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William Cowper's letters are renowned for their seemingly effortless spontaneity. He once asked his young friend William Unwin: "If a Man may Talk without thinking, why may he not Write upon the same Terms"" (6 August 1780). Certainly, Cowper wrote letters quickly and decisively, his manuscripts showing little or no sign of hesitation or revision. Although the letters appear artless, Cowper claimed that the "familiar stile" was the most difficult in which to succeed. Yet, his fluent turns of phrase were obviously released at the moment pen was put to paper. Cowper facetiously commented on the virtues of haphazardness when he wryly asserted in a 5 April 1783 letter to John Newton: "When one has a Letter to write there is nothing more usefull than to make a Beginning. In the first place, because unless it be begun, there is no good reason to hope that it will ever be ended." In a more serious vein Cowper felt it essential that one not write without thinking "but always without premeditation." As a result, Cowper "speaks" to us in his letters, and his conversation is, by turns, filled with gossip, village news, advice, humorous anecdotes, and self-reflection.
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