She condemns the views of her orthodox contemporaries as regards the position of man in Creation and here also she agrees with Montaigne : Yet man does think himselfe so gentle, mild, When he of creatures is most cruell wild. And is so proud, thinks only he shall live, That God a God-like Nature did him give, And that all Creatures for his sake alone, Was made for him, to tyrannise upon. The Hunting of the Stag has the same tendency. It opens with a cliarming description of a beautiful stag and 01 natural scenery: In Summers Heat he in coole Brakes him laies, Wnich grew so high, kept of the Suns hot Raies. In Evenings coole, or dewy Monühgs new, Would he rise up, and all his Forest view. Then follows the discordant note of the hunt in which the sympathies of the poetess are throughout on the side 01 the stag. The closing hnes cul£*te thread i*2*1 sPun> so downe did fall, Shedding some Teares at his owne Funerall. may also have been suggested by Montaigne's quotation from Virgil. ^ We look in vain for consistency when we compare her protests agamst cruelty with the thoughts she expresses m Dialogue betwixt Peace and War. War is here a matter of course which "Courage stül seeks" and "Cowards only The circumstances of the lives of the poor interest Of PaveH^' thatched cottage begins to play its part in I live in a low Thatch'd House, Roomes small, my Cell Not big enough for Prides great Heart to dweil. Eght years after Milton contrasted the joyful and the penave mood this lady published Mirth and Melancholy, m which she compares them in one poem.1) Each, in melnchïv^'ifinaTf^rinB • refereiïe «S beautiful lines against melancholy^ a) in The Connotsseur, May 22, 1755 ; Euterpe said they "were a) Third quotation on the next page and a few lines before and after. trving to gain favour of the poetess, critiases the nval mood. TrA manner of treating the subject bears some resemblance to Milton's critidsing the opposite mood in the opening lines of his poems. Mirth promises to keep the heart of the poetess and guard it from that thicf Dull Melancholy, Care and sadder Grief. Melancholy will affect her appearance, she wffl become pale, lean and hollow-cheeked, her eyes will be buried within her head; she will start at any noise and wul see strange visions : Thus would it be, if you to her were wed Nay better far it were that you were dead. The qualities of Melancholy which the authoress, through Mirth, derides are the hollow sound of the low voice, her fondness of darkness, bhnking lamps and tapers and shadows on the wall, her love of discord and croaking frogs, The raven's hoarse, the mandrake's hollow groan, And shrieking owls, which fly i'th'night alone, The tolling bell, which for the dead ruigs out; A mill, whose rushing waters run about; The roaring winds, which shake the cedars tall, Ploueh up the seas, and beat the rocks withaU. She loves to walk in the still moonslune night, And in a thick dark grove she takes delight. In hollow caves, thatch'd houses, and low cells, She loves to live, and there alone she dwells. This sounds like a recognised inventory of romantic melancholy imagery, and the three most smking new items are the thatched houses, the watermul and the wdd aspects of the ocean in a storm. However, the poetess wants us to beheve that Mirth had mentioned only the external appearance of mdancWy. What follows justifies the lasting hold of melancholy on the serious-minded, and the cultivation of the mood for its own sake: Melancholy." However, her poems were published after Müton s. Then Melancholy, with sad and sober face Complexion pale, but of a comely grace With modest countenance thus sofdy spake: May I so happy be your love to take? True, l am dull, yet by me you shall know More of yourself, and so much wiser grow; I search the depth and bottom of mankind, Open the eyes of ignorance that's blind and wisdom and knowledge will lead to the victory over vain fears." To Mirth she objects : she is good for nothing and causes madness : Her mouth doth gape, teeth bare like one that's dead. The description of the house of Mirth reminds the reader of the Castle of Indolence. Melancholy confesses her love of nature and particular attention must here be drawn to the fact that the list of evidently conventional objects and sounds entering into melancholy scenery is given by Mirth, or the critical authoress, and that true, heartfelt or emotional love of nature is defended by Melancholy, expressing the preddection of the poetess in her contemplative mood. The conventional grove is "thick and dark" and evidendv assoaated with unproductive, brooding gloom, but the groves visited by contemplative melancholy, in search of wisdom and self-knowledge, are "gilt with the Sun." I dweil in groves that gilt are with the Sun öit on the banks by which clear waters run : In summers hot down in a shade I lie: My musick is the buszing of a fly: I walk in meadows, where grows fresh green grass, In fields, where corn is high, I often pass: Walk up the hüls, where round I prospects see.... She continues this description of natural scenery with its sunple sheep and cows. The poetess identifies the humble abode with a life of purity: In winter cold, when nipping frosts come on i f?1 ? 1 "ve m a small house alone ; Although tis plain, yet cleanly 'tis withui, i-ixe to a soul that's pure and clear from sin. Here she hves a solitary life in peace and quiet, tree from nches and from cares. And though at first she may are the subdmsions of his contribution to the poetry of Sohtude and Melancholy. What happiness life has to offer is to be found in phüosophy : from the heights of phüosophy tiie wise man looks down on mankind. Their industry m the search of their own Misery" is useless, because they shrmk from facing "the rubs of life;" the wise man has banished hope and despair from his breast and awaits death as a natural event that can bring no terror for in a slow, and rcgular Decay, Death steals, unfelt, upon his setting Day. The sohtude and cottage themes are suggested by repentance ("My future actions shou'd my past Redeem") and aversion to "This Riot of a Life ! this Pomp of Woe £ Nature will supply food to the soul. The combination of the Cottage and Nature themes follow here : An humble Cottage fenc'd with Osiers round : Where silver streams in Flow'ry Valleys glide And Rows of Wülows deck the Rivers side. John Dryden's love of melancholy poetry and wild natural scenery appears further from what he selected tor pubhcation m Tonson's Misceüany, e.g. On Sohtude. The above shows that John and Charles Dryden opposed the yogue to represent Death as the King of Tenors; the interest of father or son in some gruesome features of the hterature of melancholy appears from two passages deahng with suïcide. Burton, in the Anatomy of Melancholy had devoted several pages to self-destruction and discussed various aspects of this gloomy subject: one quotation may have tickled Dryden's fancy. It is to be tound I. 497 : Many lamentable examples are daily seen amongst us : alius ante (amicae) fores laqueo pependit, (as Seneca notes)" etc. On this tempting text Dryden preached a gruesome sermon with the moral, frequendy heard from his frivolous contemporaries : "Be wise and » i/"^ tet^X" The tide » The Despairing Lover. By Mn Dryden. The details which concern us here are the requests of the lover, about to hang himself before his nustress s door, that she may spread her mande "o'er his gnsly Face, on his "hvid lips bestow a kiss," that she may provide "a homely grave" for his corpse, which may "hide him from pubhek Scorn," and that she might thrice "hail him to eternal rest. " That a suicide might enjoy "eternal rest/' was contrary to the accepted teachings of the church, but this and the "homely grave," instead of the disgraceful circums tances at such a burial, may show Dryden's broad-mindedness, if we may take him seriously. The poet seems to delight in the details of his description : the beam from which the man hangs himself, the sliding knot, his quivering feet, are mentioned along with more particulars of this nature. Dryden is hard on the lady, who is killed by the falhng image of the god of love, and sparing enough in his treatment of the selfmurderer. Classical influence seems to have determined the attitude of both father and son in the matter. Despair was to find poetical utterance once more before the close of the century in To Pollio. The Complaint. This poem was published in Miscellaneous Letters and Essays on Several Subjects, Philosophical, Moral, Historical, Critical, Amorous etc. in Prose and Verse.... By several Gentlemen and Ladies. London 1694. The copy in the Brit. Mus. has the name C. Gildon marked in pencil on the tide page. This may account for the presence of a poem with the moral tendency of The Complaint in his collection. Charity, the poor Cottage, Night, Sleeplessness, Despair and Suicide are all combined in this poem. His argument in favour of suicide is classical. The death of this potential suicide is expected to conduct to happiness : 'Tis now dead Night, and hush'd is ev'rything.... No Wretch but me so much unblest As not to be at rest. Of Hope forsaken, and by Fate opprest i Despair with all its wild Anxieties, Drives Quiet from my Mind.... Why do I live? Why hug my boundless woe, When friendly Death sets wide the Gate, That leads to a more happy State? For not at all to be Is better than the ills of Life to know. The lack of charity among mankind is made one of the grounds of complaint and the desire for death: Scarce one good Samaritan is found, That with one sordid Ragg will part, To cloath the shudd'ring Wretch or bind his gaping Wound. His present pain may be cured by death, its sure remedy. The ills of life are the summoners of Fate. Terror pursues hun in his sleep. Life to him is a glooray dream. Dayhght brings false hopes. He is the tempest-tost bark on the ocean of life ; only death can bring calm : Ten thousand Waves, each big with certain Fate, On one poor Bark with Fury beat; My Sails are tiseless, and my Rudder lost, Bij clashing Surges to and fro Fm tost. Within no Help; no Succour from without, Despair and Ruin hem me round about. He pictures Despair as beyond the reach of one ray of hope : Despair in tatter'd sable weeds array'd Lurks with a ghasdy Troop within the baneful Shade. The whole ends in an address to Pollio for patronage. But that stanza was added as an afterthought. This at least seems to be the meaning of the note in prose. The support asked for was not given. The poem consists of five stansas. I have quoted it somewhat fully to show that the depth of despair and suictdal thoughts form an mtrinsic part of the hterature of Melancholy. Charles Blount's suicide, in 1693, is another sinister landmark m the history of the hterature of gloom. Its defence and moral justification bij Charles Gildon, in 1695, and there newed condemnation of suicide by a writer a few years later show that the subject continued to have pubhc attention. The Miscellaneous Works of Charles Blount, Esq. were pnnted m the year 1695. In An Account of the Life and Death of the Authort Charles Güdon, his friend, under the penname of Lindamour, addressing "the Sovereign of my Heart, Hemuone," makes the startling assertion that the soul of the suicide is in Heaven and adds: "we can pursue it with Contemplative Wishes, till we come to a nearer enjoyment there." Blount's notions of the Deity made him suppose that his action was compatible with moral law. It may therefore be of importance to know what attributes Blount, according to Gildon, ascribed to "the first Cause of All Things.'' Blount held that God was "Goodness itself' and that man has a true and perfect knowledge of what is meant by goodness, justice, mercy, unity, etc, because otherwise he could never know that God had these quahties. His continued contemplation of God "had fixt so lively an Idea of God in his Soul, that he had no terror to launch out into the Ocean of Eternity." Death was to him the kind pilot that would conduct him "to his Eternal Repose." In his vindication of "the most questionable action" of Blount's life Gildon maintains that, what was considered to be the first law of Nature, i.e. self-preservation, cannot always be adhered to, because this would lead to the destruction of all the other moral laws, for the public good is to be preferred to any particular. He bases his defence on classical opinion mamtaining that life may be discarded when it ceases to be a good. The popular contention that the sentinel should not leave his post before he is released, does not hold good in the case of suicide ; emigration proves that the selfmurderer does not endanger the whole, etc. It is difficult to say, how far his threat to take his own life, "when Life appears to me an Evil" is to be taken seriously. It sounds rather like taking an undue advantage of the sensitiveness of a woman, Hermione.x) Blount's tract Anima Mundi bears the original date of pubhcation, 1673. It gives "an Historica! Narration of the i) Neither Güdon nor Blount enjoyed Pope's fnendshtp (Eputie to Dr ArLhmt^l51;noWtO 1423, Epilogue to the Satires), though Pope vmtes «If Blount despjtch'd himself, he play'd the man.". As regards the cause of his death see D.N.B. To cwitradict Pope's sarcasüc remark as to Blount s having^been "rejerted" I quote Güdon op. cit. "He had the satisfaction to see hir embalm him withV Tears, who was debarr'd by unaccountable custom from making him happy in her embraces. ahatidoned Charles Güdon, after seven years' close apphcation to study, abandoned Catholicism. He 'evidently sympathised with B ounfs d«süc: vxews; in the Account quoted, and defended orthodoxy in Dasfs Manual, 1705. (C.D.NM.) with negro slaves; his notions of women demanded that no girl, maid or woman should carry "Burthens, do any Field Labour.... nor do any dirty Work/' because the preservation of mankind principaUy depended on good education, and the "noble Charities of Beauty, Innocence and Tenderness" might be suliied, if they were "imployed about unclean Things £ naturally, he thought, they "were as capable of all excellent learning as Men," These are only some of the views of this remarkable man who, regarding his mystic belief, forms an interesting link between the Behmenists1) and the early Quakers j his influence cannot have been negligible, as his works seem to have been widely read by sectaries of various schools of thought both in England and America. i) Jacob Boehme's works had been put into English between the years 1644 and 1692. C.H.L. toL K, William Law and the Mysttcs. III. Summary. For the sake of convenience we might call a halt here and summame the hterature we have considered. Thouch die authors have been few, we have obtained someidea of the prmapal tendenaes of melancholy prose and poetrv m the seventeenth century. Beginning with Burton we tound melancholy the favourable atmosphere for the SJ^K"1 u gtTy 38 weU 38 charitable and Utopian thoughts i the whole range of the sentiment from innocent dehght in nature to black despair yields subjects for later prose and poetry. Burton is a broadminded churchman who can appreoate the high moral qualities of the deists Interest in Pythagorean doctrines is combined with love of depictmg die gloom of the grave and a defence of suicide m the work of John Donne. In Francis Quarles we meet the t^fTJT?1 Wh°Se melancholy * fed by the customary thoughts of the grave and the Gk>d of Wrath ; he is not without mterest in extreme cases of despair. Sohtude for the sake of mystic contemplation as well as sohtude (though a lover s), and despair founded on the aimlessness 2u£^ u°e ^ aLlon8mg for ^ath ascribed to Platonic phüosophy, mark Drummond's poetry and prose. Müton's mekmcholy, which by preference £ called «romanti?," is of the contemplative kind and cultivated for its high moral virtues; there are no more indications of broad hurnan sympathy m it than in the work of the majority ofhis predecessors. He must have known the depth of ïnrtT^ln^6 £gUments. to conquer it (P. L. bk 10, m^iuu—1028). The emotionahsm of the popular funeral SSkuïv , ,I Quarl6S'S ele*ies ^ 8°^S particularly tearful or gloomy, but lacks true pathos while the gloom of death reaches the summit of fr^htfuhiess about the middle of the seventeenth century-ui Jordan s Poem. The thought of death is not less dreadful,but the Soom is reheved by the beauty of fte dead m a contemporary translation of Petrarch's The Trmmph of S The exaggerated language of grief and "piercing woe'' is now beiinning to be heard at partings from the 'living. The spiritual suffering increases and >^pish Snes the theme of Vaughan's poetry jf&J***™ of the charnel-house continue unabated. Twüight puts an end to the poet's gloom. Retirement is sought, because n^is die abode^f ümocence and the place for meditiition on God's wisdom revealed in nature. Margaret Cavenchsh s noetry forms a landmark in the history of romanticism ; Cavalier lady points out the^ (romantic) im^ry, beloved of melancholy, among which thatchd houses suggest the later interest of poetry in the liveslof the poor. Death is not wrapt in gloom but comes as the hberator. Seal influence, probably through Mont^gn^ppears from her interest in animals and her condemnaüon of the chase. Against the theory that Chance evidendy rules the u^erseSerine Philips def ends God's absolute goodnesj ^her sohtude gloom is absent and the cottage ideahzecL Towards the end of the seventeenth century there* a strong revival of the interest in dark despair as a sub eet for7~se and poetry ; the deistic defence of God's absolute eoodness as well as Dryden's translation of Lucretius fe^ded to rtmove the fear of death and held out the hope oT'eternal rest" and "a more happy state.' The consequei* cases of*micide caüed forth a spirited reply whiclaccuses the deists of practising what they preached. That MonS should be popular among them was natural ïd?R, L «dJXf their remarks -ncermnMhe relations between men and anunals are due.1) buch is Se Kry connection between some aspects of «elancholy in the seventeenth century and the progress, shght as it may be, of humanitarian thought. d5o?.j& S i*A 1697> refo"°,ng 5Chera- 1. MELANCHOLY. In poetry and essay devoted to this subject we mav fcasonably expect to find traces of some or of all the manifestations of melancholy observed by Burton. On the other hand hterary products dealing with any of the subdivwons may be expected to show their dependence on the whole. The shortness of a first cïlapter on Melancholy does not, therefore, by any means prove scarcity of ramifications of melancholy hterature, as the tollowmg chapters will show. After Milton Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcasde had given her somewhat more definitely outlined programmé of melancholy requisites in 1653. To the exhaustive medical treatment prescribed by Burton, as well as to his suggesüon that music might do good, Henry Playford had replied with an edition of songs and poems1) Wit and Mirt.h * or, Pills to Purge Melancholy, in 1699, to which Addison drew attention in 1713 (Guardian 67). The title ot An Antidfite against Melancholy, made up in PtUs was first used m 1661.