Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

poem were of the tender and pathetic kind, he who lost the former prize would easily gain the present; and, consequently, we must in this case pronounce him a superior genius to the other, whence we are necessarily driven to this absurd conclusion, that each of them is superior and inferior to the other.

It has been truly said of governments, "that which e'er is best administered is best;" and, of poetry it may be said with equal truth, that the greatest poet is he, who most eminently excels in that peculiar department or style of poetry which he has thought proper to cultivate. It is, therefore, the most miserable criticism to say that Spenser is a greater poet than Pope, because the "Fairy Queen" has more of ideal ism and romance than the "Rape of the Lock." If this cause be sufficient to constitute his superiority, it follows very simply and naturally that Pope is a greater poet than Spenser, because The Rape of the Lock" displays a greater acquaintance with fashionable life, the sentiments which are apt to be entertained, and the conduct pursued by fashionable people when placed in peculiar situations, than the "Fairy Queen." This argument will therefore prove, as in the former case, that Spenser is superior to Pope, and Pope to Spenser.

To these arguments it may be replied, that certain subjects of poetry do not admit of the same excel lence with others; and that it requires, therefore, little genius to arrive at the highest perfection of which such subjects are capable. This is also a popular theory, but it is still more fallacious than the former. Take what style of poetry you please the comic, the tragic, the pathetic, the Hudibrastic, the sentimental, the sublime, and either of them opens a field to more comprehension and concentration of thought, and to the exercise of more genius and mental energy, than ever illumined the human mind.

Those three immortal poets who are said to have exhausted nature, but who left more of her veiled in impenetrable obscurity than has ever been discovered, could not give the most trifling and unimportant subject all the poetic excellence of which it is capable. No matter what the subject is, the poet is licensed to take his embellishments and poetic associations from the boundless and illimitable range of the sensible, the intellectual, and the ideal world. In every subject he is at liberty to shake off, if he can, the thraldom of matter, to assume the pinions of the Mæonian bard, and clothing himself in the aerial vestments of poetic intelligence, to range at large through those undiscovered climes which are scattered with a careless hand through the deep profound of real and imaginary creation. Accordingly we have trifling and frivolous poems on the sublimest subjects, and poems of the highest comparative excellence on subjects which are at once trifling and frivolous in their nature. Blackmore has written on the Creation: what subject more sublime? Boileau has written his Lutrin !" What incident more frivolous than that on which it is founded? Yet the "Lutrin" is infinitely superior to the "Creation," but still not so superior to it as it might be; for low as the subject is, it is capable of more excellence than it could derive from the brightest genius that ever existed. It is, therefore, absurd to say that one poet must be greater than another, because the subject he has chosen admits of greater excellence; as it is evident that the most trifling scope gives a greater scope to human genius than can ever be exercised. To make poetic preeminence, therefore, depend on the subject, is just as philosophic as to maintain that he who allays his thirst at a small fountain, cannot quaff as much as he who quenches it at the source of the Nile.

1.7 %

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

G

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

ON PULPIT ELOQUENCE.

(Including Strictures on Several Metropolitan Preachers.)

Or all mankind amenable to the bar of criticism, there are no persons who have been less frequently summoned to receive its decisions, than those who have sought and attained excellence in the pulpit. Various causes have combined to exempt the eminent, for their pulpit eloquence, from that recorded praise and censure which is provoked by the publicity of their efforts. The sacredness of the cause they plead, and the reverence with which it is regarded, may have deterred many from exposing the imperfections of the advocates of a system, from which they derive their purest consolations, and their brightest hopes; unwilling themselves to rend the veil they have interposed before the defects of the preacher, they at length consider it sacrilege if another hand attempts to remove it; forgetting, that Christianity is a religion of too perfect a nature to sustain the slightest injury from the imperfections of her teachers. Another obstacle to criticisms on pulpit eloquence is, the general and perhaps laudable custom of attending one place of worship only; which, by limiting the observation to one or two preachers, necessarily prevents extensive criticism; while the mind, acquiescing in the invisible fetters of habit, willingly accepts them as substitutes for the more stimulating enjoyments of variety and novelty.

Perhaps another deterring cause may be traced to the fear of offending those among the clergy, who can only be praised by the sacrifice of truth. To enrage men, against whom we have no personal hostility, is irksome to the best feelings of the heart, and to war with ignorance and irritated feeling requires an alinost impenetrable panoply.

