Watts vs. Cowper

Few hymns are better known than Cowper’s “Light Shining Out of Darkness,” commencing

“God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
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.