pieces. Now first printed. Containing a Letter of
Advice to her Son.--Sunday's Journal.--On the Usefulness of Schools and
Universities.--On the Credibility of the Historical Parts of Scripture.
--On Moral Virtue.--Notes on Christianity as old as the Creation.--On
the Infallibility of the Church of Rome.--Answer to a Question
concerning the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate over the Life of the
Subject.--Remarks on Mr. Seed's Sermon on Moral Virtue.--Remarks upon
an Enquiry into the Origin of Human Appetites and Affections.
III. Letters between Mrs. Cockburn and several of her Friends. These
take up the greatest part of the volume.
IV. Letters between the Rev. Dr. Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland and
Mrs. Cockburn concerning the Foundation of Moral Virtue.
V. Fatal Friendship, a Tragedy.
VI. Poems on several Occasions. There are very few of these, and what
there are, are of little note. Her poetical talent was the smallest and
least valuable of our author's literary accomplishments.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Historia Mulierum Philosopharum. 8vo. Lyons. 1690.
[2] Dr. Birch mentions also Mr. Higgons's verses on this occasion, and
gives a copy of a complimentary letter to our author, from Mr.
George Farquhar.
[3] Author of an excellent pamphlet, entitled, Two Dissertations
concerning the Etymology and Scripture-meaning of the Hebrew Words
Elohim and Berith. Vide Monthly Review.
* * * * *
AMBROSE PHILLIPS, ESQ;
This Gentleman was descended from a very ancient, and considerable
family in the county of Leicester, and received his education in St.
John's college Cambridge, where he wrote his Pastorals, a species of
excellence, in which he is thought to have remarkably distinguished
himself. When Mr. Philips quitted the university, and repaired to the
metropolis, he became, as Mr. Jacob phrases it, one of the wits at
Buttons; and in consequence of this, contracted an acquaintance with
those bright genius's who frequented it; especially Sir Richard Steele,
who in the first volume of his Tatler inserts a little poem of this
author's dated from Copenhagen, which he calls a winter piece; Sir
Richard thus mentions it with honour. 'This is as fine a piece, as we
ever had from any of the schools of the most learned painters; such
images as these give us a new pleasure in our fight, and fix upon our
minds traces of reflexion, which accompany us wherever the like objects
occur.'
This short performance which we shall here insert, was reckoned so
elegant, by men of taste then living, that Mr. Pope himself, who had a
confirmed aversion to Philips, when he affected to despise his other
works, always excepted this out of the number.
It is written from Copenhagen, addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and
dated the 9th of May 1709.
A WINTER PIECE.
From frozen climes, and endless tracks of snow,
From streams that northern winds forbid to flow;
What present shall the Muse to Dorset bring,
Or how, so near the Pole, attempt to sing?
The hoary winter here conceals from sight,
All pleasing objects that to verse invite.
The hills and dales, and the delightful woods,
The flow'ry plains, and silver streaming floods,
By snow distinguished in bright confusion lie,
And with one dazling waste, fatigue the eye.
No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the desart region sing.
The ships unmov'd the boist'rous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vast Leviathan wants room to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day.
The starving wolves along the main sea prowl,
And to the moon in icy valleys howl,
For many a shining league the level main,
Here spreads itself into a glassy plain:
There solid billows of enormous size,
Alps of green ice, in wild disorder rise.
And yet but lately have I seen ev'n here,
The winter in a lovely dress appear.
Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasur'd snow,
Or winds begun through hazy skies to blow;
At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose;
And the descending rain unsully'd froze.
Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn disclos'd at once to view,
The face of nature in a rich disguise,
And brighten'd every object to my eyes:
And ev'ry shrub, and ev'ry blade of grass,
And ev'ry pointed thorn seem'd wrought in glass.
In pearls and rubies rich, the hawthorns show,
While through the ice the crimson berries glow.
The thick sprung reeds, the watry marshes yield,
Seem polish'd lances in a hostile field.
The flag in limpid currents with surprize,
Sees crystal branches on his fore-head rise.
The spreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing æther shine.
The frighted birds, the rattling branches shun.
That wave and glitter in the distant sun.
When if a sudden gust of wind arise,
The brittle forest into atoms flies:
The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends,
And in a spangled show'r the prospect ends.
Or, if a southern gale the region warm,
And by degrees unbind the wintry charm,
The traveller, a miry country sees,
And journeys sad beneath the dropping trees.
Like some deluded peasant, Merlin leads
Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and thro' delicious meads;
While here inchanted gardens to him rise,
And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
His wand'ring feet the magic paths pursue;
And while he thinks the fair illusion true,
The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air,
And woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear:
A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
And, as he goes, the transient vision mourns.
But it was not enough for Sir Richard to praise this performance of Mr.
Philips. He was also an admirer of his Pastorals, which had then
obtained a great number of readers: He was about to form a Critical
Comparison of Pope's Pastorals, and these of Mr. Philips; and giving in
the conclusion, the preference to the latter. Sir Richard's design being
communicated to Mr. Pope, who was not a little jealous of his
reputation, he took the alarm; and by the most artful and insinuating
method defeated his purpose.
