tions to produce a calm and truly philosophical history of the great religious movement which distinguished the past century, are plainly defective. He is incapable of generalization: hence he falls into a gossiping manner, unworthy of the subject, and ill accordant with his implied pretensions; and which often makes him seem frivolous, where perhaps he intended to be grave. More acute than profound, more fond of reverie than of reflection, and much more susceptible of impulses than careful to govern them, his opinions seem to be the mere accidents of his character: forming a fortuitous aggregation of wayward prejudices, they are indistinct and incongruous. So far as they can be collected from his writings, one would suppose his credenda to be framed out of the multifarious savings from repeated shipwrecks of the faith. His orthodoxy recalls too plainly the history of his mind; and each article of his present belief seems labeled with the names of the parties and the individuals who, having been, by turns, the objects of his likings and disgusts, have provoked and flattered him into his successive persuasions. Thus it is, that the system on which the work before us is reared, is difficult to be gathered and submitted to rigid examination, not so much on account of the scattered form in which it lies, as because it does not seem to flow from any uniform and consistent intention in the Writer's mind. In truth, almost the only thing in "the Life of Wesley" which comes upon the ear with the impression of uniformity, is the word Enthusiasm,' always pronounced in a derisive tone, and yet so made to hover between a good and a bad sense, as if the Writer consciously employed it for a veil, either to wavering convictions, or disingenuous timidity ;-seeming himself not to know what opinion to form of the facts before him, or not daring to say what he thinks. We have taken some pains to compare the places in which this term occurs, with the reasonable hope of being able, at last, to affix to it the permanent and precise sense in which the Author wishes his reader to receive it. We have not, however, advanced beyond the alternative of supposing, either that Mr. Southey has felt afraid to bring his own mind to a definition of the sense in which he employs the word; or that he makes it the subterfuge of an unmanly and party-serving duplicity; and that wherever it occurs seemingly in an approach towards a favourable sense, it is chosen rather than a less ambiguous word, because its vulgar and objurgative import serves to shelter the Author from the ridicule or the reprehension of the party whom he is most careful never to disoblige.

In a large portion of his work, Mr. Southey has assumed a sardonic manner, which his excellent taste as a writer, and his fine sense of propriety, would certainly have corrected, had it not been forced upon him by the hazard he incurs of appearing in..

the eyes of the frivolous, the profane, or the bigoted, to be deeply or seriously interested in his subject. Often,-especially on occasions when it might otherwise be imagined that the Writer had forgotten every feeling but that of an honest, manly, serious sympathy with the high qualities, and heroic conduct, and infinite interests which are the adjuncts of his story, there is a forward obtrusion of this callous levity. On such occasions, some single phrase of cold mockery is dropped into the narrative, apparently serving no other purpose, than to redeem the Writer from the imputation of being himself the dupe of the 'pleasant legend' he has adopted for his theme. And yet, we are far from believing that he has written the Life of Wesley with no better faith or better feelings, than those in which he would have written a history of the temptations of St. Anthony, or in which he has described the superstitions of the middle ages but he wants those decided convictions which would have given him a simpler and more uniform regard to the moral purport of his work; he wants, moreover, courage to throw aside the poor affectation of a supercilious scepticism.

Mr. Southey might well be required to shew the grounds of that superiority which gives him the right, in relation to such men as John Wesley, George Whitefield, and their companions, to present himself in this attitude of condescending curiosity directed downwards toward the vagaries of the half-idiot beings of a lower sphere. He would, we are persuaded, be utterly at a loss if thus called upon to defend the preposterous pretension implied in the style of many parts of these volumes. In the mean time, while he will not dare virtuously to resign his seat and his credit among scoffers, he must know that both are retained at a cost which cannot be estimated. When every circumstance at all susceptible of a ludicrous association, connected with the conduct of those whom himself allows to have been (compared with the mass of their countrymen) the truly wise and good, is collected and produced with an unfeeling and infidel-like diligence, what will it avail to the thousand thoughtless readers of these volumes, that, in his better moments, the Author writes in a better spirit? While the serious portions of his history are slighted, or forgotten, his insidious mockery will run its circle of mischievous influence,-serving to give a new edge to the malignity of those "who whet their tongue like a "sword, and shoot out their arrows, even bitter words against "the perfect;" to encourage the ribaldries of the profane; to soothe the death-sleep of the formalist, the sordid, and the decently sensual;-worst of all, to baffle, perplex, and divert, the hopeful but wavering impulses of early virtue. And must we not add, that in the estimation of temperate and serious minds, it will give the Writer a place among the enemies, rather

than the friends of the religious principle in this evil world? It is not for us to determine in what light it may be regarded by Him who has said, "He that is not with me, is against me."

Mr. Southey knows very well, that a light grace of phraseology, an evanescent derision, only just decided enough to make itself perceptible to the more knowing reader, is the style best adapted to the end for which it is employed,-that of saving his credit among his refined or sceptical friends. Hence, in almost any single instance that might be adduced, the tone of raillery would hardly seem to support a serious animadversion. We may quote some examples of the kind; but, for the full justification of our criticisms throughout this article, we must be understood as appealing (and it cannot be unfair to do so) to those who have already perused the work itself.

John Nelson now fasted the whole of every Friday, giving away to the poor the food which he would otherwise have eaten. He spent his leisure hours in prayer, and in reading the Bible; and his desire for the salvation of souls was such, that he actually hired one of his fellow-workmen to go and hear Mr. Wesley preach. The experiment answered, for the workman afterwards told him it was the best thing both for him and his wife that ever man had done for them. When he dreamed of the devil now, it was no longer a dream of horrors; he was a match for him, and seeing him let loose among the people in the shape of a red bull, he took him by the horns and twisted him on his back, and set his right foot upon his neck. A letter came from his wife in the country, with tidings of the death of one darling child, and the desperate illness of another; he received it with a composure which made the by-standers accuse him of hardness of heart; but he was in a high state of exaltation: "his soul," he says, "seemed to breathe its life in God, as naturally as his body breathed life in the common air."