*) The eighteenth century was even more interested in the subject than the seventeenth, though some pretended that they had forgotten Burton when fashion invented a new name for an old complaint. (See under Spleen). Melancholy kept its status and elevated moral qualitv when Steek declared, in 1709, (Tader 89), "that calm and elegant satisfaction which the vulgar call melancholy is the true and proper delight of men of knowledge and virtue " and connected it with love of nature and the "delight of reason and understanding." And Addison emphasised its aesthetic quahty when he declared, in 17 2, (Speet. 418) that he derived greater pleasure trom beauty softened with an air of melancholy.", But quite different were the views Addison held On Rüigious Melancholy, 1712 (Speet. 494), which he condemned in anï Herïy^Xd1?'^6^ ^ ^ this, see Bibliography under DTJrfey anfeaoZ Sd%S°JSSSi ?L t&ittè^üt^ "* ^ the severest terms quoting Cicero's words Aegritudinem laudare, unum rem maxime detestabüem, quorum est tandem prulosophorum," adding his own rendenng: "What kind of phüosophy is it to extol melancholy, the most detestable thing in nature." However, m Burton s view, Addison would not have been free from symptoms of this "detestable thing" himself, witness his reflecting on the day of wrath. (See pages 110 and 112.) Reprints, e.g. in 1716, of Milton's II Penseroso and Lycidas, published by Dryden, showed that descnptions of the müder forms of melancholy continued to fmd readers. A new and tearful form of rehgious melancholy fonnd expression in Christopher Pitt's poem Christ s Pottgn, from a Greek Ode of Mr. Masters, formerly of New College. An Ode1'. (See page 292.) In 1732, The Remains of the Late.... Dr. William King, Some Time Advocate of Doctors Commons was published. We have to thank the writer of some account of the author and his writings" for a few striking traite of the character of one with so great a love ot lazy retirement" and so much interested in the fate of a simple cow, the migration of the cuckoo, birds' nests, fishermen, and last not least, King Arthur : "He was of a timorous disposition, and the least shght or neglect of him would throw him into a melancholy state of despondency. He was made up of tenderness, pity and compassion, and ot so feminine a disposition that tears would faU from his Eyes upon the smallest Occasion." That the Deists did not hold the monopoly of some of the aboye-mentioned characteristics may appear from his Last W ill , in which he wrote that he "hoped to be saved by the Ments of Tesus Christ". k . , ■ „ After Burton probably the most mfluential contributions to poetical melancholy were made by James Jhomson. He reasserted certain altruistic prinaples which had been overlooked by Margaret Cavendish. The fit of melancholy he describes in Autumnt 1730, is dueto the changed aspect of Nature; the desolation has thrüled his soul (1.1003), and now He comes l he comes! in every breeze the Power Of Philosophic Melancholy comes 1 Mallet wants nature to reflect his gloomy mood; scènes ot bhss would now torture his thought: All nature is in agony with mc I Rough, rugged rocks, wet marshes, ruin'd towers, Bare trees, etc Night prepares "lone, hollow gloom" for him and is hailed as^ the sohtary ruler of the grave! Parent of tenors!" Horror is welcome, and therefore "a sudden howl" is heard : JJe; phantoms of the dreadful hour are near Shadows from each dark cavern, now combine, And stalk around, and mix their yells with mine. The concluding lines are vaguely reminiscent of Milton. Melancholy; An Ode," anon, p.1729, though it opens m the manner of II P. describes the terror of death and wul be discussed in that chapter. This poem is also noteworthy because it corrfirms Steele's moral appreciation ot the mood. Here, however, melancholy is identified wrth retirement, woe, and virtue: Happiness is an empty name, the famous people are not virtuous; x) Come then, O Friend of virtuous Woe! With solemn Pace, demure and slow; Lo, sad and serious I pursue Thy steps. — Adieu, vain World, Adieu. If we remember Burton's laudation of contentment as a Cure of Melancholy'' such a poem as A Hymn to Contentment, 1722, by Parnell in the style of L'Allegro must have hit the taste of the pubhc. But the opposite view is held by the anonymous poet ot An Essay, in Praise of Gold, written at Sea. p.1729. Here gold is the means to give a man consolation "and far away from hun all Melancholy bear," "when Loads 01 Thought his Soul depress." (JÜa?*8 ,TS°n,S„P?em The Pleas»™ of Melancholy (w.l/45, p.1747), wijl be mentioned under Melancholv Love-Poetry and the sentimental influence of the stage. The Progress of Discontent. A Poem written at Oxford in the year 1746, p.1758, is mentioned here in connection with the history of Melancholy, because it points to a social phenomenon : A chüd is the ambition of its parent, a vicar, but this ambition is disappointed. The poet describes the humble career of the man, who marnes the daughter of a squire, gets into debt, etc. Wher!?Joseph Wa2on wrote his lines To the Nightingale theywereaddressedtome"favouritebkdofcon^templation. Mrs Leapor, the cookmaid, who studied the works of Dryden^nd Pope, published her aUegoncal poem The Fields of Melancholy and Cheerfulness m 1748. Mirth and Melancholy by Margaret Cayendish was renrinted in 1755; so was Mrs. Kath. Phihps's poem ZTt Z delusiveness of ^^._^o"£ of an Ode. On Melancholy. To a Friend. p.1758, has been advised to give up melancholy, but he wante to muse upon his woe". "Fancy" has become the Fnend of Woe"; "Anguish and Despair, the dank abbey, ivy, chains, mouldering stones" are witnesses and illustrators of "Woe". ^ .u Notwithstanding his sympathy with pensivc Gray, Whosc lofty Genius bears along, The conscious dignity of song his poetry breathes a different spirit. Two poems will now be mentioned here, ostensibly dealine with deep-seated melancholy, which assumes the forTofTspair?though not of the suicidal type. First Mrs, Elisabeth Rowe's poem Despair, of which we may £efe be permitted to say that her rehgious pnnaples should have prevented her from wnting it. There is abundant proof in her poetry that she was a deyout wotr^i; she should therefore not have mdulged the cravmgs ofVe times in this respect. Mary Seymour Montegues observation, p.1771, that Mrs Rowe 'Wnely channs us to the shades of death" covers a 11 Mrs Rowe s wntings. This poem was published in 1755, when ^^dono^; The poetess wants to be led to aplaceof 'sohtary gloom, "where no enhVning beams, no chearful echoes come , wi^.0^ d0Se' suUen 38 that grief, wnicn leads me to its covert for reliëf. JS^S*l?ïa* > cor«Plain" on her lyre. Her subiects wul be "noble, serious, melancholy tliings ' ' <'Ó«ïvtZ pensive songstress of the grove may cx,meg „ear, sluggish waters heavily roll bv Here to my fatal Sorrow let me give The short rernaining hours I have to live. Then with a sullen, deep-fetch'd groan eïpire And to the grave's deep sohtude retire SanT^T^ n° 'Sini^e SOrrow at the dea* of a nusband. The conventional hterary dress had to olease thepubhc. Mrs. Rowe died 1737 P The other poem is The Man of Sorrow. It is anonvmou* P™' ?nd ed. of Pearch's CoUection adds the namTSEÏÏf * I * contrasted with T/te Man ofPU^ÏZd mw^contemporary despair' ^ s Ah 1 baneful grant of angry heaven, wnen to a feeling wretch is given A soul ahve to joy. Joys fly with every hour away.. i. Reality remains. See further under "Despair and Suicide/' . Melancholy is utilised in favour of philanthroov wh™ jfoto the lonely grove, to drop the tear, To vent the sigh humane. ' pleasures of sohtude "among those who cannot possibly be supposed quahfied for passing life in that marmer/' Only few can hve a life "of a rehgious, learned or philosophic sohtude. He then gives an example of on» forgotten by the world who passed his life in works of charity. Such a story sounds "like a romance". This mav imply a protest against ostentatious almsgiving, which was charactenstic of the times. Lady Anne Wmchüsea published her poem The Petition for an Absolute Retreat" in 1713. A simple life on a diet of fruit, and the silence of nudnight is combined with HelvTn" °n transporting joys of surveying "all d °? ?°?ïB&„by anonymous poet occurs in The first Part ofMtscellany Poems. Publish'd by Mr. Dryden 4th ed. London. Jacob Tonson. 1716. It must therefore have rvffi™^"1 ?f ,70°- 11 " of length than Curies Dryden's poem, On the Happiness of aRetiTd Lxfe Sent to his Father from Italyf but it resembles it m its romantic love of sohtude. Such lines as : "O l how agreeable a sight, These hanging Mountains do appear," may refer to the mountains of Italy. "Mr. Dryden'' also 2 ll?uë *°*m T The ***** Lover, whicl! found m the same volume and which contains an equally hornd description of a case of suicide for love under «milar circumstances. Of the many romantic features of this poem I mention here that the writer considers sohtude the "element of noblest wits." *omuae Richard Blackmore's poem The Retirement, p. 17JR gives expression to his love of the country and of hterature particularly that of Müton. «icrature, ^nOdeapon^Urfe,p.l720,bytheEarlofRoscommon repeats an old chantable thought in a gloomy Lm for l^y^pity m°ved for others <^t^away/' Spir which had been mentioned before by Lady C&cueigh has' now mastered the poet. He continues: uaieign>öas On °l ÏJ?pes aad Fcars 1 see 'm tost, On Rocks of Vice and Folly dash'd and lost... Some strugghng a while with restless care bink m the deep Abyss of black Despair. This retreat must be a safeguard against "fantastick I have observed that in 1722 a biographer wrote that the melancholy sentimentalist William Kmg dehghted in K wrThomson had drafted a Hymn on Solitude in 1725 It was published in 1729. The "thousand Shapes wluch sohtude "wears with ease" reminds us of Burton s embarrassment to define his subject, "this chaos of melancholv." SoUtude is productive of wisdom and innocence. Love7 melancholy has a place apart. The third stang emphatically identifies love of nature, especially of twihght scènes, with the love of sohtude ; Thinc is the balmy breath of morn, etc Thine is the woodland dumb retreat; But chief, when evening sëenes decay And the faint landskip swims away Thine is the doubtful soft decline, And that best hour of musing thuie. In Autumn, 1730, averse to political strife and the SJ& of' war/he seeks «still ^f^^TZ solitudes" (1.1304); in some lines added to Winter, in rnSta «>- "the ^^S^SéL to discuss the origin of the umverse (1.572 ri), in tne oim rece seHf die forest he has intercourse with spirits created £ïe tómself by the "Parent-Power" to sing the praises of "Nature's God" (1727, Summer, 1.53Ö It). Wmarn died 1708. His poem The Reürement waTpubhshed in his "Works," 1736. It ^clds, groves, Ind brooks. The country *^&*^/f0^ he can avoid ambitious men. John Whaleys bong oj Solitude 1745, will be mentioned under love-poetry. In mI^w^pM^ To SoUtude- The melancïoly eaSf sohtudefas described dead of night, the pale moon, the ™™\^>*h*£n^ of a clock in the distance, the cavern, bleak wmds^the hoarse death-boding owl," the howhng tflZ^ll mastiff Indoors he en oys the dim lamp that casts an The moraladvantage of sohtude co^ iste in pTOviding an opportunity for despismg "the foüy fetterd world/' Matthew Green hailed "Sweet Solitude" in 1748 ui A Poem on the Prospect of Peace. In Joseph Warton's poem The Enthusiast or the Lover of Nature, w. 1740, p. 1748, "the virgin Sohtude Serene, who blushes at each gazer s sight," is accompanied by Wisdom, Innocence and Virtue. In An Ode To Fancy by Joseph Warton, p. 1748, Te,« a lover of < an KW Prospect LdJtf üni dVmf0rtS °1 a married m incident to all degrees; from the throne to the cottage." 1710. He uses 280 lines for this dialogue. It contains some moving passages. Sewell (1719) makes the emotions produced by a stage performance the subject of his lines Upon Mr. Addisoh's Cato. He Marnes operas for having given ladies no chance to weep. Now they could sigh again. They Began their buried senses to explore, And found they now had Passions as before : The Power of Nature in their Bosoms feit, In sptte of prejudice began to melt. Notwithstanding the sympathetic tears of the audiences when senümental dramas were performed (See E Bernbaum: The Drama of Sensibility. 1925, p.1) tears' whTh'q Tf ueen caS^tcA bad form m to ^ 6b!^ 716 imPortance * this drama with tT • r,*6 Sub,,ect of smcide ^ ** mentioned later. The influence of the drama of sensibility on poetry is heard when James Hammond, in a Prologue to LiWs Elmenc 1740, refers with approval to BarnweU, who appeared on the stage in 1731. He mentions the unfavourable reception of Ldlo s sentunental play, The London Merchant Dy the critics. Lillo.... warmly thought From passion's force, and as he feit he wrote. Hts Barnwell once no critic's test could bear, Yet from each eye still draws the natural tear. Thomas Warton's poem The Pleasures of Melancholv waswnttenm 1745 and published in 1747. It isnot wit W sympathetic tears for stageheroes and heromes AftS mentioning melancholy events in the hves of Monimia, Juhet, Jaffier, the Moor, the poet adds: iomrma> By soft degrees the manly torrent steals From my swoln eyes; and at a brother's woe My big heart melts m sympathising tears. Otway's plays, The Orphan, 1680, and Venice Preserved 1682, as well as Shakespeare's tragedies, evidendy agreed with the spleen, A few years later, in 1753, in Merit, a Poem, Henry Jones, the bricklayer, testifies to the effect of Otways tragedies on the audiences of his day: In Otway's strains, what soul-felt sorrows. flow? What powerful pathos, and what various woe? Through each endearing tie, each tender breast.... Whilst each good heart, by kindred anguish wrong Throbs to the transports of a Barry's tongue....*) Barry's force o'erwhelms my shrinking heart. ♦ • ♦ . Yet ask a thousand hearts.... they thanked hun with their silent tears. The sentimental comedy and the domestic tragedy were ethical precursors of Steele's essays and Shaftesbury s phüosophy and were written in opposition to the orthodox view of hfe. They express the behef that human nature, when not, as in some cases, already perfect, might attain a higher moral level by an appeal to the emotions. The drama of sensibility wished to show that goodness of heart might be found among ordinary people, whose sufferings were intended to rouse the pity of the audience (op. cit. 10). Though Otway's play The Orphan resembles domestic tragedy in some respects, the prmapal persons in it are noblemen, and in Venice Preserved the perfect characters required by domestic drama are wanting (op. cit 57) The history of the drama of sensibihty begins with the year 1696, when Colley Cibber's comedy Loves Last Shift evoked the tearful sympathy of the audience for its characters. Noteworthy about this play is not the moralizing, but the sentimentahty — the characterization of Loveless as good at heart; above all, that of Amanda « The art of Mrs Cibber, the actress, to call forth tears is emphasized by^eoï K^te?inl766, in'"A Poem to the Memory of the celebrated Mrs Cft6er"jloscd Me cyes which knew each varied art And all my meaning with such force jnspued; Called tears of pity fiom the melüng heart, Froze with wüd horror, or with tapture fired. „ lüfarv Sevmour Montaeue, in "An Original Essay on Woman, 1771, pSs &ramesfsheridan for her «sigt that enrapture, tears that give delight". with her moral scrupulosity and the power of her virtue to triumph through an appeal to pity." These characters had been transferred "from the extatic environment of romance to everyday London hfe (op.cit.76). This play and The Twin Rivals by Farquhar, 1702, The Fair Example by Richard Estcourt, 1703, Steele's The Lying Lover m the same year and C. Cibber's The Careless Husband in the next were, at that time, the only works m all hterature that interpreted life sentimentally (Op at.94). N. Rowe's play The Fair Penitent, 1703, does not belong to this class, but as it is "a melancholy tale of private woes" the mood is allied. Lillo deserves mention, because he made the yearning for deeply emotional expenence a conspicuous feature of the drama of sensibility (m The Fatal Curiosity, 1736). This tendency was emphasited m the later hterature of sensibility, particularly by Laurence Sterne. 5. MELANCHOLY LOVE POETRY. A few remarks may here be added about melancholy love poetry. The fact that Burton devoted a considerable portion of his prose work to Love-Melancholy may lead us to expect that poets will be fond of decking out their erotic poetry with melancholy trinunings. When the course of love runs smooth in The Author's Abstract the poet feels content and hves in Paradise. In the opposite case sighs, tears, and "waking nights" are the consequences ot the torments of love. Lady Cavendish, the authoress of more poetry of melancholy, assooates neglected love with "pale and melancholy ashes and melancholy dust," in A Discourse of Love neglected, burnt up with Griefe (p. 1653). Charles Hopkins ends The History of Love. A Poem in a Letter to a Lady, 1695, with a Pastoral Elegy on the JJeath of Delia. Terror does not enter into the description of death m such cases, but the plain is here a "desart" and the grove dismal. His trembling legs bending under a ïoad of woe, carry him to a melancholy grotto. This "melancholy cave" is as "secret as the Grave" and sohtude is evidendy nis object for he bids adieu to everything that is cheerful on earth, even poetry, friends and love. His goats and ewes sympathise with him and the sad nightingales eomplain "on dropping Boughs." In The Pastoral Dialogue between two Shepherdesses by the Countess of Winchilsea (p. 1713) "melancholy lays" and the ravings of the despairing lover flatter the lady. Mournful shades and solitary groves are the haunts of Thyrsis, wild with despair in A Song by Richard Duke (p. 1717). Wilham Walsh (d.1708) makes the cruelty of death ine theme of love poetry in The Fair Mourner (p. 1749), and ridicules the cottage dweller who wants to commit suicide for love, in The Despairing Lover (p. 1750). He considered that "a neck when once broken, Can never be set." That heil on earth, "love's despair," is the subject of Doubt. A Midnight Thought. To Aminta transfers nocturnal thoughts to ardently erotic poetry. Also The Hour of Despairt To Mira is love poetry. These three occur in A New Miscellany of Original Poems by Most Eminent Hands, viz. Mr. Prior, Mr. Pope, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Harcourt, Lady M. W. M(ontague), Mrs Manley, etc. Now first published from their respective manuscripts. London. 1720. "The charming agonies of love whose misery dehghts" are told by Thomson in Spring, 11. 