17 OCTOBER 1846, Page 15

SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BIOGRAPHY-CIIITIC12-HISTORT,

The Life of Wesley ; and Rise and Progress of Methodism. By Robert Southey. Esq., LL.D. Third edition ; with Notes by the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Esq., and Remarks on the Life and Character of John Wesley, by the late Alex- ander Knox, Esq. Edited by the Reverend Charles Cuthbert Southey, M.A.,

Curate of Cockermouth. In two volumes Longman and Co.

MILICELLANBOUS LITERATURE,

Pictures of Country Life, and Summer Rambles in Green and Shady Places. By Thomas Miller, Author of " Beauties of the Country." " Rural Sketches," he. With thirty Illustrations, by Samuel Williams Bogue. &noway, Clinical Collections and Observations In Surgery, made during an Attendance on the Surgical Practice of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. By W. P. Ormerod, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, late House Surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Longman end CO.

SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF WESLEY.

THE flux and reflux of the sea are not more certain and scarcely more regular than the flow and ebb of human opinion, more especially in reli- gious matters. A rapid and general glance at history will only, indeed, present some striking epochs to the mind,—as (to go no further back than Christianity) the downfall of Paganism, the rise of the Popedom, the Crusades, and the Reformation : but almost every century has had its religious movement, which seeming at first by its activity and advance to threaten an universal overflow, pauses at a certain point, as at a high- water mark, remains stationary for a time, and then recedes. Such was the conversion of the barbarians, carried on at various intervals for many ages, and not finally accomplished in Poland and the North till the four- teenth century. Such were the efforts made by reformers in different countries to return to a Scriptural simplicity of doctrine and worship; and by zealous Romanists to revive religion by the establishment of new orders as the old waxed wealthy and got settled and supine. The Re- formed churches have not been without their ebbs and flows, from Puri- tanism followed by the religious indifference and latitudinarianism of the Stuarts, down to the Tractarian movement of our day ; which, but a little while ago exciting brawls and apprehensions from fears of Popery, has subsided into nothing worse than long-skirted coats and crane. like necks among certain young divines, whilst it has undoubtedly called attention to our ecclesiastical architecture, and to the advan- tage of a seemly and studied discharge of the service, if it has not stimulated the Church in more essential matters. For there is this dif- ference between the ebbs and flows of the great waters and the move. meats of human opinion, that, let the latter subside as much as they may, the retirement is only seeming, and the next stage exhibits a rapid ad- vance and permanent progression. This, indeed, may also be the case with the waters of the deep; but the onward progress of the material world is slower, and less readily perceived by mortal eyes, than the advance of human improvement.

Two of the most singular religious movements in the churches were the establishment of the Jesuits and the rise of the Methodists; both, however much they may differ in externals, and however grating it may sound to the Wesleyan ears, arising from similar causes, and having many objects in common. The end of the order of Jesus was the revival of Popery, shorn of one-third of its territory by the Reformation, dis- turbed in its remaining dominions by schism, dispirited by the success of the Reformers, and cold, corrupt, and lifeless, through the vices and exploded formalisms which had enabled them to succeed. The state of the Anglican Church when the Wesleys and Whitefield first began to preach up vital religion, circa 1730, was not much better, if all the circumstances be taken into account, than that of the Roman when Loyal; about two centuries earlier, began to meditate a revival of the faith. As at all other times, individual Christians might be found; but the general mass, both clerical and lay, was dead in doctrine, preaching and holding a religion more like a system of moral philosophy than a "saving faith "; and it is only necessary to look into the contemporary describers of life and manners to see that the pauper friars and sporting wine-bibbing monks, not to speak of fouler vices, were Well represented in the "parsons" of the Anglican Church. Nor, beyond a greater kindliness of heart and cheerfulness of dispo- sition in the Englishman, MO there much difference between Wesley and Loyale, if allowance be made for the age and military training of the latter : for each under the guise of humility nourished an inordinate spiritual pride; each cloaked a worldly ambition under the plea of God's honour ; and perhaps Wesley when his passions were roused by fear or opposition would have persecuted as sharply as any one had the time been favourable, for he did not scruple to practise the arts of Blander and misrepresentation against some of his adversaries. In one point the Englishman went beyond the Spaniard; exercising a despotic power over his flock and their ministers, which neither Jesuit nor Pope ever could have maintained, and whose peremp- toriness was not, indeed, consistent with the rights and forms of an old-established institution. Wesley also had an advantage over Loyale in his age, which permitted boundless freedom to fanaticism, and in the Anglican Church, whose steadiness of character, stiffness of rules, and perhaps some national exclusiveness of feeling, drove and tempted him to set up a church for himself. One half of the suppleness and wisdom of the serpent which Rome ever displays would have re- tained Wesley and the Wesleyans as members of the Anglican Estab-

lishment; and, long since purged of their eccentricities, they would have been undistinguishable from its other members. Whether the same stimulating effects in improving the Church might have followed, may be doubted. Competition is always useful.

