The Methodist Quarterly Review
1858
ART. VII-WESLEY AS A MAN OF LITERATURE.
BETWEEN the advent of Methodism in Oxford in 1729, and the death of its founder in
1791, intervened sixty-two years. Mr. Wesley took his degree of Master of Arts in 1727,
four months before the accession of George IL to the throne of England, who died in 1760,
and was succeeded by George III. Neither of these princes ever opposed Mr. Wesley or his
preachers, but rather rebuked those who opposed. While war was going on during the rise
and progress of Methodism, and through the most of Mr. Wesley's public life, literature
and the arts and sciences were, notwithstanding, cultivated in Great Britain. In this time
the best English historians wrote, namely, Hume, Smollett, Robertson, and Gibbon. Mr.
Wesley has some strictures on each, excepting the last. Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire" was not all published until 1785, only three years before Mr.
Wesley's death. We do not think he read it, or he would hardly have failed condemning the
dignified and irreligious historian. Mr. Hutcheson was the principal writer on moral
philosophy in the first half of the century, and Mr. Wesley contends again and again
against his theories. Mr. Reid was the chief writer in the 'other half. English poetry was
prospering in these times, which did not, however, bring forth either of our great poets.
Still the poets, as Pope, Thomson, Young, Akenside, Gray, Goldsmith, were, if not of the
highest, of a high and respectable class. Nor should Dr. Watts or Charles Wesley be
omitted, being the only two notable religious poets of the age. The principal fictitious
writers were Fielding, Richardson, and Smollett. The author of the great English
Dictionary, as well as other works, Dr. Johnson, the English literary colossus, flourished
in this period. When on his death-bed, Mr. Wesley visited this great man, and conversed
with him on the things of God. The English theater was prospering, while the work of God
was reviving. The great actors, Booth, Mrs. Cibber,, Quin, Garrick, and Mrs. Bellamy, were
in vogue. It seems that Mr. Garrick and Charles Wesley were well known to each other. When
the Life of Mrs. Bellamy appeared, Mr. Wesley read it, and found the following anecdote,
which the actress had been pleased to insert. Garrick was in Ireland, and when taking ship
for England a lady presented him with a parcel, which he was not to open till he was at
'sea. When he did, he found Wesley's Hymns, which he immediately threw overboard. Mr.
Wesley says: "I cannot believe it. I think Mr. Garrick had more sense. He knew my
brother well; and he knew him to be not only far superior in learning, but in poetry, to
Mr. Thomson and all his theatrical writers put together; none of them can equal him either
in strong, nervous sense, or purity and elegance of language." Music in this period
was greatly in favor. In it the great composers, Handel, Arne, Boyce, and the Earl of
Mornington, flourished. In the spring of 1764 Mr. Wesley went to the performance of Mr.
Arne's oratorio of Judith, which he pronounced very fine; but he strongly condemned
singing the same words so often, and singing different words at the same time. In 1765 he
heard the oratorio of Ruth; pronounced it exquisite music, and thought it
"might possibly make an impression even upon rich and honorable sinners." When
in Bristol, in 1750, he went to the cathedral to hear Mr. Handel's celebrated oratorio of
the Messiah, and declares it exceeded his expectation, especially in several of the
choruses. "1 doubt," says he, "if that congregation was ever so serious at
a sermon, as during this performance." Painting, too, was reviving in the English
nation. Mr. Wesley himself sat to Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Romney. He also visited
different private and public galleries, and passed his opinion very freely on the artists.
The period of the public life of Mr. Burke was a stirring time, internally and externally,
for the English nation. A Dr. Price reckoned (for there was no government census) that the
people of England numbered between four and five millions. Mr. Wesley denied the
computation, and believed the number was seven millions, at least. In this period the
nation lost her American Colonies; but, on the other hand, she gained Canada, several of
the West India islands, and the vast territory of India. Mr. Wesley was not an isolated
man, confining himself to one calling, but he felt an interest in all public affairs, ever
siding with the laws and the government. Still his main employment was to preach and call,
sinners to repent When not so engaged, directly or indirectly, his leisure was spent,
according to the taste of a literary man, in reading and writing books. We shall in this
article show, first, a specimen of what books he read, adding some reflections; and
secondly, lay down the thread of his own writings, interspersed with suitable
observations. These two parts will show what kind of ideas he furnished his own mind with,
and with what kind of ideas he supplied the minds of others.
The books read by Mr. Wesley in his youth, and before the era of Methodism, there is no
account of. The books which first assisted him to the knowledge and love of God were, in
1725, Bishop Taylor's "Rules of Holy Living and Dying," and "The
Christian's Pattern; or, A Treatise on the Imitation of Christ," by the German monk,
Thomas a Kempis.* In 1727 he was further assisted by Mr. Law's "Christian
Perfection," and his "Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life." From 1733 to
1778 he thought he had read five or six hundred books. And before his conversion: in the
years of his youth and education, doubtless his reading was very extensive and thorough,
or he would not have been qualified for Fellow in Lincoln College, Oxford. However, our
curiosity is not concerning his reading while a private person, but the books he read
while in public life and engaged in the work, under God, of reforming the nation. We find
that he read and noticed the following works from the year 1737 to 1751, the year of his
marriage, namely:
*He wrote as a motto upon his books: "I have sought for rest in all things, but
could find it nowhere but in corners (that is praying) and in books."
The Mystic Divinity of Dionysius; Deficiency of Human Knowledge and Learning, by Dr.