1004—1112. The love-melancholy which he describes ends in madness and suicide. W. King's Mad Lover (reprinted 1722) tries to find sleep in „groves and cooling shades." The anguish of the lover is the subject of A Song. anon. (1729). The tedium which the artifidality of this love poetry produces is pleasandy broken by a blankverse poem r Timon and Flavia ; or the Fruitless Repentance. A Tale. anon. published in Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands, particularly The D ofW.... n, Sir Sam. Garth, Dean S.... ; Mr. John Hughes, Mr. Thomson, Mrs. C r, London, 1729. It is a love story with the requisites of melancholy poetry. It opens with descriptive nature poetry and passes Rjually sentimental, though wilder as regards language, is The Vision by Geo. Granvüle, (1736) : In lonely walks, distracted by despair Shunning mankind, and tore witfrj killing care, My eyes o'erflowing and my frantick mind Racked with wüd thoughts, SweUuig with sighs the wind ... Through paths untrodden, day and night I rove.. With regard to disappointment in love and the extasies of melancholy Thomas Warton writes in The Pleasures of Melancholy, 1745, Ye youths of Albion's beauty-btooming isle, Whose brows have worn the wreath of luckless love, Is there a pleasure like the pensive mood, Whose magie wont to sooth your soften'd souls? Oh teil how rapturous the joy, to melt To melody's assuasive voice ; to bend Th' uncertain step along the midnight mead, And pour your sorrows to the pkying moon, By many a slow trill from the bird of woe Oft interrupted.. In John Whaley's Another (song on Sohtude), published in 1745, we again find the artmaal atmosphere of despair and anguish, zephirs and the melancholy song of nightingales for which "a cold maid" has to account. "The lonesome glade," the "blasted oak" and the "murmuring current" sympathise with the "moans and doleful sounds" of the forsaken and despairing Strephon, "the obdurate rocks dissolving whilst he spoke" in The Lost Mistress. A Complaint against the Countess of.... By Geo. Villiers." (p.1745). The Den of Cruelty, The River of Despair and The Complaint (p. 1755) by Mrs Behn have the usual characteristics of such poetry. Sohtude is combined with the grove füled with sighs, cries, groans and dying moans. The sorrowful young man in Mrs Anne Killigrew's Complaint of a Lover (p. 1755) lives ia. "a melancholy cell, the retreat and solace to his Woe." Of all poetry on the subject of rejected love, Sam. Derrick's Damon, a Pastoral, 1755, is not easüy beaten for excess of sentimentahty. Damon is in love, and prays to "love's potent god" and "fullfraught with grief, high heaved his bosom here," Down his rough cheek fast-flowed the silver tear, Pale anguish trembled in his flooding eye} He sighed — he spoke — and silence listened by... However, Vain the big tear, the heart-sprung sigh in vain, Again he sighed, again he heaved for breath ; And vainly struggled in the arms of death. "Heart-rending anguish" prevents speech. The nymphs and swains gather round him and all moan. As is usual in pastorals of this kind his herds and flocks and the birds share his sorrow, refuse food, and join in the melancholy chorus. From a "blasted oak" the croaking raven is heard. Then his tortured soul fled. In the same year Mrs. Monk, in her lines On a Romantiek Lady, mentions a new symptom of "the passion frantick" : interest in French novels: This pouring over your Grand Cyrus Must ruin you, and quite well tire us, It makes you think, that an affront 't is Unless your lover's an Orontes, And courts you with a passion frantick In manner and in stile romantiek. As the name of the village, Petersham, is given in a footnote, Allen and EUa. A Fragment, anon. 1770, seems to be the true story of the despair and suicide of a deserted girl. \ James Graeme's elegies To Mira, 1773, are very sentimental and full of sighs. He gives an explanation of his preference for elegies in an Advertisement, 1773. The elegy he thinks is best adapted "to express the querulous idea of grief and disappointment and to display the soft distresses of the tender passions." Therefore in Elegy XVII he drops a tear on a Druid's grave and weeps "in mournful strains o'er youthful years laid low." His poetical reputation is due to his friend Rob. Anderson, who printed nis poems in The Poets of Great Britain, where he gives a flattering description of Graeme's poetry. About his elegies he says that in general he thinks them pleasing and pathetic. Anderson's own elegies are to be found among those of Graeme. Elegy XXXIII To Clara, is by Andersom It gives expression to a frenzy of artificial grief. He speaks of his wretched bosom, wildness, woes, bis murmurs, complaints, his drooping spirits, and bleeding wounds. He has been banished from the presence of his mistress and now he shdes "unknown to the tomb." From the poetry describing erotic emotions the above instances have been selected as best illustrating the progress of sentiment after Burton's demonstration of the symptoms of love-melancholy. The lover is self-engrossed, sentimental, broods on real or imaginary grief, and harbours suicidal thoughts. Sohtude and the quiet and darkness of night are best suited for the outpourings of his feelings in conventional melancholy phraseology and imagery. Other aspects of the relations between the sexes have to enter poetry before it expresses ethical and social changes. Burton had been emphatic in his condemnation of monastic life. His Anatomy of Melancholy has a chapter devoted to Symptoms of Maids', Nuns', and Widows Melancholy (1-476) in which he bitterly taxes "those tyrannising pseudo-politicians' superstitious orders.. . that .... contemn tears, sighs and groans and grievous misenes of such poor souls cornmitted to their charge. How odious and miserable are those superstitious and rash vows of Popish Monasteries, to lead a single life against the laws of nature," etc. As Pope cannot have been ignorant of a book so popular as Burton's work, the important place he gives to melancholy in his poem Eloüa to Abelard (p.1717), cannot have been accidental, e.g. in the opening hnes: In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells, And ever-musing melancholy reigns ; What means this tumult in a Vestal's veins. He utilises the customary imagery of melancholy of the gloomy type in lines 162—168: But o'er the twilight groves and dusky caves, Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves, Black melancholy sits, and round her throws A deathlike silence, and a dead repose. The poet's gloom effects nature (1.168.) The conventional flowing water is there and woods are conventionally identified with thoughts of horror (1.168). These melancholy characteristics of the gloomy type must have meant an additional attraction in a period so fond of melancholy and gloom. Of later poetical renderings of the same theme I mention here : Abelard to Èloisa occasioned by Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard. by Wïlliam Pattison, p. 1728. Abelard to Philinthus, 1729. Anon. in the Miscellaneous Poems published in 1729 quoted before. Eloisa is here forced to take the veil and Abelard cannot give all his attention to the monks, who commit "flagrant Crimes" and are like him "slaves to their lust." The poem is introduced as a tale of "intense pain and superior Woes." Abelard to Heloisat by a Lady, in a Collection of Onginal Poems, translated by John Whaley, p. 1745. Abelard to Eloisa by Mrs Madan, formerly Miss Cowper, p. 1755. It was considered to be "no mean companïon to Pope s Eloisa." Abelard to Eloisa by Cawthorne, 1770. The "unsocial woods" are here the places where "Anguish muses and where horror broods." James de la Cour is said to have attained some reputation, at a very early age, by an Epic from Abelard and Eloisa. Poems by the Revd James de la Cour. A M were published at Cork, in 1778. The Funeral of Arabert by Jerningham, (new ed. 1771), is another story in verse about a young ecclesiastic returning to a convent. Leonora, with whom he had hved m the strictest intimacy, follows him a few days later, only to assist at his funeral. 6a. MELANCHOLY LOVE BALLADS. That Shenstone could write a sentimental ballad appears from Jemmy Dawson, a ballad, written about the time of his execution in the year 1745. It tells the tale of the rebel, who was executed, and the sorrow of his sweetheart x The dismal scène was o'er and past, The lover's mournful hearse retired ; The maid drew back her languid head, And sighing forth his name expired. Though justice ever must prevail, The tear my Kitty sheds is due, For seldom shall she hear a tale So sad, so tender, yet so true.1) In 1755 Mrs Elizabeth Tollet published anonymously The Unfortunate Maiden, a favourite song of Susannah, as it was originally sung at both theatres. Here the drowning of a shipwrecked lover is the cause of his sweetheart's death. The ballad is not without the rehgious perplexities of the century : How can they say that nature Hath nothing made in vain , Why then beneath the water Do hideous rocks remain ... All melancholy lying She grieved for her dear, Repaid each blast with sighing, Each bülow with a tear, When o'er the white waves stooping His floating corpse she espied, Then like a lily drooping, She bowed her head and died. Edwin and Emma, 1760, is Mallet's contribution to senthnental stories. It deserves notice that its profits were for charitable use. The sentimental outpourings of a poet or a crowd cannot be taken for progress in civilisation ; a comparison between the rebelhon of 1715 and 1745 does not reveal any increase of humanity in high places or in low. Pikes) notices a halt in the progress of English civilisation which he attributes to the influence of George II, and of his son, i) The pathetic story of the death of Jemmy Dawson's sweetheart at tb* moment of his execution was retold by Mrs Ehza Haywood in TheP^arrot, 1746. See The Life and Romances of Mrs. Ehza Haywood by Geo. F. Whicher, 1915. >) L. O. Pike, A History of Crime, p. 333. the duke of Cumberland. One might have expected to see the practical effect of the oath with which the highest m the land bound themselves to further the spirit of umversal beneficence and humanity. See under Freemasonry. 66. SENTIMENTALISM RIDICULED. The sentimental tendency of melancholy hterature was ndiculed as early as 1749 by James Cawthorn in The Vamty of Human Enjoyments. An Ethic Epistle, for he wntes : Say does fair bliss delight in Maudlin's grove, In Stanhope's villa, or in Young's alcove? In 1778 Richard Tickell criticised the sentimental poetry of his tune severely in The Wreath of Fashion or the Art of Sentimental Poetry. In an Advertisement he draws attention to the false taste then prevailing. A noble author had published his works, which consisted of three compoations. One, An ode upon the death of Mr. Gray, and the two others upon the death of his Lordship's spaniel. But the reigning fashion in poetry, Tickell maintains, was the sentimental panegyric on married beauties. ims appears m a thousand various shapes; from the Boute Rhimées on the wou'd be Sappho of Bath, up to the doggerei Episdes to the lovely Amoret." He mentions the rit subject for sentimental poetry and tells the poet now to set about it: Some fair Stoic, linked in Hymen's chain, Serene and cold; by wise indifference led To a nch tide, and a... separate bed, Now sick of vanity, with grandeur cloyed bhe leans on sentiment, to sooth the void: Deep in Rousseau, her purer thoughts approve The metaphysics of Platonic love. Thine be the task, with quaint, fantastic phrase lo variegate her unimpassioned praise. He names as poetic sentimentalists: placid Carlisle. generous Hare, (soft flows the lay; as when, with tears! He paid the last sad honours to his spaniel s shadeO, Storen (plaintive and pert), Fitzpatrick; Townshend (who "displays his pathetic bow") ï Palmerston, Mulgraye, Whitehead, Clare, Pophn; Jerningham (who will thnve on flimsy gause") ; Luttrel, Garrick, Anstey, (who wrote "Odes, Acrostics, Madrigals,.... a modey heap of metaphoric sighs. laborious griefs, and studied extasies ), Texier, and Minim, ("the httle scholiast of the female wits"). 7. ELEGIAC POETRY. The customary tearfulness of the 17th c. elegy is found in An Elegy on the Death of James the Second, Ui)] : "Oh, who would not dissolve away m Tears, but an Ode in Imitation of Pindar on the Death of.... Thomas Earl of Ossory. By Knight Chetwood" in the same year is too artificial to deserve notice. . A Pastor al Elegy on Mrs M. by Mr. O., also m 17UI, defends excessive grief: This bounded Sorrow looks too mach like Art, For who can Reason with a Bleeding Heart? He wül therefore "rage despair" or süendy moan in woods and caves or vent his feelings in "storms of sighs and floods of tears" and desire his own death. In Lady Chudleigh's poem On the Death of hts Highness the Dake of Glocester (p. 1703) the existmg hterary paraphernalia of melancholy are employed. 5he takes leave of business, noise and care to enter a quiet cove: The Sun cou'd there no Entrance find : No ruff ling Winds the Boughs did move, The Waters gendy crept along. The nightingale sings "her pains" and despair. The poetess becomes extatic. She feels raptures not to be expressed and bids farewell to the vain world. Sohtude, extasy, and horror are combined in this poem for the scène is changed: despair, Davenport says that these verses were written in 1771, the year of Shaw's death. To the death of his wife he also devoted Monody to the memory of a Young Lady. Also J. C/s Epitaph on a Schoolfellow 1770 and the anonymous "On Lama's Grave" deserve mentioning. 9. THE POETRY OF NIGHT. Night poetry readily adopts the phraseology of gloom, and darkness soon suggests death. In Examen Poeticum (1693), Tho. Yalden published A Hymn to Darkness and the fact that Dr. Johnson highly esteemed it (C.D.N.B.) proves that he was not averse to certain forms of poetry of gloom. Yalden calls darkness the "first kind parent of us all," and our "refuge in death." When the "Majestick Shades" of night appear "the silent Globe is struck with awful Fear," and our thoughts stray in "Vaults and gloomy Caves." Universal ruin, at the end of time, will erect the throne of Night. His Hymn to the Morning in Praise of LighU An Ode op.cit. also speaks of the "native horrours" of night. The poetical horrors of night assume a stfll gloomier shape in "To Pollio, The Complaint 1694 and in J. Philips' poem The Splendid Shilling, 1701. "With dismal Thoughts" he feeds his "anxious Mind," sings of "Groves and myrtie Shade" Or desperate Lady near a purling Stream Or Lover pendant on a Willow-Tree. A Midnight Thought published in 1709, in Poetical Miscellanies and reprinted in 1716, contains the thoughts of one dying; Amid the Terrors of this solemn Woe, The fleeting Soul begins herself to know. A quiet conscience may let us die in peace. In 1721 followed A Night-Piece on Death by Thomas Parnell, which has been discussed. "Toil and Poverty" in "nameless" graves have found their place in Night poetry. Black melancholy glooms his mournful thoughts, And gives a dreadful horror to the night when James Ralph writes Night in 1729, a blank verse poem in tour books. Its connection with grave poetry of the gloomy type has been referred to. The "charm" of the mghtly gloom" is confessed by the anonymous deistic poet of Nature in the same year. The preceding remarks may not have been out of place with regard to Young's Night Thoughts (1742—1745) In a collection of John Whaley's poetry, 1745, occurs A Night Thought by a friend. James Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs and nis Contemplation on the Night, 1746— 1747 once more demonstrate the use the Puritans made of the charnel-house and the "repositories of the dead" as memorials of our impending doom." New horrors are mentioned in Ode to Night anon. 1758, namely the scorpion lash, and the danking chain: When the pale murd'rer round him spies A thousand grisly forms arise, When shrieks and groans arouse his palsy*d fear T is guilt alarms his soul, and consdence wounds the ear. Here is the same tendency to morahang shown by a Mtdmght Thought pubhshed in 1709. Death, a poetical Essay, by Dr. Porteus, p. 1759, belongs to the same class. „ Tj* ™J Cart» * Ode to Melancholy (1770) connects midmght horrors" with thoughts of the tomb and the horrors of the ugliest forms of corruption has been mentioned before. Her poem A Midnight Piece in the same year shows the depth of rehgious dejection to which this melancholy woman could sink. In his Introduction to A Night-Piece (p.1772), Nathaniel Evans replaces the twihght of Grey's Elegy by "the raven mande of night and the "pallid lustre" of the full moon, which adds hyeher horror" to the churchyard, where the spectres nse from consecrated ground " Evidendy night-poetry reflects the main tendency of the penod m which it is written. It readily lends itself nM^'T? t°°m' Sf^ity ^ of despair 11694), but when people were charitably disposed it did not leave the fate of toil and poverty unmentioned. It adopts the attributes of romantic terror and echoes the waihngs of rehgious despair. 10. THE TERROR OF DEATH AND THE GRAVE. The terror of the tomb had been vividly painted by poets like Donne and Francis Quarles in the early part of the 17th century. Thomas Jordan and Henry Vaughan had continued this kind of literature about the nuddle of the century. The broadside elegy had shown that the taste was popular. The gruesomeness of corruption was not insisted on for its own sake but for the lesson it taught, namely: All is Vanity.x) Meditation is therefore an essential part of such poems. In the poetry of F. Quarles and Tho. Jordan the descriptive and the meditative portion are rigorously kept apart. The 18th century combines the two. John Pomfret's poem A Prospect of Death, a Pindarique Essay, was originally undated. The Cat. Brit. Mus. suggests the year 1700 as the date of pubhcation. It no longer separates description and meditation and the colouring of the subject is less objectionable. Yet it preserves some of the original characteristics. The poet takes the fear of *) A Collection of Poems by Several Hands" p. 1693, a) contains The Temple of Death by the Earl of Mulgrave. A Translation out of French. The French work meant is Le Temple de la Mort by P. Habert. The Temple of Death lies in a dreadful valley, where the streams "opprest with carcasses and bones, instead of gentle murmurs, pour forth groans. The douds of (smoke that rise from the tapers, made of a pitchy substance, increase the "dismal shade." There üves the monster death, a cruel tyrant. The terrors of death are used to enhance the effect of the state of despair in which a lover, whose sweetheart has died, desires death. This translation by the Earl of Mulgrave (Le. John Sheffield. Duke of Buckingham) was republished m 1695, 1102, 1709, 1717. Also in 1721 by Edmund Curll. An observation in the D.N.B. that immediately after Sheffield's death Edmund Curll "endeavoured to publish his life with a pirated editfcn of his works, but was restrained by the order of the upper house" might lead to the belief that no such pubhcation took place in 1721, which is not the case. He did publish The Works m 1721. Cat. Brit. Mus. 11633. e. 32. a) A small volume A Collection of Poems.... London.... printed for Tho. Cottins ttc 1673, contains The Tempt» of Death anon. and without any indication of its origin. Cat. Brit. Mus. 11631. aa. 9. death for granted. "When to the Margin of the Grave we come" nothing can keep us back. What consolation have we in the dark rninutes of that dreadful night. His marmer of describing the dying : the face moistened with clammy sweat, the irregular pulse, etc. is purely 17th century. Other features of this poem wul be discussed later. It was repubhshed in 1709, 1710, and after. It had evidendy hit the popular taste. Lady Winchilsea adds no new ideas to the old conception of the subject in To Death (1701, reprinted 1713 and after). Death is the gloomy king of terrors; The Swords, Racks and Wheels of Death stand for the 17th century list of diseases. The "maladies, that lead to Death's grim Cave" are met with even in John Philips' poem Cyder. (1708). The fear of death has become a pitiable obsession in A Thought on Death, by Mr. Grove (1709, reprinted 1716). An untimely grave is the daily subject of his thoughts and "sheds its baleful influence on the Soul." In this way he can have no joy in hfe : "If, which is seldom, I converse with joy, and Nature, lighten'd of her sorrows smiles, while pleasing objects dance before the sight, a thought of death comes cross the lovely scène, and blots it out at once." etc. Steele had found a psychological explanation for the popularity of the hterature of death. "There is a sort of dehght, which is alternately mixed with terror and sorrow in the contemplation of death," he says, but personally he did not like "this commonplace way of thinking" and feil to turning over books "in a melancholy mood." (On Death, 1711, Speet. 