To depict the career and character of the author, to narrate the rise and progress of this schism in the English Church, to inquire into its causes and estimate its effects, was the object of Southey's Life of Wesleg, and Rise and Progress of Methodism. At a first glance, the variety of topics would seem destructive of unity ; but such is scarcely the case. In

spite of Whitefield's oratorical power, the sense and abilities of Charles Wesley, and the strength of fanatical character in many of the subor- dinates, John Wesley rises over all by his statesmanlike and directing qualities, the patience with which he waited for opportunities :and turned them to account, and the manner in which he controlled his followers, partly hy the influence of his piety and personal qualities, partly by politic arts. From these causes, the story of Methodism is to a great extent the story of Wesley's life ; for his was the directing if not always the animating power. This unity, however, was a thing to be easily lost under bad arrangement; and the highest credit is due to Southey for the skill with which he has planned his work,—giving the natural prominence to John Wesley and Methodism, yet, by episodes or digressions at fitting points of pause, in- Ixoducing Wesley's coadjutors and subordinates. Tile literary art with which Southey has selected his materials from the immense mass of print- ed rubbish is equally remarkable. The family history, the early life and religious struggles and meditations of the Wesleys—the more desperate wrestlings of Whitefield—the rapid success of these eminent men as po- pular preachers—the connexion of John Wesley with the Moravians, and the story of that sect—together with the rise and progress of Methodism and its preachers—are all presented in their pith and points, if not in their essence. Still more skilful is the selection of instances of fanaticism and probably of fraud, showing itself in convulsions, outcries, and ex- hibitions resembling the clairvoyance of Mesmerism, till the pen of Smol- lett and the pencil of Hogarth look faint before the reality ; or the ex- hibition of the peculiar views of Wesley on religious questions, and the controversies in which he was involved. The judgment with which enough and no more than enough of these rather same and cumbersome topics is presented, the art by which they are introduced in their fitting places, and the cleverness with which the words of Wesley are set or dovetailed into the composition, are all perfect as a piece of literary work- manship, and would alone suffice to place Southey at the head of English littkrateurs.

There are more subtile merits in the Life of Wesley than those de- pending upon mere judgment or skill. The subject was exactly adapted to Southey's genius and opinions. His good sense and experience ena- bled him to understand in their full extent the weaknesses of Wesley's character, and the credulous fanaticism of which he was alternately the encourager and the dupe; whilst Southey's kindness of disposition' when not soured by temper or anger, qualified him to appreciate all that was good in that remarkable man,—his fervent piety, his boundless exertions for the saving of souls, his remarkable charity and disinterestedness, the suavity of his manners, the purity of his life, and his all-embracing love :--save for those whilom associates who contested his spiritual dominion. Hence it is perhaps the fairest of lives ; equally removed from indiscrimi- nate praise or undue censure, and, what is perhaps still more difficult, reflecting throughout the nature of the subject. Johnson, in the vein, would more forcibly have impressed the 'heroic self-devotion of Wesley in his sacrifice of all the comforts of life, and his submission to so Many hardships, privations, and even dangers, in the discharge of Christian duty. Voltaire could have brought out more fully the weaknesses of Wesley's character and the inconsistency of his views —have touched with a brighter light and a deeper shade the quar- rels and backslidings of the faithful, and the absurdities of their love- feasts and other meetings ; would have condemned with a more withering judgment the moral evils that resulted from their open con- fessionals and the narratives of their " experiencea "; and have ex- hibited in bolder, perhaps in exaggerated relief, the rich scenes of fana- ticism, where nervous convulsions or the contortions of canning ignorance marked the moment of grace and the final wrestlings of Satan to retain his victims. Thus greater force might have been given to the subjects of the book : but it would perhaps have been at the expense of " the modesty of nature." With all its merits, however, of plan, animating spirit, and eitecution, (for the style is in Southey's best manner, and his manner is one of the best examples of genuine English,) the book wants that wholeness and compactness which distinguish the living from the arti- ficial production. The Life of Wesley is rather a piece of work than a spontaneous effusion. It was written con amore, for the subject was congenial : the necessary time was given to it as a matter of conscience; but it may be doubted whether any time was expended in reiterated surveys of the materials, or in frequent medliations upon the points of the subject. Hence, with all its literary merits and its readable attractions, the impression which it leaves is not very distinct ; and the substance it contains might possibly have been presented in less space. One of the most striking features not only in the character of Wesley and his followers but in that of most religionists, is their untiring in- dustry, or at least their endless occupations. The power to sustain the labour must be ascribed to constitution and habit ; the power to fix the attention, to Christian zeal,—if, indeed, the attention is employed to any useffil purpose on so long a stretch. Take as an example this sketch of Wesley and some Moravians on shipboard, when the Wesleys accom- panied General Oglethorpe to the new colony of Georgia, in 1733; at which period John was thirty years old.

"The course of life which they adopted on board was as regular as the cir- cumstances of a voyage would allow, and as severe as the rule of a monastic order. From four in the morning, till five, they used private prayer: from five till seven, they read the Bible together, carefully comparing it with the writings of the earliest ages, that they might not lean to their own understandings: at seven, they breakfasted ; and they had public prayers at eight. From nine till twelve, John Wesley was employed in learning German, Ddamotte pursued his Greek studies, Charles wrote sermons, and Ingham instructed the children; and at twelve, they met to give an account to one another of what they had done since their last meeting, and of what they intended to do before their next- They dined about one; and from dinner till four the time was spent in reading to those of whom each bad taken especial charge, or in exhorting them severally, as the ease might require There were evening prayers at four; when the second lesson was explained, or the children were catechised and instructed before the congre- gation. From six to seven, each read in his cabin to a few of the passengers. At seven, Wesley joined with the Germans in their public service, and Ingham read between the decks to as many as desired to hear. At eight, they met again to instruct and exhort. By this tbne. they were pretty well wearied with exhorta- tions and instruction; and between nine and ten they went to bed, where, as Wesley says, neither the waving of the sea nor the mOtion of the ship could take away the refreshing sleep which God gave them. " It was a rough season; their passage was tempestuous; and, during the storm, Wesley felt that he was unfit, because he was unwilling, to die. Ashamed of this unwillingness; he reproached himself as if he had no faith; and he ad- mired the impassable tranquillity to which the Moravians had attained. They had evinced that they were delivered from pride, anger' and revenge: those ser- vile offices which none of the English would perform for the other passengers, they offered themselves to undertake; and would receive no recompense,- saying, it was good for their proud hearts, and their Saviour had done more for them. No injury could Move their Meekness: if they were struck or _thrown down, they made no complaint, nor suffe:red the slightest indication of resentment to appear. Wesley was curious to see whether they were equally delivered from the spirit of fear; and this he had an opportunity of ascertaining. In the midst of the psalm with which they begun thew service, the sea broke over, split the main- sail, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if, he says, the great deep had already swallowed us up. A dreadful screaming was heard among the English colonists: the Moravians calmly sung on. Wesley afterwards asked one' of them if he was not afraid at that time. Be replied, thank God, no.' He was then asked if the women and children were not afraid. His answer was, No our women and children are not afraid to die.' In the intervals of fine weather which they enjoyed, Wesley said he could conceive no difference com- parable to that between a smooth and a rough sea, except that which is between a mind calmed by the love of God and one torn up by the storms of earthly passions."

Natural temperament, their incessant occupations, and the mystical meditation in which they passed what leisure they had, 'prevented both Whitefield and Wesley from what is called falling in love ; and when they did marry, their happiness was not such as to hold out an example in favour of religious courtships. Nor did Wesley shine much more as a lover, when his heart really seems to have been touched. This is the story of his first love.

Sophia Canston, the niece of the Chief Magistrate at Savannah, had fixed her eyes upon Wesley; and it is said that Mr. Oglethorpe wished to bring _about a marriage between them, thinking it the likeliest means of reclaiming him from those eccentricities which stood in the way of his usefulness. She was a woman of fine person, polished manners, and cultivated mind; and was easily led to bear her part in a design which was to cure an excellent man of his extravaganeies, and give her a good husband. Accordingly, she was introduced to him as one suffering under a wounded spirit, and inquiring after the way of eternal life. Nor was it enough to place herself thus in a more particular manner under' his spiritual guidance: she became his pupil also, like another Heloisa. She dressed always in white, and with the utmost simplicity, to please his taste; and when, in consequence of his having taken meat and wine one day at the General's express desire, as a proof that he did not think the use of these things nnhivrfal; he was seized with fever, and confined to his bed, she attended him night and day with incessant and sincere solicitude. Wesley's manner of life had hitherto estranged him from women; and he felt these attentions as it was designed that he should feel them. •But she had a difficult part to act; and might well doubt whether, with all his virtues, it was likely that such a husband would make her happy.- While she was at Frederica, he wrote to his brother Charles concerning her, in. language Which:strongly marks his anxiety: thll. letter was partly written in Greek, that it might not be exposed to impertinent curiosity. It was to this pur- port= I conjure you spare no time, no address or ,,pains, to learn the true cause of my friend's former grief. I much doubt you are in the right-. God forbid that she should again err thus. Watch over, guard her as much as you possibly can. Write to me, how it behoves me to write to her.' Here, not being under Wesley's eye, her life was not regulated with the same reference to his opinion; and when he went to Frederica some weeks after his brother's departure, he found her,' he says, scarce the shadow of what she was when he had left her.' He endea- voured to convince her of this: the kind of remonstrance excited some pain and some pride; and in her resentment she told him she would return to England immediately. I was at firsts little surprised,' says he; but I soon recollected my spirits, and remembered my calling.

Non me, qui meters, vinelt Impetus ; at rapido contrarius evehar orbi.'

He had recourse to prayer, however, and to the exhortations of Ephrem Syrns, whom he thought at this time the most awakening writer of all the ancients; and, after several fruitless attempts, he at length succeeded in dissuading her from what he called the fatal resolution of going to England. She went back with him to Savannah; and in a short time he believed she had recovered the ground which iihe had lost. This was the close of October. In the beginning of December,' he writes, I advised Miss Sophy to sup earlier, and not imme- diately before she went to bed. She did so; and on this little circumstance whit an inconceivable train of consequences depend, not only all the colour of remain- ing, life for her, but perhaps my happiness too.' Notwithstanding this docility, Delamotte suspected that both her obedience and her devotion were merely assumed for the occasion: he therefore told Wesley what he thought of her artfulness and his simplicity, and plainly asked him if it was his intention to marry her. That he had formed this intention in his heart is beyond a doubt, but he had not declared it; the question embarrassed him, and he made no decisive answer; but being staggered by what Delamotte had said, he called upon the Moravian Bishop. The Bishop replied thus= Marriage is not unlawful. Whether it is expedient for you at this time, and whether this lady is a proper wife for you, ought to be maturely considered.' The more he considered, the more he was perplexed; so he propounded the matter to the elders of the Mo- ravian Church. When lie went to learn their determination, he found Delamotte sitting with the elders its full conclave assembled; and upon his proposing the question, the Bishop replied, We have considered your case; will you abide by our decision?' He made answer that he would. 'Then,' said the Bishop, we advise you to proceed no further in this business.' Upon this Wesley replied, The will of the Lord be done'; and from that time, in perfect obedience to their decision, it is affirmed that be carefully avoided the lady's company, though he- perceived what pain this change in his conduct gave her. Had the lady herself known that a consultation of Moravian elders had been held upon her case, what- ever pain and whatever love she might have felt would soon have given place to resentment."

The following account of Wesley's notions on the souls of animals, and the effect which the fall of man produced on their condition, is not only curious, but interesting as a proof of Wesley's kindness of heart : but certainly the theory seems opposed to several texts of Scripture. "lie entertained some interesting opinions concerning the brute creation and derived whatever evils inferior creatures endure, or inflict upon each other, the consequence of the fall. In Paradise, they existed in a state of happiness, enjoying will and liberty; their passions and affections were regular, and their choice always guided by their understanding, which was perfect in it kind. What,' says he, is the barrier between men and brutes—the line which they cannot pass? It is not reason. Set aside that ambiguous term; exchange it for the plain word understanding, and who can deny that brutes have this ? We May SA well deny that they have sight or hearing. But it is this: man is capable of God; the inferior creatures are not. We have no ground to believe that they are in any degree capable of knowing, loving, or obeying God. This is the specific difference between man and brute—the great gull which they cannot pass over; and as a loving obedience to God was the perfection of man, so a loving obedience to man was the perfection of brutes.' While this continued, they were happy after their kind, in the right state and the right use of all their faculties. Evil and win had not entered Paradise, and they were immortal; for God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the death of any living.' How true, then is that word, God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good.' "But as all the blessings of God flowed through man to the inferior creatures, those blessings were cut off when man made himself incapable of transmitting them; and all creatures were then subjected to sorrow, and pain, and evil of every kind. It is probable that the meaner creatures sustained much loss, even in the lower faculties of their corporeal powers: they suffered more in their anderstand- ing, and still more in their liberty, their passions, and their will. The very founda- tions of their nature were turned upside down. As man is deprived of his per- fection, his loving obedience to God, so brutes are deprived of their perfection, their loving obedience to man. The far greater part flee from his hated presence; others set him at defiance, and destroy him when they can; a few only retain more or less of their original disposition, and, through the mercy of God, still love him and obey him. And in consequence of the first transgression, death cline upon the whole creation; and not death alone, but all its train of preparatory evils, pain, and ten thousand sufferings; nor these only, but likewise those ir- regular passions, all those unlovely tempers, which in man are sins, and even in brutes are sources of misery, passed upon all the inhabitants of the earth, and re- main in all, except the children of God. Inferior creatures torment, persecute, and devour each other; and all are tormented and persecuted by man. But, says Wes- ley, will the creature, will even the brute creation always remain in this deplorable condition? God forbid that we should affirm this, yea, or even entertain such a thought. While the whole creation groaneth together, whether men attend or not, their groans are not dispersed in idle air, but enter into the ears of him that made them. Away with vulgar prejudices, and let the plain word of God take place! 'God shall wipe away all tears; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away: This blessing shall take place; not on men alone, (there is no such restriction in the text,) but on every creature according to its capacity. The whole brute creation will then undoubtedly be restored to all that they have lost, and with a large increase of faculties. They will be delivered from all unruly passions, from all evil, and all suffering. And what if it should then please the all-wise, the all-gracious Creator, to raise them higher in the scale of beings? What if it should please Him, when he makes us equal to angels, to make them what we are now, creatures capable of God, capable of knowing, and loving, and enjoying the author of their being? "Some teacher of materialism bad asserted, that if man had an immaterial soul, so had the brutes; as if this conclusion reduced that opinion to a manifest ab- surdity. I will not quarrel,' said Wesley,' with any that think they have. Nay, I wish he could prove it; and surely I would rather allow them souls than I would give up my own. He cherished this opinion, because it furnished a full answer to a plausible objection against the justice of God. That justice might seem to be impugned by the sufferings to which brute animals are subject, those especially who are under the tyranny of brutal men. But the objection vanishes if we consider that something better remains after death for these poor creatures also. This good end, he argued, was answered by thus speculating upon a subject h we so imperfectly undeastand; and such speculations might softenand en- large our hearts:" Any notice of Methodism, however slight, would be incomplete with- out some mention of Whitefield : for although he had neither ambition nor administrative capacity, and but for Lady Huntingdon's activity Cal- vinistic Methodism might have died with him, yet as a preacher he was superior to Wesley himself, however inferior as a scholar and a Writer. The effects of his oratory were indeed so striking, that had they rested upon common testimony gross exaggeration might' have been assumed : but neither Hume nor Franklin-were men likely to err through enthu- siasm, or in Whitefield's favour. Here is Southey's description of his person and his qualifications as an'Orator. The man who produced this extraordinary effeet had many natural advan- tages. He was something above the middle stature, well proportioned, though at that time slender, and remarkable for a-native gracefulness of manner. His com- plexion was very fair, his features regular, his eyes small and lively., of a dark blue colour; in recovering from the measles he had contracted a ispunt with one of them; but this peculiarity rather rendered the expression of his countenance more rememberable, than in any degree lessened the effect of its uncommon sweetness. His voice excelled both in melody and compass, and its fine modula- tions were happily accompanied by that grace of action which he possessed in an eminent degree, and which has been said to be the chief requisite of an orator. An ignorant man described his eloquence oddly but strikingly when be said that Mr. Yirhitefield preached like a lion. So strange a comparison conveyed no unapt a notion of the force and vehemence and passion of that oratory which awed the hearers' and made them tremble like Felix before the Apostle. For, believing himself to be the messenger of God, commissioned to call sinners to repentance, he spoke as one conscious of his high credentials, with authority and power; yet in all his discourses there was a fervent and melting charity, an earnestness of

ion, an outpouring of redundant love, partaking the virtue of that faith

persuasion, myalich it flowed, inasmuch as it seemed to enter the heart which it pierced, and to heal it as with balm."

The chief features of this new edition are the notes which Coleridge made upon his own copy, and a letter from the late Alexander Knox, in which he endeavours to defend Wesley from the charge of ambition that Southey brought against him. The remarks of Coleridge are occasion- ally shrewd and discriminating, but more frequently mystical and hair- splitting : the lucubrations of Knox are prosy, and unsuccessful in their object. The additions increase the bulk rather than the value.