Edwards; Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians; Bishop Beveridge's Account
of the Canons of the Councils; Works of Nicholas Machiavel; Mr. Law's Book on the New
Birth; Bishop Bull's Harmonia Apostolica; The Account of the Synod of Dort, by Episcopius;
Case of Michael Servetus, by John Calvin; Whitefield's Account of God's Dealings with his
Soul; History of the Church, by Turretine; Lives of Philip and Mathew Henry'; The
Theologia Germanica; The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius; Laval's History of the
Reformed Churches in France; Dr. Cheyne's Natural Method of Curing Diseases; Xenophon's
Memorable Things of Socrates; Dr. Pitcairne on Medicine and the Mathematics; Jacob
Behmen's Exposition of Genesis; Madame Guyon's Method of Prayer and the Spiritual
Torrents; Life of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits; Middleton's Essays on
Church Government; The Life of Gregory Lopez; The Grounds of the Old Religion; Account of
Governor Endicott, of New-England; Purver's Essay on a New Translation of the Bible;
Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus; Lord King's' Account of the Primitive Church;
Bishop Butler's Discourse of Analogy; Lectures on the first Chapters of St. Matthew;
Tracts concerning Count Zinzendorf and his People; The Exhortations of Ephrem Syrus; A
System of Ethics; The History of the Puritans; Account of the great Irish Massacre of
1641; Quintus Curtius's History of Alexander the Great; Dr. Doddridge's Life of Colonel
Gardiner; Sir James Ware's Antiquities of Ireland; The History of St. Patrick; Dr. Hodge's
Account of the Plague in London; On the Right Use of the Fathers, by Daille'; Bishop
Pearson on the Apostles' Creed; Mr. Law's Spirit of Prayer; The Journal of the Rev. David
Brainerd; Miracles at the Tomb of the Abbe' Paris; Gerard's Sacred Meditations; Narrative
of Count Zinzendorf's Life, by himself; The Antiquities of Rome, by B. Kennett; Archbishop
Potter's Antiquities of Greece; Mr. Lewis’s Hebrew Antiquities; A Creed founded on
Common Sense; Journal of Mr. S----, President of Council of Georgia; Mr. Glanville's
Relations concerning Witchcraft; The Works of William Dell; Sermons by Rev. Mr. Erskine.
For ten years Mr. Wesley's labors in England and Ireland were abundant; The foundation
of Methodism, so called, was then laid. Persecutions also raged against the preachers and
members of the new sect. The nation was at war with Spain; but "the war against the
Methodists, so called, was everywhere carried on with far more vigor than that against the
Spaniards." (Journal, 1744.) Excessive labors and bitter persecutions made unfit
times for literary pursuits. Yet our founder, as the preceding catalogue shows, did not
give up his reading. The following books he read and noticed during the life of his wife,
who died in 1781:
V.’s* Essay on the Happiness of the Life to Come; Blaise Pascal's Thoughts on
Religion; Dr. Franklin's Letters on Electricity; Mr. Prince's Christian History; Mr.
Rimius's Candid Narrative, that is, concerning Moravians; Stinstra's Tract upon
Fanaticism; Ramsay's Philosophical Principles of Religion; Andrew Fry's Reasons for
leaving Moravian Brethren; The Lectures of Dr. Heylyn; Dr. Calamy's Life of Richard
Baxter; History of the Wars of 'the Belgians; Hay's Treatise on Deformity; Richard
Baxter's History of the Councils; A Gentleman's Reasons for Dissent from the Church of
England;, Dr. Sharp on the Rubrics and Canons of the Church; Rev. John Gillies's
Historical Collections; Lord Anson's Voyage round the World, 1744; Pike's Philosophia
Sacra; The Life of Czar Peter the Great; Dr. MandeVille's Fable of the Bees; Barton's
Lectures on Lough-neagh; Voltaire's Epic Poem of Henriade; Leusden's Dissertation for the
Hebrew Points; Bishop of Cork's Treatise on Human Understanding; Hanway's History of Shah
Nadir, the Scourge of God; Book on the Law of Nature; Whitefield's Defense of the Hebrew
Points; Dr. Rogers on the Learning of the Ancients; Rev. John Home's Tragedy of Douglas;
Richard Baxter's own Life and Times; Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall; Memoirs of the
House of Brandenburgh; Life of Theodore, King of Corsica; Rev. Mr. Walker's Siege of
Londonderry; Dr. Bernard's Relation of the Siege of Drogheda; Dr. Curry's Account of the
Irish Rebellion; Mr. Spearman's Inquiry, that is concerning Hutchinson's Philosophy;
Monsieur Rollin's Ancient History; Analysis of Lord Bolingbroke's Works; Needham's
Treatise on Microscopic Animals; Abridgement of Mr. Hutchinson's Works; Octinger's De
Sensu Communi et Ratione; Huygens's Conjectures on the Planetary World; Fenelon's Romance
of Telemachus; Davis's Historical Relations concerning Ireland; Smith's State of the
County and City of Waterford.
* Voltaire, probably.
At this period of Mr. Wesley's reading King George II. died, 1760. The labors of the
great evangelist are now so abundant, that in eight years, namely 1759 to 1766, he
notices, and seems to have read only twenty-one books:
Bishop Pontspidan's Natural History of Norway; Life of St. Catherine of Genoa; Gesner's
Poem of the Death of Abel; Lives of Magdalen de Pazzi and other Romish Saints; Life of Mr.