On the other hand the candid, the liberal and the generous, would feel grateful for the discovery of their deviations from the path of excellence, and gladly welcome the hand which would guide them to the track they had lost. The benefits which result from criticism to the fine arts, to literature, and, indeed, to every subject upon which it is

employed, are indisputable; and I feel confident, that if the discourses of our preachers were made the theme of frequent and judicious public discussion, their improvement would be rapid and decisive. For

I

would ask, what means has the preacher of ascertaining the errors, either of his sermon, or his mode of delivery? The kindness of a friend, who is competent to the task, is his only resource; and it certainly is not very probable, that every clergyman is provided with a mentor, endowed with the requisite quantity of gentleness and talent. It is true, that empty pews are a tolerably conclusive evidence of the deficiencies of a preacher; though these are frequent ly proofs, not of the want, but of the mismanagement of talent, That a deserted church is not an unerring criterion, from which to deduce the absence of oratorical abilities, is proved by the crowds who sometimes attend those preachers, whose feebleness of intellect is only equalled by that of their hearers; in justice to the latter I must acknowledge, that their idol, though perhaps destitute of every other excellence, is almost invariably distinguished by a graceful and impressive delivery The little importance, annexed to this acquirement by many of the clergy, evinces how little, how very little they are acquainted with its power. A school boy, drawling his task, is but too accurate a type of the listlessness and monotony with which many of the clergy deliver their orations. Do they suppose that attention is arrested by languor, or the feelings interested by language uttered in the chill tones of indifference? Do they think that because the mind ought to attend only to the matter, regardless of the manner, that the latter is of no importance? Impossible! in theory at least they must admit what they deny in practice. The study of elocution is neither perplexing nor abstruse; let the clergy transfer to it a portion at least of their attention, and reform what is at once their bane and their reproach. A graceful delivery, united with a plain sensible sermon, will produce

[ocr errors]

a more powerful effect than all the àcuteness of a Warburton, than all the eloquence of a Blair, could ac complish without it. In the metropolis, indeed, where the stimulants of fame, and the hope of preferment animate and excite even those, who are regardless of the admonitions of duty, we frequently behold the combination of almost every quality necessary to constitute excellence in a preacher; but in the sequestered village, conscious that he is confined to the observation of minds ill educated, or totally illiterate; conscious too, perhaps, that he is possessed of a competency adequate to the supply of his wishes, he too often sinks into supineness and sloth, and forces himself to the performance of his professional duties, with the resolution to sacrifice the least possible time to their fulfilment. God forbid that I should assert this to be an accurate picture of the generality of the country clergy; there are, I trust and believe, but few such; yet so extensive is the mischief diffused by their example, that it is to be wished that those among the clergy whose hearts are alienated from Christianity, and who secretly deride the obligations they enforce on others, would voluntarily resign their violated trusts, nor continue to imbibe from the Ecclesiastical Establishment that nourishment, which they convert by the morbidness of their principles into streams of poison.

The additional deformity which vice assumes, when pourtrayed by the sworn champion of virtue, appears at first sight an unnecessary subject of animadversion; but the clerical delinquent constantly justifies his derelictions from duty upon the plea, that sound doctrines and pure precepts are more essential constituents of a preacher, than the unobtrusive lesson of a holy life. What does he imagine that pathetic exhortations to prayer, uttered by lips which are known habitually to insult heaven by imprecations-animated persuasions to temperance, from a being who makes the brutalization of reason the primary object of existence-will produce an effect as powerful and continuous, as if he evinced the sincerity of his exhortations, by pursuing himself the path he recommended to others?

[merged small][ocr errors]

In the congregated masses of large populous towns, where con-; cealment is practicable for every shade of profligacy, respect and esteem for imaginary virtues will frequently accompany admiration for real talent; and the ignorance of a congregation of the character of their pastor, the consequence of a distant residence, different connexions, and dissimilar pursuits, may generate the opinion, that as a correct estimate of his character is so difficult to be obtained, the beauty or deformity of that character is an object, too triding to demand attention.

Though the rays of the sun, when intercepted by the foilage of the forest, do not fall upon the earth with the same visible distinctness, which marks their appearance upon the unsheltered plain, still their heat is felt, their brilliance acknowledg ed; and to question their power, because their operation is interrupted, would be to assert an absurdity.

Similar to this is the relative influence of the conduct of the clergy in town and country. In the former, though various circumstances may operate to conceal the general tenour of the pastor's life from his congregation, still, trifling occurrences, and the united testimony of those who have immediate, and frequent ac cess to him, will gradually delineate a correct representation of his character.

It is evident that, in an extensive congregation, numbers must be conversant with the actions of their minister from report only; yet even to these, the charm of an harmonious accordance of precept and example is delightful; and the impulse to surrender the regulation of our minds to the domination of eloquence, which we feel convinced is undisgraced by hypocrisy, is powerful and frequently irresistible. But it is in the contracted circle of a country village that the importance of the morality of the clergy is imperiously proclaimed; there the minutest trait of character is known and discussed; and if he, while recommending virtue to others, constantly practises vice himself, his bewildered flock either fly to another shepherd, or consider his guilt a

sufficient apology for their own. Every tie connecting a clergyman with his parishioners is snapped asunder by the immoral conduct of the former; if he reprove crime, will it not turn with unblushing effrontery and say, "first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." If a spirit is stricken to earth by the hand of sorrow, will it not look for consolation to religion, and seek for the assistance of her minister to teach it to bow meekly to the storm. But what consolation, I would ask, can be derived from one who considers religion merely as the means of procuring the plea. sures of this world; and whose finer feelings have long since been immolated at the shrine of self-gratification. Again-when death has set his seal upon a victim, and the struggling soul is distracted between the necessity of submitting to what is inevitable, and the agony of separating from all that it had loved on earth, then the hope of immortality rises like a rainbow to his

