Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

meeting-house with a sight of the face and which led to nothing particular. She discov- | finement, and Atherton condemned to the figure appertaining to the voice, which ered, at last, what her friends had discov- stake and torture. In the mean time, Monoproves to be that of Miriam Grey, the fairest ered for her long before, that she was in love notto, another chieftain, and the real owner damsel in New England. Young Adam with our hero, and that, as it was impossi- of the female prisoners, returns, and accepts Cupid, he who shot so trim in the case of ble they could ever be united, they were in the terms which Sassecus had refused; MiKing Cophetua, drew his bow in the pre- a situation, which, besides being bad in its riam and her companion are released, and sent instance with as little regard to the present aspect, was not likely to mend. nothing now remains but the deliverance of fitness of things, or, to forbear metaphor, She communicates this opinion to her lover, Atherton, which is accomplished by a party the high-church cavalier fell in love with which affects him powerfully, and induces from the sloop, at the critical moment, the Puritan maiden. Major Atherton is him to leave her suddenly, and repair to when he is beginning to be enveloped in soon introduced to Mr Winslow, Mr Brad-Boston. Miriam soon follows him, on her smoke. The lovers once more meet and ford, and other worthies of the time, among way to the neighbourhood of Saybrook, on part. The lady returns to her home, and whom is Captain Standish, the military com- the Connecticut, with her cousin, who had the gentleman accompanies the English mander at New Plymouth, and a kinsman been lately married, and chance conducts soldiers, whom he finds at Saybrook, on of our hero. At the house of Mr Winslow her to the same inn; no very improbable their expedition against the savages; he withe meets with Peregrine White, the first circumstance, by the way, if it conducted nesses the two bloody attacks upon the Peborn of New England, who is made to act her to any one in Boston, in 1636. The meet- quod entrenchments, by the troops under the part of the gracioso or Jack Pudding ing was, of course, distressing, but as nei- Captain Mason, which resulted in the deof the piece, of whom we shall speak here- ther any good reason could be given why struction or dispersion of that fierce people, after, directing our attention, at present, she should not proceed with her cousin, nor returns at the close of the campaign to Bosto the main action, namely, the loves of why Major Atherton should accompany her, ton, and proceeds from thence to Plymouth. Atherton and Miriam Grey. The reader they were again compelled to separate. The story now draws to a close. Mr Grey, will need no ghost to tell him that these Rumours of war soon after arose between while these events were taking place, had encountered many obstacles; two were the Pequods and the colonists, and the returned from England, and, after some in the form of rivals, of whom one was danger was particularly threatening to the hesitation, finds himself unable to refuse a Puritan with close-cropped hair, an settlers on the banks of the Connecticut. the hand of his daughter to him who had ungainly manner, and a reasonably good An army was to be raised, and our hero twice saved her life; he accordingly conopinion of his own gifts, but honest withal, was, of course, among the volunteers; but sents to the match, provided that Miriam is and upright, and a sincere lover, whom we being unwilling to wait the tardy motions willing, and, as her consent is obtained withsometimes respect, but oftener laugh at; the of the equipment, took passage in a Dutch out much difficulty, Major Atherton is made other a gallant Virginian, one of the know- vessel belonging to New Amsterdam, which happy, and, in process of time, becomes a ing ones of the day, a contemner of things proposed to touch at Saybrook. The prov- Puritan, and lives to a good old age in the sacred, or a hypocritical observer of them, erb which intimates the difference between usual manner. The subordinate personages a cajoler, or a bully, as the case might haste and speed, proved to be applicable in are all properly disposed of by death, marbe; one, in short, of that numerous class, the present instance; for, besides, that the riage, or otherwise, and the survivors made who are as commonly to be found in novels ordinary motions of the Dutch dogger were as happy as their respective cases would as in real life, and are governed by no par- not particularly expeditious, the skipper, admit. ticular principle, except a regard to their alarmed by some reports of the numbers own immediate interest. A more serious and power of the Pequods, chose to omit impediment existed in the righteous horror, visiting the river, and proceed directly to with which the father of the damsel re- New Amsterdam. Their passenger was ingarded the idea of a connexion between his dignant at this tergiversation; but as his daughter and a member of the persecuting wrath produced no other effect than that church of England. It would not, proba- of exciting the astonishment of Mynheer, bly, have been of much advantage to his he was fairly landed at Manhattan, and left cause, that he was not bigotted to forms, to rail against his destiny, and employ himbut disposed to respect modes of worship self, as well as he could, in prevailing upon not entirely consonant to those in which he the Dutch to despatch a vessel to Saybrook. had been educated. Charity, of this kind, This desirable end was, after many delays, was a virtue of very equivocal value in at last accomplished, and our hero once more those days, and more likely to fix upon the on his way towards the scene of action. The possessor the character of a Gallio, than any purpose of the expedition was the ransom more favourable one. Fortunately, the op- of two females, who had been captured by portunity which occurred to him of saving the natives, in a late inroad upon the town the life of the daughter, while it served to of Weathersfield; and on board the sloop distance his rivals in her opinion, did much were embarked some distinguished Pequod towards removing the prejudices of the fa- prisoners, who were to be exchanged for ther against him. The objection to his them. With the chief of these, Cushmiform of worship, however, was still insur- naw, Major Atherton succeeds in forming mountable, and an intimation of his purpose an acquaintance, which afterwards proves of seeking the hand of Miss Grey was re- of service to him. On reaching the place butted with the decision of principle. Time of their destination, a negociation is opened rolled on, however, and the affair continued with Sassacus, the chief of the Pequods; undecided. Mr Grey left the Colony, on a but the terms of the cartel could not be savisit to the mother country; a matter which tisfactorily arranged. Atherton, in the required more time two hundred years ago, mean time, discovers that one of the capthan it does at this day, when a man may tives is Miriam Grey; and on the failure travel over Europe and return, before his of the treaty, takes measures to rescue her; friends in the next street have noticed his and, following the directions of Cushminaw, absence. He left Major Atherton to con- nearly succeeds in his attempt. The whole tinue his attentions to Miriam, and Miriam party, however, are seized just as they to imagine, in some indistinct manner, that are about to gain the boat, and Miriam is these attentions were agreeable things, carried back to her former place of con

