MORE LITERARY WORK—1692–1693.
The publication of the _Athenian Gazette_ was begun March 17, 1691, and
was closed June 14, 1697. In itself, it was a formidable undertaking.
The questions sent to the writers were so many, so diversified, so
curious, and so difficult, that to answer them required immense reading
and research. And yet, in the midst of the publication of this work, the
Athenian Society courageously began another, even more extensive and
more arduous; the proposals for printing which were issued, in the
preface to the third volume of the _Athenian Gazette_, October 17, 1691.
The work was to consist of 120 sheets; it was to contain nothing but
what had the approbation of the _whole_ Athenian Society; and the price
per copy, unbound, was to be ten shillings. To some extent, it was
similar in plan to the supplements attached to the first volumes of the
_Athenian Gazette_; and probably this was the reason why the supplements
were dropped a few months before the new work was issued. At length, on
the 6th of June 1692, which was shortly after Samuel Wesley’s removal to
South Ormsby, the work was published in a folio volume of more than five
hundred pages, and was entitled, “The Young Student’s Library:
containing Extracts and Abridgments of the most valuable Books, printed
in England and in the Foreign Journals, from the Year Sixty-five to this
time;”—to which is added, “A new Essay upon all sorts of Learning;
wherein the Use of the Sciences is distinctly treated on, by the
Athenian Society. London: Printed for John Dunton, 1692.”
Prefixed to this volume is a curious and fantastic frontispiece,
strikingly characteristic of Dunton’s genius. At the four corners are
representations of Athens, Rome, Oxford, and Cambridge. At a long table
are seated the members of the Athenian Society, twelve in number, Dunton
evidently in the middle, and Samuel Wesley, the only clergyman, at his
side. Before the table are all sorts of characters presenting their
enigmas for solution. One is a faithless lady in a mask, come to inquire
how she may convert her faithless husband to a sense of propriety.
Another, as a fashionable coquette, with a spaniel in her lap, presents
to the learned Athenians her square-sized billet, and awaits with
self-complacent impudence an answer. A moon-struck lawyer and an honest
Jack Tar eagerly ask for counsel; while a disciple of Euclid, compasses
in hand, and studying a globe, longs for a mathematical solution. A poor
parson inquires how he is to get a living; and a whole rout of
fishwives, thieves, and bad characters clamour for advice; while, before
a tripod, filled with burning chestnuts, is a monkey, with a cat in his
paws, making her pick out the nuts on his behalf, and thereby showing
the cautiousness of the Athenians in answering questions likely to burn
their own fingers.
“The Young Student’s Library” contains the substance of above one
hundred volumes, many of them folio in size. The extracting and
condensing of the contents of such a mass of books must have been a work
of enormous labour. Very able synopses are given of above eighty
different works.[69] And, in addition to these reviews, there are two
most elaborate articles written by Samuel Wesley—one, entitled “An Essay
upon all sorts of Learning,” and the other, “A Discourse concerning the
Antiquity, Divine Original, and Authority of the Points, Vowels, and
Accents that are placed to the Hebrew Bible;” and, in close connexion
with the latter, are six Critical Disquisitions upon the various
editions of the Scriptures, the Polyglot Bible, Hebrew Grammars, Hebrew
Lexicons, and Hebrew Poetry, all of which are probably the productions
of Mr Wesley’s pen.
-----
Footnote 69:
The titles of these works will be found in Appendix C.
-----
From the foregoing summary, it will be seen that “The Young Student’s
Library” is a remarkable book, evincing an enormous extent of reading
and research, and displaying an amount of labour almost incredible. Many
of the volumes analysed are quarto and folio in size, and not a few are
written in foreign languages. It is impossible to determine how many of
these literary condensations were made by Mr Wesley; but there can be no
doubt that he was one of the principal contributors to the work,
inasmuch as, from the first, he had been one of the chief members, if
not _the chief_ member, of the Athenian Society; and this opinion is
strengthened by the fact, that his “Essay on Learning” is placed as a
sort of preliminary discourse at the very commencement of the book;
while his article on the “Hebrew Points” occupies an equally prominent
position in what may be considered the second section of the volume.
