The publication of the Athenian Gazette was begun March 17, 1691, and was closed June 14, 1697. In itself, it was a formidable undertaking. The questions sent to the writers were so many, so diversified, so curious, and so difficult, that to answer them required immense reading and research. And yet, in the midst of the publication of this work, the Athenian Society courageously began another, even more extensive and more arduous; the proposals for printing which were issued, in the preface to the third volume of the Athenian Gazette, October 17, 1691. The work was to consist of 120 sheets; it was to contain nothing but what had the approbation of the whole Athenian Society; and the price per copy, unbound, was to be ten shillings. To some extent, it was similar in plan to the supplements attached to the first volumes of the Athenian Gazette; and probably this was the reason why the supplements were dropped a few months before the new work was issued. At length, on the 6th of June 1692, which was shortly after Samuel Wesley’s removal to South Ormsby, the work was published in a folio volume of more than five hundred pages, and was entitled, “The Young Student’s Library: containing Extracts and Abridgments of the most valuable Books, printed in England and in the Foreign Journals, from the Year Sixty-five to this time;”—to which is added, “A new Essay upon all sorts of Learning; wherein the Use of the Sciences is distinctly treated on, by the Athenian Society. London: Printed for John Dunton, 1692.”

Prefixed to this volume is a curious and fantastic frontispiece, strikingly characteristic of Dunton’s genius. At the four corners are representations of Athens, Rome, Oxford, and Cambridge. At a long table are seated the members of the Athenian Society, twelve in number, Dunton evidently in the middle, and Samuel Wesley, the only clergyman, at his side. Before the table are all sorts of characters presenting their enigmas for solution. One is a faithless lady in a mask, come to inquire how she may convert her faithless husband to a sense of propriety. Another, as a fashionable coquette, with a spaniel in her lap, presents to the learned Athenians her square-sized billet, and awaits with self-complacent impudence an answer. A moon-struck lawyer and an honest Jack Tar eagerly ask for counsel; while a disciple of Euclid, compasses in hand, and studying a globe, longs for a mathematical solution. A poor parson inquires how he is to get a living; and a whole rout of fishwives, thieves, and bad characters clamour for advice; while, before a tripod, filled with burning chestnuts, is a monkey, with a cat in his paws, making her pick out the nuts on his behalf, and thereby showing the cautiousness of the Athenians in answering questions likely to burn their own fingers.

“The Young Student’s Library” contains the substance of above one hundred volumes, many of them folio in size. The extracting and condensing of the contents of such a mass of books must have been a work of enormous labour. Very able synopses are given of above eighty different works.^[69] And, in addition to these reviews, there are two most elaborate articles written by Samuel Wesley—one, entitled “An Essay upon all sorts of Learning,” and the other, “A Discourse concerning the Antiquity, Divine Original, and Authority of the Points, Vowels, and Accents that are placed to the Hebrew Bible;” and, in close connexion with the latter, are six Critical Disquisitions upon the various editions of the Scriptures, the Polyglot Bible, Hebrew Grammars, Hebrew Lexicons, and Hebrew Poetry, all of which are probably the productions of Mr Wesley’s pen.

From the foregoing summary, it will be seen that “The Young Student’s Library” is a remarkable book, evincing an enormous extent of reading and research, and displaying an amount of labour almost incredible. Many of the volumes analysed are quarto and folio in size, and not a few are written in foreign languages. It is impossible to determine how many of these literary condensations were made by Mr Wesley; but there can be no doubt that he was one of the principal contributors to the work, inasmuch as, from the first, he had been one of the chief members, if not the chief member, of the Athenian Society; and this opinion is strengthened by the fact, that his “Essay on Learning” is placed as a sort of preliminary discourse at the very commencement of the book; while his article on the “Hebrew Points” occupies an equally prominent position in what may be considered the second section of the volume.