We have few remarks to make upon the characters of the hero and heroine; they are necessary evils in a novel, and provided the latter incurs and escapes a proper variety of dangers and delicate distresses, the former kills his giant with due discretion, and both are happily brought together at the conclusion, every reasonable reader ought to be contented; we say, if they are happily brought together; for, we take this occasion of entering our protest against a practice, which has sometimes obtained, of destroying one or both of the parties. We believe that this is seldom or never necesary. A novelist, in our opinion, has the same right over his principal characters, that a husband formerly had over his wife; he is only precluded from destroying life or limb; and we give future writers fair warning, that we shall always resent any such infringement of their charter. It is idle for him to talk of difficulties, who has gods and machines at his disposal; and we insist, that where the matter is within our jurisdiction, life shall be saved at all hazards. We have always thought the death of Clara Mowbray a very unhandsome thing on the part of the Great Unknown, as well as a dangerous example to aspirants, and one which, after this intimation of our view of it, they will follow at their peril.

Many characters in this work are well sustained. We would mention among them, those of Standish, and Peregrine White, who, as we have hinted before, is described as a wag, upon the authority, we suppose,

We shall conclude by recommending to the author in his next book, for we take it for granted, that this is, according to the fashion of the day, but the first of a series, to trust more to his powers of invention and description, and less to the records of the time; and following the precept and example of his great prototype, to draw from history and tradition nothing but the hard and dry outlines of his subject, which are to be filled up and embellished with a warm and bright colouring from that nature, which is the same now that it was two hun

dred

years ago.