133). An anonymous warning, in 1714, against, what we should now call fear complexes, in Speet. 615, was required by this tendency of the age. Death is "all bones" in Lady Winchilsea's Love, Death, and Reputation. 1713, and The Dream by the Earl of Roscommon (1716, reprinted 1749), like Aaron Hill's Reconcüiation makes gloomy meditation on Death play a róle in love poetry. Death is here the "pale Tyrant" who to "horrid graves" "condemns so many thousand helpless slaves." After these gloomy thoughts Dorinda appears to the poet in a vision and is no longer stubborn and proud. Again the terror of death finds expression, in 1720, in Mrs Jane Brereton's verses : A Thought occasioneel by being present at the Death of a Friend. The poetess exclaims How dreadful 't is to yield the fleeting breathl Well art thou stüed the King of Terror, Death! ParnelTs poem A Night-Piece on Death is one of the well-known landmarks in the history of melancholy. Thomas Parnell died 1718. According to the Concise D.N.B. the first collective edition of his poems appeared in 1721. I quote from Poems on Several Occasions. Written by Dr. Thomas Parnell, published by Mr. Pope. London, 1722. This is another instance of Pope's connection with the hterature of melancholy. The haunting fear, which is so characteristic of this variety of the poetry of death is not obtrusive here. The poet rather endeavours to reconcile his readers to death and teach them wisdom. He protests against the meaningless pomp of funerals and emblems of death. The shades that rise from the "bursting Earth" are not fearful of aspect, but "with a sober accent cry "Think Mortal what it is to dye." The ravens are told to cease "their croaking din." Yet the 17th century charnelhouse, the bones and the "tolling Clocks" are mentioned and in a "Peal of Hollow Groans" Death speaks of his Sythe and his Darts, for he remains the King of Terror, but only to some, for the pious soul is "joyous at parting hence." Agreeable dimness characterises the landscape. The horrors of the grave in the shape of sightiess skulls and crumbhng bones, the fatal plant ivy and a general setting of decay are found in Mallet's Excursion (1728), in "a particular nightpiece, with the character of a friend deceased." Behind me rises huge a reverend pile Sole on the blasted heath, a place of tombs, Waste, desolate, where Ruin dreary dwells. Brooding o'er sightiess sculls, and crumbling bones, Ghasdy he sits, and eyes with stedfast glare. (Sad trophies of his power, where ivy twines lts fatal green around) the falling roof, The time-shook arch, the column grey with moss The leaning wall All is dread silence here, and undisturbed, Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl Screams solitary to the mournful moon..... In the same year Mrs Ehsabeth Rowe published Fnendship in Death, in Twenty Letters from the Dead to the Living. I consulted the 3rd edition 1733. There was a^5th ed. in 1738, and many others until 1816. The trtle of the third edition is Friendship in Death, in twenty Letters from the Dead to the Living : To which are added Thoughts on Death : translated from the Moral Essays of the Messieurs du Port RoyaL In some lines To Dr. Young she thanks him for his poem on the Last Judgment Her Devout Exercises of the Heart, in Meditation and Soliloquy, Prayer and Praise by the Late pious and ingenious Mrs Rowe were reviewed and published at her request by L Watts, who dates his introductory letter 1737. These prose works are mentioned here only, because they show contemporary mterest in the subject and Mrs Rowe's connection with t Watts to whom I shall refer afterwards. Mary Seymour Montague, in An Original Essay on Women, in Four Episües, 1771, says of the poetess Rowe, that she serenely charms us to the shades of death." It is difficult to confirm this when we remember Elisabeth Rowe's poetry of heil and despair. A year later, in 1729, it was James Ralph, who in Night, A Poem m 4 books, let black melancholy gloom and the mournful thought give a dreadful horror to the night In a hard world "the süent dead are only kind ; so in the dreary vault, in heaps of mouldering bones, they seek repose. The hving await the "horrid call of Death." iT'Sie an?ny^ a fragment in imitation of Dr. Young. 1755. The statehness of blank verse heightens the ludicrous effect. The poet hears a death-watch, posts themselves can speak Death s language: stop, oh stop — insatiate worm lteel thy summons — to my fellow worms Thou bidst me hasten.... Death's a dark lanthorn, — hve's a candle's end, atuck on a save-all, soon to end in stench: Foh 1 death's a privy.... Another antagonist of the Churchyard poets was W. Kenrick. His episdes and references to Lorenzo are numerous. In his poem, On the Investigation of Truth, an Epistle to Lorenzo, 1768, he maintains that fear has made poets melancholy: 'Twas thus cnthusiastic Young, 'Twas thus affected Hervy sung; Whose modey muse, in florid strain With owls did to the moon complain ... Rehgion gravely smiled to see Piety grown childish. Why should the moral muse be confined to "blasted oaks and baleful yews?" O'er graves to make fantastic moan, And deepen Horror's dismal groan. He asks if the mouldering tomb alone has room for meditation. And again addressing Lorenzo, later in the poem, the poet mamtains that no visionary fears intrude Where triumphs moral rectitude; Truth all the arfifice disdains Of dungeons deep and clanking chains Skulks not in life's sequestered way But walks abroad in open day. The last lines are of course a protest against the poetry of sohtude. 12. GOD'S WRATH. PREDESTINATION AND REPROBATION. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. The history of the 17th and the 18th century shows that the terror of death and the horror of the grave are closely connected. Page after page might be quoted here to prove how much Burton in his attempt to cure despair objected to needless speculation about the doctrine of election, predestination and reprobation, and eternal damnation. Though Burton ostensibly held orthodox views on these matters, he does not teil his readers all, "as it is a forbidden question," and he does not wish to incur ecclesiastical censure. The main trouble of a distressed mind, he says, is, however, not so much this doubt of election, but the expectation of God's heavy wrath. Then "a most intolerable pain and grief of heart seizeth on them, to their thinking they are already damned, they suffer the pains of Heil, they smell brimstone." This revnlsion of feeling causes them to deny God and abjure rehgion. Their despair induces them to lay violent hands on themselves and end their lives by hanging or drowning. The alternation of poetry breathing serene rehgious tranquility with poems of the deepest gloom and profound despair, and dehght in descriptions of the torments of Hol, which we observe, for instance, in the works of Elisabeth Rowe, confirms Burton's views and affords a striking example of his intelhgent observation of otherwise enigmatical rehgious symptoms. Divine Meditations usually turned upon that subject: What have I done ? or what have I deserv'd, That I am thus imprison'd and reserv'd For death and sad destruction. Fear of the angry God weighed heavily on the man who had deserved the curse." (Fons Lachrymarum by John Quarles.p.1648). The powerful influence of Milton's Paradise Lost, 1667, on English hterature has been demonstrated by R. Havens and by others. A considerable portion of this poem is devoted to the description of God's wrath, the tenors ot heil, and the sufferings of the damned. Blake has observed that Müton "wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devüs and Heil." The dogma of predestination in Müton's works means, exclusively, election to bliss, and not reprobation or damnation. Reprobation finds no defender in Müton. His prose work on Christian Doctrine proves that conclusrvely. Yet God pours "treble confusion, wrath and yengeance (P.L. 1-220) on the abandoned sinner and leaves hun at length to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation. (P.L.I-213-216.) John Pomfret described scènes of terror in his poem On the General Conflagraaon, and Enstung Judgment. A Pindaric Essay. 1699. So great was the popularity of such descriptions that a 9th edition appeared in 1735. "The black Days of Universal Doom" are come. Nature responds with "fearful Groans and hideous Cries." Her guilty offspring rave with despair. Loud thunders roar and darting hghtning drives mortals from their cities. In Dies Novissima : or, the Last Epiphany. A Pindarick Ode, of Christ's Second Appearance to judge the World he returns to the subject in seventeen stanzas of varying length. The 9th edition was also published in 1735. The Judgment Day is a favourite subject with the advocates of revelation and a much handled weapon against the various forms of freethinking. In the Preface to the Horae Lyrkae, p. 1706, Dr. Isaac Watts, the famous hymn-writer, complains of the "lewd and profane versifiers, these alhes of the nether world." But the awful scène, "when they shall stand aghast before the great Judge" has been set before them in "just and flaming colours by the Rev. Mr. Collier, in his "Short View of the Immorahty of the English Stage" For his enemies, the Atheists, God has a thousand terrors in his name, A thousand armies at command... And magazines of trost, and magazines of f lame Dress thee in steel to meet his wrath... Natural phenomena, e.g. the rigours of winter, become the instruments of His wrath, ... impious Ups, profanely bold Grow pale, and quivering at his dreadful cold, Give their own blasphemies the He... Also when it is hot the Divinity is incensed. He sends hail, whirlwinds, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, "when guilt with louder cries provokes a God to arms." Watts considers it a comphment To the Memory of the Rev. Mr. Thom. Gouge, who died Jan. 8, 1700, that in the pulpit he was "the herald of the threatening skies." Lo, on his reverend brow the frowns divinely rise, All Sinai's thunder on his tongue, and lightning in his eyes. Round the high roof the curses flew, Distinguishing each guilty head, etc. In his Songs, Divine and Moral, 1720, which were meant for children, the httle ones are made to exclaim : My God 1 I hate to walk or dweil With sinful children here : Then let me not be sent to heil.... The discomfiture and final overthrow of the Atheists of the period is also the subject of Omega, a Poem on the Last Judgment. 1708. The text from the New Testament which occasioned this poem is mentioned in the tide. The poet assumes that the word "scoffers" used in the text refers to atheists, who ridicule all thought of a future judgment. In a tedious marmer he wrangles with his supposed disputants, whose views he states in a rather fnvolous marnier. This is interrupted by visions of the Day of Judgment and scènes of agony and despair. It is more interestuig, and a sign of the times, that the oppressor shows remorse and that "the Widow's Crys and Tears" are remembered. God is represented as Eternal Justice, who cannot be bribed. When the All-High casts boks of yengeance on 'the impious Rout below," these "frantic Wretches invoke mountains and rocks to hide them. When hghtmng streams from the Judge's mouth, the earth takes fire and is consumed. Saints and angels delight m the defeat of the impious, and the profane "In Rage and Frenzy did their Terror shew." There is more than one example to prove that those who preached on-the subject were comphmented. Matthew Prior devoted some lines To Dr. Sherlock, on his Practical Dtscourse concerning Death, in which he feels convinced that the labours of this "Wondrous good Man.. mav stop the Rage of Heil." y The "place of Horror and unexpressible Misery" is reserved for those who are "immers'd in the Delights of the animal Life" and 'Vallowing in sensual Pleasures," says Lady Chudleigh in Essays upon Several Subjects. in Prose and Verse. 1710. Tickell ends a very attractive bit of nature description, in The Guardian, No. 125, 1713, with a hunting scène, the opening lines of which picture the happy state of jmimals in Eden. "Then wrath came down and death had leave to reign ... famine formed the nund" and the chase had to satisfy the cravings of hunger. In 1714 N. Rowe's poem On the Last Judgment and Happiness of the Saints in Heaven, was published. The depressing effect, in poetry, of the doctrines of predestination and reprobation, is heard in The Philosopher's Disquisition directed to the dying Christian. By Sir W. Davenant, Knight. p. 1716. In a discussion regarding the claims of reason it is objected : Why should wc pray when only the elect are saved ? Those who to lasting Darkness destined were, Tho' soon as born they pray, yet pray too late. That poem is followed by The Christian's Reply to the Philosopher. By the same Hand. 1716. The desire to describe the terrors of heil must account for Milton's Stile imitated, in a Translation of a Story out of the Third Aeneid. By Mr. Joseph Addison. p. 1716. "The gloomy Horror of the Night, the coast where Aetna lyes horrid and waste, its Entrails fraught with Fire,.. the strange Sounds and dismal Yells" that were heard suited the melancholy love of gloomy hterature. The "Delight and Horror" which Andrew Marveil, in 1674, had considered admirable in Milton's Paradise Lost were once more put before the public in 1716, in a repubhcation of the well-known lines On Milton's Paradise Lost. . Spinoza and Hobbes are accused of having had their share in counteracting rehgion, e.g. by Richard Blackmore in Crèmes; a Satyre, p. 1718. They taught that You boldly must engage to make it clear, That Superstitious, melancholy Fear Did first make Gods, and then their Altars rear. Against this Blackmore protests, for he is the defender of the opposite view, as he shows in A Thought on Death published in the same year. When he thinks of the King gospel of Jesus j who feigning to adore Him, make Him a cruel tyrant: As if Thy right hand did contain Only a Universe of pain Heil and damnation in Thy left, Of every gracious gift bereft, Hence raining floods of grief and woes On those that never were Thy foes Ordaining torments for the doom Of infants yet within the womb. etc. (The Methodists) Of nought but endless torments speak, To frighten and appall the weak; Dweil on the hornd theme with glee, And fain themselves would hangmen be. They fill their hearers with so much dread that they lose all will-power and stand there shuddering and trembling. John Byrom has some lines On the Meaning of the word Wrath, as applied to God in Scripture, 1773, and mamtains that nowhere in the Bible it is said that God is Wrath. In "Thoughts on Predestination, and Reprobation, a Fragment, 1773, he observes with regard to the Calvinistic doctrine : While freed from Rome, we are not ti'd I hope To what is wrong in a Geneva pope, *?!j he spt^ss of ' ^ AWnt\n&, tfr Ckero' in a t0 the Translator by Henry DodweU London, 1701/2 form a defence of Cato's suicide, from the pagan pomt of view But, says the learned author, «this Doctrine of Plato's Phaedon ^ Si* ^gh ï Cadd ** defended» I doubt, whether it would excuse 3?„y °ï,^e suiciders ofrour Present age," for "the moderns" generally commit the act for love, for fear, for worldly disappointments, and these kreSl innfad b/ the P™^5 ?f PhaedS^The depressed state of DodweU's rS appears from the closmg lines of the Apology. u imply negation, e.g. "Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well ?.. ♦. To act a Lover's or a Roman's part ?" etc. Besides, in the poem, the Divinity is not constrained by public opinion, and stands apart from it, when the burial of the suicide is made a disgrace. Pope could hardly express his opinion in stronger words : While Angels with their silver wings o'ershade The ground, now sacred by thy reliques made. This was decidedly not the orthodox view of the matter. In 1713 Montesquieu wrote his Lettres Persanes. These were printed in 1721, in Holland. According to Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica they were translated into English by Ozell. The Lib. of the Brit. Mus. has Persian Letters translated by Mr. Ozell, second ed. 1730. London. This book was reprinted in 1731, and reprinted in one volume in Dublin in the same year. In 1760 appeared Persian Letters, translated from the French of M. de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu..*, Glasgow. But by the side of this English translation the copies in French may have enjoyed as large a circulation as they did abroad. French was known well in England then. The printer refers to this also when he says of England that it is "a Country where that language (French) is so much understood." Letter 74 contains a defence of selfmurder. The writer condemns the rigour and harshness of European laws against selfdestruction, denying the charge that the suicide should act against the interests of society or against God's will. Assuming God's goodness he asks if God will be so different from other Benefactors "that he will oblige me to receive Mercies that will make me wretched ?" The man who takes his own life does nothing but modify matter and makes square a bowl, which was made round. Aaron Hül's despondence finds expression in The Vision, 1726, when he observes that Nothing is left wishing for on earth And death becomes a gentier woe than birth. So great had the suicidal tendency become that Isaac Watts, in 1726, write a series of six discourses entided A Defence against the Temptation of Selfmurder. In the first section he discusses the unlawfulness of selfdestruction and reasons against those who argue that selfmurder has nothing criminal in it. The second is a general dissuasion from selfmurder. In the third section he writes against the "pretences" for selfmurder, in the fourth he gives advice to those who are tempted that way and in the fifth he gives warning to those who have been rescued trom temptation. In the last section he discusses what he considers to be the causes of selfmurder. In the preface he speaks of "the numerous selfmurders which we read in our papers of weekly news, 59 cases in the year before, 74 who were found drowned and 43 who were said to be found dead." He expresses his behef that these were all cases of suicide. Watts attributes this tendency to "growing Atheism, and the neglect of religion, to secret cruninal practices and shameful iniquities and the horror of poverty." ... As this subject must naturally be repellent to every mentally healthy individual he apologises for his discourses : "Though such themes as these are not a very delightful entertainment either to him that writes or reads, yet the cakmitous and wretched circumstances both of flesh and spirit in this feeble and dangerous state of frailty, sin and temptation, make such discourses necessary at some seasons to prevent the ruin of mankind." In the very first year of its publication, 1731, the Gentleman's Magazine has an article to the effect that suicide is not suffïciendy discouraged. It quotes some remarks from Read's Journal March 6th. A young woman had stabbed herself with a penknife because her lover had been killed at sea. On this occasion the journalist Read had put the following lines into her mouth : Kind Instrument! Now death direct the Blow Philanthus! meet me in the Shades below, Spite of the envious World we'11 happy be, If not while Finites, in Infinity. That happiness after death could be the share of suicides roused violent indignation in all believers. The writer of the protest now complains (and the editor of the G. M. adds : "how consistendy the Reader will judge") that suicide is not enough discouraged either from the Pulpit or the Press. He quotes the usual arguments against suicide from the Bible and the Classics and contradicts the popular opinion that the prevalence of suicide should be due to "the temper of our Climate." Read returns to the subject in November. The Universal Spectator of August 26th, 1732, (quoted in the Gentleman's Mag.) contains an article about the relation between Wit, Madness and Suicide. The writer asserts that "Love and Jealousy, the old causes of Suicide, have almost lost their Force, and that the Temptation to this Crime now are of a much coarser Nature than formerly. Some make away with themselves to avoid public execution, others act in a sudden gust of Passion or Discontent. The most extxaordinary Case is, where the Self-murderer reasons himself into the fact, which he tries to justify by Maxim and Principle." Divines and morahsts attribute "the late Increase of Selfmurder to the Growth of Atheism, Deism, Scepticism, and other ill principles and errors." Evidendy he feels the hold of classical example on his contemporaries and therefore he condemns Cato's act with arguments from classical sources : Cato should have read Plato's disapproval: "We are all Slaves of the Gods, and no Slave can dispose of his own Life." A contributor to the Gentleman's Mag. ia 1737, justifies suicide in a question and goes an important step farther by condemning, by imphcation, capital punishment. I think his letter important enough to be quoted in full: If selfpreservation be the prime Law of Nature, and the sole End for which Men enter into Society, and if the Magistrate has no Power but what is derived from the People, and if the People have no Power over their own Lives, whether the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate can lawfully and consistendy with these Principles, extend to the Life of the Subject? And if it does, will not the same Reasons justify Suicide? East-Lothian. Yours Clemens. May 32, 1737. The editor apparendy found this somewhat difficult to answer and waited from May to January of the foUowing year before he replied. He then answered that the Magistrate acted instead and for the person injured, to whom the criminal had forfeited his life, and who, in a State of Nature, might liimself jusdy have taken it away. A denial of the right of the individual to take his own life is inferred from this. The frequency of suicide and the harm done to society in this way is the subject discussed in another article in the G. M. in 1737. Essays of this nature apparendy war against the tendency to make the burial of the suicide less disgraceful: mitigation of shame*) would mean madly to applaud the most cruel Actions occasioned by Melancholy and Ferocity. In these two Vices we must look f™ ^ pretended Magnanimity, that imaginary Greatness of Soul which pushes on the English to slaughter themselves. The English destroy themselves less through courage than through "weakness." Every endeavour should be made to restrain people by "Religion, or by the Dread of Death." If this fails no one can say what will happen to society. M. Green had observed, in The Spleen, 1737, that he intended to answer the question what course he took to get rid of the spleen, by whose false Pleas Men prove mere suicides in ease. When Eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addison's, and a contnbutor to the Spectator, drowned himself in 1737, he left in his bureau a slip of paper, with the words: What^ Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong/' "a conclusion," says A. Chalmers, "which it would be unfair to draw from the circumstances of Cato's scemc death." Gloom, despair, and death are linked together in Mrs Rowe's Despair (d.1737). Her desire is for gloom and tJL ™i^£.utrahan descrij>« the brutal treatment of the bodies of suicides trom which the corpses of the msane were always exempted. The burial EnS^lTft^1111^^11 °fAese b?rbariti*s - was actuaUy the law of Study iT^on 1893 ^ A Psychol°Pcal and Sociological the end is death ? the opening line runs: "Oh lead me to some solitary gloom/' and the last verses : Then with a sullen, deep-fetched groan expire And to the grave's dark sohtude retire. She romantically toyed with a subject that was uppermost in the rninds of many people. John Bancks, in the prose Pref ace to his Tales, 1738, connects melancholy with "the tyranny of an unconquerable and sometimes tragical mdination" and mentions the dangerous moral influence of classical and modern literary sources of melancholy, namely : the elegies of Ovid, the operas of Quinaut and romances. Hand in hand in the progress of sentimentaHly now maren Melancholy, Despair and Suicide and, from 1745 on, the atmosphere in this branch of literature becomes very depressing. In Sickness, a Poem, 1745, William Thompson mentions the paraphernalia of suicide, to which we also find prose references in contemporary hterature. In Book II the poet describes the Palace of Disease; Despair lives in retirement: Next, in a low-brow'd cave, a üttie heil, A pensive hag, moping in darkness, sits Dolefully sad: her eyes (so deadly dull!) Stare from their stony sockets, widely wild; For ever bent on rusty knives and ropes; On poniards, bowls of poison, daggers red With clotted gore,. A raven by her side Eternal croakes; her only mate Despair: Who scowling in a night of clouds, presents A thousand buming hells, and damned souls, And lakes of stormy fire, to mad the brain Moonstrucken. Melancholy is her name j Britannia's bitter bane. Foreign references to the suicidal tendency in England are here confirmed by an Englishman, and the psycho logical cause of the prevalence of melancholy poetry about this time explained : it was all very natural, it supphed a want. The well-meaning healthy-minded poet therefore appeals to the Deity: ' __. g Thou gracious Power... With bars of steel, with faills of adamant Crush down the sooty fiend (Melancholy) nor let her blast The sacred light of heaven's all-cheering face, Nor fright from Albion's isle, the angel Hope... Despair and suicide form the subject of Joseph Warton's sixth ode Against Despair, 1746. Despair, the god of groans, is walking about in the evening on ground, thickly covered with romantic ivy, or sits down beside a recendy dug grave of a "frantic suicide." Heartbroken, the poet meditates selfdestruction and with profound sighs he speaks: Haste with thy poisoned dagger, haste, To pierce this sorrow-laden breast, Or lead me at the dead of night To some sea-beat mountain's height, Whence with headlong haste I'U leap, To the dark bosom of the deep. The romantic sentimental desire of sohtude becomes morbid avoidance of society: Or show me far from human eye Some cave to muse in, starve or die No weeping friend or brother near, My last fond, foltering words to hear. When the darkness is deepest, however, classical examples of patience occur to his memory: Socrates, Ulysses, Alcides, Regulus and also a more modern one, Raleigh, who m exile or in dungeons mastered fear. This consoles hun. In John Gilbert Cooper's poem The Estimate of Life, in three Parts. p. 1748, the pale spectre, Despair, has to play its part and is summoned "from the self-murderer's haunted tomb." • V^eAnG^i ^ag' tries the effect of a stofy 38 a curative m 1749. Phdopatriae," the narrator, apparendy wants to protect soaety. His tale was much appreciated, for it had been printed twice in the Gazeteer. Camillus, "in that X™ ^st^ ^ ever staül ^ English Annals," (evidendy 1721, when so many were ruined by the South Sea scheme) had made preparations to end his life with rope and pistoL There naked Frenzy, laughing wild with pain, Or bares the blade, or plunges in the mam, i) The cure she advocates is connected with other aspects of the subject and will be mentioned later. In The World, No. 193, for Sept. 9th. 1756, Tilson follows the advice of the Gent. Mag. and tries the effect of ridicule. *) He had noticed the number of "sudden deaths" in Great Britain and now disapproves of the methods of the suicides of both sexes. "The disfiguring pistol, the slow stupefaction of laudanum, the ignorninious rope, the uncertain garter, the fetid impurity of Rosamond's pond, must be extremely shocking to the delicacy of all genteel persons, who are willing to die decendy as well as suddenly," He announces that he is going to build a "Receptacle for Suicides" with convenient apartments for all such of the nobility, gentry and others that are tired of life, with effectual means for easy decapitation, etc. Everybody can please himself. For persons of the humble walks of life, he has halters with the nooses ready tied. He doubts, however, if suicides are sane. A fortnight later, in The World, No. 195, for Sept. 23, 1756, Horace Walpole, the author of The History of Good-Breeding, 1746, discusses self-murder from the standpoint of good-breeding, and condemns it as barbarous. He refers in this essay "to the reigning modes of voluntary deaths," and calls suicide "a contagious crime." „No tradesman could hang himself more feloniously than our very nobles do. They steal out of the world from their own closets, or before their servants are up in the morning." With some obscene allusions to Montaigne's chapter A Custom in the Isle of Cea, (he has forgotten both tide and author), he recommends the remedial effect of disgrace after death. The poetical doctor gave medical advice and the *) In passing it may be mentioned here that Stephen Duck, the poet thresher, drowned himself in 1756. 2) Colman produced a farce entiüed Suicide in 1778 (See The Drama of Sensibility, by Ernest Bernbaum, p. 258). There is no manuscript of this play in the Lab. Brit. Mus.; only the Prologue was published. clergyman, Dr. Robert Glynn, employed The Day of Judgment, 1757. So great was the demand for this poem that a second edition appeared in the same year and a third in 1758. All the dead shall rise and stand before God. Also "the wretch whose listiess soul sick with the cares of hfe unsummoned to the presence of his God rushed in with insult rude."x) He will suffer perpetual punishment. Of the humbler folk mentioned before, even the beggar is by Mallet made to apologise for not putting an end to his life in Verses written for and given to a Beggar." 1762. Existence is to me a curse Yet how to close this weary eye ? By my own hand I dare not die.... In a sermon, which he intended to preach to the Court, but published later, in 1762, because the Court happened to be absent, the King's Cliaplain, the Rev. Dr. W. Dodd, condemns suicide on the ground that the commandment says: "Thou shalt not kill/' and this also apphes to suicide "which some of our modern times have tried to palliate if they could not defend." Despair is the subject of Grenville's poem The Man of Sorrow, 1763. Joy, he says, is the desire of the human soul, but though the "feehng wretch" may have a soul alive to joy he sees it pass hourly away: Despair has seized my captive soul And horror drives without control And slackens still the reins.... Despair seems to have become an essential part of melancholy. Derangement of the mind seems to appear from his description of nature: x) J. J. Rousscau's Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse contains two letters on the subject which, when W. Kenrick translated the work in 1761, also became accessible to the English public; the one defends, the other eondemns selfdestruction but "celïe, qui condamne le suicide, est inférieure a celle, qui le justifie." (Mme de Staël). In 1770 Système de la nature by P, H. D. von Holbach was published in London ; it recommends self-destruction in certatn circumstances (p. I. c. 14) : "Enfin pour quelque cause que ce soit, le chagrin, le remors, la mélancolie, le désespoir ont-ils défiguré pour lui le spectacle de 1'univers? S'il ne peut supporter ses maux, qu'il quitte un monde, qui désormais n'est plus pour hit qu'un effroyable désert;" etc Vol I. p. 310 refers to the frequency of suicide in England: "Le Suicide est, dit-on, tres commun en Angleterre, dont le dimat porte les habitants a la mélancolie. Voltaire had written on the subject in 1729* I see the lawn of hideous dye The te-wering elm nods misery With groans the waters roll. And "the unhallowed shade" along which the "man of sorrow" "his wayward step then pensive took" suggests the grave of the suicide. An article in The Gent. Mag. 1762 tries to explain the mental conflict that compels a patiënt, in this parücular case a woman, "to rush headlong into eternity." The writer beheves that unceasing reliance on God may prevent the deed. He insists on the perfection of God's work; nature cannot be blamed, for that must always work "tül it is united to the Sovereign Good." W. Kenrick adds a poet's warning to the prose on this subject in his poem On the Investigation of Truth, 1768, and blames Hervey and Young for the harm they are doing. He accuses them of driving The wretch, o'erwhelmed with care In godly frenzy, to despair; Is folly vice, fear makes it worse ; Reflection is the coward's curse; Unless remorse in mercy given To damn selfmurderers to heaven. The last line, suggesting the possibihty of selfmurderers entering heaven, marks, indeed, a return to the ethical appreciation of suicide in former days. ^ Charles Emily in his poem Death, pub. 1770, threatens grim suicide, the damned fiend of heil," with the wrath of the God of vengeance. But the language of the suicide is again heard in Ode to Despair by the Rev. Mr. Scott in the same year : "Save mei what means yon grisly Shade," Her stony eye-balls staring wide, In foul and tatter'd patches clad, With dirt, and gore, and venom dy*d. Suicide, a poem, published anonymously, 1773, looks suspiaous. Seven pages are given to the defence of suicide and less than one, viz. page eight, contains an argument against it. which, if not weak, is at any rate very lamely urged, namely: Whate'er from Nature has received its birth, Is meant a good.... Let not frail human sense Arraign the will of high omnipotence.... Virtue gives happiness. The argumentation betrays the deist. A "hbertine" — not mentioned before the last page—defends suicide with much force. His arguments are too numerous to be quoted here. He begins in this way: Life grown a burden, is it best to fall Self-doomed to death — or wak frail Nature's call? Add woe to woe, still more unhappy be, And join with grief a resdess agony. The spirit free'd, we leave our cares behind, And quit the burthen of a tortured mind.... x) The anonymous poem Suicide, an Elegy, 1775, tries to reason with those intending to destroy themselves by putting the image of "an angry God" before their eyes, and by appeahng to their sense of daty towards their families and also to their country : they might court death on the batdefield. Gray's influence on the style is apparent from such lines as these : Where moves the sun which sets without a cloud ? What happier climate does his light adorn? Where sleeps the head which sorrow never bow'd ? Where grew the rose which never bore a thorn? Sympathy with selfmurderers was in the air. Thomas Warton published his poem The Suicide twice in one year : in the Gent. Mag. for Oct. 1777, and also in his Poems as Ode VI. Here we find the grave of the "accursed" suicide, the blasted beech, the craggy road, the whistling wind. A man passed the poet with wild gestures and "varying face," But ah! too late aghast I viewed The reeking blade, the hand enbru'd i) Goethe's Leiden des Jangen Werther was published in 1774. He feil. and groaning grasped in agony the ground. The poet mentions aÜ he can in the man's favour, his excitement, his sleeplessness. His poetic genius Filled his soft ingenuous mind With many a feeling too refined, And roused to livelier pangs his wakeful sense of woe. He speaks of his poverty and his hopeless love: More wounds than nature gave he knew While misery's form his fancy drew In dark ideal hues, and horrors not its own. The words in which he asks for our pity for a selfmurderer are too remarkable a sign of the times not to be recorded here: Then wish not o'er his earthly tomb The baleful night-shade's lurid bloom To drop its deadly dew : Nor oh! forbid the twisted thorn, That rudely binds his turf forlorn, With spring's green-swelling buds to vegetate anew. What though no marble piled bust Adorn his desolated dust, With speaking sculpture wrought? Pity shall woo the weeping nine, To build a visionary shrine, Hung with unfading flowers From fairy regions brought. While he was thus pitying the suicide the sun set and a cherub's voice was heard reproaching him for his "speaious lays."l) The cherub upholds the