Excerpt from Life of William Cowper: With Selections From His Correspondence In the present case, the Private Memoir, written by Cowper himself, of the first thirty-four years of his life, is the only document which can be called authentic; and which has some sort of completeness. It is given entire-in the Appendix to the present volume. But this narrative includes only the first and most barren portion of the poet's life. The other biographies of Cowper which exist could neither be copied nor abridged. The two principal writers, Hayley and Southey, were each wholly unfit for the task, from their want of appreciation of the poet's views and feelings. We do not usually look to an ardent Churchman as the fittest person to de lineate the character of an eminent Dissenter. A Jesuit, however able, would not be the right per son to frame a memoir of an eminent Jansenist. 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.