The work was announced as “containing the substance and pith of all that is valuable in most of the best books printed in England and in the foreign journals;” whilst its object was “to provide means for improving the knowledge of those who had not the ability of purse to arrive at a learned education, and to purchase all those voluminous books which treat of those several arts and sciences which are required to the composing a scholar.”^[70] The preface of the book modestly, and not untruthfully, observes: “These treatises are not only pleasant as to their variety, but useful for their brevity; there being the substance and value of a considerable part of a good library brought within the compass of this volume; which as it will spare much labour—a man being able to peruse here more of an author in half an hour, than in half a day in the author himself—so it will save a great deal of expense to such as would be master of the knowledge of many books, the performances of the authors being here epitomised.”

It has been already stated that, in this remarkable book, there are, besides epitomes of the works of others, two elaborate articles, the productions of Samuel Wesley’s scholarship and pen; and these are of such interest and importance as to justify further remarks respecting them.

The “Discourse concerning the Antiquity, Divine Original, and Authority of the Points, Vowels, and Accents that are placed to the Hebrew Bible,” if printed separately, would make an 8vo volume of nearly 250 pages. In the introduction, young students in divinity are strongly urged to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament; and, in order to this, they are earnestly advised to master the works of the Jewish Rabbins, because the Rabbins will help to a right understanding of many difficult Hebrew words and phrases, and will explain many rites and ceremonies, ordinances, and customs, which are but slightly mentioned in the sacred Scriptures. From them will be obtained the best explanation of proverbial speeches, and of the names of places, sects, moneys, weights, and measures; and also of the moral, judicial, and ceremonial laws of Moses. A knowledge of the Rabbinical writings is also necessary to maintain and defend the purity, the points, vowels, and accents of the sacred text itself. After this, books are recommended as helpful in attaining an acquaintance with the Hebrew Bible—viz., Robertson’s “First and Second Gate to the Holy Tongue;” Jessey’s “Lexicon;” Buxtorf’s “Epitome, Thesaurus, and Lexicon,” Bythner’s “Lyra Prophetica;” Leusden’s “Compendium;” and Arius Montanus’s “Interlineary Bible.” Wesley also recommends the study of the Mishna, the Talmud, and the Rabbinical Commentaries of Aben Ezra, and others. He likewise expresses a willingness to give to the public an English translation of these Rabbinical writings, if his bookseller received sufficient encouragement to publish; and, in another place, he says: “If this discourse about the original of the points, vowels, and accents, finds acceptance and encouragement, I intend a distinct discourse upon the sacred original text of the Old Testament, in defence of its purity and perfection, as it is now enjoyed by the Protestant Church; wherein I purpose to handle all those curiosities that are the subject of critical observation about the same; being very willing to defend our religion, and the rule of our faith, to the uttermost of my power.”^[71]

He then shows the vast importance of the points of the Hebrew Bible; contending that he who reads without the points is like one who rides a horse without a bridle, and knows not whither he goes. He also contends that his book is required and opportune, on account of such men as Capellus and Dr Walton having recently published the dangerous doctrine that the Hebrew points were not divine in their origin, but were added to the sacred text by the Masorites of Tiberias, about five hundred years before the birth of Christ. After this, he most elaborately refutes the opinions respecting the human and novel origin of the points, alleging that, with one exception, there is not a single Jewish writer, who makes the least mention of the Hebrew punctuation being invented by the Masorites, A.D. 500. He contends that the time and the place, when and where the points are said to have been invented, are exceedingly improbable; and that the Masorites, to whom they are attributed, were unequal to the task, they being a set of magical and monstrous sots—a company of blind and crafty fools, bewitching and bewitched with traditions.

In the second part of his work, on the Hebrew points, Samuel Wesley proceeds to prove that the points are at least as old as Ezra, that they are of divine original, and therefore of divine authority. In confirmation of this, he appeals to the testimonies of Jews and Christians, and answers all sorts of objections.