·

John was perfectly satisfied that he had received the assurance, and knew his sins were forgiven. His wife and mother entreated him not to say this to any one, for no one would believe him. But he said he should not be ashamed to tell what God had done for his soul, if he could speak loud enough for all the men in the world to hear him at once. His mother said to him, "Your head is turned;" and he replied, "Yes, and my heart too, I thank the Lord." The wife besought him that he would either leave off abusing his neighbours, or go back to London; but he declared that it was his determination to reprove any one who sinned in his presence; she began to weep, and said he did not love her so well as he used to do, and that her happiness was over, if he believed her to be a child of the devil, and himself a child of God. But Nelson told her he prayed, and believed God would make her a blessed companion for him in the way of heaven; and she, who was a good wife, and knew that she had a good husband, soon fell in with his wishes, listened to his teaching, and became as zealous in the cause as himself.

He now began to exhort his neighbours as well as to reprove

them, and by defending his doctrines when they were disputed, was led unawares to quote texts of Scripture, expound, and enforce them, in a manner which at length differed from preaching only in the name. This he did in his own house at first, where he had the good fortune to convert most of his relations; and when his auditors became so numerous that the house could not hold them, he then stood at the door and harangued there.' Vol. I. pp. 411-414.

Calm and steady, however, as Wesley conceived these believers to be, there soon occurred what he himself pronounced a genuine instance of enthusiasm. He had preached at Tanfield Leigh, a few miles from Newcastle, to a people whom he had left, in appearance, "very well satisfied with the preacher and themselves;" the first part of this predicament might be as he desired, but the second was out of time, before they had passed through the grievous process of conviction and regeneration." So dead, senseless, unaffected a congregation," said he, "I have scarce seen. Whether gospel or law, or English or Greek, seemed all one to them." It was therefore the more grateful to him when he learnt that even there the seed which he had sown was not quite lost; for on the fourth morning after his preaching, a certain John Brown, who had been one of the insensible congregation, was waked out of sleep by the voice that raiseth the dead, and ever since," says Wesley, he has been full of love, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." He had judged too hastily of his patient, for only two days after his new birth, the said John Brown came riding through Newcastle, hollowing and shouting, and driving all the people before him, telling them God had told him he should be a king, and should tread all his enemies under his feet." It was a clear case that this man had been made crazy by his enthusiasm. Wesley took the right method of curing him; he sent him home immediately to his work, and advised him to cry day and night to God that he might be lowly in heart, lest Satan should again get an advantage over him.' Vol. I. pp. 418, 419.

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We have no doubt that Mr. Southey will learn that some few instances of his unfeeling flippancy have excited, not merely disgust, but indignation in the minds of readers who, even without any religious feeling, possess an ordinary share of good taste and sensibility. In the midst of narratives of heroic suffering which must make every generous bosom heave, he obtrudes, sometimes his scepticism, sometimes his indifference, in sentences like the following.

The progress of Methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution, for it rendered the Methodists objects of curiosity and compassion; and in every instance the preachers displayed that fearlessness which enthusiasm inspires, and which, when the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them.'

Again:

To prison, therefore, Nelson was taken, to his heart's content?

In instances of this sort, we might believe there to be a common ground on which to convict the Author of having sinned against the laws of good taste and dramatic propriety, leaving moral or religious considerations out of the question. No such common ground of expostulation, we fear, exists with respect to his innumerable jeers on the subject of conversion. Pleasantries like the following, of which a hundred examples might be adduced, contrasted with the apparent seriousness of the context, perplex the reader's attempt to ascertain the real religious opinions of the Author.

'After a perilous struggle between Methodism and madness, the case came to a favourable termination, and John Furz spent the remainder of his days as a preacher.'

John Oliver, a youth of fifteen, having been induced, in a 'state of exaltation,' to join the Methodists,' in contempt of the obligations of filial obedience,' the distress of the father, and the stubborn resolution of the son,' had become matter of public talk in Stockport. Mr. Oliver (the father) promised his son, says Mr. Southey,

' every indulgence which he could ask, provided he would come no more near those "damned villains" as he called the objects of his violent, but not unreasonable prejudice (the Methodists)....... He had good cause for apprehending the worst consequences from that spirit of fanaticism with which the boy was so thoroughly possessed. The disease was advancing rapidly toward a crisis.'

Soon after, he fancied himself called to some more public < work.' Wesley invited him to London.

He accepted the invitation; and had been thirty years an active and successful preacher, when his life and portrait were exhibited in the Arminian Magazine.'

John Pawson, afterwards a preacher, while under distress of mind occasioned by his connexion with the Methodists, as he could not give vent to his grief in his chamber without disturbing the family, retired into the barn, where he might perform freely."

The profane jest with which Chap. XVIII. of the second volume commences, we do not quote; merely remarking, that, though the Author may think the imaginary personage' a fair object of his playful scepticism, it implies a gross aud pernicious want of due reverence, thus to place the name and conduct of the Supreme Being within the circle of a ludicrous association. It is not denied, that uneducated religionists have too often implicated the Divine name and attributes with low, familiar, or ludicrous ideas, in a manner the most unseemly and improper. But there seems to us a very wide difference between those who fall into offences of this kind evidently more from deficiency of