The work was announced as “containing the substance and pith of all that
is valuable in most of the best books printed in England and in the
foreign journals;” whilst its object was “to provide means for improving
the knowledge of those who had not the ability of purse to arrive at a
learned education, and to purchase all those voluminous books which
treat of those several arts and sciences which are required to the
composing a scholar.”[70] The preface of the book modestly, and not
untruthfully, observes: “These treatises are not only pleasant as to
their variety, but useful for their brevity; there being the substance
and value of a considerable part of a good library brought within the
compass of this volume; which as it will spare much labour—a man being
able to peruse here more of an author in half an hour, than in half a
day in the author himself—so it will save a great deal of expense to
such as would be master of the knowledge of many books, the performances
of the authors being here epitomised.”
-----
Footnote 70:
_Athenian Oracle_, vol. iv. p. 56.
-----
It has been already stated that, in this remarkable book, there are,
besides epitomes of the works of others, two elaborate articles, the
productions of Samuel Wesley’s scholarship and pen; and these are of
such interest and importance as to justify further remarks respecting
them.
The “Discourse concerning the Antiquity, Divine Original, and Authority
of the Points, Vowels, and Accents that are placed to the Hebrew Bible,”
if printed separately, would make an 8vo volume of nearly 250 pages. In
the introduction, young students in divinity are strongly urged to make
themselves thoroughly acquainted with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New
Testament; and, in order to this, they are earnestly advised to master
the works of the Jewish Rabbins, because the Rabbins will help to a
right understanding of many difficult Hebrew words and phrases, and will
explain many rites and ceremonies, ordinances, and customs, which are
but slightly mentioned in the sacred Scriptures. From them will be
obtained the best explanation of proverbial speeches, and of the names
of places, sects, moneys, weights, and measures; and also of the moral,
judicial, and ceremonial laws of Moses. A knowledge of the Rabbinical
writings is also necessary to maintain and defend the purity, the
points, vowels, and accents of the sacred text itself. After this, books
are recommended as helpful in attaining an acquaintance with the Hebrew
Bible—viz., Robertson’s “First and Second Gate to the Holy Tongue;”
Jessey’s “Lexicon;” Buxtorf’s “Epitome, Thesaurus, and Lexicon,”
Bythner’s “Lyra Prophetica;” Leusden’s “Compendium;” and Arius
Montanus’s “Interlineary Bible.” Wesley also recommends the study of the
Mishna, the Talmud, and the Rabbinical Commentaries of Aben Ezra, and
others. He likewise expresses a willingness to give to the public an
English translation of these Rabbinical writings, if his bookseller
received sufficient encouragement to publish; and, in another place, he
says: “If this discourse about the original of the points, vowels, and
accents, finds acceptance and encouragement, I intend a distinct
discourse upon the sacred original text of the Old Testament, in defence
of its purity and perfection, as it is now enjoyed by the Protestant
Church; wherein I purpose to handle all those curiosities that are the
subject of critical observation about the same; being very willing to
defend our religion, and the rule of our faith, to the uttermost of my
power.”[71]
-----
Footnote 71:
Clarke’s _Wesley Family_.
-----
He then shows the vast importance of the points of the Hebrew Bible;
contending that he who reads without the points is like one who rides a
horse without a bridle, and knows not whither he goes. He also contends
that his book is required and opportune, on account of such men as
Capellus and Dr Walton having recently published the dangerous doctrine
that the Hebrew points were not divine in their origin, but were added
to the sacred text by the Masorites of Tiberias, about five hundred
years before the birth of Christ. After this, he most elaborately
refutes the opinions respecting the human and novel origin of the
points, alleging that, with one exception, there is not a single Jewish
writer, who makes the least mention of the Hebrew punctuation being
invented by the Masorites, A.D. 500. He contends that the time and the
place, when and where the points are said to have been invented, are
exceedingly improbable; and that the Masorites, to whom they are
attributed, were unequal to the task, they being a set of magical and
monstrous sots—a company of blind and crafty fools, bewitching and
bewitched with traditions.
In the second part of his work, on the Hebrew points, Samuel Wesley
proceeds to prove that the points are at least as old as Ezra, that they
are of divine original, and therefore of divine authority. In
confirmation of this, he appeals to the testimonies of Jews and
Christians, and answers all sorts of objections.