of the old newspaper obituary, which rep- the waters of the bay, all wore the same unsullied in spite, as it were, of our prepossessions. resents him to have been extravagant investment, while each tree was tufted with the win- With all the faults which we have pointed the early part of his life. Next to these, try foliage, which wreathed the smallest spray, and out, we consider the work as one of much the characters of Ashly and Calvert, are, beneath the feathery burthen. every slender shrub and clustering vine trembled merit, and have perused it, as we think perhaps, the best executed; and we really But, even while gazing, the glittering pageant many of our readers will do, with inthought the first too respectable to be coup-faded from the eye; the warm beams of the rising terest. It will rival neither the works of led up with Miss Spindle; but let that pass, sun spread, like a blush, over the stainless surface; the Great Unknown, nor those of our inas it was necessary to dispose of him, and and yielding to their influence, the delicate frost-genious countryman, the author of "The no better way occurs to us at present. We work melted from tree, shrub, and vine, and de- Pilot;" but it is superior to many in the scended in broken masses to the ground. As nawould observe in general, that the dramatisture threw off the fantastic dress she had assumed, same walk, that have enjoyed a good depersonæ are too numerous, and that the au- Atherton was powerfully struck by the grandeur of gree of the favor of the public. thor has weakened his power by dividing it. her form, and the endless variety of lineament A little more regard to the unities of space which characterizes her, in a land where the magand time, would have rendered his task nificent and the beautiful are blended, with such exquisite and unrivalled skill. The vessel was easier, and the effect would have been passing through the narrow channel, which forms more pleasing. Akin to this objection is the entrance of the harbour, and then expands into another, which occurs to us, on the subject a deep and capacious basin; on the left, the Blue of the use of his materials, of which he has Hills were still visible, forming a part of the lofty not been sufficiently economical,-employ-range, which rises gradually from the shores of the Massachusetts, almost encircling the coast, and ing in the composition of two volumes, as broken at intervals into deep ravines and extensive much as, with good management. would vallies, then almost in the untutored wildness of have made a dozen. He has committed, in nature;-where many a silver stream rolled its ferthis particular, the same error which Swift tilizing waves, unmarked by any eye save that of charged upon Steele, when he borrowed an the Indian hunter, and unimproved, but by the industrious beaver, who erected his ingenious habitaidea from the Dean, which he was reserving tion on its banks. for a volume, and used it up, if the phrase Major Atherton gazed with unwearied pleasure may be permitted, in a single Spectator. on the boundless prospect; lovely and majestic in There are some criticisms, of minor im- its outlines, though the freshness and bloom of sumportance, which occurred to us during the mer were wanting to complete its attractions, and perusal of these volumes. Thus, Sauguish ful plains. Near him were the commanding heights clothe with verdure the undulating forests and fruitis here given as the name of an island, which of Dorchester, then unknown to fame more diswe have been accustomed to call Saguish; tant, the wood-crowned eminence of Noonantum, and we have also supposed that Governor where, soon after, commenced the missionary laWinslow resided at his farm of Careswell, bours of the American Apostle, the devoted Elliot, prior to the date of this work, which rep- the forest, and instructed them in the duties of reliwho there gathered around him the red children of resents him as residing in Plymouth. An-gion, and the arts of civilization: nearer, again, achronisms are lawful to poets and novelists, arose the memorable summit of Bunker Hill, where but we noticed this because the author the first laurels were plucked to garland the brow of seems careful to avoid them. We are not liberty; while far in the northern horizon, like certain, however, of our own judgment, in floating clouds, were visible the stupendous mountains, which pervade the then unexplored regions either of these particulars, and possibly he of New Hampshire. Traces of cultivation were may be correct in both. Again, there is apparent within this extensive range; and that some obscurity in the account of the mo- spirit of enterprise, which marked the early settlers tions of the various parties, on the occasion of New England, and has never deserted their dewhen Miriam is saved from drowning by scendants, was already observable in the rapid imAtherton. We do not understand how the provements which their industry had accomplished. latter reached the Gurnet in so short a time, ed the trees of the wilderness; and in their stead, In many places, the axe of the adventurer had fellnor where Mr Woodman's house was situ-appeared at intervals, the clustering tenements, the ated. The description does not seem to us to agree with our recollections of the various localities; but it is long since we beheld them, and we have no map at hand of a size sufficient to satisfy us concerning these particulars.

Much of the conversation is spirited and agreeable; some of it, again, is much too long, and wanting in point. The descriptions of scenery are often so well executed and graphic, that we only regret that they do not occur more frequently. We extract the following as a good specimen.

As soon as Atherton awoke in the morning, he hastened on deck, to note the progress they had made; and with delighted surprise, found the vessel just entering the harbour of Boston. So novel and beautiful was the scene presented to his view, that he could scarcely persuade himself that he was not suddenly transported to the regions of fairy

land.

A slight fall of snow, which descended during the night, had invested the earth with its fleecy cover ing, and robed every object with a drapery of dazzling white, finely contrasted to the brilliant azure of the cloudless sky, and the deep green of the ocean waves. The numerous islands, which gem

mud-walled church, and wooden palisade, denoting
the foundation of a town, or village, most of which
have since risen into wealth and importance.

Seventeen Discourses on Several Texts of Scripture; addressed to Christian Assemblies, in Villages near Cambridge; to which are added Six Morning Exercises. By Robert Robinson. First American Edition. With a Life of the Author. Boston. 1824. 12mo. pp. 434.

MR ROBINSON was born in Norfolk County, in England, in 1735. His father was a Scotchman, and an exciseman; and nothing more is said of him, than that "his humble sphere in life received no dignity from his understanding, and no brightness from his virtues." Robert was the youngest of three children; his father died when he was six years old, and left his family destitute. But the young pupil had made so favourable an impression upon his teacher, the Rev. Joman respect the motives which induced Mrs seph Brett, and so highly did this gentleRobinson almost to exhaust her resources in efforts to maintain her son at school, that he offered to instruct him without compensation. This kind offer was, of course, accepted, and Robert remained at school until he was fourteen; and, in the mean time, he had learned the French and Latin languages, and made great proficiency in most of the studies commonly pursued at such institutions. But his mother at length found, that unconquerable difficulties must prevent his success as a scholar, and she at once In concluding our remarks upon this pub- abandoned every hope of the kind, and lication, it occurs to us that its author, and sought only to shield her child from want, our readers generally, may think that we by preparing him to earn a living in some have hardly redeemed the pledge which we useful calling; and he was soon apprenticed gave at the commencement of them, to re- to a London barber. For some time he laview it in the spirit of favor-having em- boured in his vocation diligently; but his ployed much more time in marking its de- love of reading returned, and he improved fects than its beauties. But, though we every opportunity of indulging this ruling admit that we may not have been able to passion, which he could find or make. His resist the temptation to find fault, so en-character had always indicated a regard for tirely as we hoped; yet, as we fairly stated the expectations which were likely to influence us, what we have said in its praise ought to be the more valuable, as it is given

