Daily Dose

William Cowper's Letters: A Selection, edited by E. V. Lucas

OUT TEMPER

"Our temper differs somewhat from that of the ancient Jews.  They would neither dance nor weep.  We indeed weep not, if a man mourn unto us; but I must needs say, that, if he pipe, we seem disposed to dance with the greatest alacrity."

From a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated April 22, 1785

Daily Dose

From William Cowper's Letters: A Selection, edited by E. V. Lucas

SHEET

"My dear Friend -- Following your good example, I lay before me a sheet of my largest paper.  It was this moment fair and unblemished, but I have begun to blot it, and having begun, am not likely to cease till I have spoiled it,"

From a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated Sept. 18, 1784

Daily Dose

From William Cowper's Letters: A Selection, edited by E. V. Lucas

IS IT

"Is it possible that the wise men of antiquity could entertain a real reverence for the fabulous rubbish, which they dignified with the name of religion?"

From a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated July 5, 1784

Daily Dose

From William Cowper's Letters: A Selection, edited by E. V. Lucas

BUSINESS

"Business, or what presents itself to us under that imposing character, will find us out, even in the stillest retreat, and plead its importance, however trivial in reality, as a just demand on our attention."

From a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated Nov. 30, 1783

Daily Dose

From Imaginary Conversations, Fourth Volume, by Walter Savage Landor

ATHEISM

"Atheism would make some fools: superstition makes many madmen."

From Isaac Barrow, in XV, Barrow & Newton

From a Letter by William Cowper

Excerpt from a Letter by William Cowper