Dr. Johnson's criticism of the Metaphysical Poets in his "Life of Cowley" cannot be considered simply as a failure in evaluating them. Despite the fact that he did not admit the use of figurative language to religious poetry, o_ the basis of the eighteenth-century critical assumptions that figurative language cannot convey knowledge or truth and that metaphors and similes should be carefully avoided, it seems not to be hastily concluded that he was insensitive to the poetic effects on the reader produced by figurative expressions in poetry. Dr. Johnson's definition of wit as that 'which is at once natural and new' certainly suggests that he laid special emphasis upon novelty of both thoughts and expressions which greatly contributes to the effects of surprise and delight on the reader. We can see the precedent for his emphasis upon the 'new' in poetry perhaps most clearly in Addison's conception of wit as a combination of dissimilar ideas, and the same kind of conception is found in the critical theory of Dominique Bouhours, who valued most the indirect, metaphorical expressions in poetry because of their sudden and powerful effect on the reader. And further pursuing this line of critical thoughts, we find grounds for Dr. Johnson's remarks on the Metaphysical Poets, especially for what he meant by 'discordia concors', in John Hoskins' exposition of catachresis, a bolder and subtler form of metaphor which has the power of producing the effect of surprise in the reader's mind. When Dr. Johnson's definition of wit 'as a kind of discordia concors' is read in connection with a passage about wit in The Rambler, No. 194 and his comments on Browne's style in "A Life of Sir Thomas Browne", it becomes obvious enough that what he really meant by 'discordia concors' in his "Life, of Cowley" is in complete agreement with the same desire we find in Addison, Bouhours and Hoskins for the presence of energetically intellectual activity of the so-called extravagant, far-fetched metaphor in poetry. Here, in conclusion, poetic wit for Dr. Johnson may be defined as the power of urging the reader to thinking and intellectual activity of mind by giving surprise through the unexpected combination of dissimilar ideas or images. Thus, he tried to find a basis for evaluating the Metaphysical Poets by putting emphasis upon the 'new' and 'strength of thought', and, in consequence, he successfully set the precedent for the twentieth-century critical attitude toward them.
