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.

BOOKS READ BY MR. WESLEY.

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.

* Three hundred thousand, he says in another place.-Journal, 1760.

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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