William Lilly; Hartley's Defense of the Mystic Writers; Richard Baxter's book upon
Apparitions; Rev. Mr. Romaine's Life of Faith; Dr. Watts on the Improvement of the Mind;
Mr. Seed's Sermons; Sir Richard Cox's History of Ireland; Journal of William Edmundson, a
Quaker preacher; Jones on the Principles of Natural Philosophy; Bishop Lowth's Answer to
Bishop W.; Bishop Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry; Knox's History of the Church of
Scotland; The Epic Poem of Fingal, by Ossian; Sellar's History of Palmyra; Norden's
Travels into Egypt and Abyssinia; Crantz's Account of the Mission into Greenland; Thoughts
on God and Nature; Life of Mohammed, by Count de Boulanvilliers; Dr Priestley on
Electricity; Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland; The Pleadings
of the famous Douglas Case; A Poem, Choheleth, or the Preacher (Ecelesiastes); Poems by
Miss Whately, a Farmer's Daughter; Inquiry into the Proofs of Charges against Mary, Queen
of Scots; The Travels of Dr. Shaw; An Essay on Music; Boswell's Account of Corsica;
Blackburne's Considerations on' the Penal Laws against. Papists; Dr. Campbell's answer to
Hume against Miracles; Dr. Brown on the Characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury; An Account of
Commodore Byron; Glanvill's Sadducees Triumphant; Turner's Remarkable Providences; Mrs.
Rowe's Devout Exercises of the Heart; Dr; Warner's History of the Irish Rebellion; Mr.
Newton's Account of his own Experience; The Odyssey of Homer; Guthrie's History of
Scotland; Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth; Rousseau upon Education; The Life of Mr.
Hutchinson; The Writings of Baron Swedenborg; Sellon's Answer to Cole on God's
Sovereignty; A Dialogue between Moses and Lord Bolingbroke; Works of the Rev. Philip
Skelton; The Translation of Dr. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History; Dr. Hedge's Elihu;
Hoole's Translation of Tasso's Poem of Jerusalem Delivered; The Celestial Theology of
Baron Swedenborg; Jones's Tract upon Clean and Unclean Beasts; Sterne's Sentimental
Journey through France and Italy; A Description of the Slave-Trade; Robertson's History of
the Emperor Charles the Fifth; Beattie's Inquiry after Truth; Else's Medical Treatise on
the Hydrocele; Essays on various Medical Subjects; Adam's Comment on part of Epistle to
Romans; The Poetical Works of James Thomson; The Life of Belisarius, the Roman General;
Sir John Dalrymple's History of the Revolution of 1688; Mr. Hutcheson's Essay on the
Passions; Account of the European Settlements in America; Bonavici's History of the late
War in Italy; Tract on the Inmost Recesses of Freemasonry; Dr. Leland's History of
Ireland; The Poems of Dr. Byrom; The Life of Sextus Quintus; Sir Richard Blackmore's Poem
of Prince Arthur; Dr. Lee's Sophron; The Life of Lord Herbert; The Voyages and Discoveries
of Captain Cook; The Life of Anna Maria Schurman; Dr. Gregory's Advice to his Daughters;
Account of the Gowrie Conspiracy of 1600; Lord Kames's Essays on Morality and Natural
Religion; Sketches of the History of Man; Dr. Reid's Essay on the Mind; Controversy of Dr.
Clarke and Leibnitz; Mrs. Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution; The Life of Count Marsay; The
Letters of Lord Chesterfield; The Letters of Dr. Swift; History of the City of Norwich;
The Poems of Dr. Beattie; Correspondence between Theodosius and Constantia; Bolt's
Considerations on the Affairs of India; The Works of Lord Lyttleton; The Essays of Miss
Talbot; Sermons of Mr. Boem, Chaplain to Queen Anne's Husband; Dr. Johnson's Tour to the
Western Isles of Scotland; The Dialogues of Lucian, a late Greek author; Jenyn's Internal
Evidence of Christian Religion; A Tract on Political Economy; Life of Thomas Gray, and his
Poems; Dr. Gell's Essay toward an Amendment of Translation of Bible; Dr. M'Bride on the
Practice of Physic; Raynals on the Settlement and Trade of Europeans in India; Xenophon's
Kurou Paideia; The Life of Mr. Marsay; An Essay on
Taste; Dr. Smollett's History of England; Baron Swedenborg's account of Heaven and Hell;
Bryant's new System of Ancient Mythology; Dr. Blair's Sermons; The History of the Town of
Whitby; History of Ireland, by Dr. Warner; Dr. Watt's Essay on Liberty; Sir Richard Hill
against Polygamy; Pennant's Tour through Scotland; Dr. Robertsons's History of America;
Dr. Parson's Remains of Japheth; Memoirs of Mr. Thurbe, Cromwell's Secretary of State.
The catalogue of our founder's reading reaches now to the year 1781, the year in which
his wife died. The disastrous war of England with the American colonies was going on, and
the prevalent trouble in the nation was, says Mr. Wesley, "as though England were on
the brink of destruction." Yet he pursued his onward course of traveling, preaching,
writing, and reading. He was now an aged man, in his seventy-ninth year, yet strangely
declares, "I feel no more of the infirmities of old age than I did at
twenty-nine." Another characteristic was, that in his old age his relish for books
continued, and without abatement. It will be gratifying a reasonable curiosity to learn
what books the great and venerable man read from the eightieth to the eighty-eighth year
of his life. They are as follows:
Dr. Home's Commentary on the Psalms; Ariosto's romantic Poem of Orlando Furioso; The
Epic Poem of Fingal; Voltaire's Memoirs of Himself; Major Vallance's Grammar of the Irish
Language; Le Vrayer's Animadversions on the Ancient Historians; Peru's Treatise on the
Gravel and Stone; Fry's Tract on Marriage; Life of Sir William Penn, the Quaker; The
History of Scotland, by Dr. Stuart; Lord Bacon's Ten Centuries of Experiment; Dr.
