Excerpt from Letters of William Cowper, Vol. 1 of 2: Chosen and Edited With a Memoir and a Few Notes In making this selection from Cowper's correspondence my aim has been to cull such letters as either exhibit the charm and grace of his style at its best, or illustrate his life, character, and opinions on books, men, and affairs. In one sense it is very easy, and in another it is very difficult, to make a good selection of Cowper's letters. It is very easy, because the whole correspondence reaches so high a standard of literary excellence that any considerable number of the letters taken even at haphazard could not fail to contain much of beauty and interest. But it is just the excellence of the letters as a whole that makes it difficult to pick out those which rise a little above the general level. This, however, I have attempted to do; how far I have succeeded must be left to the reader to determine. All the letters, with a single exception, are printed from the text of Southey's edition. One letter (No. CCXCVII.) is printed, with a necessary correction, from Mr. Benham's selection in The Golden Treasury Series. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.