view, and announces an unclouded futurity. Then the minister of Christianity is eagerly sought; and if he appears, he probably chills by his apathy the ardour of expiring faith; or, by his indifference and levity, mingle doubt with the cherished hope of eternity. Such are a few of the evils consequent upon clerical profligacy: it is true, the Ecclesiastical Authorities are invested with power to punish the aberrations from rectitude of the members of its community, but many circumstances concur to arrest the arm of justice in her progress; she cannot punish crimes without repeated accusation, and unquestionable proof; while mercy interposes the pleas of human infirmity, and the melancholy situation of the de linquent. Let those, therefore, whose inclinations are chained to the plea sures of vice, pause ere they bind themselves to the strict performance of duties which they secretly resolve never to fulfil; and remember, that hypocrisy imparts, even to guilt itself, a deeper dye. CRITICUS. (To be continued.)

STANZAS.

"For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
An unrelenting foe to love;

And, when we meet a mutual heart,
Come in between and bid us part?"

Thomson.

Must-must we part? the moonlight hour
(Sweet silent hour!) has scarcely fled;
Oh! must we part? then take this flow'r,
And, when its leaves are pale and dead,
Think on my blighted hopes; for there
The emblem of those hopes is seen;-
Think on my love and vain despair-

On what thou art, and once hast been.
Must thou away? Oh! leave me not
Without one sigh, to tell my heart
That I shall be not all forgot,
Nor unregarded-tho' we part.
Nay, nay,

thou wilt not-can'st not go,
Denying e'en one farewell tear,

To prove, at least, thou feel'st the woe

Of one, who held thee too-too dear.

For I have lived but in thy sight

My heaven was in thy smile display'd
Where'er thou linger'dst-there was light;
Where'er thou wert not gloom and shade."
E'en as the Halcyon makes her nest,
In summer, on the tranquil sea,

[ocr errors]

I form'd one in my peaceful breast,
Where storms ne'er came, to shelter THEE.

AZAR.

* The Halevon or Kingsfisher is said to make her gest and breed her young when the sea

is calm and still.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHRISTOPHE HENRY, KING OF HAYTI.

THIS remarkable person was a negro slave, born in the island of Grenada, on Oct. 6th 1767. He served in the American Revolutionary War, and received a wound at the seige of Savannah, and, on his return to St. Domingo, was employed as an overseer on an estate called the Lemonade, the property of Dureau de la Malle, the translator of Tacitus. It is reported that even in this occupation he displayed the natural severity of his disposition, but these accounts, taken from his Haytian biographers, do not precisely accord with the history given of him by writers in Europe, who assert that he was born in the island of St. Kitts, and in 1780, being twelve years of age, was shipped to Cape François and sold as a slave. His purchaser bred him as a cook, and having a capacity for the art, in 1789 he was cook to the Cross, an inn situated in Rue d'Espagne, at Cape-town, and kept by a Madame Montgeon. Whichever history of his early life may be true, it is certain that, when the measures of the revolutionary parties in France occasioned the insurrection of the blacks of St. Domingo, Christophe became an active partizan of the cause of emancipation, and soon acquired an ascendancy over his fellow slaves, by the daring intrepidity which he displayed in several sanguinary conflicts. Toussaint Louverture, the first supreme chief of the liberated negroes, appointed Christophe a general of brigade, and dispatched him to suppress an insurrection which had been fomented against the authority of Toussaint by his nephew, named Moses. Christophe possessed himself of this leader by perfidy, and he was put to death by his uncle Toussaint, who appointed Christophe to succeed him as governor of the northern province. But the execution of Moses occasioned a rebellion, which broke out at Cape-town on the 21st of Oct. 1821, and spread to Eur. Mag. Vol. 82.

several other places. Christophe at the head of his black troops attacked the insurgents in every direction, and, by his personal courage and vigour, contributed greatly to suppress the insurrection. It must be observed, that Moses supported the principle of annihilating the whites, against the uncle whose better policy it was to encourage a mixed association of the different colours. But the principles of Moses had rendered him so popular, that when Christophe became king he thought it advisable to treat his memory with respect in many public instruments, as well as by means of his confidential agents.

Christophe commanded at the Cape on the arrival of the French expedition under Le Clerc, in 1802. He was summoned to surrender, and in the correspondence which arose out of this summons, there were characteristic expressions, and a generosity of sentiment, which gave the sable chieftain a high superiority over his white opponent. "If," said Christophe, "you use against me the force you threaten, I will resist you with the intrepidity of a soldier, and, if the fate of arms be in your favour, you shall enter the Cape not until it is a smoking ruin, and even on its cinders will I continue to combat you. The troops, which you threaten to disembark, I consider as houses of cards which the slightest breath can destroy; and for your personal esteem, I wish it not at that price to which you attach it-the abandonment of my duty." On another occasion he writes, "I want but proofs sufficient to assure me of the establishment of liberty and equality in favour of the people of this colony. The laws, by which the mother country has consecrated this great principle, will carry this conviction to my heart, and I protest to you that my submissiou shall be immediately consequent to my obtaining such a proof by your acknow.

2 T

« НазадПродовжити »