The style of the work is generally easy and pleasing. We noticed but two offences against good English; one was on page 106 of the first volume, where Atherton asks where Capt. Standish was located, &c.; the other on page 11 of the second, where a position is mentioned, as one that is now "improved as an important naval depot."

religion, and at this time he exhibited something of religious enthusiasm. He gradually attached himself to the Methodists, and was in habits of intimacy with White

field. He familiarly corresponded with that that which he sought to do, in the way, and showing you, that Christianity is not a secret but a remarkable man, and his self-love was grat- by the means, which seemed to him most revealed religion-that you are all of you able to ified, and, doubtless, his ambition inflamed, efficient. Many of his works, for he pub-world why you should apply yourselves to the thounderstand it--and that there is every reason in the by Whitefield's reading to his congregation, lished many beside the volume now under rough knowledge of it. in Robinson's presence, two letters which notice,-indicate, if we may trust his bi- When I affirm, the christian religion hath no he had received from him. At nineteen heographer, extensive learning, and procured mysteries now, I do not mean to say that the truths began to preach among the Methodists, and for him many compliments from the digni- and the duties of Christianity are not connected with with great success. After about two years taries of the established church. Great ef- other truths and other exercises, which surpass all he left the Methodists, and in a year or two forts were made to bring him within the edge of the incomprehensible parts, and the belief our comprehension; but I affirm, that the knowlfrom this secession joined the Baptists. In pale from which he had wandered, but he of what people please to conjecture about them, 1759 he took charge of a small congrega- resisted them all, and, as we have said, though they may be parts of our amusement, and tion in Cambridge, which gradually increas- never changed the sphere of his labours. It perhaps improvement, are yet no parts of that relied, until the contributions of his people seems, that to each of the dissenting con- gion which God requires of us under pain of his yielded him an abundant support; and with gregations in Cambridge many families in displeasure. Suppose I were to affirm, there is no secret in mowing grass, and in making, stacking, them he passed the remainder of his life. the adjacent villages are joined, and ser- and using hay; all this would be very true; and In 1790 he died suddenly. mons are preached to them near their own should any one deny this, and question me about domiciles, once a month. From sermons the manner in which one little seed produces clothus preached, those which form this vol- ver, another trefoil, a third rye-grass, and concernume were selected. His audiences appear, spirit to horses, and milk to cows, and fat to oxen ing the manner how all these convey strength and from his addresses to them, to have been in the winter; I would reply, All this is philosocomposed principally of persons of very phy; nothing of this is necessary to mowing, and humble rank; and his discourses are faith-making, and using hay. I sanctify this thought by fully adapted to them; of course, they are applying it to religion. Every good work produces in some respects not suited to the literary work, and to hope for the reward from the known present pleasure and future reward; to perform the taste of higher classes. Perhaps too, the character of the great Master we serve, is religion, habits and connexions of his early life, and all before and after is only connected with tended to disqualify him for studied and it. *** accurate elegance of style. These discourses were all composed hastily, and this may serve as a reason, if not an apology, for occasional looseness of reasoning, as well as inaptitude of ornament or illustration, and bad taste in expression. But we will give our readers an opportunity of judging for themselves, by extracting from the first sermon,-upon the text, "When ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,"-passages which will be a sufficient sample of the volume. BRETHREN,

It is not stated why he left the Methodists; but if the sermons contained in this volume are fair samples of those which he was accustomed to preach, it is not difficult to assign a reason for this conduct. They contain no indication of that excessive enthusiasm, which we are accustomed to believe that sect look for, and applaud, in those who are peculiarly eminent among them. There is an exceeding simplicity and heartiness about them; no reader can doubt that the preacher was in earnest, and preached for his hearers' sake, and not for his own. Nor is there less certainty as to his object, or the means by which he would attain it. He wishes to make them whom he addresses, religious; and to this end he urges upon them the plain and indubitable truths of religion. He says little about doctrines, and very little about disputed doctrines; but he earnestly enforces the great truth, that the essence and the evidence of religion, is the love and the practice of goodness. Upon this point, the following extract from the Preface may show his opinion.

I

Take heart, then, my good brethren; you may understand, practise, and enjoy all this rich gift of and refreshment by rest at night. Let no one say, God to man, just as you enjoy the light of the day, was born in poverty, I have had no learning, have no friends, my days are spent in labour, and I have no prospect except that of drawing my last breath where I drew my first. All this may be and practising, and enjoying the Christian Religion, true; but all this will not prevent your knowing, the founder of which had not, what the birds of the air have, where to lay his head.'

When I say all may understand it, I mean, if their own depravity does not prevent it. Plainly, you cannot know it if you do not attend to it; nor can you know it though you do attend, if you do not attend to Christianity itself, and not to something else put instead of it. Let me explain myself.