standpoint of the church : ) Petrarch s Sonnets and Odes were anonymously translated into English with original Text" in 1777. The translater made a mistake when he wrote mat no material porüon of this poetry had been ittempted in Enghsh verse." • eeim^ mtroductory chapter. A later biographer, Maud F. Jerrold, observed, in 1909, that it is the sorrow of humamty at large that has made Petrarch th« voice of succeeding generations. I think that passages like the following appealed powerfully to the public of 1777 : In gentle pity say, Why, Love! should I delay To burst life's galling, life's oppressive chain? A part of the English public had for many years been taught to see nothing morally wrong in the subsequent idea: Swift to yon blissful sky Let my fond spirit fly; And my lost heart, and my dear Laura gain. Just heaven, man's fortitude to prove Pérmits through life at large to rove The tribes of hell-born woe. Chalmers observes that he knew from indisputable authority that this Ode was not occasioned by the death of Chatterton. Selfdestruction as the culmination of frustrated love which had been ridiculed by W. Walsh (d. 1708, p. 1750), is dwelt on by James Graeme (d. 1772) and his friend Andersom Graeme wrote The Suicide. The subject is poetically treated, quite contrary to the directions of Isaac Watts and others. Every effort is used to excite the pity of the reader. The tears of the lover about to destroy himself flow in torrents. The scène has a romantic setting, for the "howlet" screams from the dreary glade and the raven croaks from her bough-built nest. The man about to commit suicide cannot be expected to condemn the act and bids "the turf he lightly" on his sweetheart's breast. There is a pitiful description of the burial of her neglected corpse, despair plays its part and the dagger ends his hfe as it did hers. Anderson likes to be sentimental about seduction. In Elegy XXXII the subject is a boy's selfwilled death because of the moral degradation of the girl he loved. The contact of the blacks with the whites, the infamy of the slavetrade, which was considered a disgrace to Christianity in minor English poetry, the fact that the negro was outside European "tivilisation" led to suïcide of the bfecks according to Edw. Jerningham, Thomas Day, John Bicknell and an anonymous writer beween 1767 and 1773. ï , _ . £ Edward Jerningham wrote Jarico to Ingle, an hpistte, in which he retells a story from the Spectator. An African princess, Jarico, was seduced by an Englishman, a human monster. He carries her off and sells her. Before she had told him that she was pregnant, but this only caused him to raise her price. The sun-worshipping negress is represented as morally superior to the Christian white man though her soul may be deeply shaken with confhcting feelings of love and hatred. The motive for suicide is here the mother's desire to save the child from the certainty of slavery. The poet makes it difficult for the reader to blame her. Thomas Day published The Dying Negro in 1773. James Keir, in An Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Day, 1791, states that in the composition Day was joined by John Bicknell and that therefore the poem is sometimes attributed to Day and sometimes to Bicknell. The unbearable wrongs which the black slave and representative of suffering multitudes had undergone at the hands of Christians, who confidendy expected heaven at the end of their earthly career, induces the poet to represent suicide as an act of bravery. The negro scornfully renounces aspirations to the kind of bliss after death expected by his oppressors : And now yc Powers ! to whom the brave are dear.... (I) To you that Spirit which ye gave restore, I ask no lazy pleasures to possess, No long eternity of happiness.... The pc«sibihty that suicide involves no moral guilt and that supernatural powers may require it in his particular case, is hinted at in the following lines : But if unstain'd by voluntary guilt, At your great call this being I have spilt, For all the wrongs which innocent I share, For all I've suffer'd and for all I dare; O lead me to that spot, that sacred shore, Where souls are free, and men oppress no more. The third edition of this poem was dedicated to Rousseau. There is another poem dealing with the same subject but published anonymously in 1773 : The Dying Negro, a poetical epistle supposed to be written by a Black (who lately shot himself on board a vessel in the river Thames) to his intended wife. In Day's poem he stabs himself. The motto, borrowed from Shenstone, shows that the language of despair in this poem is intentionally more violent than in Day's; the hatred of Christian hypocrisy is more pronounced, and the abject position of the slave better realised. Also the thirst for revenge that would glow in the breasts of the whites if they had had to suffer the wrongs of the black slaves is keenly feit. Short quotations must suffice. Biest be thy last sad gift — the power to dye, — Here while I rest from mis'ry's galling load, Be thou the care of ev'ry pitying God I Nor may that Daemon's unpropitious power, Who shed his influence on my natal hour Pursue thee too with umdenting hate.... Ye flowers that blush on yonder purple shore, That at my baneful step shall fade no more.... A long farewell! — I ask no vernal bloom — No pageant wreaths to deck an outcast's tomb, Let serpents hiss and nightshade blacken there, To mark the friendless victim of despair.... The above remarks will serve as a useful mtroduction to an article by Alan D. Mac Külop, on The First English Translator of Werther, 1779, Mod. L. Notes, 1928, which, if I may say so, rushes in medias res ; and also to Hume s Essay Of Suicide, 1777, with full approval embroidenng on the classical theme : Agamus Deo gratias, quod nemo in vita teneri potest. Sen., Epist. 12. This essay reveals the deist's admiration of the harmony of the Uruverse and, incidentally, shows the hold of classical notions of morahty on 18th century thought. There is nothing in it that is new or had not been discussed at greater length by 17th century authors, including Burton. It deserves notice that the deistic theory, which ïntroduced principles which were productive of so much sooal good and aimed at mitigation of sorrow, should have found the melancholy bent of the English nund too powerful to resist. Hume's words prove that the much discussed subject of the fear of death was inseparable from that of suicide. The question might be asked whether statistics conhrm the quotations in this chapter regarding the prevalence of suicide and morbid hterary sentiment. British and continental writers have overlooked England in this respect to an unaccountable degree. I have therefore had recourse to the existing Büls of Mortahty (1629—1681, 1698—1758, 1764—1778 etc.) with contemporary comment regarding their reliabihty. A Collection of Yearly Bills of Mortality. From 1657 to 1758 inclwive contains Natural and Political Observations etc. by Captain John Graunt* F.R.S., reprinted from the sixth ed. in 1676. *) The writer is very optimistic about the reliabihty of the statements of the bills about the causes of death: When any dead body is found in England, no algebraist, or undecypherer of letters, can use more subtile suppositions.... than every unconcerned person doth, to find out the murtherers.... A physician, in a letter to the Medical Society, published in The Gent. Mag. of June 1771, complains that the bills of mortahty are framed from reports of common searchers appointed to view the dead bodies in order to prevent the concealment of violence. These searchers are, for the most part, ignorant poor women. He can contradict some of their reports from personal experience. *) As regards the use of the word "suddenly" as a cause of death, Graunt observes, however, "If one died suddenly, the matter is not great, whether it be reported in the bills, suddenly, apoplexy, or planetstrucken," etc. This explains the liberal use of the word "suddenly" in the verdiets on suicides of which Duncombe complained in 1754. In 1726 Isaac Watts founded his discourses against selfmurder on the fact that the papers had recorded "59 cases in the year before, 74 who were drowned and 43 who were said to be found dead." This agrees with the **** edition< ,16&. *i t*"8 ardde author states that the first of ?$£; ?n we^yï ^ ™ortality extaat at the parish clerk hall begins the 29th of Dec 1603," but there were some bills before that date. These statistics refer to London only, yiz. 97 parishes within the walls, 17 without ™h Tk j.:23 «^malies m Middlesex and Surrey, 10 parishes in the City and hberues of W^tnunster. The number of "inhabitants of London" he m the City and Liberties, in 1631, at 130178. rf tL^u™ tusale^ k furth?r appears that medical attempts at improvement ot the bills, and their extension to the rest of England, had been made bv §1;? }a^> Pfofession from 1754 on, and that a bill relative to this had been laid aside , because Parhament did not desire to fall into the "sin of David" i.e. counting the nation. ' figures of the Bül of Mortality for Deo 14th, 1725. However, in that year the cases of apoplexy and sudden death are kept apart, which was the custom from 1701—1728. If Duncombe's complaint was founded on fact, the total number of suicides in London in 1725 was 259. In the next year 111 died suddenly, 98 were found drowned, 59 "made away themselves" and 36 were found dead, totalling 304. In 1727 the respective numbers are 106, 89, 47, 43, total: 285 ; in 1728, 101, 89, 59, 44, total: 293. They teil their own tale of despair. A reference in the Gent. Mag. in 1749 to the disastrous effect of the South Sea bubble, combined with Watts's observation, might lead to the conclusion that the number óf suicides in consequence of the crash must have been very large. It is true, the number of those who "killed themselves" jumps from 27 in 1720 to 52 in 1721. But the bills mention 59 cases in 1725 and the same number in 1726. Moreover the figures totalled up in accordance with Watts's and Duncombe's suggestions are 233 in 1720, 290 in 1721, and 199 in 1722, or 722 against 882 in the period the mentality of which made Watts try the strength of argument. Without any desire to encroach on the domam of mental specialists by trying to find an explanation of the elusive causes of suicide, I should hke to draw attention to the tendency of some contemporary hterature, e. g. J. Thomson's poem The Lunatick. A Tale, the anonymous Timon and Flavia ; or the Fruitless Repentance. A Tale, and the anonymous poem On Death, all published in 1729. TTiey have been discussed in other chapters. After 1728 the number of those who died suddenly is, unfortunately, added to that of those who died from apoplexy. To get some idea of the proportions I may say that the number of those found drowned was 74, of suicides 59, of people found dead 43, total: 176. In 1741 the corresponding total is 238; in 1744, 184 j in 1748, 202 ; in 1754, 160 ; in 1755, 215 ; in 1772, 204 ; in 1777, 187. The question put on another page must therefore be answered in the affirmative. 14. PITY AND COMPASSION. In essay and poetry pity and compassion begin to be considered to rank among the most laudable of human qualities and become objects in themselves. In 1709 Steele observed in the Taüer No. 98 how powerful an instrument poetry might be if employed in the interest of humanity: humanity and tenderness without which there can be no true greatness in the mind are inspired by the muses in such pathetical language, that all we find in prose authors.... is, in comparison, but cold or lukewarm at the best. Addison devoted a whole paper in the Spectator (No. 397) in 1712, to the refining and dvihong influence of compassion. Instead of maintaining stoical mdifference towards other members of society he asserted that pity is nothing else but love softened by a degree of sorrow. In short, it is a kind of pleasing anguish, as well as generous sympathy, that knits mankind together, and blends them in the same common lot. He combines this with remarks on the powerful effect of the language of grief. The fact that so many fallen women are made to teil their own story in later essays may be partly attributable to Addison's hint: "There are none.... who stir up pity so much as those who ïndite their sufferings." In their own interest children are made to say in Isaac Watts's verses Good Resolutions, 1720, (in Songs Divine and Moral), Where I see the blind and lame Deaf and dumb, Til kindly treat them ; If I should be poor and sick, I shall meet, I hope, with pity, Since I love to help the weak, Though they're neither fair nor witty. the churchyard scène in The Excursion, 1726, David Mallet says in praise of Thyrsis, who hes buried there that he could not be excelled for pity, was full of sympathy and Wiped off the tear from Sorrow's clouded eye With kindly hand, and taught her how to smile. Mallet's feelings of cornrniseration extend across the shores of England for he pities the victirns of an earthquake in the New World: In that universal groan Sounding to heaven, expired a thousand lives O'erwhelmed at once. ... The earth yawns and Screaming, whole crowds of every age and rank With hands to heaven raised high imploring aid Prone to the abyss descend ... Versifïed melancholy and sentimental phüosophy is heard in John Gilbert Cooper's poem, The Powers of Harmony, 1745. Here we are asked if we never listened with melancholy pleasure to the "wailings" of the mghtingale, whilst she warbled forth her tragic tale of grief and, from thoughts of horror and revenge, our softened soul is gendy soothed within And, humanised again by Pity's voice, Becomes as tender as the gall-less dove. Colhns' Ode to Pity, 1747, though no minor poetry, may be mentioned here. Pity is by him called the friend of man, "assigned to bind his wounds and charm his frantic woe." But the poet wanders off to Ilissis, a stream, and to a panegyric on Otway, with reminiscences of II Penseroso. In his Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson, 1749, it is Love and Pity, who shed tears at the tomb of the poet. Henry Jones singing the praises of poetry, the "Great Queen of Harmony" considers it her Ment in the poem of that tide, 1753, that "Pity can melt us at her potent ca11-" , • ^ • ~4 The relation between pity and benevolence is discussed by Hawkesworth in The Adventurer, Nov. 24, 1753. Some have praised pity because it proves that man is endowed with "Social affections, which, however forcible, are wholly disinterested." They who talk thus exalt human nature, whereas Hobbes degraded it. In a story Hawkesworth then goes on to show that pity is not an expression of strong benevolence. Francis Fawkes observes, in lines On James Fox, 1754, that his "heart humane would melt at others' woe," In The Discovery, 1757, Edward Moore maintains that virtue cannot hve where no pity is feit for human bliss or pain. In the Autumnal Elegy, To...." written by John Langhorne in 1763 and published 1766, "the generous tear" and "Pity's softness" figure largely. "Pity seems to stand before" Thomas Warton in his Monody, written near Strafford upon Avon, 1777 ; she is A weeping mourner, smote with anguish sore To see misfortune.... Pity is romanticised in The Ode to Pity published in the Christian''s Mag., 1763. She is the "sweet power" that loves "the lone recess" Where virtue saddening with distress Stilt drops the silent tear. There is httle reason to doubt the sincerity of such utterances ; e.g. such sentiments as Mallet expressed in 1726 bore fruit in 1755, when England contributed £ 100,000 towards the reliëf of those who suffered from the consequences of the earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins. There was probably no precedent for this act of humanity : the protestant Englishman showing compassion for the foreigner of a different rehgion. The cottage becomes a centre of poetic sympathy j Margaret Cavendish tenderly mentioned the "Thatcht House," 1653, with its small rooms where pride could not hve; and death does not spare it.1) The "humble Cottage" is the idealized place of retreat, the abode of the quiet mind, of happiness, silence, peace and wisdom; A humble Cottage fenc'd with Osiers round Where silver Streams in Flow'ry Valleys glide, And Rows of Willows deck the Rivers side.2) *) The Complaint, anon. p. 1694. *i On the Happiness of a Retir'd Life by Charles Dryden. It is frequently mentioned in Thomson's Seasons,1) and, later in the century, sohtude visits "harmiess cottages," watches a simple funeral and sympathises with the moamng Widow and her children.a) Thus sohtude and the cottage have been made subservïent to charitable sentiment. Charity is the frequent theme of poetry and prose. J. Pomfret is convinced of the cheering effect of the remembrance of good actions in the hour of death and of the merit of charity in God's eyes ;8) therefore in The Choke, 1701, the sons of poverty are charitably remembered. W. Wicherley had identified Good-Nature, i.e. benevoience, with "truest charity" long before 1704. *) Selected passages from the New Testament were translated for the purpose.«) Garth's charitable work for neglected poverty" was praised in an anon. poem On the Dispens ar y, 1701 ; in 1716 by Granvüle in Verses sent to Dr. Garth in his Illness; in 1720 by "The Author of Sir W. Raleigh in lines To the Memory of my dear Fnend, Sir Sam. Garth. When in Parnell's poem The Hermit, 1722, the hermit's guide is drowned by the angel disguised as a youth this seeming crime is committed lest money destmed for charitable purposes should fall into the wrong hands. In Gilbert Cooper's poem The Estimate of Life6) charity is the parent of the social virtues. S. Johnson devotes No, 81 of The Rambler, Dec. 25, 1750 to the discusswn of debts of charity. The Gentleman's Mag. for Feb. 1753 contains Some Account of Mr. Fielding's Proposal for making an effectual Provision for the Poor. Thomas Cole praises benevoience and the joys of charity 7) and Dr. Johnson discussed the charit&of the tune he hved m; he considered charity to be a Christian monopoly and inseparable from piety: it is known, he said, only to i) E.g. Winter, 1.89, The cottage-hind hangs o'er tóe «dMog blaze; 1.187, the thatched cottage the tufted cottage ; 1^7, sordid hut of èhéerless poverty. Summer, 1.223, the cheerful cottage ; 1.1126 ,the crowded cottage. Spring 1.683, the genüe pak.... in some lone cot. •) Ode to Fancy, 1770, by Hudson. *) In his poem A Prospect of Death, 1700. «) In Vindication of Simplicity, and Cood-Na^e'fh rhanter of the «) Matthew Prior wrote A Paraphrase on the thirteenth Chapter 0J ine fint Epistle to the Corinthians, 1704, reprinted 1716. 