He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.”
In the “Student’s English Literature,” published by Murray in 1901, this is part of what is said of Isaac Watts:
“His hymns are well known to all Englishmen—few hymns can surpass ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ for a certain majesty of simple sound.”
This ascription to Watts of Cowper’s stately and sonorous hymn is very strange, to say the least.
Bret Harte’s Astronomy
There is a little discrepancy in the poem by Mr. Bret Harte, entitled “Her Letter,” beginning with the lines:
“I’m sitting alone by the fire,
Dressed just as I came from the dance.”
A girl in New York writes to her lover, who is supposed to be a miner in the far West. Yet, in the concluding stanza, she bids him good night, as follows: