This was a natural action, and had a of it, busie and active men entertain them, good effect, from appearing to be in. selves with notions infinitely unsatisfying considerately adopted. and unprofitable : but in the meantime With science in no common de- they are not so wise. For concerning those gree, well conversant with history, that study unprofitable notions, and neglect ancient and modern, and, to judge also which is of most real advantage, I can not only that which is wisest, but that from the conduct of his argument, not but think as Aristotle did of Thales a good mathematician, Mr. Irving and Anaxagoras, that " they may be also possesses a fine imagination, and learned, but they are not wise, or wise but a full flow of language anything but not prudent, when they are ignorant of common-place. Having all these such things as are profitable to them. For requisites, he comes near to Cicero's suppose they know the wonders of nature, definition of a complete orator; but and the subtilties of metaphysicks, and that which chiefly distinguishes him operations mathematical, yet they cannot from other preachers is the freedom be prudent, who spend themselves wholly of his censures, the liberality of his upon unprofitable and ineffective conteneulogies, and the wide range which plations.” . He is truly wise, that knows he allows himself to take while is bound to desire, and is happy if he ob best to promote the best end, that which he speaking on a religious subject. In tains, and miserable if he misses ; and that this latter particular he reminds us is the end of a happy eternity, which is of Jeremy Taylor, in whose writings obtained by the only means of living ac. we remember a beautiful passage cording to the purposes of God, and the which so well exhibits the scope, as prime intentions of nature; natural and we conceive, of Mr Irving's views, prime reason being now all one with the and the considerations which may Christian religion. But then I shall onely have led him to throw down his gage observe, that this part of wisdome, and the 80 fearlessly to the intellectual world excellency of its secret and deep reason is on the grand topic of religion--that the propositions of this philosophie being not to be discerned, but by experience; we cannot resist our inclination to (as in many other) empirical, and best quote it. found out by observation of real and ma. It is but a sad thought to consider, that terial events. So that I may say of spiri. piety and books of devotion are counted tual learning as Quintilian said of some of but entertainment for little understandings, Platoe's books : Nam Plato cum in aliis and softer spirits ; and although there is quibusdam, tum præcipuè in Timæo ne inmuch fault in such imperious mindes, that telligi quidem, nisi ab iis qui hanc quoque they will not distinguish the weakness of partem disciplinæ (musicæ) diligenter perthe writers from the reasonableness and ceperint, potest. The secrets of the king. wisdome of the religion ; yet I cannot but dome of heaven are not understood truely think, the books themselves are in a large and thoroughly, but by the sons of the degree the occasion of so great indevotion : kingdome ; and by them too in several debecause they are (some few excepted) re- grees, and to various purposes ; but to evil presented naked in the conclusions of spi. persons the whole systeme of this wisdome ritual life, without or art or learning, and is insipid and flat, dull as the foot of a made apt for persons, who can do nothing rock, and unlearned as the elements of our þut believe and love, not for them that mother tongue. But so are mathematicks can consider and love. And it is not well, to a Scythian boote, and musick to a cainel. that since nothing is more reasonable and But I consider that the wisest persons, excellent in all perfections spiritual than and those who know how to value and enthe doctrines of the spirit, or holy life, yet tertain the more noble faculties of their nothing is offered to us so unlearnedly as soul, and their precious hours, take more this is, so miserable and empty of all its pleasure in reading the productions of those own intellectual perfections. If I could, I old wise spirits who preserved natural reá. would have had it otherwise in the present son and religion in the midst of heathen books : for since the understanding is not darkness such as are Homer, Euripides, an idle faculty in a spiritual life, but huge- Orpheus, Pindar, and Anacreon, Æschy. ly operative to all excellent and reasonable lus and Menander, and all the Greek poets; choices, it were very fit that this faculty Plutarch and Polybius, Xenophon, and all were also entertained by such discourses those other excellent persons of both facule which God intended as instruments of ties (whose choicest dictates are collected by hallowing it, as he intended it towards the Stobæus) Plato and his scholars, Aristotle, sanctification of the whole man. For want and after him Porphyrie, and all his other, * Arist. Lib. vi. Eth. cap. 7. disciples, Pythagoras and his, especially graceful ornaments," which always Hierocles : all the old academicks and show distinct and appropriate, stoicks within the Roman schools more pleasure I say in reading these than the Like captain jewels in the carkanet. triflings of many of the later school But it is time that we let our Aumen ; who promoted a petty interest of a thor appear in his proper person, and family, or an unlearned opinion with great speak for himself. Apparently disearnestness, but added nothing to Chris- daining to owe his reputation to any tianity but trouble, scruple, and vexation. high gifts of oratory alone, Mr. IrAnd from hence 1 hope that they may the rather be invited to love and consider the ving has no sooner preached his serrare documents of Christianity, which cer. mons than he throws them before the tainly is the great treasure-house of those public, to be cut up without mercy, excellent, moral, and perfective discourses, if they are found unworthy of that which with much pains and greater pleasure favour with which they had been we finde respersed and thinly scattered in heard. This is candour, we had all the Greek and Roman poets, historians, almost said, in the extreme; but it and philosophers. affords good evidence, nevertheless, This wise-hearted and eloquent of conscious power; nor has he made old Divinevates biformis-prophet the following extracts will prove: a wrong estimate of his ability, as and poet both, here marks out the ground, as we take it, on which Mr. (ON THE BIBLE.] Irving has made his stand : and cer- When God uttereth his voice, says the tainly the latter cannot take any Psalmist, coals of fire are kindled; the position under a more eminent leader; hills melt down like wax, the earth quakes, but he does not wish, we think, to be and deep proclaims it unto hollow deep considered a follower of Jeremy Tay- This same voice, which the stubborn ele, lor-we cannot recollect that he has ments cannot withstand, the children of even mentioned him:-he bends to Israel having heard but once, prayed that Milton with more veneration than to it might not be spoken to them any more. any man, and professes so to admire These sensible images of the Creator have his style, that not unaptly now vanished, and we are left alone, in the might be apply to him the words in deep recesses of the meditative mind, to discern his comings forth. No trump of which Dante addresses Virgil: heaven now speaketh in the world's ear. Oh degli altri poeti onore e lume, No angelic conveyancer of Heaven's will Vagliami 'l lungo studio, e 'l grande amore, taketh shape from the vacant air, and, 1 Che m'han fatto cercar lo tuo volume. having done his errand, retireth into his Tu se'lo mio maestro, e 'l mio autore; airy habitation. No human messenger Tu se' solo colui, da cu' io tolsi putteth forth his miraculous hand to heal Nature's immedicable wounds, winning for Lo bello stile, che m'ha fatto onore. Inferno, Canto I. his words a silent and astonished audience. Majesty and might no longer precede the Glory and light of all the tuneful train ! oracles of Heaven. They lie silent and May it avail me, that I long with zeal unobtrusive, wrapped up in their little Have sought thy volume, and with love compassone volume, amongst many, in, immense nocently handed to and fro, having no disHave conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and tinction but that in which our mustered guide! thoughts are enabled to invest them. The Thou he from whom alone I have derived want of solemn preparation and circumThat style, which from its beauty into stantial pomp the imagination of the mind fame hath now to supply. The presence of the Exalts me. Cary's Translation. Deity, and the authority of his voice, our thoughtful spirits must discern. Conscience We cannot, however, compliment must supply the terrors that were wont to Mr. Irving quite so highly on his go before him; and the brightness of his style-it is more metaphorical than coming, which the sense can no longer beMilton's, and reminds us again of hold, the heart, ravished with his word, Jeremy Taylor; but the latter was must feel.(P. 9, 10.) more discreet than Mr. Irving in the management of his luxuriance and awakened bosom is that cold and formal Far and foreign from such an opened he exhibits better taste-his pages hand which is generally laid upon the sado not glitter with a profusion of cred volume; that unfeeling and unimfigurative terms, but they are “em- pressive tone with which its accents are probossed, if with unnecessary, yet with nounced; and that listless and incurious and copy ear into which its blessed sounds are received. How can you, thus unimpassioned, hold communion with themes in which every thing awful, vital, and endearing, do meet together! Why is not curiosity, curiosity ever hungry, on edge to know the doings and intentions of Jehovah King of kings? Why is not interest, interest ever awake, on tiptoe to hear the future destiny of itself? Why is not the heart that panteth over the world after love and friendship, overpowered with the full tide of the divine acts and expressions of love? Where is Nature gone when she is not moved with the tender mercy of Christ? Methinks the affections of men are fallen into the yellow leaf. Of your poets which charm the world's ear, who is he that inditeth a song unto his God? Some will tune their harps to sensual pleasures, and by the enchant ment of their genius well nigh commend their unholy themes to the imagination of saints. Others, to the high and noble sentiments of the heart, will sing of domestic joys and happy unions, casting around sorrow the radiancy of virtue, and bodying forth, in undying forms, the short-lived visions of joy! Others have enrolled themselves the high priests of mute Nature's charms, enchanting her echoes with their minstrelsy, and peopling her solitudes with the bright creatures of their fancy. But when, since the days of the blind master of English song, hath any poured forth a lay worthy of the Christian theme? Nor in philosophy," the palace of the soul," have men been more mindful of their Maker. The flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their unwearied devotees, crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and making devout pilgrimages to every region of Nature, for offerings to their patron muse. The rocks, from their rests in the dark bowels of the earth, have residences among the clouds to their deep a most bold and venturous priesthood; who see in their rough and flinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed countenance of God. And the political welfare of the world is a very Moloch, who can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims. But the re vealed sapience of God, to which the harp of David and the prophetic lyre of Isaiah were strung, the prudence of God which the wisest of men coveted after, preferring it to every gift which Heaven could confer -and the eternal Intelligence himself in human form, and the unction of the Holy One which abideth,-these the common heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be charmed withal.-(P. 17, 18.) (ON THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN.] Think you the creative function of God is exhausted upon this dark and troublous ball of earth? or that this body and soul of human nature are the master-piece of his architecture? Who knows what new enchantment of melody, what new witchery of speech, what poetry of conception, what variety of design, and what brilliancy of execution, he may endow the human faculties withal-in what new graces he may clothe nature, with such various enchantment of hill and dale, woodland, rushing streams, and living fountains; with bowers of bliss and sabbath-scenes of peace, and a thousand forms of disporting creatures, so as to make all the world hath beheld, to seem like the gross picture with which you catch infants; and to make the eastern tale of romances, and the most rapt imagination of eastern poets, like the ignorant prattle and rude structures which first delight the nursery and afterwards ashame our riper years. Again, from our present establishment of affections, what exquisite enjoyment springs, of love, of friendship, and of domestic life. For each one of which God, amidst this world's faded glories, hath preserved many a temple of most exquisite delight. Home, that word of nameless charms; love, that inexhaustible theme of sentiment and poetry; all relationships, parental, conjugal, and filial, shall arise to a new strength, graced with innocency, undisturbed by apprehension of decay, unruffled by jealousy, and unweakened by time. Heart shall meet heart Each other's pillow to repose divine. The tongue shall be eloquent to disclose all its burning emotions, no longer labouring and panting for utterance. And a new or ganization of body for joining and mixing homes for partaking it undisturbed, and affections may be invented, more quiet more sequestered retreats for barring out settlements of the blessed, one day of the invasion of other affairs. Oh! what scenes of social life I fancy to myself in the which I would not barter against the greatness and glory of an Alexander or a Cæsar. bial ties-what urgency of well-doingWhat new friendships-what new connuwhat promotion of good-what elevation of the whole sphere in which we dwell! till every thing smile in "Eden's first bloom," and the angels of light, as they come and go, tarry with innocent rapture over the enjoyment of every happy fair. Ah! they will come, but with no weak sinfulness like those three lately sung of by no holy tongue; they will come to creatures sinless as themselves, and help forward the mirth and rejoicing of all the people. And the Lord God himself shall walk amongst us, as he did of old in the midst of the garden. His Spirit shall be in us, and all heaven shall be revealed upon us. God only knows what great powers he hath of creating happiness and joy. For, this world your sceptic poets make such idolatry of, 'tis a waste-howling wilderness compared with what the Lord our God shall furnish out. That city of our God and the Lamb, whose stream was crystal, whose wall was jasper, and her buildings molten gold, whose twelve gates were each a silvery pearl-doth not so far outshine those dingy, smoky, clayey dwellings of men, as shall that new earth outshine the fairest region which the sun hath ever beheld in his circuit since the birth of time. But there is a depraved taste in man, which delights in strife and struggle; a fellness of spirit, which joys in fire and sword; and a serpent mockery, which cannot look upon innocent peace without a smile of scorn, or a ravenous lust to mar it. And out of this fund of bitterness come forth those epithets of derision which they pour upon the innocent images of heaven. They laugh at the celebration of -the Almighty's praise as a heartless service-not understanding that which they make themselves merry withal. The harp which the righteous tune in heaven, is their heart full of glad and harmonious emotions. The song which they sing, is the knowledge of things which the soul coveteth after now, but faintly perceiveth. The troubled fountain of human understanding hath become clear as crystal, they know even as they are known. Wherever they look abroad, they perceive wisdom and glory-within, they feel order and happiness in every countenance they read benignity and love. God is glorified in all his outward works, and inthroned in the inward parts of every living thing; and man, being ravished with the constant picture of beauty and contentment, possessed with a constant sense of felicity, utters forth his Maker's praise, or if he utters not, museth it with expressive silence, (P. 382-385.) [THE CHARACTER OF MR. WORDSWORTH.] There is one man in these realms who hath addressed himself to such a godlike life, and dwelt alone amidst the grand and lovely scenes of nature, and the deep, unfathomable secrecies of human thought. Would to heaven it were allowed to others to do likewise! And he hath been rewarded with many new cogitations of nature and of nature's God; and he hath heard, in the stillness of his retreat, many new voices of his conscious spirit-all which he hath sung in harmonious numbers. But, mark the Epicurean soul of this degraded age! They have frowned on him; they have spit on him; they have grossly abused him. The masters of this critical generation (like generation, like masters!) have raised the hue and cry against him; the literary and sentimental world, which is their sounding-board, hath reverberated it; and every reptile who can retail an opinion in print, hath spread it, and given his reputation a shock, from which it is slowly recovering.-All for what? For making Nature and his own bosom his home, and daring to sing of the simple but sublime truths which were revealed to him; for daring to be free in his manner of uttering genuine feeling and depicting natural beauty, and grafting thereon devout and solemn contemplations of God.-(P. 504.) [THE MODERN BRAVO.] And here, first, I would try these flush and flashy spirits with their own weapons, and play a little with them at their own game. They do but prate about their exploits at fighting, drinking, and death-despising. I can tell them of those who fought with savage beasts; yea, of maidens, who durst enter as coolly as a modern bully into the ring, to take their chance with infuriated beasts of prey; and I can tell them of those who drank the molten lead as cheerfully as they do the juice of the grape, and handled the red fire, and played with the bickering flames as gaily as they do with love's dimples or woman's amorous tresses. And what do they talk of war? Have they forgot Cromwell's iron-band, who made their chivalry to skip ? with their Christian chief, received the or the Scots Cameronians, who seven times, thanks of Marlborough, that first of English whose camp sung Psalms in every tent? It captains? or Gustavus of the North, is not so long, that they should forget Nelson's Methodists, who were the most trusted of that hero's crew. Poor men, they know try's history, who it was that set at nought who do not know out of their counnothing the wilfulness of Henry VIII. and the sharp rage of the virgin Queen against liberty, and bore the black cruelty of her popish sister; and presented the petition of rights, and the bill of rights, and the claim of rights. Was it chivalry? was it blind bravery? No; these second-rate qualities may do for a pitched field, or a fenced ring; but when it comes to death or liberty, death or virtue, death or religion, they wax dubious, generally bow their necks under hardship, or turn their backs for a bait of honour, or a mess of solid and substantial meat. This chivalry and brutal bravery can fight if you feed them well and bribe them well, or set them well on edge; but in the midst of hunger and nakedness, and want and persecution, in the day of a country's direst need, they are cowardly, treacherous, and of no avail. Oh these topers, these gamesters, these idle revellers, these hardened death-despisers! they are a nation's disgrace, a nation's downfall. They devour the seed of virtue in the land; they feed on virginity, and modesty, and truth. They grow great in crime, and hold a hot war with the men of peace. They sink themselves in debt; they cover their families with disgrace; they are their country's shame. And will nations of the Holy Alliance, which , have put up with a little inflated dicthey will lift up an arm of defence against tion, while every heart yearned to those who do them harm. But their soul deliver itself from the pain of unis consumed with wantonness, and their profitable agitation, in planning some stcadfast principles are dethroned by error; bold design, or in the achievement their very frames, their bones and sinews, of some meritorious enterprise. He are effeminated and degraded by vice and would have been equal to Peter the dissolute indulgences.-(P. 527-529.) Hermit, in setting all Christendom in That there are many passages in motion to undertake a glorious act ferior to these we are not such blind of deliverance: but, unless we are admirers of Mr. Irving as not to per- much mistaken, Mr. Irving would ceive, and we disapprove of some as try, rather to deliver a nation from they deserve; but to challenge the slavery, deeming the mind of man public attention to them, as if it the true Holy Land, than to encouwere a great thing to have discovered rage a crusade for the recovery of any faults in a man so famous, is to some senseless earth from the possespay him too high a compliment. He şion of the infidels. It is easy to see must, of course, have many imper- in the watching eyes, and implicit fections, but these we shall leave his brows which now surround him, that hearers and readers to find out at he would have found numerous and their leisure, or to learn from the faithful followers and co-adjutors. host of critics by whom he will be But when all this feeling is excited, assailed, for it will be strange indeed and there is no external foe to comif he be suffered to go on unmolested bat,---when they are in a spirit to in his course. He cannot expect it; call down fire from Heaven to conand, perhaps, he does not wish to be sure the enemies of the truth,-and spared. By the readiness he shows each man is told that the sin in his to begin the attack, he invites hos- own heart isits greatest enemy-what tility, and she will take him at his is to be expected, but that the zeal word: all parties then will be against which cannot be carried off in a prohim; for each will find in him some- per direction, will fall on him who thing which cannot be excused or drew it forth :—they will turn and forgiven; and admiration is not so rend him. All we wish is, that he generous a passion that it can hold should be prepared for this reverse. out long against offended pride or He seems to be a little affected by wounded vanity. His popularity as the heat of prosperity,—we hope he a preacher must decline. The tide will bear adversity better. Few men will ebb in the same rapid degree could have withstood so well the that it has flowed; and those who flattering attentions he has received. are now the most eager for his praise Our approbation of Mr. Irving is will then be the loudest in his cen- established on firmer grounds than sure; they will be ashamed of their popular opinion ; excessive passion to hear him, and will endeavour to find revenge in ri It was builded far from accident; dicule. Still, when detraction has It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls Under the blow of thralled discontent. done its utmost, this volume will remain an indestructible memorial of We admire him for his manly utthe Author's extraordinary powers. terance of truth without respect to We have sometimes wondered persons,—for his enlarged conception what would have been the effect of of the privileges of the Christian chaMr. Irving's eloquence had he ap- racter, for his connection of piety peared as a private gentleman, at a with literature and philosophy,—for public meeting, in support of some his patriotism and philanthropy,popular cause; or as a Member of and, lastly, for that eloquence of the Parliament, pleading for reform, or heart, not of the head, without which for the improvement of Ireland, or all oratory is unpersuasive as the against the aggressions and machis sound of a cymbal. |