6) Part II, 1748. eo ») The Arbouri an Ode to Contentment, 1758. those who enjoy, either immediately or by transmission the hght of revelation." In his opinion "almost all the goodness" of the age he hved in consisted in charity. *) The list might probably be considerably extended. The sentimental desire to participate in the sorrows of others led to promiscuous almsgiving. The numerous charity schools of those days show an attempt at least at organising charity. Charity schools formed a striking characteristic of Queen Ann's reign, but throughout the century the charity children enjoyed popularity; they were gratifying examples of England's benevoience, and benevoience was the slogan of the melancholy sentimentalists. In 1713 somebody published A Hymn sung before his majesty by the charity children and throughout the century hymns were written for them. When the "Charity Children's Collection" happened to be small, Mary Barber wrote some verses and an Epigram on the subject, and invoked Mr. Pope's poetical assistance. Leonard Howard, D.D. thought it worth while publishing that he was the author of Verses set to Music and sung by the Charity Children. 1756. "The widow and orphan" had no lack of attention. It would be a wearisome task to quote all the passages in which they occur. They are mentioned in connection with Hunger, 1729, by Benjamin Victor. Hunger is "a meagre monster that pursues The friendless widow and the helpless orphan." For William Falconer, in The Demagoguet 1762, the individual who should be "deaf to the widow's moan" is A frantic wretch, whom all men know, To nature and humanity a foe. Romanticism is blended with sentimental interest in the widow in Charles Jenner's Eclogue VI, The Visionary, 1772. I woo thee Fancy from the fairy cell, Where, midst the endless woes of human kind, Wrapt in ideal bliss thou lovest to dweil.... To check the patiënt widow's deep-fetched sigh And shield her infant. *) The liter No. 4, 1758. 10 The times demanded the tearful mood and therefore Fancy is asked to dry his wet cheek. Injustice done to an orphan girl forms the subject ot E. Rack's poem The Orphan, 1775. The girl has been robbed of all her possessions by a wicked uncle and now hides herself "within a thicket.'' A poor man is attracted by her complaints and "guides her trembhng steps to his cot. He appeals to heaven against society Why slceps the thunder in the rolling Why lingers Justice? Are such crimes allowed, T'escape the weight of her uplifted hands ? The clergy insisted on charity in their sermons. Isaac Watts published sermons against unchantableness in 1707 and 1745, and a sermon on Benevoience and Malevolence in 1729. His words must have reached many, for we know that he was very popular, and that men ot literary éminence came to hear him.1) Charity was a favourite subject with the poets, and the chantable man received their praise. We may gather from Benjamin Victor's lines On the Death of Sir Richard Steele in the year 1729 that charity was his outstanding quahty: There I have seen the various passions move, Truth, goodness, honour, harmony and love l At others' woe, he sharpest pain has known, And for another's want, forgot his own. A Winter Evening (published before 1731) suggests to the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald that to be easy ourselves and the friends of human kind is the happiest portion we can find in life ; to impart freely from our store and To cheer with needful aid the poor man's heart. Charity "all-bright withouten glare" warmed the nations, and the poor praised her at The NaÜvity is what i) Guy's Hospital for the reliëf of incurables was opmed ftb Jan. .» ï it very rapidly became famous. Westminster Hospital began as a ^P^X thr.,,t mï lts founders were a body of charitable individuals who had pSJslfrnJde SÏÏS c^e to.relie've sick pn^^JJS prisons of the Metropolis. Similar infirmanes were estabhshed in other parts oi the country. W. Thomson tells us, 1736. Sir Chas. Hanbury Wilhams wrote a poem On Benevoience, 1759, which he desires his readers to extend to friends, strangers and orphans. He wants his readers To do, possessed with virtue's noblest fire, Such generous deeds as we with tears admire. Considering the tendency of the tunes it was natural that Bishop Turner in 1761 should again draw attention to Thomas a Kempis' Of Works done in Charity by versifying it; the poem insists on our sacrificing "our own will and appetite to the pubhc good. W. Whitehead is convinced in A Charge to the Poets, 1762, that many of them are better than the public might think. They may be peevish, envious and slandering, yet of many a poet it may be said that he is benevoience itself and that For all mankind, unknown, his bosom heaves. Shenstone wrote some verses To Delia, with some flowers, complaining how much his benevoience suffers on account of his humble fortune. His desire was to give, but especially to give unseen. And, oh 1 the joy to shun the conscious light; To spare the modest blush; to give unseen I In prose too he refers to his benevoience in Letter XXII, To Mr. Graves, On Benevoience and Friendship. In his Elegy to the Memory of Miss Mary Penrose who died 1764 Thom. Penrose says that with meek-souled charity, with pitying hands To misery oft her linie store she gave. Johni Cunningham wrote A Eulogium on Charity 1765. Hugh Kelly has a tender word for children in a Prologue ^e^a^£>rarv Lane for the Benefit of the Infant Poor, 1778, who are doomed to misery e'er they saw the morn." Benevolus is described in Francis Gentleman's CharacUrs, 1766. We read the conventional observations about charity. The miser's character is given for the sake of contrast; he at length "seeks contentment in a rope" and hangs himself. There is another more interesting description of Benevolus, though in prose, by Edmund Rack in an essay On Sensibility or Feeling, as opposed to Principle. Benevolus is represented as the Man of Feeling and Pronimus as the Man of Principle. Benevolus is actuated by passion, his conduct is wild and impetuous, excentric and extravagant: "His sensibility was exquisite. Possessed of affluence he distributed his bounty with an ardour that might be termed the spirit of enthusiasm, and a profusion that might be called the madness of extravagance. His exertions of his judgement were feeble.... K he beheld an unhappy object, he smcerlfy pitied its distress and hastened to its reliëf. But from possessing so litde discernment, he was often deceived by the artifices of impostors. Thus while his heart melted at the tale of fictitious calamity he frequendy lavished his wealth on the most undeserving and infamous of mankind.... It is further said of this popular Man of Feeling that he had little sense of rehgion and that he "suffered himself to be hurried by passion into all the excesses of sensual gratification." This description agrees with the impression left by the perusal of the poetry and essays of the 18th century; benevoience was organised by the churches or by the rehgiously minded: in Rack's Benevolus we may have to see the outcome of Shaftesburian benevoience, also, because Rack denies that there is any merit in possessing sensibility, nor, consequendy in the acts which f low from it: To relieve a distressed object in consequence of the suggestion of a benevolent heart (abstractedly from every other motive) cannot be considered meritorious. He argues that charity should be a matter of Christian principle and duty, unconnected with passion and founded on reason and truth ; his Benevolus is apparendy a protest against unorganised sentimental indulgence in charity in which many took pride. The tendency of the tunes is so well stimmed up in this essay that I thought it worth mentioning even though it was published after the period under discussion (in 1781). 15. INTEREST IN BEGGARS. The Countess of Winchüsea's poem Fanscomb Barn, In Imitation of Milton, p. 1713, occupies a place by itself m the poetry about beggars. It is partly reahstic and partly romantic and based on faet, for according to the authoress Fanscomb-Barn, near Wye in Kent, is a privileg'd Retreat for Beggars; the place is famous for breeding white Sparrows and white Mice." She describes the hunted hfe of the poor but jolly beerdrmking beggars, their healthy sturdy children, their love of nature and their romantic stories of "banner'd Lords, and fair escutcheon'd Kmghts." The eloquence and artfulness of beggars which the Countess of Winchilsea smiled at, is also mentioned by an unknown contributor to the Spectator 613, in 1714, m the same kindly spirit. He complains that he cannot keep nis money in his pockets and asks for advice. William King in his amusing story of The Beggar Woman, 1722, and the cheated huntsman gives the woman at any rate credit for having "fresh cheeks" and "clean hnen. The mouldering towers of the Abbey provide romantic shelter to the naked vagrant who, shivering, tries to protect t?AQ * ' An 0de t0 Fancy fay J°sePh Warton, V r u°m 'oUy be8ëM woman "unvex'd with cares" who falls asleep on straw, in Fanscomb Barn, to the naked beggar among the ruins, who trembles "less the rottering wall, Should on her sleeping infants fall," is a stride across tune, marked by great changes in depth of sentiment, though perhaps less in romantic setting. The poetry of the period shows that beggars benefited by the stress put on Charity, Good Nature or Benevoience, by ÖK religioiis and irrehgious alike. In 1762 David Mallet published some Verses written for, and given in print to a beggar, involung "Mercyl Heaven's first attribute" with a reference to suicide. The Rev. W. Dodd wrote hnes On Seeing an Old Man Begging, 1764. The poet says that he feels for the beggar, for his heart feels for nimseli and for mankind. It is sad to see that beggar there "after a life of seventy years in labour spent." Dodd would find it difficult to tracé the tokens of God's paternal care in such an object but for the thought that unmortahty awaits the man. Another piece of poetry with the tule of The Beggar was published anonymously in The Annual Register, 1770. It begins with the line "Pity the sorrows of a poor old man." The real motive, conscious or unconscious, of the sentimental giving of alms was the givers flush of sattsfaction from the picture of himself as Benevoience reheving Misery. . The longest poem on The Beggar was published in 1771. It has eleven stanzas. It excites pity by reference to two existing forms of social evil, which on the evidence of poetry, were then keenly feit, namely oppression, and seduction of the man's daughter which had led to her prostitution. 16. OSTENTATIOUS CHARITY. Charity became fashionable in the 18th century and the reputation of being charitable or benevolent was therefore eagerly coveted. This and the marmer m which many tried to get their charity advertised led to a good deal of criticism in poetry and prose. Ed. Moore, in No. 23 of The World for June 1753, asserts that "in this age, to its honour be tt spoken, charity is become fashionable," and the author of a letter to the editor of the Christian's Magazine, m Jan. Ubl, writes "one virtue flourishes and abounds, i.e. charity. Sam. Jackson Pratt (Courtney Melmoth) wrote his Liheral Opinions upon Animals, Man, and Providence (1775—1777) later called The History of Bemgnus {mi) against "unlimited benevoience." Francis Fawkes, like others, however, expressed a desire m An EptsÜe to a Friend in Yorkshire, 1741, to possess serene obscurity In acts of meek benevoience delight. But the acts of the great ones of the earth should be advertised and therefore On the Death of the Earl of Uxbridge, 1743, he mentions the amount the earl gave to the Foundling Hospital; his alms shall in „sweet memorial rise," and in a footnote he adds : "His Lordship gave 2000 1. to the Foundling Hospital, 1001 1. to St. George's/' etc. The WeaÜhy Shopkeeper, or the Charitable Citizen is satirised by Ned. Ward, 1706. The unscrupulous shopkeeper pays scot and lot to the parson and the poor, but he is dishonest as a churchwarden and guilty of fraudulent practises, of which nobody suspects him, in connection with the building of charitable institutions. The fact that he leaves his money to Bedlam and the Blue Coat Hospital cannot give him rest and he dies in a state of despair. H. Boyle, after visiting a hospital, praises the extensive charity of his "good countrymen," but objects, in 77ie World, April 1756, to people who reduce their families to beggary, owing to their vain desire of having their names engraved on memorial tabiets in hospitals, etc. Benevoience delayed till after death is condemned in verses To Charity by Henry Woty. "Vanity and fame" and the thought of posthumous applause induces the man to leave to the public what he cannot keep. E. Rack returns to the old idea that charity is rewarded in heaven, in his poem Winter, 1775. For those, in heaven, a bright reward shall know Whose generous bosoms melt at human woe. As might be expected, philanthropic institutions, as special forms of charity, came in for praise. Henry Woty wrote two poems, in 1749, On the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin. Charity on her throne is served by "Soft Compassion," Pious Love, and Melting Pity, Hopes that cheer And from the wretched drive despair. He puts stress on the rehgious objects of the institution. From the second poem on the subject it appears that only respectable poor women were allowed to the house : The houseless wretch no friendly shade who finds Exposed to beating rains and howling winds Shall here from anguish and temptation free Enjoy her innocence, her babe and Thee. (i.e. benevoience). Praise was not restricted to British benevoience, for Geo. Keate, in his poetic description of The Alps, 1763, commends the charity of "the cloyster'd herrnit" who opens wide His hospitable gate to welcome in The sick'ning pilgrim. The Rev. Mr. Hanbury's philanthropic horticultural enterprise is praised by Rob. Lloyd in Charity, a fragment, inscribed to the Rev. Mr. Hanbury. Needler can hardly unconsciously have quoted Scripturetexts against the oppressor in connection with poverty and imprisonment in his Paraphrase of Psalm 146. William Hamilton returns to oppression as the cause of poverty in his Ode On the New Year, 1739. Time recedes into its cave and the Muse is aware of many forms of crime hidden there, What Avance, to crown his store Stole from the orphan and the poor. Kings and the guilty great are summoned to appear in the Muses' "awful court." Conscience shall judge between the oppressed and them. His lines on the unequal distribution of wealth farther on in the poem, seem to be in keeping with this. "The vain intemperate load" of one table had biest the cottage' peaceful shade, And given its children health and bread. Such lines are all the more striking as the material condition of the people of England had gready been improved by the abundant harvests, the low price, and the heavy exports of corn occurring from 1715 to 1765. The general prosperity did not make the poet blind to the fate of those who were socially deprived of the means to have any share in it. 17. THE PESSIMISTIC VIEW OF MANKIND. THOMAS HOBBES. Condemnation of society and mankind as a whole is imphed or expressed in the poetry singing the praises of the country and is heard with added force in the poetry óf sohtude. Orthodoxy held even more pessimistic views of man, for Isaac Watts surveys "that wretched thing Mankind" from "Wisdom's lofty tower," and with regard to The Way of the Multitude, 1706, expresses the feeling that "Mortals are a savage herd" and "loud as billows on a noisy flood." There is no need for us to enter into the details of Hobbes' phüosophy ; a few remarks must suffice. Hobbes describes the whole emotional and active nature of man as a consistent scheme of selfishness. Morahty as well as social order is founded on egoism. The natural state of man is a state of distrust and of war : every man is enemy to every man. Life in this condition is a continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." The very misery of the state of nature leads to social order, embodied in the social contract. His comparison between bees and ants and men, in the 17th chapter of Leviathan, is very much to the advantage of the insects. Wycherley, later, also has much more good to say of beasts, and their manner of hvmg together, than of mankind. The defuution he gave of pity attracted the attention of poets and essayists, perhaps, more than anything else he said, and roused energetic protests. "Griefe," he writes in Leviathan, (p. 1651,) "for the Calamity of another, is Pitty; and ariseth from the imagination that tne hke calamity may bef all himselfe ; and therefore is called also Compassion." *) He says of himself that he is naturally timorous, and Leviathan is based on the assumption that the first law of man's nature is to seek peace. Observation of his jwIL/wi. £# Yor^ °f Thomas Hobbes, CoUected by Sir William M/eworth, 1840, vol. IV p. 44: "Pity is imagination or fic^n of futur™ calamity to ourselves, proceeding from the sense of another man's calamity." contemporaries must have prompted him to write that melancholy was apparent in diverse manners: "as m haunting of solitudes, and graves; in superstitious behaviour; and in fearing some one, some another particular thing." It strikes one that fear could lend the charm of poetry to his own prose. Literature proper shows an interest in Hobbes' views with regard to the state of nature, the history of priestcraft and the inherent selfishness of man. The warriors are divided into two camps ; undoubtedly the smaller camp agrees with his pessirnistic views of mankind. W. Wycherley, about 1694, seems to have been much interested in theories about the state of nature, of which he held his own views which, perhaps, may best be mentioned here, along with his strong plea for mdividuality and independent moral judgment. He does so at the expense of man's best gift, reason, m a poem of about 240 lines Upon the Impertinence of Knowledge, the Unreasonableness of Reason, and the BrutaUty of ËNtmtMty ; proving the Animal Lift the most Reasonable Life, since the most natural, and most innocent. The trend of the argument is that man should not try to influence his nature by his reason; sense lessens the innocence of man; nature is the best guide that man can choose, and nature always triumphs over reason. For Reas'ning then, Man less is in the Right, Whose Sense, thwarts senselessly his Appetite. Man need not follow the judgments of others, by his sense he can judge alone what is right or wrong. By subnutting to example he becomes a slave. Real free-wül is found among animals, who have no reason to keep them in check. As animals have neither guilt nor shame, they are superior to mankind because of their lack of reason. They are also less brutal, more sociable, seldom foes of their own kind, and do not know the unbndled sensuahty of man. In A Song, in Praise of Solitude he appears to have realised long before S. Johnson that the flight from society was a selftsh act. On the other hand, without menüoning the name of Hobbes, he seems to refer to him when he writes j "Most happy.... Who, but the more for his Self-love For others has more charity.... and who "for his Wise Selfishness, Or Avarice, or Vanity, has less." In this way, he maintains, sohtude