It is almost impossible to give any adequate outline of this most
learned production. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that there is no
book of modern times in which so much learning is condensed into so
small a space. It shows, incontestably, that Samuel Wesley was a most
able Hebrew scholar, and, though at this time only thirty years of age,
had gone through a course of learned reading to which but few scholars
of the present age will apply themselves. Gildon, in his “History of the
Athenian Society,” remarks that Wesley “has taken notice of all which
can be raised against the opinion he defends;” that he had “given
himself for many years to the study of the Hebrew and original tongues,
and to Rabbinical learning in general;” and that his “performance was
quite equal to the nobleness of the subject.” “He has executed his
task,” continues Gildon, “with a great deal of strength of judgment,
force of argument, and profoundness of skill. It was the saying of a
great man, that he would easily tell the progress any one would make in
science if he knew but the value he had for it; and no man could have a
greater esteem for any knowledge than this divine (Wesley) had for
this.” He considered it “the chief and obligatory study of men of his
character, who were to give the true and genuine sense of Scripture to
the souls they directed, under the pain of woe at the last tribunal. His
treatise is accurate and elaborate, and abundantly satisfactory; and it
were to be wished that the same great man would oblige the world with
those other pieces of Rabbinical learning which he mentions in these
sheets. No prospect of any present or future advantage to himself
induced him to engage in this laborious work, he having generously given
the copy to the publisher without the least gratuity. In him learning
has met with a happy temper, an innate modesty, and a sweet agreeable
affability to all men; a charity not stinted to factions, parties, or
religions; but universal, like that of the first institutor of our holy
religion. In short, the virtues that this reverend divine has made a
part of himself are much more noble qualifications than that
extraordinary one of his learning.”[72] Such a testimony, from a man
contemporaneous with Samuel Wesley, is worth recording.
-----
Footnote 72:
_Athenian Oracle_, vol. iv. p. 60, 61.
-----
We only add respecting the “Discourse on the Hebrew Points,” that, in
the preface to the “Young Student’s Library,” it is stated “that the
author of the Hebrew punctuation has retired into the country,” (to
South Ormsby,) “where his necessary business will take up a great part
of his time; yet whatever letters and objections shall be sent to him
about his performance he will, notwithstanding his business, set apart
so much time as to maintain what he has advanced, and to answer all
objections whatever.”
Brave Samuel Wesley! None but an empty-headed braggart, or a
great-minded man, conscious of his strength, would have dared to give a
challenge such as this.
The second piece written by Mr Wesley, and published in the “Young
Student’s Library,” is entitled “An Essay upon all Sorts of Learning.” A
few extracts will tend to show his intense passion for intellectual
pursuits, and the wide range of his literary studies.
_Learning._—“Learning is of universal extension. Like the sun, it denies
not its rays to any that will open their eyes. Other treasures may be
monopolised, but this is increased by diffusion, and the more a man
imparts the more he retains. Rather than a wise man would be deprived of
learning, he would even steal it from the minutes of necessary rest or
recreation.”
_The Bible._—“If we examine nature, and anatomise the law written upon
our hearts,—if we peruse the volumes of the ancient philosophers, or
those of the Brahmins and Chinese,—if we make a strict inquiry into all
their rules and lessons of morality,—we have a compendium of all in the
sacred writ. For abstruseness of notions, the first of Genesis outvies
the Egyptian philosophy; and for elegancy of style, the prophecy of
Isaiah and the Epistle to the Hebrews far exceed the eloquent orations
of Cicero and Demosthenes. In short, there is nothing here, either
promised or threatened, commanded or forbidden, but what is godlike, and
worthy its divine original. Our deists have nothing to object but a
little buffoonery, and it would be a pity to deny them the happiness
they take in that, or any other short-lived pleasure necessarily arising
from their principles.”
After a brief but pithy and powerful defence of revealed religion, he
recommends to the biblical student a list of both English and Latin
books that will greatly assist him in his studies, including the works
of Poole, Hammond, Grotius, Eusebius, Hooker, Burnet, Stillingfleet,
Lightfoot, Sherlock, Usher, Barrow, Du Pin, Hales, Jeremy Taylor, &c.
His next article is upon history, of which he writes:—
“_History_ gives the best prospect into human affairs, and makes us
familiar with the remotest regions. By this, we may ascertain what
practices have established kingdoms, and what has contributed to the
weakness and overthrow of bodies politic. We may see all Asia, Africa,
and America in England. We may encompass the world with Drake, and make
new discoveries with Columbus; we may visit the Grand Signior in the
Seraglio, converse with Seneca, and consult with Cæsar. In a word,
whatever humanity has done that is noble, great, and surprising, either
by action or suffering, may by us be done over again in theory, and, if
we have souls capable of transcribing the bravest copies, we may meet
instances worth our emulation.”