Suppose the apostle Paul, when he first stood up in the synagogue at Ephesus to teach ChristianThe author of these discourses is of opinion that ity to the Jews, or in the school of Tyrannus to a One says, I cannot understand the nature and the Christian religion ought to be distinguished mixed assembly, had begun his discourse by say- force of religion; and pray, is there any thing wonfrom the philosophy of it. On this ground he stud-ing, Men of Ephesus, I am going to teach a reli- derful in your ignorance? Consider, you never ies to establish facts; and he hath no idea of guilt gion which none of you can understand;' I say, read the Scriptures; you never ask any body to in regard to different reasonings on the nature of suppose this; put yourselves in the place of the read them to you; you hate and persecute good those facts, or the persons concerned in them. He Ephesians, and you must allow, that he would have men; you seldom enter a place of worship; you hath his own opinions of the nature of God, and insulted his hearers, disgraced himself, and misrep- keep wicked company like yourself; you are often seen in the practice of enormous crimes. Are you Christ, and man, and the decrees, and so on: but resented the religion of Jesus Christ. he doth not think that the opinion of Athanasius, or would have thought, This man either doth under-gion?' It would be a mystery indeed, if a man who He would have insulted the assembly; and they the man to complain, I cannot understand reliArius, or Sabellius, or Socinus, or Augustine, or Pelagius, or Whitby, or Gill, on the subjects in dis- stand the subject of which he is going to speak, or never turned his attention to a subject, should know pute between them, ought to be considered of such he doth not. If he doth not understand it himself, any thing certain about it. We have no such mysimportance as to divide Christians, by being made he hath gathered us together only to hear him con- tery in all the christian religion. Christians do not standards to judge of the truth of any man's Chris-fess his ignorance; and what have we to do with live like you. tianity. He thinks virtue, and not, faith, the bond that? If he be ignorant, let him sit silent, as we do, of union, though he supposes the subject ought to be and give place to such as do know what they talk properly explained. His design, therefore, in these of. If he does understand it himself, why should he discourses, was to possess people of a full convic-affirm we cannot? Are we assembled to hear him tion of the truth of a few facts, the belief of which boast? Does he take us for idiots, who have no he thought would produce virtue, and along with reason, or for libertines, who make no use of what that, personal and social happiness. His ideas of they have? this subject do not meet the views of some of his

brethren: but while he wishes they may enjoy their own sentiments, he hopes they will not deny him their friendship, because he hath it not in his power to think as they do. It is on supposition of the harmlessness of philosophy, or rather of the benefit of getting into a sound philosophy, which is nothing but right reason, that he inculcates with all his might a spirit of universal liberty; for he never saw any danger in a difference of opinion. till some unruly passion by disturbing the disputants, and souring their tempers, brought the subject into dis

grace.

It is evident that the author was sincerely devoted to his work, and determined to do

It is not only to you that I affirm this connexion between attention and knowledge; for if this barn were filled with statesmen and scholars, generals and kings, I should be allowed to say to one, Sir. you understand intrigue; to another, Sir, you understand war, to besiege a town, and rout an army; to a third, Sir, you understand law, and every branch of the office of a conservator of the peace; to another, Sir, you understand languages and arts and sciences; and you all understand all these, because you have studied them; but here are two things which you have not studied, and which, therefore, you do not know; the one, how to plough, and sow, and reap, and thresh an acre of wheat; and the other, how to live holily in this world, so as to live happily in the world to come. Are you not convinced, my good brethren, that the same circum stance, which prevents those gentlemen from knowing how to perform the work which you perform every day with pleasure, prevents you from knowing the practice and the pleasure of true Christianity I said, he would have misrepresented the chris-In both cases the subject hath not been attended to. tian religion; and I am going to prove this, by I go further, and venture to affirm, if religion

He would have disgraced himself; for what can render a man more ridiculous than his pretending to instruct others in what he doth not understand himself? Paul would have appeared in the pulpit just as one of you, taskers, would appear in the chair of a professor of Hebrew at a university. What character more disgraceful can a man assume, than that of the leader of a credulous party, whose religion doth not lie in understanding and practising what is taught, but in believing that the teacher understands it! A provision indeed for the glorious consequence of a blind guide; but not for the freedom, and piety, and happiness of the people!

could be understood without attention, it would be a misfortune; a misfortune depriving us of many advantages, and leading us to commit many crimes. The ease with which we acquired knowledge would sink the value of it, and darkness would have communion with light.'

these addresses were the "Morning Exer- accorded so well with the public taste, that
cises" at the close of this volume. From they who thought his poems admirable,
one of them, upon "Caution," we extract were afraid to express their opinion, and
the following passage, which may show that almost afraid to hold it. But he continued
our author's style of exhortation was at to write, and to publish; he profited so far
least as forcible, and as much to the point, by the remarks of the critics, as to avoid
as it was homely.
some errors and faults; but the characteris-
tics which were peculiarly his, and had
been stigmatized as most at variance with
the spirit and forms of poetry, were continu-
ally developed more fully, and more boldly,
in every successive production. His largest
work, which is almost his last, is also the most
original poem which he has published, and is
most distinctly opposed to those rules by
which his former poetry was judged and con-
demned. But the scene has changed; the
critics are silent, or they praise him; the
reading public demands large and numerous
editions of his works, and thus gives the most
unequivocal proof that he is in favour with
them; and it is decidedly the fashion to
praise the poet, whom but to admire, was,
a few years since, a peril which it required
some courage to encounter. A change like
this is an important fact in the history of
literature; it has passed, or is passing be-
fore us; all its accompanying circumstances
readers will bear with us while we specu-
are within our knowledge, and we hope our
late a little upon the reason of it.

