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fence that had been broken down. The literature of our own 
day cannot be adequately understood unless its development be 
traced from earlier times. They should grasp new things by the 
hand while clinging on to the skirts of the old. Cowper was 
the herald of the modern school of poetry, he was the true 
poet of Nature—the first for many years. There were occasions 
when his heart was “ pregnant with celestial fire.’”’ He stands 
as the writer of some of the finest letters in the language. His 
works have brought pleasure and profit to tens of thousands of 
his readers. He fulfilled his own ideal of the village clergyman 
to ‘‘’stablish the strong, restore the weak, reclaim the wanderer, 
and bind the broken heart.” 
In an utilitarian age apt to disparage didactic poetry, especi- 
ally when concerned with the exposition of the doctrines of 
religion or the practice of morality, it required some courage to 
introduce Cowper to an ordinary assembly. ‘The allusion he 
makes to the author of ‘‘ The Pilgrim’s Progress,’ might be 
written of the poet himself :—‘‘ I name thee not, lest so despised 
a name should move a sneer at thy deservéd fame.’’ There 
were many marks of similarity between Bunyan and Cowper. 
The book of the former is one of true art. The scenery around 
Bedford left its impress on the writings of the recluse of Olney, 
as well as on those of the tinker of Bedford Bridge. In the 
turbid waters of that Ouse so often named by Cowper, Bunyan 
saw the likeness of the ‘river very deep’’ which had to be 
crossed before the celestial city could be reached. 
Cowper had ever received cordial recognition and unstinted 
praise at the hands of the sex whose insight into character is 
keener than that of men. Four women—worthy representatives 
of the literature of the Victorian age—had done much to remind 
the readers of the latter part of the century of the charms and 
graces of the gentle poet, and of his great services to English 
literature. These were George Eliot (in an article iu the 
Westminster Review of 1857 ;) Charlotte Bronté (in ‘Shirley ”’ 
and other works ;) Mrs. Oliphant (in her “ Historical Sketches”’ 
and her account of 19th century literature ;} and Mrs. Barrett 
Browning (in her poem on the grave of Cowper.) With such 
testimony to the work, the power, the influence of the poet, it 
mattered little that earth-born critics did sometimes blaspheme, 
and maintain that his longest work, ‘‘ The Task,” had “ verified 
its title, men wearying of it midway.” 
It is no infrequent sight to see an author’s weaknesses, his 
sufferings, his idiosyncracies reflected in his work. We, to-day, 
are free to read Cowper’s works in the light of the author's life. 
Seldom. has there been a poet, a knowledge of whose personal 
history is so necessary to the proper understanding of his books. 
Once and again in his poems we meet with allusion to 