After the essays upon divinity and history there are others upon
philosophy, law, physic, surgery, mathematics, and arithmetic, all of
them brief, but very able; and, in connexion with each, a list of books
which Samuel Wesley recommends to be read and studied. In these lists,
Wesley displays his taste for the best literature then published, and
also the immense extent of his own reading and research.
In his essay on _Poetry_, he says, “Poetry was the first philosophy the
world was blest with, and had that influence on the minds of men, then
fallen from their primitive reason into the wildest barbarity, that it
soon brought them to civility, and to know the dictates of reason from
those of fancy.”
He then advises “candidates for the laurel” to “consider the difficulty
of being a good poet.” “Mediocrity is intolerable in poetry, however
excusable in other affairs.” “A young poet should never be ambitious of
writing much, for a little gold is worth a great heap of lead.” “To be a
perfect poet, a man must be a general scholar, skilled both in the
tongues and sciences, and must be perfect in history and moral
philosophy.”
Such was Samuel Wesley’s estimate of the qualifications of a perfect
poet. Perhaps it would have been better if he himself had observed some
of his own rules more strictly than what he did. Dunton says: “Mr Wesley
had an early inclination to poetry, but he usually wrote too fast to
write well. Two hundred couplets a day are too many by two-thirds to be
well furnished with all the beauties and graces of that art.”[73]
-----
Footnote 73:
Dunton’s _Life and Errors_.
-----
In Mr Wesley’s article on “Dialling,” there is the following beautiful
sentence: “Time is the greatest treasure in this world that a mortal can
be intrusted with. We are not only probationers for eternity by the help
of time, but even the little interests of this world are managed by the
means of it. To divide time by dials, clocks, and watches, is a faint
imitation of God Almighty, who has divided the year into spring, summer,
autumn, and winter, and even our life into days and nights.”
Of _Geometry_ he writes: “All our most necessary as well as most noble
arts and sciences depend on it. None of the mechanical arts can ever be
brought to perfection without it; and if painters were ignorant of
proportion, angles, circles, and squares, all their works would want
beauty, and themselves would want satisfaction. A joiner cannot so much
as cut a round table unless he understands a circle; nor a carpenter
square a piece of timber unless he know, by the rule of square figures,
when his work is finished. The watch and clock makers would be at a
loss, if it were not for this science; and no builder could regularly
design a fabric without a knowledge of geometrical problems. Navigation
and gunnery can never be understood without geometry; and to these I may
add, fortification, dialling, music, astronomy, and surveying. It would
be needless to say any more of the advantages of geometry, here being
enough to fire the mind of any ingenious student to a diligent inquiry
into it.”
Writing on _Optics_, he says: “’Tis pleasant to undeceive the eye in the
common accidents of life, and to see it approach, in some measure,
towards that certainty of judging and apprehending _visibles_ that it
will attain to at the day of resurrection, when it will be above the
power of being cheated by concave or convex, or deluded by a refraction
or reflection. This may, in a great measure, be accomplished in this
world by such as give themselves up to the study of optics.”
There are other articles on painting, astronomy, and navigation, and
glances at geography, music, architecture, grammar, and rhetoric. The
general “Essay on all Sorts of Learning” concludes thus: “Whoever makes
a trial of the worth of learning will find that all encomiums come far
short of the thing itself; and that those only can best reflect upon its
value who are sensible of the enjoyment of it.”
Such, then, is a general outline of the contents of “The Young Student’s
Library,” published in 1692; but no one can form an adequate idea of the
work without seeing it. None but immense readers and careful writers
like Samuel Wesley and his Athenian friends could have put such a book
together.
It was the intention of the Athenian Society to have followed up the
publication of the “Young Student’s Library” with another work—“A New
System of Experimental Philosophy upon the Four Elements”—and embracing
a description of strange appearances, noises, strange winds,
subterranean steams, waters, their properties and inhabitants, earths of
all sorts, plants and trees, husbandry, animals, insects, birds,
reptiles, fishes, extraordinary buildings and extraordinary persons,
antiquities, &c.;[74] but I am not aware that this was ever issued.
-----
Footnote 74:
_Athenian Oracle_, vol. iv. p. 65.
