Besides Mr. Cowley’s works already mentioned, we have, by the fame hand, A Proposition for the advancement of Experimental Philosophy.  A Discourse, by way of Vision, concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwel, and several Discourses, by way of Essays, in Prose and Verse.  Mr. Cowley had designed a Discourse on Stile, and a Review of the Principles of the Primitive Christian Church, but was prevented by death.  In Mr. Dryden’s Miscellany Poems, we find a poem on the Civil War, said to be written by our author, but not extant in any edition of his works:  Dr. Sprat mentions, as very excellent in their kind, Mr. Cowley’s Letters to his private friends, none of which were published.  As a poet, Mr. Cowley has had tribute paid him from the greatest names in all knowledge, Dryden, Addison, Sir John Denham, and Pope.  He is blamed for a redundance of wit, and roughness of verification, but is allowed to have possessed a fine understanding, great reading, and a variety of genius.  Let us see how Mr. Addison characterizes him in his Account of the great English Poets.

  Great Cowley then (a mighty genius) wrote,
  O’errun with wit, and lavish of his thought;
  His turns too closely on the readers press,
  He more had pleased us, had he pleased us less: 
  One glittering thought no sooner strikes our eyes,
  With silent wonder, but new wonders rise. 
  As in the milky way, a shining white
  O’erflows the heavens with one continued light;
  That not a single star can shew his rays,
  Whilst jointly all promote the common blaze. 
  Pardon, great poet, that I dare to name,
  Th’ uncumber’d beauties of thy verse with blame;
  Thy fault is only wit in its’ excess,
  But wit like thine, in any shape will please.

In his public capacity, he preserved an inviolable honour and loyalty, and exerted great activity, with discernment:  in private life, he was easy of access, gentle, polite, and modest; none but his intimate friends ever discovered, by his discourse, that he was a great poet; he was generous in his disposition, temperate in his life, devout and pious in his religion, a warm friend, and a social companion.  Such is the character of the great Mr. Cowley, who deserves the highest gratitude from posterity, as well for his public as private conduct.  He never prostituted his muse to the purposes of lewdness and folly, and it is with pleasure we can except him from the general, and too just, charge brought against the poets, That they have abilities to do the greatest service, and by misdirecting them, too frequently fawn the harlot face of loose indulgence, and by dressing up pleasure in an elegant attire, procure votaries to her altar, who pay too dear for gazing at the shewy phantom by loss of their virtue.  It is no compliment to the taste of the present age, that the works of Mr. Cowley are falling into disesteem; they certainly contain more wit, and good sense, than the works of many other