Anderson's Account of the Hebrides Islands; second reading of Fingal, in heroic verse; Dr.
Hunter's Lectures on Anatomy; A Fragment from the Chinese; Blackwell's Illustration and
Defense of the Sacred Classics; Dobb's Universal History; The Letters of Archbishop Usher;
An Essay on Taste, by Dr. Gerard; also, his Plan of Education; Duff's Essay on Genius;
Weston's Dissertation on the Wonders of Antiquity; Captain Wilson's Account of the Pelew
Islands; Life of the famous Baron Trenck; Life of the noted Mr. George F., the Murderer;
Foster's Voyage round the World; Life of Mrs. Bellamy, a noted actress; King of Sweden's
Tract on the Balance of Power in Europe; Captain Carrol's Travels in North America.
The Travels of Captain Carrol is the last book which Mr. Wesley notices; very likely,
the last he read. For three or four years his eyes were growing dim, and he could scarcely
read at all by candle-light. During this time, however, he had read half of the preceding
list, showing that though his bodily powers were decaying, his taste and relish for books
were fresh and keen as ever. In five months after the last notice the venerable man of
literature, as well of wonderful labors and exemplary piety, was dead. As the list of
books which our founder read is now produced, and in the order of time in which they were
read, some observations are necessary.
1. As to the total number of books read, there is and can be DO precision.
Doubtless his reading was very extensive and thorough before he became a preacher of the
Gospel. In forty-five years, until 1778, he thought he had read five or six hundred books.
He seems, however, to have been so well furnished in his youth, that all the reading of
forty-five years added to his stock only "a little more history or natural
philosophy." What, then, did he read for, if not for instruction? He might read for
instruction, and know more than his author. Another end of reading, as of conversation, is
recreation. The library is not only the school, but the play-ground of the literary man.
Reading was Mr. Wesley's amusement and recreation. Besides, he would now and then indulge
himself in hearing fine music, in looking over beautiful gardens, in viewing the rich and
antique furniture in the houses of the nobility and gentry, in gazing at the painting and
cartoons of celebrated painters, in visiting noted scenes of facts or legends, in
inspecting the museums of corporations or private persons, or in admiring the glorious old
Gothic in the architecture of the churches and cathedrals of England and Ireland. But when
nothing else presented itself in his leisure hour, he would fall back upon reading as his
standing pleasure. We have no doubt but in his life-time lie must have read from a
thousand to fifteen hundred books. If he were not the great English colossus of
literature, as Dr. Johnson, he was certainly a little colossus; and compared to whom most
other preachers in his day were but ordinary men, children, or dwarfs.
2. As the preceding list of books contains, probably, not a fourth of the reading of
our founder, it must he viewed merely as a specimen of the larger and lost
catalogue. In this respect it is curious and interesting. It shows the kind of books he
studied or indulged in, and the taste and judgment he exercised. We have the works of
Moses, Solomon, and Paul, but we know nothing of their reading. We have old Homer,
Herodotus, and Aristotle, but we are completely in the dark as to the works by which their
minds were enlightened. To those who admire the reformer of the eighteenth century, as
well as the reformer of the sixteenth, the specimen catalogue will be viewed as a literary
curiosity.
3. In looking over the catalogue one reflection immediately is created, namely, how
small the space which Divinity holds in it. Considering the holy calling of the
reader, the pious character he bore, the Christian experience he professed, and the
extraordinary religious revival in which he was continually engaged, strange that his
reading so little corresponded with his calling, his experience, and his work! One would
suppose that religious and devout authors would be the rule in his reading and others the
exception; whereas, other authors are the rule, and religious authors the exception. Our
opinion is, that his reading in divinity was not to be compared with such a man as
Archbishop Usher, or even Richard Baxter. We do not find that Mr. Wesley ever read the
Fathers of the early Church, the Schoolmen of the Middle Ages, the works of the great
foreign divines, not even Luther, Calvin, Melanethon, or Arminius; nor many of the great
theologians of the English school of divines, Episcopalians, Puritans, or Non-conformists.
We do not mean that he never read pieces of these classes of authors, (even as we dwarfish
readers of the present times, we read our scraps,) but an extensive and thorough study of
the quartos and folios coming from the great lights of the Church is what he never
accomplished or undertook. The chief books in the list are Luther's Comment on the
Galatians, Bishop Bull's Reconcilement of St. Paul and St. James, on Faith and Works, and
Bishop Pearson on the Apostle's Creed. The fact is, Mr. Wesley made no pretensions to
systematic theology, or to increase of knowledge in practical divinity. Says he:
"I went to Tiverton; I was musing here on what I heard a good man say long since:
'Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better
sermons now than I could seven years ago.' Whatever others can do, I really cannot. . . .
. .Perhaps, indeed, I may have read five or six hundred books more than I had then,
(forty-five years ago,) and may know a little more history, or natural philosophy than I
did; but I am not sensible that this has made any essential addition to my knowledge of
divinity. Forty years ago I preached and knew every Christian doctrine which I preach
now."
