His father, the
Rev. John Cowper, D.D., was chaplain to George II. His mother was a
Donne, of the race of the poet, and descended by several lines from
Henry III. A Whig and a gentleman he was by birth, a Whig and a
gentleman he remained to the end. He was born on the 15th November
(old style), 1731, in his father's rectory of Berkhampstead. From
nature he received, with a large measure of the gifts of genius, a
still larger measure of its painful sensibilities. In his portrait; by
Romney the brow bespeaks intellect, the features feeling and
refinement, the eye madness. The stronger parts of character, the
combative and propelling forces he evidently lacked from the beginning.
For the battle of life he was totally unfit. His judgment in its
healthy state was, even on practical questions, sound enough, as his
letters abundantly prove; but his sensibility not only rendered him
incapable of wrestling with a rough world, but kept him always on the
verge of madness, and frequently plunged him into it.
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