74 
The same great kings of melody are also omitted from Dr. 
Johnson’s ‘‘ Lives of the most eminent English Poets.” To 
such a level had the literary criticism of the eighteenth century 
fallen. But if Cowper were wanting in respect for the great 
names of the Elizabethan age, he had the deepest reverence for 
the divine Milton, and in defence of the Puritan Poet, took up 
the cudgels against the great Dictator in literature. Johnson’s 
neglect of the two greatest names in our literature may be partly 
explained by the knowledge of his hatred of blank verse, which 
he said was “ verse only to the eye.”’ Milton was Cowper’s life- 
long study and model. It was not the least of Lady Austen’s 
charms for the poet that she was an assiduous student of Milton, 
and knew by heart nearly the whole of ‘‘ Paradise Lost.” One 
of the best known of the Olney hymns, ‘‘ Here may we prove 
the power of prayer,” clearly had its origin in the closing lines 
of “Il Penseroso.”’ After reading Johnson’s Lives, Cowper said 
it was a melancholy reflection forced upon him by that work that 
nearly all poets were wicked men, and in his first published poem 
he said it was a pity that “ Religion had so seldom found, 
A skilful guide into poetic ground.’”’ Our author wrote 68 hymns, 
some of which are incorporated in almost every hymn book, and 
have become part of the heritage of Christendom. 
A recent critic tells us that Cowper “ introduced the theological 
element into English poetry, and it has worked ill both for poetry 
and theology.’ But surely there could be no nobler theme than 
that which the records of the Christian religion present, The 
greatest masters in painting, in song, and in music, have given 
their best powers to the illustration of the Scripture narrative. 
Cowper lived in a time of religious darkness. To aid in the 
reformation of abuses in the Church a poet was needed. “A 
verse may find him who a sermon flies.”” Cowper was well fitted 
for the duty. He had a quiet humour which could not fail to 
reach its mark. He wrote ‘‘ with solemn awe’”’ about the pulpit, 
which he characterised as ‘‘the most important and effectual 
guard, support and ornament of Virtue’s cause,” and sketched a 
village preacher in lines of singular beauty and force. 
Cowper was the forerunner of the great restoration of our 
literature. In his ‘* Table Talk’ he gives a graphic sketch of 
the depths to which poetry had been brought during the 
seventeenth century. When discussing the progress of poesy 
to his own time, Cowper makes no mention of Thomson or 
Goldsmith, but stops short at Churchill, who, strange though it 
may appear, was the only model in his own generation that 
Cowper followed. Cowper ridiculed Pope’s strict adherence to 
that heroic measure which for so many generations continued the 
chosen vehicle of didactic and satirical poetry. Nine of Cowper’s 
first poems were written in this metre. But his greatest work, 
