There was some discussion between the poet and the publisher, as to the propriety of putting poems so different in character into the same volume. The poet says to Mr. Newton: "I should blame nobody, not even my intimate friends, and those who have the most favorable opinion of me, were they to charge the publication of John Gilpin, at the end of so much solemn and serious truth, to the score of the author's vanity; and to suspect that, however sober I may be upon proper occasions, I have yet that itch of popularity that would not suffer me to sink my title to a jest that had been so successful. But the case is not such. When I sent the copy of the _Task_ to Johnson, I desired, indeed, Mr. Unwin to ask him the question, whether or not he would choose to make it a part of the volume. This I did merely with a view to promote the sale of it. Johnson answered, 'By all means.' Some months afterward, he enclosed a note to me in one of my packets, in which he expressed a change of mind, alleging, that to print John Gilpin would only be to print what had been hackneyed in every magazine, in every shop, and at the corner of every street. I answered, that I desired to be entirely governed by his opinion; and that if he chose to waive it, I should be better pleased with the omission. Nothing more passed between us on the subject, and I concluded that I should never have the immortal honor of being generally known as the author of John Gilpin. In the last packet, however, down came John, very fairly printed, and equipped for public appearance. The business having taken this turn, I concluded that Johnson had adopted my original thought, that it might prove advantageous to the sale; and as he had had the trouble and expense of printing it, I corrected the copy, and let it pass." The half-title to _John Gilpin_ in our copy reads: _The Diverting | History | Of | John Gilpin, | Shewing How He Went Farther Than He | Intended And Came Safe Home Again_. The book appeared in June, having now grown into a volume of poems, containing, as the title-page shows, four works, paged continuously. It cost four shillings, in boards. The volume was a great success, and two issues were made in the same year. These show several variations, but chiefly in the arrangement of the pages. A half-title, found in some copies, and thought to belong only to late issues, reads: _Poems, By William Cowper, Esq. Vol. II_. Herein we may possibly see Johnson's afterthought to make the book a second volume to the collection of _Poems_ issued in 1782, and referred to in the advertisement on the last page: "Lately publiſhed by the ſame Author, in one Volume of this Size. Price 4s. ſewed." It would have been a shrewd plan thus to make the successful later volume carry the unsuccessful earlier.