-----
Contemporaneously with the publication of the “Young Student’s Library,”
Mr Wesley was employed upon another work, which has never yet been
noticed by any Wesleyan biographer. In vol. vi. of the _Athenian
Gazette_, it is announced that the Athenian Society have bought the
right to a “Monthly Journal of Books,” and that this journal will now be
carried on by a “London Divine,” under the title of “The Complete
Library; or, News for the Ingenious;” and that it will be issued
monthly, beginning with the month of May 1692.
The work was published accordingly. We have seen and examined three of
the volumes, containing between four and five hundred pages each, and
extending from May 1692 to March 1694. The numbers are divided into
three sections: 1. Original pieces; 2. An account of the choicest books
printed in England and on the Continent of Europe; 3. Notes on current
events.
The first article is entitled, “A Discourse concerning the Integrity and
Purity of the Hebrew Bible; by the Author of a Discourse concerning the
Antiquity of the Hebrew Points, Vowels, and Accents,”—thus plainly
intimating that the “London Divine,” who had the management of the work,
was none other than Samuel Wesley. Besides, no one acquainted with Mr
Wesley’s mode of thinking and style of writing, can have any hesitation
in pronouncing him the author.
He maintains that all religion stands or falls as we can defend and
prove the integrity of the Hebrew copy of the Bible; and his principal
object is to refute the opinions of Capellus, the leader of all those
who say the Hebrew Bible has been corrupted. The article is learned and
able, and fills twenty-four small quarto pages.
In succeeding numbers there are kindred articles, evidently by the same
practised pen. One is on “Scripture Chronology;” another is, “A Critical
Inquiry into the Number, Names, Division, and Order of the Books of the
Old Testament;” another is, “The Ancient Manner of Reading, Writing, and
Preserving the Law of Moses, as an evidence of the unparalleled care
taken in former times to preserve the Bible in its purity and
perfection;” another is, “A Scriptural Account of the Nature, Original,
and Divine Authority of the Bible, as it is Canonical, in opposition to
the Apocrypha, and all other books of human composition or oral
tradition;” and another is, “On the Evidences of the Divine Original of
the Scriptures; on the Ways and Means of understanding the Scriptures;
and on the Necessity and Excellency of their use and Study.”
The three volumes contain reviews of nearly two hundred books and other
publications; the first of which is a review of “The Life of the Rev.
Thomas Brand; and his Funeral Sermon, by Dr Annesley.” It is scarce
likely that the whole of these reviews were written by Mr Wesley; but it
is more than probable that he was the reviewer of this work of his
wife’s father. He thinks that “Dissenters and Churchmen will soon be
better friends; and though they may not be able to unite so perfectly as
to come under one form of discipline, yet they may give one another the
right hand of fellowship, and be without any other heat than that of
holy emulation, which shall excel in practical godliness, and in the
lively exercises of those graces that shall be most beneficial to
mankind, and of most edification to the Church of Christ.”
The frontispiece of each monthly number is curious: in one corner, is a
clergyman in gown and bands and a broad-brimmed hat; in another, a
scholar writing at a desk; and between the two, a hive of bees,
surrounded by plants and flowers; while above and below are three
mottoes, viz., “_Sic nos non nobis mellificamus apes_;” “_Omnia in
libris_;” and,
“All plants yield honey, as you see,
To the industrious chymic bee.”
It is only fair to add, that on the title-page of vol. ii., the
“Complete Library” is said to be “by R. W.,” Master of Arts, but there
can be little doubt that the “R” is a misprint.
During Mr Wesley’s retired residence at South Ormsby, he was engaged in
other literary undertakings. In 1693, the year after the publication of
the “Young Student’s Library,” he printed a new work, entitled, “The
Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: An Heroic Poem.
Dedicated to her most sacred Majesty; in Ten Books. Attempted by Samuel
Wesley, Rector of South Ormsby, in the county of Lincoln. Each book
illustrated by necessary notes, explaining all the more difficult
matters in the whole history. Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning
Heroic Poetry; with sixty copperplates. London: Printed for Charles
Harper, at the Flower-de-Luce, over against St Dunstan’s Church, in
Fleet Street; and Benjamin Motte, in Aldersgate Street. 1693.”
The volume is folio in size, contains 349 pages, and is divided into ten
books, consisting of nearly 9000 lines. The preface, which fills
fourteen closely-printed pages, is an elaborate production, and well
written. At the close of it, Wesley says he knows the faults of his
book, and would have mended much that is amiss if he had lived in an age
when a man might afford to spend nine or ten years about a poem.