He was right in the beginning; consequently, there was no room for after-corrections.
So the reading of forty-five years made no sensible addition to his stock of divinity. The
reason is apparent; he did not read much divinity. Yet, who can dare affirm that our
founder was not a divine, a correct divine, even a great divine.
4. Although the Bible was his chief "Institutes," yet he was willing to learn
the history of the Church from human authors. He was well acquainted with the
principal ecclesiastical historians. The list gives the names of Eusebius, Episcopius,
Beveridge, Turretine, Laval, Prince', Baxter, Knox, Crantz, Wodrow, Mosheim, writers who
deal with the entire history of the Church, or with particular sections, and also 'the
history of the Puritans. It also gives Middleton' on Church 'Government, and Lord King on
the Constitution of the Primitive Church. These authors must have furnished large and
thorough knowledge on the history and government of the Church. When we put confidence in
the fabric called Methodism, we do so reasonably, knowing the contriver and founder, under
Providence, was a wise master builder.
5. And our founder was well read in some branches of controversial divinity, which
his own times impelled him to investigate, and to controvert. Although he hated
controversy, and shrunk from it, yet much of his life was spent in the study and practice
of it. He was early read in, and almost seduced by writers of the Mystic or Quietist
school. And so was Charles Wesley, whose mind, all through life, cried, "To the
desert. to the desert!" says his brother. Archbishop Fenelon, Madame Guyon, Anna
Schurman, Antoinette Bourignon, were eminent members of the sect. He also read, in order
to controvert various errors in, the works of the Moravians, the Swedenborgians, the
Behmenites, the Quakers, the Calvinists, the English Deists, the Papists, the Socinians.
The list 'exhibits some books belonging to cacti of these classes. which he read and
noticed. By much reading of controversy and practice, with the aid of his well-learned
logic, he became an expert disputant. His mark was so sure, and his arrow so sharp, that
lie failed not in piercing and defeating the adversary.
6. One class of books in the list will rather surprise those who know little or nothing
of the life of Mr. Wesley; I mean the books on the theory and practice of medicine. Rather
strange that he could patiently read about deformity, by Hay; the hydrocele, by Else; the
gravel and stone, by Peru; anatomy, by 'Hunter, or the practice of physic, by M'Bride. The
truth is, that the members of the clerical profession had very little faith in the ability
or honesty of the members of the curative profession. He therefore sought how to cure
himself, and after a time learned to cure others also. When he took cold, with cough and
hoarseness, a garlic plaster to his feet drew it away; and when a pleurisy laid hold of
him he sent it off by a brimstone plaster to his side. In the year 1748 he said, "For
six or seven and twenty years I have made anatomy and physic the diversion of my leisure hours."
Plain Account of the Methodists. Want of confidence in the medical profession was the
reason, for he says in 1747, "For more than twenty years 1 have had numberless proofs
that regular physicians do exceeding little good."-Letter to Mr. John Smith. A
poor character for the doctors of the first half of the eighteenth century!
7. Another class of books ill the catalogue may excite much greater surprise.
Religious persons of small reading and narrow views would never expect Mr. Wesley to have
read Mr. Home's Tragedy of Douglas, or Sterne's Sentimental Journey. Still less would they
suspect that a clergyman of his character would, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, and
with eyes dim and dimmer growing, spend his time in reading such a book as Captain
Wilson's Account of the Pelew Islands, The Exploits of the famous Baron Trenck, or the
Life of the Actress Mrs. Bellamy. As one end of his reading was entertainment, these books
were suitable for the purpose. When he read, the books were new, or not long published.
Each was much talked of; and curiosity was another motive. He read, too, as a critic or
reviewer, to pass an opinion. While such authors are not of the best description, neither
are they of the worst. It is not to be supposed that a mind like his, so upright and
well-balanced, could be hurt. His eye was single: and to the pure all things are pure.
8. In portraying Mr. Wesley as a literary man, there must be no concealment of what he
really was. He certainly was pleased with books of entertainment. He was fond of
the works of imagination. A finely wrought fiction, in prose or poetry, to him was
very attractive. Ignorant persons condemn all fiction, forgetting (if they ever knew) that
the most glorious literature in the world is fiction, and that some of the most sublime
and pathetic parts of the Bible are imaginative. . Homer he was delighted with, and
exclaims: "What an amazing genius had this man!" and praises the old
Greek’s thought, expression, and piety, "in spite of his pagan prejudices."
After he had read Voltaire's epic of Henriade, he praises the liveliness and imagination
of the author; but condemns the French tongue as the "poorest, meanest language in
Europe," and declares "it is as impossible to write a fine poem in French as to
make fine music on a Jew's harp." In one of His journeys he read another French work,
namely, the prose-poetic romance of Telemachus, by Fenelon. He condemned the form, bit
praised the sense of the book. The beautiful and pathetic fiction of the Death of Abel, by
the Swiss poet and painter, Solomon Gesner, attracted his attention. He called this style
of prose-poetry "prose run mad" In 1763 Macpherson published his translation of
Ossian from the Erse language. Three years after Mr. Wesley read Ossian when in Ireland,
and thought Fingal "a wonderful poem." He rather doubted whether it is orally in
the Erse, but, Says he, "many assure me it is." In 1784, he read Fingal again.
The authenticity he now considered "beyond all reasonable contradiction."
Ossian, he thought, in some respects, superior to Homer or Virgil: "What a hero was
Fingal!" In 1786, he once more read Fingal, and his admiration increased still more.
