The judgment passed upon this set of poems at the time by the _Critical Review_ seems blasphemous to the fond biographer, and is so devoid of modern smartness as to be almost interesting as a literary fossil.

But it must be deemed essentially just, though the reviewer errs, as many reviewers have erred, in measuring the writer's capacity by the standard of his first performance.

"These poems," said the _Critical Review_, "are written, as we learn from the title-page, by Mr.Cowper of the Inner Temple, who seems to be a man of a sober and religious turn of mind, with a benevolent heart, and a serious wish to inculcate the precepts of morality; he is not, however, possessed of any superior abilities or the power of genius requisite for so arduous an undertaking.

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