Prefixed to the work are a number of commendatory verses by Nahum Tate,
poet-laureate, and by others. Tate praises the book and its author to
the utmost stretch of poetical eulogium. He regards Samuel Wesley as one
who has completed the task which Milton left unfinished; and represents
him as a great bard emerging from solitude, fired with rapture, and
charmingly unfolding the great themes of angelic hymns, and weaving wit
and piety together. His spotless muse brings fresh laurels from
Parnassus, and plants them on Mount Zion.
L. Milbourne and Peter Anthony Motteaux are equally lavish of their
praises; and both of these writers were men of mark. It is true that
Pope gives Milbourne a niche in his “Dunciad;” but Dunton, who knew him
well, observes concerning him, “Most other perfections are so far from
matching his, that they deserve not to be mentioned; his translations
are fine and true; his preaching sublime and rational; and he is a
first-rate poet.” Motteaux was a native of France, and was driven to
England by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. At first, he kept a
large East India warehouse in Leadenhall Street. He was master of
several languages, and, during his residence in England, he acquired so
perfect a knowledge of the English tongue, that he became a very eminent
dramatic writer in a language to which he was not a native. On his
birthday, in 1717, he was found dead in a disorderly house in London,
not without suspicion of having been murdered.
In opposition to such eulogists, it is only fair to state, that Dunton
describes Wesley’s “Life of Christ” as “intolerably dull;” and it has
been asserted, that Alexander Pope had so mean an opinion of its merits,
that, in one of the early editions of his “Dunciad,” he honoured Wesley
with a place in the Temple of Dulness.[75] The work was also fiercely
assailed by Samuel Palmer, (to be noticed hereafter,) to whom Wesley
replied,[76] “I know my poem is very faulty; but whether it be in itself
so absolutely contemptible as Mr Palmer represents it, I desire may be
left to more impartial judges. If he will be so kind as to let me know
the particular faults of that poem, I shall own myself highly obliged to
him, and will take care to correct them. I am sensible there are too
many incorrect lines in it, which had better been left out; but I
remember, too, some lines struck out which, perhaps, had been as well
left in. I care not if I oblige him with two or three of them, which
were in the original but were not printed, and leave him to guess the
reason—
“Or murmuring deep with harsh incondite tone,
With eyes reversed, and many a brutal groan,
We are the favour’d few, the elect alone.”
Badcock, in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1784, tells us that Wesley’s
“heroic poem, the ‘Life of Christ,’ excited the ridicule of the wits.”
John Wesley, in his reply to this, in the same periodical for 1785, p.
246, simply states, that his father’s own account of it was, “The cuts
are good; the notes pretty good; the verses so-so.” Samuel Wesley, jun.,
ardently loved his father, and admired his genius, but speaks of his
“Life of Christ” in the following measured terms:—
“Whate’er his strains, still glorious was his end:
Faith to assert, and virtue to defend.
He sung how God his Saviour deigned to expire,
With Vida’s piety, though not his fire.”
John Wesley, who, though he seldom wrote poetry, had as fine poetic
taste as any member of his family, observes: “In my father’s poem on the
‘Life of Christ’ there are many excellent lines, but they must be taken
in connexion with the rest. It would not be at all proper to print them
separate.”[77]
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Footnote 75:
The edition of the “Dunciad” in which Wesley appeared was a
surreptitious one. The following were the lines printed:—
“How all the suffering brotherhood retire,
And ’scape the martyrdom of jakes and fire;
A Gothic library of Greece and Rome,
Well purged; and worthy Wesley, Watts, and Brome.”
The author of “The Life and Times of Dr Isaac Watts” affirms that
Watts remonstrated with Pope, and, in consequence, his name was
deprived of the undesirable distinction. He also adds, that “the elder
Wesley’s name was probably omitted owing to the interposition of his
son Samuel, who corresponded with Pope, and was highly esteemed by
him,” (Watts’ _Life_, p. 436.) There may be some truth in this. In an
edition of the “Dunciad” now lying before us, and published in 1729,
the last line is printed—
“Well purged, and worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome.”
And to this is appended the following note:—“It was printed in the
surreptitious editions, ‘W—ly, W—s,’ who were persons eminent for good
life; the one writ the ‘Life of Christ’ in verse; the other some
valuable pieces in the lyric kind on pious subjects. The line is here
restored according to its original.”
Footnote 76:
Wesley’s _Defence of his Letter on Education of Dissenters_.
Footnote 77:
Clarke’s _Wesley Family_.