Probably no epic poet but Ossian did Mr. Wesley ever read three times. As Alexander the
Great kept the Iliad as his companion, so the great Napoleon appreciated Ossian. '
Admiration of the sublime Ossian," said Talleyrand, "seemed to detach him from
the world."-Alison, xxv. Other great works of imagination, as Tasso's Jerusalem
Delivered, and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, appear m the list, with Sir Richard Blackmore's
Prince Arthur. Passing by all other reading, when we say that our founder was well
acquainted with the great poems of Homer, Virgil, Milton, Voltaire, Tasso, Ariosto, and
Ossian, we say enough to prove his fine literary taste and rich literary acquisitions. To
them we may safely add nearly all remaining of the Greek and Latin poets, with our English
poets Shakspeare, Thomson, Byrom, Beattie, Gray, and others. A man whose taste led him to
study the principal poets of ancient and modern times, in the Greek, Latin, French, and
English tongues, is surely deserving of something of a literary name. We find that he
never read the "Odyssey" of Homer, until he was sixty-five years of age. Like
many others, he understood the second work was inferior to his first, and
"The last effort of an expiring muse."
"But," says he, "how was I mistaken!" and considered the
odyssey even superior to the Iliad.
9. Mr. Wesley, in his life-time and since, has often been judged and called a fanatic.
If any think so still, let them read the catalogue of his books. Is there any divine,
philosopher, or literary person of the day, whose' reading has been more sober, rational,
philosophic, scientific, or in accordance with correct taste and the discriminative
judgment of a scholar? Look at the founders of some religious bodies, as George Fox,
Swedenborg, Joanna Southcote and some of the new and now rising visionaries, and the great
difference will be instantly seen. In his works are some strange and wonderful relations
of what he saw or heard of. A weak-headed man he has been considered, to believe in the
marvelous and supernatural. In the list of books is one on witchcraft, and another on
apparitions, by Baxter. In these two subjects he' believed, as also in demoniacs, yet his
belief was very sober, and altogether founded on the Bible, which abounds in instances of
these three supernaturals. Says Dr. Johnson: "That the dead are seen no more, I will
not undertake to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of
all nations. . . That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the
general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears."-Rasselas,
xxxi.
10. While Mr. Wesley read some sermons, as Seed's, Blair's, and Erskine's, and read
works on taste and genius, education and political economy, the sciences and natural and
moral philosophy, music and poetry, rhetoric and logic, yet he was fonder of books of voyages
and travels, with the memoirs or biographies of eminent persons. In the
former department we find the list containing travels and voyages by Norden, Lord Anson,
Byron, Dr. Shaw, Forster, Captain Cook, and Captain Wilson. In the latter department we
find in the list memoirs or lives of the Henrys, Loyola, Lopez, Colonel Gardiner, St.
Patrick, Baxter, Peter the Great, Shah Nadir, Theodore of Corsica, St. Catherine, William
Lilly, Mohammed, William Edmundson, Belisarius, Lord Herbert, Anna Schurman, and Count
Marsay. A person who reads for diversion will never choose dry, hard, and abstract
subjects, but what is attractive and entertaining, at the same time instructive, as is the
case with this sort of reading, which, therefore, answered the object of the reader.
11. But the class of books our founder was the fondest of was antiquities and history.
Doubtless before he went to, or while a scholar and fellow of Oxford University, he
had read most or all of the Greek and Latin historians. After he became a field preacher
he still read history, the delight of all great men. In antiquities the list shows works
read of Roman, Greek, and Hebrew remains, with Rogers's Essay on the Learning of the
Ancients, and Weston's Wonders of Antiquity. In 1757, when in the West of England, he read
Mr. Borlase's Account of the Antiquities of Cornwall, describing the ancient monuments
remaining of the Druids, the Romans, and the Saxons. General histories he read, as
Rollin's Ancient History, and Dobb's Universal History, and gave some regard to foreign
places, as Belgium, Italy, and Palmyra. He read Dr. Robertson's History of the Emperor
Charles the Fifth, and of America, and complains severely of the extraneous matter
inserted. On the History of England, the list has no authors but Dalrymple and Smollett,
with the histories of two English towns, Whitby and Norwich. The motive for reading the
history of Norwich was perhaps, to find the character of former generations. In 1785 he
told the present generation, especially the members of the Methodist society, that they
were the most troublesome people he had to deal with. "Of all the people I have seen
in the kingdom, for between forty and fifty years, you have been the most fickle, and yet
the moat stubborn." He complained, too, of Dr. Smollett, for slandering the
Methodists in his history of the reign of George the Second, charging the Wesleys and
Whitefield with "imposture and fanaticism;" and with laying the whole kingdom
under contribution." Says Mr. Wesley: "Poor Dr. Smollett! Thus to transmit to
all succeeding generations a whole heap of notorious falsehoods!" Mr. Wesley seems to
have felt more interest in Scotch history than English. He read Guthrie's History of
Scotland; some years after he read another by Stuart, and also an Inquiry into the Charges
against Mary, Queen of Scotland. He sides with the Scotch authors, completely clears Mary,
and pronounces her, not only beautiful, but one of wisest and best of princes. He has no
mercy on Queen Elizabeth, who was "as just and merciful as Nero, and as good a
Christian as Mohammed," Nor is be more lenient to her successor First. On his way to
Dundee, in 1774, he read an Account of the famous Gowry Conspiracy in 1600. "The
whole was a piece of king-craft," says he, "the clumsy invention of a covetous
and bloodthirsty tyrant!" He delivers his mind very freely, as freely as any
republican could desire, concerning rulers. Thus,
when reading the Life of the Pope Sextus Quintus, he says, the pope had some excellent
qualities, but then he was "as far from being a Christian as Henry the Eighth or
Oliver Cromwell." And after he had read Wodrow's Sufferings of the Church of
Scotland, he passes summary sentence on the character of Charles the Second:, "O what
a blessed governor was that good-natured man, so called, King Charles the Second! Bloody
Queen Mary was a lamb, a mere dove, in comparison of him." No Puritan could scarcely
speak worse of the House of Tudor; or Presbyterian of the House of Stuart. Still, our
founder was a great monarchist in theory and sentiment; but he wanted all princes to be,
not only good, but the best of men.
