The answer is probably to be found in the last words of
the passage. Overstrained and ascetic piety found an antidote in
affection. The Unwins were Puritans and enthusiasts, but their
household was a picture of domestic love.

With the name of Mrs. Cowper is connected an incident which, occurred
at this time, and which illustrates the propensity to self-inspection
and self-revelation which Cowper had in common with Rousseau.
Huntingdon, like other little towns, was all eyes and gossip; the new
comer was a mysterious stranger who kept himself aloof from the general
society, and he naturally became the mark for a little stone-throwing.
Young Unwin happening to be passing near "the Park" on his way from
London to Huntingdon, Cowper gave him an introduction to its lady, in a
letter to whom he afterwards disclosed his secret motive. "My dear
Cousin,--You sent my friend Unwin home to us charmed, with your kind
reception of him, and with everything he saw at the Park. Shall I once
more give you a peep into my vile and deceitful heart? What motive do
you think lay at the bottom of my conduct when I desired him to call
upon you? I did not suspect, at first, that pride and vainglory had
any share in it, but quickly after I had recommended the visit to him,
I discovered, in that fruitful soil, the very root of the matter. You
know I am a stranger here; all such are suspected characters, unless
they bring their credentials with them. To this moment, I believe, it
is a matter of speculation in the place, whence I came, and to whom I
belong. Though my friend, you may suppose, before I was admitted an
inmate here, was satisfied that I was not a mere vagabond, and has,
since that time, received more convincing proofs of my _sponsibility_;
yet I could not resist the opportunity of furnishing him with ocular
demonstration of it, by introducing him to one of my most splendid
connexions; that when he hears me called 'that fellow Cowper,' which
has happened heretofore, he may be able, upon unquestionable evidence,
to assert my gentlemanhood, and relieve me from the weight of that
opprobrious appellation. Oh pride! pride! it deceives with the
subtlety of a serpent, and seems to walk erect, though it crawls upon
the earth. How will it twist and twine itself about to get from under
the Cross, which it is the glory of our Christian calling to be able to
bear with patience and goodwill. They who can guess at the heart of a
stranger,-