-----
Dr Adam Clarke, in reference to the same production, writes: “When a
poet, no matter of what abilities, takes for the subject of his verse
the sayings or acts of the Almighty, as recorded in the Bible, he must
of necessity fail, speak untruths, and sink below himself. Who can add
to the dignity, importance, or majesty of the words of God by any
poetical clothing? The attempt to do it is almost impious; and, in the
execution, how many words are attributed to God which He never spake,
and acts which He never did! The life of our Lord was never found, and
never will be found, but in the four evangelists.”[78]
-----
Footnote 78:
_Ibid._
-----
Dr Coke, who published a “corrected and abridged” edition of Samuel
Wesley’s “Life of Christ” more than a hundred years after the first
edition was issued, says in his preface:—“I found the poet had carefully
collected the richest materials, with a sedulity that surpassed my
expectation, and had arranged them with a degree of art that nothing but
the hand of a master could have reached. In surveying the character of
Christ as here delineated, no remarkable incident in His life, from the
cradle to His cross, has been omitted; nay, if we even take a wider
range, every event of moment is noted, from the espousals of His mother
to His resurrection from the dead, and His final ascension to glory.
Indeed, the life of Christ, being closely connected with both time and
eternity, presented to the poet an occasion to draw aside the curtain
which divides the visible from the invisible world. Both heaven and hell
are permitted to burst upon us; the former to ravish us with its
glories, and the latter to alarm us with its terrors. Hence angels and
devils pass in review before our eyes; relate what is past, discover
their condition, perform their respective actions, and retire.”
Wesley’s poem is far from perfect. In many places it flashes with the
highest kind of genius, and throughout it breathes with piety. The
reader will find hundreds of lines full of poetic beauty; but then he
will find others that are extremely tame, and literally limp for want of
poetic feet. There can be no doubt that Samuel Wesley wrote too much for
his writings to be faultless. “He wrote _very much_ for me,” says
Dunton, “both in verse and prose.” How much he wrote no one living has
the means of knowing. Dunton says, “he wrote two hundred couplets a
day.” He might do that when composing pieces for the _Athenian Gazette_,
but it is incredible to think that this was done when he was composing
“The Life of Christ;” for, in that case, the whole of that large folio
poem would have been begun and finished in about three weeks.
The “Life of Christ” was first published in 1693. With all its faults,
the edition was soon sold; and in 1697 the author issued a “revised and
improved” edition, with “a large map of the Holy Land, and a table of
the principal contents.”
The plates used in this second edition are said to have been engraved
“by the celebrated hand of William Fairthorn;” but if so, they must have
been engraved long before the first edition was published, inasmuch as
Fairthorn died as early as 1691. Fairthorn was an ingenious artist; but
lived a chequered life. As a royalist, he was taken prisoner at the
breaking out of the civil wars, and for a length of time was confined in
Aldersgate. His place of business was near Temple Bar, where he sold not
only his own engravings, but those of other English artists, and
imported a considerable number of prints from Holland, France, and
Italy. About 1680 he left his shop, and went to reside in Printing House
Yard, where he continued to work for booksellers, until a lingering
consumption put an end to his life in 1691. Such was Samuel Wesley’s
engraver.
From the preface of the book, we learn that the poem was begun in
Anglesea and the Isle of Man, and afterwards “completed in several parts
of England.” Wesley says the subject was first proposed to him by
certain of his friends, and that he greedily embraced it; though, at the
time, he knew nothing of the rules propounded by the masters of epic
poetry. In reference to his object in publishing the book, he writes, “I
desire to recommend the whole of the Christian religion; all the
articles of faith; all that system of theology and morality contained in
the gospel of the blessed Jesus; and to vindicate His mission, His
satisfaction, and His divinity, against all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and
Heretics.”
Perhaps enough has been said respecting this folio “Life of Christ.” Let
the curious reader, when he has the chance, purchase it for himself. The
sentiments and the spirit of the book cannot fail to be of service to
every one who gives it a fair perusal; whilst many of its lines will be
found to be ponderous with thought, and full of genius. As a proof of
this, we conclude the chapter with four quotations. The first is
Wesley’s description of the glorious scene witnessed on Mount Tabor, and
is, in fact, the first piece of the poem:—
“To Tabor’s mount He beckon’d from the sky,
Two glorious saints who reign’d enthroned on high;
Moses, the leader of God’s chosen band,
Who nature’s laws inverted with his wand;
With him Elijah, who sublimely rode
A car of lightning to the throne of God;
Thus Law and Prophets their perfection find
In Him, the hope, the price of lost mankind;
Thus Christ, and Moses, and Elias came,
Their persons different, but their views the same.