12. While considering Mr. Wesley as a lover and reader of history, any one looking over
the list must be struck with his fondness for Irish history. English history,
doubtless, he, had read in his youth. Going into Scotland on different tours, he
acquired an interest in, and books of, Scotish story. But North Britain never
(FOURTH SERIES, Vol. X.-19) received our founder, or his preachers, as Ireland. He calls
the Irish "an immeasurably-loving people." "What a nation is this!"
cries he; "every man, woman, and child, not only patiently, but gladly, suffer the
word of exhortation." Yet he found a drawback. But still they who are ready to eat up
every word, do not appear to digest any part of it." When in Ireland in 1747, he
procured a genuine account of 'the great Irish Massacre of 1641, when Charles the First
sat on the throne of England. "More than two hundred thousand* of Protestant men,
women, and children, butchered in a few months, in cool blood, and with such circumstances
of cruelty as make one's blood run cold?' The next year he visited Ireland, 'and read Sir
James Ware's Antiquities of Ireland. He learned that the country was tenfold more populous
formerly, and that many great cities were now ruinous heaps. Then he read the Life of St.
Patrick, and concluded that either the saint did not preach the Gospel, or that
"there was then no devil in the world" to hinder. in 1758, he read Mr. Walker's
account of the Siege of Londonderry, .and Dr. Bernard's account of the Siege of Drogheda;
also Dr. Bernard’s (a papist) History of the Irish Rebellion, and the answer to it,
by Mr. Harris. In 1760 Mr. Wesley was in Ireland, and then read Sir John Davis's
Historical relations concerning Ireland. He learned that before the English came the Irish
waged incessant war with each other; and that after the English came they waged continual
war with the English. From 1641 to 1644 a million of people was cut off by massacre and
civil war. He also read Smith's State of the County and City of Waterford. "Twelve
hundred years ago Ireland was a flourishing kingdom. It seems to have been declining
almost ever since. In 1765, when at Athlone, he read Sir Richard Cox's History of Ireland.
Says he: "I do not now wonder Ireland is thinly inhabited, but that it has any
inhabitants at all. ,Probably it had been wholly desolate before now, had not the English
come and prevented the implacable wretches from going on till they had swept each other
from the earth." In 1769 he finished Dr. Warner's History of the Irish Rebellion.
"I never saw before so impartial an account." In 1773, on his' passage to
Dublin, he read a new author on the History of' Ireland, namely, Dr. Leland, who was
"a fine writer, but unreasonably partial." In 1779 he took in hand Dr. Warner's
History of Ireland to the English Conquest, and calls the book "a mere senseless
romance." Says he, "I 'totally reject the authorities." Mr. Wesley loved
the people of Ireland. He read so much about 'them, in order to understand them. A number
of times he' went all over the kingdom, preaching the Gospel, and left more happy results
of his labor and love than did St. Partick.
13. Among his historical reading are two books concerning India, a country which
for six months past has attracted the eye of the world. One was the Abbe' Raynal's History
of the Settlements and Trades of the Europeans in the Indies. Mr. Wesley criticises the
book very sharply; and others have objected to the sentiments and the facts, (so called.)
The other he read in 1776, and is called an Account of the Affairs in the East Indies, by
Mr. Bolt. Europeans began to trade with India in the sixteenth century. They to form
settlements on the coasts in the seventeenth. The English power in India was weak and
declining during the first half of the eighteenth. Mr. Clive went out in the service of
the East India Company, a man of great ability and courage, and English affairs began to
revive. He returned to England, and was set out again in 1755, as Governor of Fort St.
David. The victory of Plassey, in 1757, over a native prince, secured the province of
Bengal, and laid the foundation of the present British power in India. Olive again
returned, and received the title of Lord Clive from the king. Indian affairs went into
confusion, and in 1764 Lord Olive again sailed to India. He returned again. In 1773 a
committee of the House of Commons examined into the charges against him. He was
exculpated, but his proud spirit could not brook the mortification, and he committed
suicide the next year. Indian affairs, then, had occupied the public attention for some
years. Mr. Bolt's account came out, and 'Mr. Wesley read it, as "much the best that
is extant." Then come the reader's reflections:
"But what a scene is here opened! What consummate villains, what devils incarnate,
were the managers there! What utter strangers to justice, mercy, and truth; to every
sentiment of humanity! I believe no heathen history contains a parallel. I remember none
in all the annals of antiquity; not even the divine Cato or the virtuous Brutus plundered
the provinces committed to their charge with such merciless cruelty, as the English have
plundered the desolated provinces of Hindoostan."