As attention is absolutely necessary, so it is equally necessary that attention should be fixed upon the christian religion itself, and nothing else. We hear often of the mysteries of religion let us Let us take care of our children. The text says, not forget that there are mysteries of iniquity. The wilderness yieldeth food for them, and for Ignorance, covetousness, tyranny, especially ty- their children.' They live an idle, wandering life, ranny over conscience, all wrap themselves in mysand they train up their children to be vagrants like tery; but if we incorporate any of these mysteries themselves. Children are great blessings Happy with the christian religion, and attend to them, in- is the man that hath bis quiver,' that is, his house, stead of distinguishing and attending to pure Chris-full of them.' Under the direction of a prudent tianity, we may attend and study, but we shall parent, they are as arrows in the hand of a mighty never know; we shall be ever learning, and never man, and will fly here and there to execute his orbe able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The ders. These children have every thing to learn, and doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffer- they will learn every thing of those who are the ing, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, and nearest to them. To them example is better than deliverances of the apostle Paul, were fully known, all the books in the world, and indeed it is the only and diligently followed by common Christians; book they study. Let us not cheat ourselves into but who ever knew the doctrine of transubstantia- a neglect of them by groaning about Old Adam, nor tion, or that of the infallibility of a frail, sinful man? by chanting over what nobody denies, that God Who of us, uninspired men, knows the feelings of a only can make a Christian, which is equal to say person under the immediate influence of the Holy ing, God only can make a tucumber. God made Ghost? In vain we pursue such mysteries as these; the first fruit immediately by his own power; but the stronger the attention, the greater the mortifica- he hath made fruit ever since by means, and the tion of not being able to succeed. If one place remost industrious will always have the best garden. ligion in impulses, another in new revelations, a Let us use our children early to do with little sleep. third in a state of perfection, a fourth in discoveries To put them to bed very early, to give them sleepand enjoyments inconsistent with our present state, ing doses, and such other customs, are generally and not set before us in the christian religion, they the practices of idle or impatient nurses. Let us may well be filled with doubts and fears, and spend never, under pretence of fondness, give them strong life in complaining of the crooked and dreary paths liquors. The water-bucket is the best supply of a of religion. If, on the contrary, we attend only to poor child. Let us not lacquer their appetites, and what is revealed, to believe only what is reported learn them to be dainty, or voracious. It is a great with sufficient evidence, to practise only what is misfortune to the poor to have remarkably great apcommanded by the undoubted voice of God; if we petites. Such habits poison and kill. Let us acseek only such pleasures and distinctions as we are custom them to cleanliness and industry, to civility taught in scripture to expect; in a word, if we in their manners, and to reverence for their God. would acquaint ourselves only with God, and be at Let us never think of the savage custom of beating peace one with another, thereby good should come them, nor ever spoil them by the contrary folly of cockering and fondling. Above all, let us teach them to think and reason about religion, and to interpret Scripture for themselves. Let us take care to inform them that religion is justice, and nothing else. What is the religion of a poor woman's little girl, but to spin a groat a day; for it is just and right, that she should contribute what little she can is the religion of a poor under boy on a farm in a toward the maintenance of the family? And what cold winter day, but to rise early, to milk the cows clean, to breakfast the sties, to tend the cattle constantly and kindly, and so on; for it is just and right, that he should do so for the benefit of his master, who supplies all he wants. Justice makes a good man in every work and business of life. a good shepherd, a good herdman, a good tasker, folks early in life by every thing we do, and this We should inculcate this principle in these little from idleness, which leads to vagrancy, as that does will settle them in services, and preserve them to pilfering and public punishment.

unto us.

On page 48 is an anecdote respecting our fathers, which may interest those of our readers to whom it is new, as it was to us. It is a benefit to understand the spirit, and see the beauty of the Holy Scriptures? Afflictions teach Christians the worth of their Bibles, and so wrap up their hearts in the oracles of God. The Bible is but an insipid book to us before afflictions bring us to feel the want of it, and then how many comfortable passages do we find, which lay neglected and unknown before! I recollect an instance in a history of some, who fled from persecution in this country to that then wild desert, America. Among many other hardships, they were sometimes in such straits for bread, that the very crusts of their former tables in England would have been a dainty to them. Necessity drove the women and children to the seaside to look for a ship expected to bring them provision; but no ship for many weeks appeared; however, they saw in the sand vast quantities of shell-fish, since called clams, a sort of mus

cles. Hunger impelled them to taste, and at length they fed almost wholly on them, and to their own astonishment were as cheerful, fat, and lusty, as they had been in England with their fill of the best provisions. A worthy man, one day after they had all dined on clams without bread, returned God thanks for causing them to suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand; a passage in Deuteronomy, a part of the blessing with which Moses blessed the tribe of Zebulun before his death, a passage till then unobserved by the company, but which ever after endeared the writings of Moses to them.