The reader cannot be ignorant, that there are several numbers in the
Guardian, employed upon Pastoral Poetry, and one in particular, upon the
merits of Philips and Pope, in which the latter is found a better
versifier; but as a true Arcadian, the preference is given to Philips.
That we may be able to convey a perfect idea of the method which Mr.
Pope took to prevent the diminution of his reputation, we shall
transcribe the particular parts of that paper in the Guardian, Number
XL. Monday April the 27th.
I designed to have troubled the reader with no farther discourses of
Pastorals, but being informed that I am taxed of partiality, in not
mentioning an author, whose Eclogues are published in the same volume
with Mr. Philips's, I shall employ this paper in observations upon him,
written in the free spirit of criticism, and without apprehensions of
offending that gentleman, whose character it is, that he takes the
greatest care of his works before they are published, and has the least
concern for them afterwards. I have laid it down as the first rule of
Pastoral, that its idea should be taken from the manners of the Golden
Age, and the moral formed upon the representation of innocence; 'tis
therefore plain, that any deviations from that design, degrade a poem
from being true Pastoral.
So easy as Pastoral writing may seem (in the simplicity we have
described it) yet it requires great reading, both of the ancients and
moderns, to be a master of it. Mr. Philips hath given us manifest proofs
of his knowledge of books; it must be confessed his competitor has
imitated some single thoughts of the antients well enough, if we
consider he had not the happiness of an university education: but he
hath dispersed them here and there without that order and method Mr.
Philips observes, whose whole third pastoral, is an instance how well he
studied the fifth of Virgil, and how judiciously he reduced Virgil's
thoughts to the standard of pastoral; and his contention of Colin Clout,
and the Nightingale, shews with what exactness he hath imitated Strada.
When I remarked it as a principal fault to introduce fruits, and flowers
of a foreign growth in descriptions, where the scene lies in our
country, I did not design that observation should extend also to
animals, or the sensitive life; for Philips hath with great judgment
described wolves in England in his first pastoral. Nor would I have a
poet slavishly confine himself, (as Mr. Pope hath done) to one
particular season of the year, one certain time of the day, and one
unbroken scene in each Eclogue. It is plain, Spencer neglected this
pedantry, who in his Pastoral of November, mentions the mournful song of
the Nightingale.
Sad Philomel, her song in tears doth sleep.
And Mr. Philips by a poetical creation, hath raised up finer beds of
flowers, than the most industrious gardener; his roses, lilies, and
daffadils, blow in the same season.
But the better to discover the merit of our two cotemporary pastoral
writers. I shall endeavour to draw a parallel of them, by placing
several of their particular thoughts in the same light; whereby it will
be obvious, how much Philips hath the advantage: With what simplicity he
introduces two shepherds singing alternately.
HOBB.
Come Rosalind, O come, for without thee
What pleasure can the country have for me?
Come Rosalind, O come; my brinded kine,
My snowy sheep, my farm and all is thine.
LANG.
Come Rosalind, O come; here shady bowers.
Here are cool fountains, and here springing flowers.
Come Rosalind; here ever let us stay,
And sweetly waste our live-long time away.
Our other pastoral writer in expressing the same thought, deviates into
downright poetry.
STREPHON.
In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love,
At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,
But Delia always; forc'd from Delia's sight,
Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight.
DAPHNE.
Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May,
More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day;
Ev'n spring displeases when she shines not here:
But blest with her, 'tis spring throughout the year.
In the first of these authors, two shepherds thus innocently describe
the behaviour of their mistresses.
HOBB.
As Marian bath'd, by chance I passed by;
She blush'd, and at me cast a side-long eye:
Then swift beneath, the crystal waves she tried,
Her beauteous form, but all in vain, to hide.
LANG.
As I to cool me bath'd one sultry day,
Fond Lydia lurking in the sedges lay,
The woman laugh'd, and seem'd in haste to fly;
Yet often stopp'd, and often turn'd her eye.
The other modern (who it must be confess'd has a knack at versifying)
has it as follows,
STREPHON.
Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,
Thus, hid in shades, eludes her eager swain;
But feigns a laugh, to see me search around,
And by that laugh the willing fair is found.
DAPHNE.
The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green;
She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen;
While a kind glance, at her pursuer flies,
How much at variance are her feet and eyes.
There is nothing the writers of this kind of poetry are fonder of, than
descriptions of pastoral presents.
Philips says thus of a Sheep-hook.
Of season'd elm, where studs of brass appear,
To speak the giver's name, the month, and year;
The hook of polished steel, the handle turn'd,
And richly by the graver's skill adorn'd.
The other of a bowl embossed with figures,
--Where wanton ivy twines,
And swelling clusters bend the curling vines,
Four figures rising from the work appear,
The various seasons of the rolling year;
And what is that which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve bright signs, in beauteous order lye.
The simplicity of the swain in this place who forgets the name of the
Zodiac, is no ill imitation of Virgil; but how much more plainly, and
unaffectedly would Philips have dressed this thought in his Doric.
And what that height, which girds the welkin-sheen
Where twelve gay signs in meet array are seen.
If the reader would indulge his curiosity any farther in the comparison
of particulars, he may read the first Pastoral of Philips, with the
second of his contemporary, and the fourth and fifth of the former, with
the fourth and first of the latter; where several parallel places will
occur to every one.