s means Evangelical
theology in its most attractive form gained access into quarters into
which no Evangelical preachers could ever have penetrated. The bitterest
enemy of Evangelicalism who read Cowper's poems could not deny that here
was at least one man, a scholar and a gentleman, with a refined and
cultured mind and a brilliant wit, who was not only favourably disposed
to the obnoxious doctrines, but held them to be the very life and soul
of Christianity. Of course, to those who wished to find it, there was
the ready answer that the man was a madman. But the mind which produced
'The Task' was certainly not unsound, at least at the time when it
conceived and executed that fine poem. Every reader of discernment,
though he might not agree with the religious views expressed in it, was
obliged to confess that the author's powers were of the first order; and
if William Cowper did no other service to the Evangelical cause, this
alone was an inestimable one--that he convinced the world that the
Evangelical system was not incompatible with true genius, ripe
scholarship, sparkling wit, and a refined and cultivated taste.

* * * * *

If pilgrimages formed part of the Evangelical course, the little town or
large village of Olney should have attracted as many pilgrims as S.
Thomas's shrine at Canterbury did five centuries before. For with this
dull, uninteresting spot are connected the names not only of Newton,
and Cowper, and Mrs. Unwin, but also those of two successive vicars, Mr.
Moses Brown and Mr. Bean, both worthy specimens of Evangelicals, and
last, but by no means least, the name of Scott, the commentator.

_Thomas Scott_ (1746/7-1821) was the spiritual son of Newton, and
succeeded him in the curacy of Olney. There was a curious family
likeness between the two men. Both were somewhat rough diamonds. The
metal in both cases was thoroughly genuine; but perhaps Newton took
polish a little more easily than Scott. Both were self-taught men, and
compensated for the lack of early education by extraordinary
application. Although Scott did not pass through so terrible an ordeal
as Newton, still he had a sufficiently large experience, both of the
moral evils and outward hardships of life, to give him a very wide
sympathy. Both were distinguished for a plain, downright, manly
independence, both of thought and life; both were thoroughly unselfish
and disinterested; both held a guarded Calvinism witho