(Vol. iv., p. 502.)
John Wesley was at one time of his life a pupil of the Moravians, and
Southey's _Life_ of that remarkable man, like most of his works,
pregnant with interest and erudition, affords a satisfactory answer to
your correspondent's Query. I quote from the 3rd edition of the _Life_,
2 vols., 1846. Of the Moravians he says:--
"Madness never gave birth to combinations of more _monstrous and
blasphemous obscenity_ than they did in their fantastic allegories
and spiritualizations. In such freaks of perverted fancy the
abominations of the Phallus and the Lingam have unquestionably
originated; and in some such abominations Moravianism might have
ended, had it been instituted among the Mingrelian or Malabar
Christians, where there was no antiseptic influence of surrounding
circumstances to preserve it from putrescence. Fortunately for
themselves, and for that part of the heathen world among whom they
have laboured, and still are labouring with exemplary devotion,
the Moravians were taught by their assailants to correct this
perilous error in time."--Vol. i. p. 173.
He adds in a note:
"The reader who may have perused Rimius's _Narrative of the Rise
and Progress of the Herrnhuters_, and the 'Responsorial Letters of
the Theological Faculty of Tübingen' annexed to it [the 2nd
edition was published London, 1753], will not think this language
too strong."
In the Appendix, p. 481., Southey further says:
"The most characteristic parts of the Moravian hymns are _too
shocking_ to be inserted here: even in the humours and
extravagances of the Spanish religious poets there is nothing
which approaches to the monstrous perversion of religious feeling
in these astonishing productions. The copy which I possess is of
the third edition printed for James Hutton, 1746. An interesting
account of James Hutton, who published the _Moravian Hymns_, may
be seen in the great collection of _Literary Anecdotes_ by Mr.
Nichols, vol. iii. p. 435. Of their _silliness_ I subjoin only
such a specimen as may be read without offence:--
'What is now to children the dearest thing here?
To be the Lamb's lambkins and chickens most dear;
Such lambkins are nourished with food which is best,
Such chickens sit safely and warm in the nest.'
'And when Satan at an hour
Comes our chickens to devour,
Let the children's angels say,
Those are Christ's chicks--go thy way.'
"Yet even the _Moravian Hymns_ are equalled by a poem of
Manchester manufacture in the _Gospel Magazine_ for August, 1808,
entitled the 'Believer's Marriage in Christ.'"--Southey's _Life of
Wesley_.
See also Crantz's _History of the Brethren_, translated by Latrobe, 8vo.
London, 1780; _A True and Authentic Account of Andrew Frey_, translated
from the German, London, 1753, an extremely curious work; also _A Solemn
Call on Count Zinzendorf_, by Henry Rimius, London, 1754.