"Nec semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus."-Hor. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY N. BANGS AND T. MASON, FOR THE METHODIST William A. Mercein, Printer, 93 Gold-Street. 5-23 gift Toppon Press, An OBSERVATIONS, &c. METHODISM has been usually assailed by a violence so blind and illiberal, that those writers who have attempted to confute its principles, or to exhibit it alternately as an object of ridicule and alarm, have, in most cases, sufficiently answered themselves, and controversy has been rendered unnecessary. A few, and only a few defences of Mr. Wesley, and his opinions, have therefore been published. The time of those best qualified for such a task has been better employed in works of active piety and benevolence. They have held on their way "through good report and evil report," thinking it enough, that, by the writings of their Founder, and other subsequent publications, the candid might acquaint themselves with their views of Christianity; and that a people spread throughout the land, presented points of observation, sufficiently numerous, to enable unprejudiced persons to form an accurate estimate of their character and influence. Mr. SOUTHEY's Life of the venerable Founder of Methodism, presents itself under another aspect. It is not a hasty production, and it betrays no want of temper. The facts and incidents which make up the life and history of the remarkable man, of whom he has somewhat strangely become the Biographer, |