The condemnation is very severe. Yet desolation is always the result of war, and the
conquerors have ever plundered the conquered, with more or less severity. The Bible and
history are full of examples. And the "publican," or collector of tribute, was
never an object of love, but of fear and hatred intense.
14. The preceding catalogue of books affords a good idea of the extent and variety of
the reading of our founder. Additional diligence and leisure would allow a researcher to
add, probably; a hundred other works to the catalogue; some he would find mentioned, and
some he would learn by implication. In the latter class, the quotations elegantly but not
profusely sprinkled over the works of Mr. Wesley, show a number of authors more or less
known and read. The taste and skill shown in the introduction of fine sentiments or
reflections from the Greek and Latin poets is especially worthy of remark. I never noticed
any quotations from the ancient Greek dramatists, Aristophanes, AEschylus, Sophocles, or
Euripides, nor from the celebrated ode writers, Pindar and Anacreon; but there is a
quotation from Hesiod, one from Sappho, and a few from Homer. The first is quoted in the
sermon of Good Angels, and the second in the paper entitled, A Thought upon Marriage. The
Latin poets he more frequently quotes than the Greek. While he honors Persius, Martial,
Ovid, and Juvenal, he mostly delights in Horace and Virgil. He had a high esteem for the
ancient authors. Says he to Mr. Joseph Benson, 'when a young man:
"You would gain more clearness and strength of judgment by reading those Latin and
Greek books (compared with which most of the English are whipped syllabub) than by
fourscore modern books."
15. Further to show Mr. Wesley as a literary man, that is a man knowing, appreciating,
and loving books, we may look over the list of authors he selected for the use of the
Kingswood School, which he "designed for the children of the Methodists, and for the
sons of the itinerant preachers." However, as the list is too long for this place, we
will refer the reader to Myles's Chronological History of the Methodists, ch. xvii. No one
but a highly educated man, and a man well acquainted with human literature, to say nothing
of his piety, could make such a selection, and ordain such rules for the cultivation of
the understanding and the heart.
In concluding this part of the article on Mr. Wesley as a literary man, it will be
proper to ask the ancient question, What good? The humble pen now writing thinks ONE use
of the present article will be, to shed some light on a resolution of our founder, which
has been often misunderstood. He resolved, in the fervor of his piety, to be a man of
one book. Says he, in an incomparably artless and childlike manner:
"I want to know one thing: the way to heaven ; how to land safe on that happy
shore. God himself bas condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from
heaven. He hath written it down in a book. 0 give me that book At any price give me the
book of God. I have it; here is knowledge enough for' me. Let me be homo unius
libri," (that is, a man of one book.)-Preface to Sermons, 1747.
The misunderstanding has been, that he meant to read "one book" only.; a
meaning strengthened the expression, "Here is knowledge enough for me."
Against this view of the resolution may be set the multitude of books Mr. Wesley read
before and after he made it. Also the large number of books he wrote and recommended.
Further, his argument, against the preachers who urge, "But I read only the
Bible." Says he: "This is rank enthusiasm. If you need no book but the Bible,
you are got above St. Paul. He wanted others too. 'Bring the books,' says he, 'but
especially ,the parchments,"- Minutes of Conference, 32d question. Then,
by "a man of one book," Mr. Wesley meant, not only, but chiefly
the Bible; and by "here is knowledge enough," he meant "of the way to
heaven,"
A SECOND use of the article may be, to show how we are to understand one of the General
Rules of the Methodist Societies, namely, to avoid "singing those songs,
and reading those books, which do Not tend to the knowledge or love of God." The
legislator's own practice is no incongruous commentary on his own law. Did our founder, in
regard to reading, observe the rule? was he himself a faithful member of the Methodist
society? Doubtless, in his own judgment, in the opinion of his preachers, and' in the view
of his own members and of the religious world generally, he practiced what he required.
'To understand the rule, the inquiry must be, not What did Mr. Wesley read? but, What did
he pass by? There is class of authors which may be named nonsensical; another class
whose works are decidedly immoral; and a third issues books directly or indirectly infidel,
and opposed to natural and revealed religion. The catalogue shows an exclusion of all
works belonging to these classes; containing, on the contrary, books of a generally
useful, solid, truthful, moral, and religious character. As preachers and members of the
Methodist society, we need not study the art of casuistry, to understand the rule and the
application thereof. A safer and easier guidance is the practice of the venerated law
maker. What our founder read, surely we, preachers, his sons in the Gospel, may read; and
what he allowed himself, surely we 'nay allow the members under our care. The catalogue is
the commentary on the rule.
A THIRD use is in the way of example, especially to preachers. Is it not
wonderful how a man who was almost ever traveling, and preaching, and writing, could
contrive to read so much? The fact is, that his reading was mostly when traveling. A
number of books he read on the Irish Channel, in his many crossings to and from Ireland.
He read a great many books on horseback; with a book one hand, and a slack rein in the
other, he traveled many thousands of miles, and over and over the principal roads of
England, Wales, and Ireland. In his old age his friends provided a chaise drawn by two
horses; and then the chaise became his reading-room. Unexpected interruptions in his
travels, times of sickness, and winter seasons, would afford some respite to his unwearied
activity and some additional and in-door opportunities of reading. Surely Mr. Wesley may
be held up, even in this reading day, as an example. And with all our leisure and
opportunity, what "son in the Gospel" has excelled him? rather, who has
approached him, in the extent and variety of his reading?
To understand more completely our founder as a literary man, we must look not only at
what he read, but at what he wrote and the style of his writings.
Enough, however, for the present.
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