It is almost impossible to give any adequate outline of this most learned production. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that there is no book of modern times in which so much learning is condensed into so small a space. It shows, incontestably, that Samuel Wesley was a most able Hebrew scholar, and, though at this time only thirty years of age, had gone through a course of learned reading to which but few scholars of the present age will apply themselves. Gildon, in his “History of the Athenian Society,” remarks that Wesley “has taken notice of all which can be raised against the opinion he defends;” that he had “given himself for many years to the study of the Hebrew and original tongues, and to Rabbinical learning in general;” and that his “performance was quite equal to the nobleness of the subject.” “He has executed his task,” continues Gildon, “with a great deal of strength of judgment, force of argument, and profoundness of skill. It was the saying of a great man, that he would easily tell the progress any one would make in science if he knew but the value he had for it; and no man could have a greater esteem for any knowledge than this divine (Wesley) had for this.” He considered it “the chief and obligatory study of men of his character, who were to give the true and genuine sense of Scripture to the souls they directed, under the pain of woe at the last tribunal. His treatise is accurate and elaborate, and abundantly satisfactory; and it were to be wished that the same great man would oblige the world with those other pieces of Rabbinical learning which he mentions in these sheets. No prospect of any present or future advantage to himself induced him to engage in this laborious work, he having generously given the copy to the publisher without the least gratuity. In him learning has met with a happy temper, an innate modesty, and a sweet agreeable affability to all men; a charity not stinted to factions, parties, or religions; but universal, like that of the first institutor of our holy religion. In short, the virtues that this reverend divine has made a part of himself are much more noble qualifications than that extraordinary one of his learning.”^[72] Such a testimony, from a man contemporaneous with Samuel Wesley, is worth recording.

We only add respecting the “Discourse on the Hebrew Points,” that, in the preface to the “Young Student’s Library,” it is stated “that the author of the Hebrew punctuation has retired into the country,” (to South Ormsby,) “where his necessary business will take up a great part of his time; yet whatever letters and objections shall be sent to him about his performance he will, notwithstanding his business, set apart so much time as to maintain what he has advanced, and to answer all objections whatever.”

Brave Samuel Wesley! None but an empty-headed braggart, or a great-minded man, conscious of his strength, would have dared to give a challenge such as this.

The second piece written by Mr Wesley, and published in the “Young Student’s Library,” is entitled “An Essay upon all Sorts of Learning.” A few extracts will tend to show his intense passion for intellectual pursuits, and the wide range of his literary studies.

Learning.—“Learning is of universal extension. Like the sun, it denies not its rays to any that will open their eyes. Other treasures may be monopolised, but this is increased by diffusion, and the more a man imparts the more he retains. Rather than a wise man would be deprived of learning, he would even steal it from the minutes of necessary rest or recreation.”

The Bible.—“If we examine nature, and anatomise the law written upon our hearts,—if we peruse the volumes of the ancient philosophers, or those of the Brahmins and Chinese,—if we make a strict inquiry into all their rules and lessons of morality,—we have a compendium of all in the sacred writ. For abstruseness of notions, the first of Genesis outvies the Egyptian philosophy; and for elegancy of style, the prophecy of Isaiah and the Epistle to the Hebrews far exceed the eloquent orations of Cicero and Demosthenes. In short, there is nothing here, either promised or threatened, commanded or forbidden, but what is godlike, and worthy its divine original. Our deists have nothing to object but a little buffoonery, and it would be a pity to deny them the happiness they take in that, or any other short-lived pleasure necessarily arising from their principles.”

After a brief but pithy and powerful defence of revealed religion, he recommends to the biblical student a list of both English and Latin books that will greatly assist him in his studies, including the works of Poole, Hammond, Grotius, Eusebius, Hooker, Burnet, Stillingfleet, Lightfoot, Sherlock, Usher, Barrow, Du Pin, Hales, Jeremy Taylor, &c.

His next article is upon history, of which he writes:—

“History gives the best prospect into human affairs, and makes us familiar with the remotest regions. By this, we may ascertain what practices have established kingdoms, and what has contributed to the weakness and overthrow of bodies politic. We may see all Asia, Africa, and America in England. We may encompass the world with Drake, and make new discoveries with Columbus; we may visit the Grand Signior in the Seraglio, converse with Seneca, and consult with Cæsar. In a word, whatever humanity has done that is noble, great, and surprising, either by action or suffering, may by us be done over again in theory, and, if we have souls capable of transcribing the bravest copies, we may meet instances worth our emulation.”