Mr Robinson sometimes passed the night in the villages in which he preached, and would then spend a short time, early in the morning, in addressing his audience before they went to their daily labours. Among

The Poetical Works of William Words

worth. Boston. 1824. 4 vols. 12mo.

THE history of Mr Wordsworth's poems, or
rather of his reputation as a poet, is inter-
esting and instructive. Many years since,
he came before the public as an author.
His reception was not very flattering; not
such, one would think, as could stimulate
him to perseverance by opening before him
a prospect of eminent success. The para-
mount critics of that day spoke of his poetry
with utter scorn; his most elaborate and
most successful efforts were assailed with
severe satire; the cry of contempt and de-
rision was so loud, and was echoed so faith-
fully by all the underlings of literature, and

That the "Edinburgh Review" had some influence in retarding the growth of Mr Wordsworth's fame cannot be doubted; but We think this influence is greatly overrated. We do not estimate very highly the general influence of critics; for, it seems to us, that there are obvious reasons why they should seldom, or never, be able to produce a positive and important effect upon public opinion. They are rather the signs of the times-the exponents of the literary character of the age. Public favour is the very not put forth his whole stock of intellectual breath of their nostrils. The reviewer does treasure in one work, which a long labour has wrought out, and then await in submissive silence the decree to which the hopes of many years have looked. He pubthe public taste, he endeavours to do better lishes the Number, and if it does not suit the next time; he generally bows to the what is called for, and keeps this necessity necessity of providing for his readers just in view as the guide of his labours, and looks to the sale of his journal as the criterion of ular critic need not be thus submissive; his success. It may be thought that a popthat it is his business to speak of literary productions as they appear, and before a decided opinion is formed of them; and that he may enforce his own opinion so ably as to impose it upon the public, and thus influence public taste. But there are considerations which lie behind these; the very supposition that the critic is extensively popular, proves, as we think, that he has gratified the existing taste of the day;— that he has pleased his readers by showing them that they have heretofore thought aright of literary matters, and giving them excellent reasons for opinions which they hold; by praising eloquently whatever their

habits of literary enjoyment make agreea- | he wished only to know, and say, if Byron and supernatural deeds and horrors, all ble, and pointing the omnipotent argument or Wordsworth were likely to be eminent equally true to nature; and Eastern ficof ridicule against that which wonld seem in the art of making what the taste and tions filled with creatures that never lived to them a folly. There may be exceptions fashion of the day called fine poetry. He before but in Eastern minds; and stories to this rule, but we cannot think there are mistook the character of Byron's mind, be- of pirates, infidels, rebels, and murderers, many. A man must have great abilities, cause Byron was able to falsify his predic- all infinitely touching and interesting. Men, and must be an advocate for truth in dis- tions, and discredit his criticisms, by becom- for whom it is utterly impossible to feel any tinct opposition to error, or he will scarcely ing popular in defiance of him; but he did thing like contempt,-men like Scott, Southinfluence, very greatly, public opinion; nor not mistake the intellectual character of ey, and Byron, wrote thus. None can be more can he then by means of a literary journal, Wordsworth, as far as he passed upon it; ready than we are, to acknowledge the unless there are already enough who think for the whole meaning of his condemnation greatness of these poets' powers,-provwith him, to yield him that support, without was, that he deemed Wordsworth incapable ed, if by nothing else, by the many passawhich his instrument of warfare must fall of assimilating himself to the established ges of pure and exalted poetry which may from his hands. Now, we do not think that fashion, and gratifying the prevailing taste. be found in all their works. We will admit Jeffrey and his host, with all their wit, and And this was true. all that any admirer of either of them could learning, and ingenuity, were men of orireasonably ask, and then we may demand ginal and commanding intellects; and that if any one, not a child in years or intellect, they had the wrong side of this question, ever believed that the Border Knights of all who read Wordsworth,-and they are Scott, or the Giaours and Conrads of Byron, now many,-will admit. or the Glendoveers and Afreets of Southey, ever had a prototype, or could have had one in the nature of things. They are impossible beings, made up of irreconcileable parts, bound, not blended, together; and their thoughts, and emotions, and purposes, are all alien to the nature of man. Still, these writers were men of fine intellects, and often wrote pages which deserve not this reproach; but such pages are exceptions. It may be said, that all great Epic writers, and especially Milton, have heroes far removed from actual humanity; but, not to answer this objection more particularly, we may suggest, that these characters differ from the poetic creations of modern days, in that they are consistent ;-consistent in themselves, and consistent with what is known of real existence. The good, in those great poems are good, and the evil are evil. Tasso's heroes, for example, may be beyond actual humanity, but they are not utterly opposed to it; and Milton's angels have the purity and splendour of heaven about them, aud his devils are worthy of their name and doom, and Adam and Eve are human beings in Paradise, with human frailties that will exile them to earth.

