Thurlow and Colman did not even acknowledge their copies,
and were lashed for their breach of friendship with rather more vigour
than the Moral Satires display, in _The Valedictory_, which unluckily
survived for posthumous publication, when the culprits had made their
peace.
Cowper certainly misread himself if he believed that ambition, even
literary ambition, was a large element in his character. But having
published, he felt a keen interest in the success of his publication.
Yet he took its failure and the adverse criticism very calmly. With
all his sensitiveness, from irritable and suspicious egotism, such as
is the most common cause of moral madness, he was singularly free. In
this respect his philosophy served him well.
It may safely be said that the Moral Satires would have sunk into
oblivion if they had not been buoyed up by _The Task_.
CHAPTER V.
THE TASK.
Mrs. Unwin's influence produced the Moral Satires. _The Task_ was born
of a more potent inspiration. One day Mrs.
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