After the essays upon divinity and history there are others upon philosophy, law, physic, surgery, mathematics, and arithmetic, all of them brief, but very able; and, in connexion with each, a list of books which Samuel Wesley recommends to be read and studied. In these lists, Wesley displays his taste for the best literature then published, and also the immense extent of his own reading and research.

In his essay on Poetry, he says, “Poetry was the first philosophy the world was blest with, and had that influence on the minds of men, then fallen from their primitive reason into the wildest barbarity, that it soon brought them to civility, and to know the dictates of reason from those of fancy.”

He then advises “candidates for the laurel” to “consider the difficulty of being a good poet.” “Mediocrity is intolerable in poetry, however excusable in other affairs.” “A young poet should never be ambitious of writing much, for a little gold is worth a great heap of lead.” “To be a perfect poet, a man must be a general scholar, skilled both in the tongues and sciences, and must be perfect in history and moral philosophy.”

Such was Samuel Wesley’s estimate of the qualifications of a perfect poet. Perhaps it would have been better if he himself had observed some of his own rules more strictly than what he did. Dunton says: “Mr Wesley had an early inclination to poetry, but he usually wrote too fast to write well. Two hundred couplets a day are too many by two-thirds to be well furnished with all the beauties and graces of that art.”^[73]

In Mr Wesley’s article on “Dialling,” there is the following beautiful sentence: “Time is the greatest treasure in this world that a mortal can be intrusted with. We are not only probationers for eternity by the help of time, but even the little interests of this world are managed by the means of it. To divide time by dials, clocks, and watches, is a faint imitation of God Almighty, who has divided the year into spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and even our life into days and nights.”

Of Geometry he writes: “All our most necessary as well as most noble arts and sciences depend on it. None of the mechanical arts can ever be brought to perfection without it; and if painters were ignorant of proportion, angles, circles, and squares, all their works would want beauty, and themselves would want satisfaction. A joiner cannot so much as cut a round table unless he understands a circle; nor a carpenter square a piece of timber unless he know, by the rule of square figures, when his work is finished. The watch and clock makers would be at a loss, if it were not for this science; and no builder could regularly design a fabric without a knowledge of geometrical problems. Navigation and gunnery can never be understood without geometry; and to these I may add, fortification, dialling, music, astronomy, and surveying. It would be needless to say any more of the advantages of geometry, here being enough to fire the mind of any ingenious student to a diligent inquiry into it.”

Writing on Optics, he says: “’Tis pleasant to undeceive the eye in the common accidents of life, and to see it approach, in some measure, towards that certainty of judging and apprehending visibles that it will attain to at the day of resurrection, when it will be above the power of being cheated by concave or convex, or deluded by a refraction or reflection. This may, in a great measure, be accomplished in this world by such as give themselves up to the study of optics.”

There are other articles on painting, astronomy, and navigation, and glances at geography, music, architecture, grammar, and rhetoric. The general “Essay on all Sorts of Learning” concludes thus: “Whoever makes a trial of the worth of learning will find that all encomiums come far short of the thing itself; and that those only can best reflect upon its value who are sensible of the enjoyment of it.”

Such, then, is a general outline of the contents of “The Young Student’s Library,” published in 1692; but no one can form an adequate idea of the work without seeing it. None but immense readers and careful writers like Samuel Wesley and his Athenian friends could have put such a book together.

It was the intention of the Athenian Society to have followed up the publication of the “Young Student’s Library” with another work—“A New System of Experimental Philosophy upon the Four Elements”—and embracing a description of strange appearances, noises, strange winds, subterranean steams, waters, their properties and inhabitants, earths of all sorts, plants and trees, husbandry, animals, insects, birds, reptiles, fishes, extraordinary buildings and extraordinary persons, antiquities, &c.;^[74] but I am not aware that this was ever issued.

Contemporaneously with the publication of the “Young Student’s Library,” Mr Wesley was employed upon another work, which has never yet been noticed by any Wesleyan biographer. In vol. vi. of the Athenian Gazette, it is announced that the Athenian Society have bought the right to a “Monthly Journal of Books,” and that this journal will now be carried on by a “London Divine,” under the title of “The Complete Library; or, News for the Ingenious;” and that it will be issued monthly, beginning with the month of May 1692.