Unrivall’d beauties deck’d the Saviour’s face,
His dazzling form the circling glories grace;
His seamless coat, than falling snows more white,
Enclosed a pillar of transparent light.
The two great prophets, who beside Him stood,
Array’d in light their modest glories show’d.
Thus stars appear, when, twinkling, they display
Their feeble lustre to the orb of day;
Yet Moses, who from trembling Sinai came,
Appear’d encircled in a robe of flame;
While great Elijah, half-conceal’d from sight,
Shone with strange lustre through a cloud of light.
Transports of joy fill’d each disciple’s breast,
Too big for utterance, or to be repress’d;
Around their heads celestial clouds arise,
Which rather brighten than conceal the skies;
Compared with day they seem’d divinely fair,
And scatter’d odours through the balmy air;
Form’d of materials most serenely bright,
They shone a tissue of unsullied light.
The three apostles, as the clouds prevail,
Felt all their spirits and their muscles fail;
Their loins relax, their knees no strength impart,
And fear and trembling seize on every heart.
Low on the earth, dissolved in reverent fear,
They heard a voice, which none but they must hear;
The voice of God; no more in frowns express’d,
With lightnings written, or in thunder dress’d,
Such as at Sinai issued forth the Law,
And, with dread earthquakes, rock’d the plains below;
But all melodious, tranquil, and serene,
Which charm’d like music this delightful scene;
In words like these the will of God was given,
In attestation of the King of heaven:
‘I thus declare Thee my beloved Son,
Whom all my servants shall both hear and own.’”
The following lines on the Deity are what no one but a philosopher and a
poet could have written:—
“Before this beauteous world was made,
Before the earth’s foundations laid,
He was, He ever is, we know not how!
No mean succession His duration knows,
That spring of being neither ebbs nor flows:
Whatever was, was God, ere time or place;
Endless duration He, and boundless space,
Fill’d with Himself, wherever thought can pierce,
He fill’d, Himself alone, the universe.”
The next extract refers to the personality and divinity of our Saviour:—
“The Father’s image He, as great, as bright,
Clothed in the same insufferable light;
More closely join’d, more intimately one
With His great Father, than the light and sun.
Equal in goodness and in might,
True God of God, and light of light;
Him, with the Father, we adore:
There is no after, or before.”
The following is part of Wesley’s description of the last judgment:—
“The awful trumps of God! a call they sound,
Rolling through nature’s universal round;
That signal heard from the dissolving sky,
Decrepit nature lays her down to die:
Not so man’s deathless race, who now revive,
And must in joy or pain for ever live!
Vast heaps on heaps, thick orbs on orbs are hurl’d,
Chaos on chaos, world confused in world;
Huge spheres, so fast each after other roll’d,
E’en boundless space their ruins scarce will hold.”
With all due deference to eccentric John Dunton, we submit that such
lines are far from being “intolerably dull.” They were too hastily
written to have the polished rotundity of poets like Young and Pope;
but, notwithstanding this, they are full of poetic fire. The reader, who
is in search of poetic _thoughts_ rather than poetic _sounds_, will find
himself amply recompensed by a careful reading of Wesley’s “Life of
Christ.” We can hardly praise the poem so highly as it is praised by
Nahum Tate; but, at the same, we maintain that, for learning, energy of
thought, vivid imagination, picturesque phrases, and forceful language
in general, it is immeasurably superior to scores of other poems, which,
by accident, have been vastly more popular than it has been. Men brand
Samuel Wesley’s poetry without reading it. This is, in the highest
degree, unfair. In the name of a great and much injured man, we protest
against it; and respectfully request that, for the sake of his memory,
and their own benefit, they would give his poems a careful and candid
perusal.
In the second volume of the _Athenian Oracle_, p. 37, the question is
asked, What books of poetry would you advise one that is young to read?
In the answer, after recommending David’s Psalms, and the poems of
Cowley, Herbert, Chaucer, Milton, Spenser, Tasso, Shakespeare, Beaumont
and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Dr Donne, and Dryden, it is quietly but
significantly added, “and, if you have patience, Wesley’s Life of
Christ.” Reader, the advice is worth taking, though it was probably
given by Wesley himself.