Books: Odd Scrambling Fellow

THE SELECTED LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER (306 pp.)—Edited by Mark Van Doren—Farrar, Straus & Young ($3.50).

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

At William Cowper's kindly beckoning, the readers of two centuries have lulled away many a peaceful evening—cheered, but never inebriated—at the mild brew of...

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