The work was published accordingly. We have seen and examined three of the volumes, containing between four and five hundred pages each, and extending from May 1692 to March 1694. The numbers are divided into three sections: 1. Original pieces; 2. An account of the choicest books printed in England and on the Continent of Europe; 3. Notes on current events.

The first article is entitled, “A Discourse concerning the Integrity and Purity of the Hebrew Bible; by the Author of a Discourse concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Points, Vowels, and Accents,”—thus plainly intimating that the “London Divine,” who had the management of the work, was none other than Samuel Wesley. Besides, no one acquainted with Mr Wesley’s mode of thinking and style of writing, can have any hesitation in pronouncing him the author.

He maintains that all religion stands or falls as we can defend and prove the integrity of the Hebrew copy of the Bible; and his principal object is to refute the opinions of Capellus, the leader of all those who say the Hebrew Bible has been corrupted. The article is learned and able, and fills twenty-four small quarto pages.

In succeeding numbers there are kindred articles, evidently by the same practised pen. One is on “Scripture Chronology;” another is, “A Critical Inquiry into the Number, Names, Division, and Order of the Books of the Old Testament;” another is, “The Ancient Manner of Reading, Writing, and Preserving the Law of Moses, as an evidence of the unparalleled care taken in former times to preserve the Bible in its purity and perfection;” another is, “A Scriptural Account of the Nature, Original, and Divine Authority of the Bible, as it is Canonical, in opposition to the Apocrypha, and all other books of human composition or oral tradition;” and another is, “On the Evidences of the Divine Original of the Scriptures; on the Ways and Means of understanding the Scriptures; and on the Necessity and Excellency of their use and Study.”

The three volumes contain reviews of nearly two hundred books and other publications; the first of which is a review of “The Life of the Rev. Thomas Brand; and his Funeral Sermon, by Dr Annesley.” It is scarce likely that the whole of these reviews were written by Mr Wesley; but it is more than probable that he was the reviewer of this work of his wife’s father. He thinks that “Dissenters and Churchmen will soon be better friends; and though they may not be able to unite so perfectly as to come under one form of discipline, yet they may give one another the right hand of fellowship, and be without any other heat than that of holy emulation, which shall excel in practical godliness, and in the lively exercises of those graces that shall be most beneficial to mankind, and of most edification to the Church of Christ.”

The frontispiece of each monthly number is curious: in one corner, is a clergyman in gown and bands and a broad-brimmed hat; in another, a scholar writing at a desk; and between the two, a hive of bees, surrounded by plants and flowers; while above and below are three mottoes, viz., “Sic nos non nobis mellificamus apes;” “Omnia in libris;” and,

It is only fair to add, that on the title-page of vol. ii., the “Complete Library” is said to be “by R. W.,” Master of Arts, but there can be little doubt that the “R” is a misprint.

During Mr Wesley’s retired residence at South Ormsby, he was engaged in other literary undertakings. In 1693, the year after the publication of the “Young Student’s Library,” he printed a new work, entitled, “The Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: An Heroic Poem. Dedicated to her most sacred Majesty; in Ten Books. Attempted by Samuel Wesley, Rector of South Ormsby, in the county of Lincoln. Each book illustrated by necessary notes, explaining all the more difficult matters in the whole history. Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning Heroic Poetry; with sixty copperplates. London: Printed for Charles Harper, at the Flower-de-Luce, over against St Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet Street; and Benjamin Motte, in Aldersgate Street. 1693.”

The volume is folio in size, contains 349 pages, and is divided into ten books, consisting of nearly 9000 lines. The preface, which fills fourteen closely-printed pages, is an elaborate production, and well written. At the close of it, Wesley says he knows the faults of his book, and would have mended much that is amiss if he had lived in an age when a man might afford to spend nine or ten years about a poem.

