two previous generations were felt to be tedious, if not insincere. Nor was there much more to be said in didactic verse on the subject of Natural, as distinct from Revealed, Religion; for the minds of those who had once been fascinated with the speculations of Shaftesbury were now more inclined to travel along the roads opened to them by Voltaire, Rousseau, and the French Encyclopædists. CHAPTER XI RELIGIOUS LYRICAL POETRY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: INFLUENCE OF THE METHODIST MOVEMENT Isaac Watts; JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY; WILLIAM COWPER THE disturbing effect of the Deistic philosophy on the political, social, and literary settlement of 1688 was small. Not only did the works of the so-called "freethinkers" offer an easy mark to the irony of Swift and the light satire of Young, but, on their own ground of reason, the Deists (with the exception of Hume) were feeble controversialists, and unworthy of such antagonists as Butler and Berkeley. Though it was but a step from the latitudinarian Churchmanship of men like Bishop Hoadly to the Deism of men like Tindal, the arguments offered on behalf of Natural, as opposed to Revealed Religion, while they gave, as I have shown, a certain stimulus to the imagination of the poet, were not qualified to move the heart of the people. There were, however, numerous constituent elements in English society which found no satisfaction in the religious compromise of the Revolution. From the days of Wycliffe to those of Bunyan, thousands of Englishmen had sought a more directly personal outlet for religious emotion than was provided for them in the external order of the Established Church. Religion appealed to them on the mystical side of their nature, through the heart rather than through the head. Those who were influenced by it, whether Nonconformists or Nonjurors, seekers of monastic quiet or field-preachers, moved apart from the main current of action in Church and State. Excluded, in many cases, after the Revolution from the political offices of citizenship, by the operation of the Test Act and other legislative measures, Englishmen of this kind formed, within the constituted secular society, groups of religious societies resembling the communities of primitive Christians. Each group had its own individual badge of distinction, but all of them being allied among themselves by a common devotional spirit, they may for the purposes of this History be classified under the generic name of Methodists," and their various forms of poetic expression be examined as if they were manifestations of a single movement. This line of treatment is further justified by the fact that, in the history of English Poetry, Methodism took a form so essentially lyrical that, however they might be divided from each other by their doctrines, the Christian congregations in the country agreed in expressing their religious emotions by means of hymns. Hymnology had its rise among the Nonconformists. The most powerful current of opinion among the early Reformers, whether Episcopalian or Presbyterian, being Calvinistic, it was natural that for a long time Calvin's ruling with regard to Church music should prevail; and this enjoined the strictest adherence to the text of Scripture. The use of hymns in congregational singing was accordingly almost entirely restricted to paraphrases of the Psalms. But when the struggle with regard to Church Government began between the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians, and when the Arminian tenets were largely adopted by the former, the Puritan party, which, in the early days of Anglicanism, had based its Nonconformity entirely on points of ritual, emphasised its adherence to the five leading principles of Calvinist doctrine. These were constantly insisted on by dissenting preachers in their Conventicles, and the persecution which the sects endured after the Restoration made them enthusiastic defenders of the faith that they believed to be necessary for salvation. The Psalms of David no longer gave utterance to all the religious feelings of which their hearts were full; but, in the Baptist and Independent Chapels, rude strains in the vulgar tongue began to express the emotions of the worshipper about election, predestination, original sin, assurance, and effectual grace. The want of poetic refinement in the hymns of Barton and Mason, used in the Independent Chapel at Southampton, is said to have inspired to religious composition the first, if not the greatest, of English hymnwriters, Isaac Watts. He was born at Southampton on the 17th July 1674, being the eldest of the nine children of Isaac Watts, a clothier, who, at the time of his son's birth, was in prison for his religious opinions. The boy was first sent to the grammar school of his native town, then under the charge of John Pinhorne, a member of the Church of England and an excellent scholar, to whom in after years Watts addressed a Latin Pindaric Ode enumerating all his studies, which included such modern Latin poets as George Buchanan and Casimir Sarbiewski, but religiously banished Catullus, Martial, and Ovid.1 He was afterwards removed to Thomas Rowe's Academy at Stoke Newington, a village which at that period seems to have been a favourite centre for the residence of Nonconformists. There he remained till 1694, and his reputation for scholarship was so high that Dr. Speed, a generous physician, offered to support him at one of the Universities; Watts, however, declined to separate his lot from the Dissenters. In 1696 he was appointed tutor to the son of Sir John Hartopp, of Stoke Newington, a leader among the Nonconformists, who, under James II., had suffered for his opinions. To him, in an irregular Latin Ode, Watts confided his desires for a retired and studious life: Pro meo tecto casa sit, salubres 1 Milner, Life and Times of Dr. Isaac Watts, p. 68. Demulcet aures murmure, gratius Sacri libelli, deliciae meae, Et vos sodales semper amabiles, Nunc simul adsitis, nunc vicissim, Et fallite taedia vitae. In 1697 he expressed, after the manner of Cowley, in a quasi-Pindaric Ode addressed to Freedom, his dislike of the life of Courts: Tempt me no more! My soul can ne'er comport Go, vassal souls, go, cringe, and wait, And dance attendance at Honorio's gate; Then run in troops before him to compose his State; Shadows that wait on his command; Bend when he speaks, and kiss the ground: Wait till he smiles: but lo! the idol frowned, And drove them to their fate. He was appointed Pastor of Mark Lane Chapel in 1702, but his health broke down in 1708; and he was then persuaded to make his abode with Sir Thomas and Lady Abney at Theobalds, in which retreat he spent many happy and quiet years, according to his poetical wish, and after Sir Thomas's death removed with Lady Abney, in 1735, to Stoke Newington, where he remained till he died on the 25th of November 1748. He continued to the end of his life to act as pastor to his congregation. "In the pulpit," says Johnson, “though his low stature, which very little exceeded five feet, graced him with no advantages of appearance, yet the gravity and propriety of his utterance made his discourses. very efficacious. I once mentioned the reputation which Mr. Foster had gained, by his proper delivery, to my friend Dr. Hawkesworth, who told me that in the art of pronunciation he was far inferior to Dr. Watts."1 1 Johnson's Life of Watts. |