Mr Wordsworth's slow advance in public estimation, must be accounted for, we think, almost entirely by the character of his poetry. We do not mean that his faults concealed his merits, but that the kind, and even the measure of his excellence, were such as to prevent his being justly appreciated by the public to whom he first presented his poems. Mr Coleridge has somewhere said, that an original writer, just so far as he is original, must create the taste by which he is enjoyed. This is something more than a smart saying; it is a valuable truth; and Mr Wordsworth, in one of his prefaces, has applied it justly to the explanation of that very unfavourable reception which his earliest productions met with. Whatever may be thought of his standing among modern poets, in respect of general power, it will be conceded by any one at all conversant with his works, that he is better entitled than any of his compeers to the name of an original poet. Our readers would not follow us through a long and exact investigation of his poetical character; it would be a severe task to any one,-and a task to which we think ourselves uncalled, and are certain that we are unequal. But a few remarks upon the more obvious characteristics of his poems, will show, we hope, that they are altogether unlike that kind of writing which various and long operating causes had made reading men look upon as the highest kind of poetry; and that they are utterly opposed to those principles whose sovereignty-then undisputed had not only disarrayed and disfigured the apparel and the form of Poetry, but tainted her very spirit.

We do not believe that it is an easy thing to control the opinions of a large class of men, nor that it is often done by a few individuals. We shall not, however, wander so far from our subject, as to follow where a discussion of this point would lead us; but it may receive some illustration from considering the different results which attended Mr Jeffrey's assaults upon Byron and upon Wordsworth. When Lord Byron, "a minor," started upon his career, the Edinburgh Review saluted him with a strain of insolent ridicule. The critic appeared to think that he treated the patrician youngster with too much respect by taking any notice of his nonsense; and if the hopes and efforts of an author could be extinguished and repressed by any measure of contempt, such must have been the fate of Lord Byron. But it was not to be so; the Review was then in its zenith, ruling mercilessly, and, to all appearance, despotically; but still ruling in the republic of letters-as all must rule in all republics-by following, that they may lead. In a very short time Byron had the best of the battle; the public sided with him, and he was established as a successful poet. But was he thus victorious where Wordsworth was defeated, because he was the stronger? No; we should be borne out by some of the best critics of these days, in asserting that Wordsworth, in power and originality of genius, is altogether Byron's superior; but it is enough for our purpose to say,-what The great characteristic of Wordsworth, none will deny, that Byron was not nearly is resolute and confident adherence to so far superior to Wordsworth in intellect- truth;-to truth in sentiment and in lanual excellence, as he was in his early suc-guage. The effect of the French school of cess as a poet. The cause, then, of this dif- poetry upon the writer's of Queen Anne's ference in their fortunes, must be sought age, is often spoken of; but the causes elsewhere; and it will be found, we think, which produced these morbid literatures, in the difference of their poetical charac-if we may make a plural of this word,-conteristics. With regard to Byron, the Edinburgh reviewers made a mistake; with regard to Wordsworth they did not err. In neither the one case nor the other, did Mr Jeffrey feel that it was his business to go back to the true, and absolute, and permanent principles of poetry, to apply its primal laws, and judge by them if the author whom he reviewed was a poet. It was Mr Jeffrey's first, and, perhaps, his only aim, to amuse his readers, and get popularity; and

The most popular poets of these days won their fame by pampering a morbid craving after vicious stimulants; but Wordsworth did not believe that the intellectual habits of the reading public were so fixedly depraved, that all relish for the genuine and healthy fruits of poetry was totally extinguished. To the last he has adhered steadfastly to the principle which governed him at first. In all his poems there cannot be found one-no, not one character which, we may well say, has not existed; no thoughts which are not of a sane and balanced mind, accustomed to examine all tinued to operate, perhaps through them, things for lessons of truth;-no emotions long after the wits of Louis and Anne were which are not proper to a pure heart unused silent. Their consequences are visible to indulge its waywardness by mingling now. A love of factitious, glittering, inane good and ill, and giving to each the semverse descended, not, perhaps, to our own blance of the other. He speaks of things day; but while it was passing away, the in- as they are, or as they seem to be, to a tellectual taste which it had vitiated, was healthy and pure imagination; he seeks to gratified by another kind of poetry not less give his poems no charm which would defalse. There were tales of old times, paint-mand the sacrifice of truth. The boldness ing the accomplished courtesy of errant sav- of his attempt was proved by his early ill ages, spiced with chivalrous achievement, fortune, and the power and beauty of his

« PreviousContinue »