Prefixed to the work are a number of commendatory verses by Nahum Tate, poet-laureate, and by others. Tate praises the book and its author to the utmost stretch of poetical eulogium. He regards Samuel Wesley as one who has completed the task which Milton left unfinished; and represents him as a great bard emerging from solitude, fired with rapture, and charmingly unfolding the great themes of angelic hymns, and weaving wit and piety together. His spotless muse brings fresh laurels from Parnassus, and plants them on Mount Zion.

L. Milbourne and Peter Anthony Motteaux are equally lavish of their praises; and both of these writers were men of mark. It is true that Pope gives Milbourne a niche in his “Dunciad;” but Dunton, who knew him well, observes concerning him, “Most other perfections are so far from matching his, that they deserve not to be mentioned; his translations are fine and true; his preaching sublime and rational; and he is a first-rate poet.” Motteaux was a native of France, and was driven to England by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. At first, he kept a large East India warehouse in Leadenhall Street. He was master of several languages, and, during his residence in England, he acquired so perfect a knowledge of the English tongue, that he became a very eminent dramatic writer in a language to which he was not a native. On his birthday, in 1717, he was found dead in a disorderly house in London, not without suspicion of having been murdered.

In opposition to such eulogists, it is only fair to state, that Dunton describes Wesley’s “Life of Christ” as “intolerably dull;” and it has been asserted, that Alexander Pope had so mean an opinion of its merits, that, in one of the early editions of his “Dunciad,” he honoured Wesley with a place in the Temple of Dulness.^[75] The work was also fiercely assailed by Samuel Palmer, (to be noticed hereafter,) to whom Wesley replied,^[76] “I know my poem is very faulty; but whether it be in itself so absolutely contemptible as Mr Palmer represents it, I desire may be left to more impartial judges. If he will be so kind as to let me know the particular faults of that poem, I shall own myself highly obliged to him, and will take care to correct them. I am sensible there are too many incorrect lines in it, which had better been left out; but I remember, too, some lines struck out which, perhaps, had been as well left in. I care not if I oblige him with two or three of them, which were in the original but were not printed, and leave him to guess the reason—

Badcock, in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1784, tells us that Wesley’s “heroic poem, the ‘Life of Christ,’ excited the ridicule of the wits.” John Wesley, in his reply to this, in the same periodical for 1785, p. 246, simply states, that his father’s own account of it was, “The cuts are good; the notes pretty good; the verses so-so.” Samuel Wesley, jun., ardently loved his father, and admired his genius, but speaks of his “Life of Christ” in the following measured terms:—

John Wesley, who, though he seldom wrote poetry, had as fine poetic taste as any member of his family, observes: “In my father’s poem on the ‘Life of Christ’ there are many excellent lines, but they must be taken in connexion with the rest. It would not be at all proper to print them separate.”^[77]

Dr Adam Clarke, in reference to the same production, writes: “When a poet, no matter of what abilities, takes for the subject of his verse the sayings or acts of the Almighty, as recorded in the Bible, he must of necessity fail, speak untruths, and sink below himself. Who can add to the dignity, importance, or majesty of the words of God by any poetical clothing? The attempt to do it is almost impious; and, in the execution, how many words are attributed to God which He never spake, and acts which He never did! The life of our Lord was never found, and never will be found, but in the four evangelists.”^[78]

Dr Coke, who published a “corrected and abridged” edition of Samuel Wesley’s “Life of Christ” more than a hundred years after the first edition was issued, says in his preface:—“I found the poet had carefully collected the richest materials, with a sedulity that surpassed my expectation, and had arranged them with a degree of art that nothing but the hand of a master could have reached. In surveying the character of Christ as here delineated, no remarkable incident in His life, from the cradle to His cross, has been omitted; nay, if we even take a wider range, every event of moment is noted, from the espousals of His mother to His resurrection from the dead, and His final ascension to glory. Indeed, the life of Christ, being closely connected with both time and eternity, presented to the poet an occasion to draw aside the curtain which divides the visible from the invisible world. Both heaven and hell are permitted to burst upon us; the former to ravish us with its glories, and the latter to alarm us with its terrors. Hence angels and devils pass in review before our eyes; relate what is past, discover their condition, perform their respective actions, and retire.”

Wesley’s poem is far from perfect. In many places it flashes with the highest kind of genius, and throughout it breathes with piety. The reader will find hundreds of lines full of poetic beauty; but then he will find others that are extremely tame, and literally limp for want of poetic feet. There can be no doubt that Samuel Wesley wrote too much for his writings to be faultless. “He wrote very much for me,” says Dunton, “both in verse and prose.” How much he wrote no one living has the means of knowing. Dunton says, “he wrote two hundred couplets a day.” He might do that when composing pieces for the Athenian Gazette, but it is incredible to think that this was done when he was composing “The Life of Christ;” for, in that case, the whole of that large folio poem would have been begun and finished in about three weeks.

The “Life of Christ” was first published in 1693. With all its faults, the edition was soon sold; and in 1697 the author issued a “revised and improved” edition, with “a large map of the Holy Land, and a table of the principal contents.”

The plates used in this second edition are said to have been engraved “by the celebrated hand of William Fairthorn;” but if so, they must have been engraved long before the first edition was published, inasmuch as Fairthorn died as early as 1691. Fairthorn was an ingenious artist; but lived a chequered life. As a royalist, he was taken prisoner at the breaking out of the civil wars, and for a length of time was confined in Aldersgate. His place of business was near Temple Bar, where he sold not only his own engravings, but those of other English artists, and imported a considerable number of prints from Holland, France, and Italy. About 1680 he left his shop, and went to reside in Printing House Yard, where he continued to work for booksellers, until a lingering consumption put an end to his life in 1691. Such was Samuel Wesley’s engraver.

From the preface of the book, we learn that the poem was begun in Anglesea and the Isle of Man, and afterwards “completed in several parts of England.” Wesley says the subject was first proposed to him by certain of his friends, and that he greedily embraced it; though, at the time, he knew nothing of the rules propounded by the masters of epic poetry. In reference to his object in publishing the book, he writes, “I desire to recommend the whole of the Christian religion; all the articles of faith; all that system of theology and morality contained in the gospel of the blessed Jesus; and to vindicate His mission, His satisfaction, and His divinity, against all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics.”

Perhaps enough has been said respecting this folio “Life of Christ.” Let the curious reader, when he has the chance, purchase it for himself. The sentiments and the spirit of the book cannot fail to be of service to every one who gives it a fair perusal; whilst many of its lines will be found to be ponderous with thought, and full of genius. As a proof of this, we conclude the chapter with four quotations. The first is Wesley’s description of the glorious scene witnessed on Mount Tabor, and is, in fact, the first piece of the poem:—

The following lines on the Deity are what no one but a philosopher and a poet could have written:—

The next extract refers to the personality and divinity of our Saviour:—

The following is part of Wesley’s description of the last judgment:—

With all due deference to eccentric John Dunton, we submit that such lines are far from being “intolerably dull.” They were too hastily written to have the polished rotundity of poets like Young and Pope; but, notwithstanding this, they are full of poetic fire. The reader, who is in search of poetic thoughts rather than poetic sounds, will find himself amply recompensed by a careful reading of Wesley’s “Life of Christ.” We can hardly praise the poem so highly as it is praised by Nahum Tate; but, at the same, we maintain that, for learning, energy of thought, vivid imagination, picturesque phrases, and forceful language in general, it is immeasurably superior to scores of other poems, which, by accident, have been vastly more popular than it has been. Men brand Samuel Wesley’s poetry without reading it. This is, in the highest degree, unfair. In the name of a great and much injured man, we protest against it; and respectfully request that, for the sake of his memory, and their own benefit, they would give his poems a careful and candid perusal.

In the second volume of the Athenian Oracle, p. 37, the question is asked, What books of poetry would you advise one that is young to read? In the answer, after recommending David’s Psalms, and the poems of Cowley, Herbert, Chaucer, Milton, Spenser, Tasso, Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Dr Donne, and Dryden, it is quietly but significantly added, “and, if you have patience, Wesley’s Life of Christ.” Reader, the advice is worth taking, though it was probably given by Wesley himself.