is just selfishness and prevents the selfishness of the world. He defended "good-nature" against "good-sense" in verses In Vindication of Simplicity, and Good-Nature; To an IU-natur'd Lady, who said, Good-Nature was Folly, and the Disgrace of Good-Sense. Here he takes the view that benevoience marks the difference between man and beast. Good-nature makes Frail Man above all Self-love grow, And of a Man, become a God below, Good to Mankind, without Return to do j Then none Good-nature want of Sense can call, Since Heav'n, which knows all, helps, and pardons all. The lenient view which Wycherley here takes of the foibles of mankind also forms a striking contrast with the orthodox representation of the God of Vengeance. The Earl of Mulgrave praised Hobbes in verses On Mr. Hobbes, published by Dryden, 1693, republished in 1716 and 1721. "Great Hobbes" had been a leader in the struggle against rehgious superstition While in dark Ignorance Man lay afraid Of Fancies, Ghosts, and ev'ry empty Shade. John Hanbury held Wycherley's views as regards the natural hfe. "The State of Nature," (1704) was the happy time when "Nature was obey'd", when the "Laws of Nature" were the "Laws of Man." Rehgion was then no "Mystiek Trade" as it has since become. But the "blockhead" wanted to be "wiser than the brute" and submitted to the priest, who "amaz'd him in his mystiek School, Turn'd his Head round, and made him Knave and Fooi. Addison was on the side of Hobbes when in The Spectator No. 418, 1712, he mentioned a minor and a major cause for the pleasure derived from the melancholy descriptions of torments and death. In addition to the pleasure of grief, there is the pleasure of "the secret comparison which we make between ourselves and the person who suffers." We then "prize our good fortune, which exempts us from the like calamities." The contemplation of the animal world brings no hope to the heart of Aaron Hill and the melancholy conviction which was at the root of Hobbes' aphorism: "Homo homini lupus," is heard in The Vision, 1726, Why should creature still with creature jar? And clashed existence wage eternal war? Beast bleeds by beast; fishes on fishes prey; And bird acts murder with more waste than they. Mandevüle had given expression to similar thoughts in The Fobie of the Bees. (1723). Three years before Hobbes' theory had been playfully referred to by William Weston in The Knight of the Kirk or the Ecclesiastical Adventures of Sir John Presbyter. The Knight of the Kirk is here the adherent of Hobbes' phüosophy. There was a time, so says our knight And swears that he is in the right, When things were in the state of nature.... A footnote runs : "See Hobbe's State of Nature: also his tract de Cive." What was meant by the state of nature is then expressed thus: Mother earth, that pregnant creature, Brought forth in ditches, fens and bogs, Great swarms of men as thick as frogs; Equally aged, strong and wise Exacdy of the selfsame size, Bright sturdy louts, untoward clowns Who used to knock each others crowns. 18. HOBBES' PHILOSOPHY OPPOSED. For more than two generations morahsts were engaged in efforts to refute Hobbes' theories. Harrington's Oceana, 1656, contained a criticism of his pohtical phüosophy. Of the so-called Cambridge Platonists — a group of thinkers in the 17th century endeavouring to blend rational theology with rehgious phüosophy — Cudworth (d. 1688) upheld the "essential and eternal distinctions of good and evü," and their independence of Wül; Henry More (d. 1687) stated his formula of benevoience : "if it be good that one man should be supplied with the means of living well and happily, it is mathematically certain that it is doubly good that two should be so supplied, and so on." However, his conception of benevoience does not differ materially from Platonic-Aristotelian opinion and amounts to the old notion of hberahty. Benevoience reached a much higher level when Cumberland in his treatise "De Legibus Naturae (1672) laid down the rule that "the Common good of all" should overrule all other considerations. "The greatest possible benevoience," by which he means effective benevoience, "of every rational agent towards all the rest constitutes the happiest state of each and all." H. Sidgwick holds that, when John Locke ascnbes "goodness" to the Suprème Being, he cannot consistendy mean "anything but the disposition to give pleasure," i.e. happiness, and man is morally bound to foüow the divine example. Clarke defended Christian revelation, the belief in immortahty and future rewards and punishments, equity, and universal benevoience. Shaftesbury removed the possibüity of conflict between natural self-love and social duty; goodness, with him, imphes primarüy disinterested affections tending to the good of others, of mankind as a whole ; the "moral sense" creates in man a love of goodness for its own sake. The list of attacks on Hobbes, direct and indirect, is rather long. In the following quotations there can be no doubt that Hobbes is meant. In An Elegie upon Mr. Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, 1679, much is said in praise of the hterary merit of his work; "he erres more pleasing than others hit/' With such sweet Force he does our Thoughts invade That when he cannot Teach, he does Persuade.... Condemnation of his theories must be assumed in the lines: . . And Vice and Vertue both were our opinion, And vari'd with the Laws of each Dominion. Two epitaphs are given at the end of the elegy; they take a less flattering view of Hobbes. One aims at his materialism and perhaps at his doctrine of inherent selfishness: In fine, after a thousand Sharns and Fobbs Ninety years eating and immortal Jobbs, Here Matter lies.... and there's an End of Hobbes. Grove's essay published as Spectator No. 588, Sept. 1714, is entirely directed against Hobbes and a vindication of disinterested benevoience. Grove cannot imagine what induces some to represent human nature at a disadvantage and give a sordid description of it. Hobbes, he maintains, followed Epicurus in this respect. From this essay it also appears that the 18th century opposition to the theory that the world was built up of atomsx) and that Chance governed all, was closely connected with the resistance of Hobbes' doctrine of human selfishness. Grove does not refer to any philosopher when he writes : "Hitherto I always imagined that kind and benevolent propensions were the original growth of the heart of man which had still some force in the worst of tempers.' He assumes the perfection of the Universe and from that concludes the perfect beneficence of God "who gave existence to the Universe, and so cannot be supposed to want that which he communicated." Men resemble God in this respect. Society founded on selflove could never flourish. The common centre of the universe answers to universal benevoience. *) The English Works of Thomas Hobbes vol. I, p. 426. R, Blackmore attacked Hobbes (and Spinoza) with regard to the "melancholy Fear of Gods," in Crèmes; A Satyre" 1718. It was only natural that William King should object to the "vile Notions of human Nature in general" of "Hobb's and his admirers." (Remains of the Late.... Dr. William King," etc. 1732.) The younger Sam. Wesley's poem of 106 lines On Hobbes, occasioned by a Copy of Verses written by the Earl of Mulgrave," 1736, takes the view that Hobbes speaks blasphemy when he maintains that the gospel consists of Tal es received In private feign'd and publicly believed. He condemns it in him that at Cromwell's command he foolishly taught ev'n good and ill, To veer obsequious to the Tyrants will. In 1749 James Cawthorn mentions Hobbes' antagonist Cudworth in The Vanity of Human Enjoyments, an ethic epistle, who, he asserts, refuted Hobbes' theories. Yet though his system wit and science fired, Though Wilmot trembled and though Hobbes expired Mistaken zeal conspired to blast the unfimshed page. A reference by Hawkesworth in The Adventurer Nov. 24, 1753, to those who plausibly degrade human nature can only refer to Hobbes. S. Johnson refuses even to call Hobbes a philosopher. In The Idler of May 6th, 1758, he remarks : Compassion is, by some reasoners, on whom the name of philosophers has been too easily conferred resolved into an affection merely selfish, an involuntary perception of pain at the involuntary sight of beings like ourselves latigitiahitig in misery." To such doctrines he strongly objects. The sort of pity Hobbes had in mind can never "settle into a principle of action or extend reliëf to calamities unseen, in generations not yet in being." John Langhorne accuses Hobbes of selfish narrow- mindedness in The Enlargement of the Mind, 1765, part I. Saint and sinner are here mentioned together as examples of persons who sought themselves, hated the world, and therefore sinned against society : If to one object, system, scène confined, The sure effect is narrowness of mind. 'Twas thus St. Robert, in the lonely wood Fors ook each social duty — to be good ; Thus Hobbes on one dear system fix'd his eyes And proved his nature wretched to be wise. Geo. Canning's poem, Anti-Lucretius, 1766, contains the longest condemnation of Hobbes' phüosophy. This poem was originally written in Latin by Cardinal de Pohgnac and published in 1747. Canning, however, did not give a mere translation, for he writes in the Preface that he thought it incumbent on him to make the Cardinal, to the best of his ability, an Englishman, as well in point of sentiment, as of language. Briefly stated he argues against Hobbes : that he denied every natural law, that just and unjust were "merely terms of art," that "to man's appointment all their Sanction owe," and that they are "chüdren of strife." When first mankind sprung up from parent day, Self-love, he (Hobbes) says, bóre universal sway.... The hungry savage prowled alone for spoils, Thus, from self-interest, rose contentious broils, To rage and rapine, yet, was fixed no bar, The state of nature was a state of war. Prudence and pubhc utility suggested laws to prevent the destruction of all. Fear induced the rest to consent. Such Hobbes' doctrine ! such the seeds, on earth, That gave both Justice, and Religion birth. This theory the author contradicts: Who thus, unauthorised, profusely frames, A forged hypothesis to blast their (Justice and Religion s) Betrays, indeed, himself their bitter toe,.... [claims Virtue would thus become an empty word, says the poet. Francis Gentleman is also against Hobbes and on the side of revelation, in Characters 1766, a — not very brilliant — satire. He maintains that all shrewd quotations from Toland, Tindal, Hobbes and Bolmgbroke are contrary to the dictates of reason. The defeat of Hobbes' theory is assumed and an allusion to the tide of one of his works is heard in a poem On the Diversity of Religious Sects and Opinions, addressed to Lorenzo by W. Kenrick, 1768. ... .with caution hoist thy sail, To court the metaphysk gale Lest, hurried on.... 'Mong struck leviathans, in vain To plunge and flounder thro' the main.... While floating isles, that cheat the sight, To faithless anchorage invite : Hobbes, St. John, Hume and hundreds more Rich barks 1 All shipwreck'd on the shorc... 19. (a) DID CHANCE OR PROVIDENCE GOVERN THE WORLD ? Hobbes' revival of the atomism of Democritus and Epicurus had attracted the attention of Margaret Cavendish.1) In 1753 she devoted hundreds of verses to Hobbes' atomic materialism under such headings as the following: Nature calls a Council, which was Motion, Figure, Matter and Life to advise about making the World. Deaths endeavour to hinder and obstruct Nature. A World made by Atomes. Of atry Atomes. The Weight of Atomes. The Bigness of Atomes. r iv v ?meS 6 Ui*> D*ath* Sickness, Dropsie, Consumption, This theory gready exercised the rninds of the 18th century poets, who in numerous poems tried to answer the question : Did Chance or Intelligence rule the Universe, and, if Intelligence did, was goodness one of its attributes ? »i? i 51 ^fr EP^W to ^ PhUosophical and Physical Opinions writtenby.... JJj,% Marchwnesse of Newcdsue, p. 1W5, notwithstanding her claim to originahty she admits havmg read Hobbes's De Cive and having "heard the opinions of most Philosophers in generat" tl An early protest against Hobbes' phüosophy versified by Margaret Cavendish is heard in Mrs K. Philips* poem Submission, 1664. It seems to express the deist's view of the harmony of the Universe and anticipates such lines of the Essay on Man (1732—34) as Respecting man, whatever wrong wc call, May, must be right, as relative to all. (1-51, 52). Some lines of her poem intended to prove this, foüow here ; Nothing by Chance could in such order fall.... And the same Fate that seems to one Reverse, Is necessary to the Universe. All these particular and various things Linked to their Causes by such secret Springs, Are held so fast, and govern'd by such Art, That nothing can out of its order start. TheWorld's God's watch, where nothing is so small, But makes a part of what composes all. She goes on to embroider on this theme. As to the decrees of Providence she tells us here: Yet all in various Consorts fidy sound, And by their Discords Harmony compound.... What kills this, does that propagate. With Shaftesbury, much later, she holds that God can be no tyrant. Judging from Lady Chudleigh's poem on Sohtude, 1703, she adhered to Hobbes' views of the crowd in the state of nature. The crowd, she writes, is unfit for the meditations of sohtude. It resembles chaos in which "the thoughdess Atoms met by Chance." The turmoü of the atoms in chaos we find in ourselves when impelled by hatred or despair. To disparage Hobbes, whom he mentions by name, Grove, in Speet. 588, 1714, refers to the atomic theory. Ironically he speaks of Epicurus' phüosophy "which, having patched man up out of the four dements, attributes his being to Chance, and derives all his actions from an unmtelligible declinatton of atoms." Generaüy when chance is mentioned in the reniaining poetry or prose it is contrasted with the intelhgent goodness of the deity. This may be due to the fact that Shaftesbury had been giving his support to the deists for some time. 20. (b) THE DEISTS. If something is said here about Hobbes' antagonists, the Deists, it is because of the influence of the greatest among them, Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671—1713). *) Deists were adherents of the Universal Rehgion of Nature which they believed to have been implanted in all men's hearts by their Creator. Some of them were not hostile to Christ's teachings, which they considered to be useful or necessary additions to the doctrines revealed by Nature. As a matter of fact the line of demarcation between deists and behevers in revelation, is hard to draw. The danger of persecution under the law against heresy, 1697, was by no means ïmaginary.8) Deists were therefore compelled to express themselves very guardedly and some of them have passed for sincere Christians. "The Christianity of many writers," says Leslie Stephen, "consisted simply in expressing deist opinions in oldfashioned phraseology." The behef in future rewards and punishments is no criterion: Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who published his treatise De Veritate as early as 1624, defends the existence of a future state of rewards and punishments just as much as Spinoza8) frfty years later. Joseph Clarke, who dehvered the Boyle lectures in the years 1704 and 1705, was by no means prepared to dispense with heil. On the other hand the dogma of sin and atonement lost much of its force among deists ; if men of all creeds might be saved there was htde need of a Saviour. Besides, what occasion was there to sm against the "First Cause" of all things, if obedience se? chapter^2113'3 ddsti° teachings 311(1 ^ popularity before Shaftesbury by\ M? Roberteonger °f202 Bksphemy 1697 P,oneer Humanists P^nJ^uléiS'pfi^^^ * Spin0Za ^ J' M' R°bertSOn' to Nature was the one sufficiënt principle ? Says Matthew Tindal, 1730, (in Christianity as old as Creation) : "whoever so regulates his natural appetitcs as will conduce most to the exercise of his reason and the pleasures of his senses taken and considered together (since herein his happiness consists,) may be certain he can never offend his Maker/' Wycherley had preached very much the same kind of morahty in verse, about forty years earlier. The starting point of the Deists was their identification of God with Nature. In the orthodox view God had been the Ruler of the Universe in some way independent of Him and external to Him. Contemplation of the Universe might reveal something of His power and majesty, but "Nature", says Leslie Stephen, "the true metaphysical deity of Clarke and his school, is sometimes identified with God, and sometimes appears to be in some sense a common superior of man and bis Creator. The deistic identification of moral and natural law easily tends to the destruction of morahty. This should also be remembered when the contemporary frequency of suicide is discussed. Leaving the pubhcation, by Mallet, of Bohngbrokes Letters and Fragments in his Works, 1754, out of consideration, the last treatise of any importance dealing with the deist controversy was Th. Morgan's The Moral Phüosopher, 1737—40. The colourless and vaguely benevolent God of Nature against whom Buder had directed his attacks in Fifteen Sermons, 1726, and in his Analogy of Religion, 1736, had failed to excite much Seal in his worshippers. Pope and Bohngbroke had summarised the dogmatic teaching of the creed in the wellknown phrase : "Whatever is, is right," which conveyed little consolation to suffering humanity. William Wollaston, on the other hand, the clergyman, who, like Clarke, occupies a position between the orthodox and the deists, had been profoundly touched by the misery of mankind : "the history of mankind," he said, "is little else but the history of uncomfortable dreadful passages, and a greater part of it.... is scarcely to be read by a good-natured man without amazement, horror and tears." So great was the popularity of his book, The Religion of Nature Delineated, 1722, that 10.000 copies were sold in a very few years. The 7th ed. appeared in 1750. Yet deism had had its day. The deist complaint of the injustice and partiality of the God of the Bible had been met with the reply that the God revealed through Nature was equally partial and unjust. In poetry, however, and m the periodical essay various aspects of the question continued to attract attention. Something of the interest taken in the struggle may appear from the following chapter. 21. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN NATURAL RELIGION OR DEISM AND REVELATION. Henry Needler had strong leanings towards deism and therefore he defended Universal toleration so that "these rehgious deists might meet and worship God." His defimtion of deists confirms what I have written above : "Süch as beheve the existence and perfection of God, his provi(tential government of the world, the immortality of the soul, ruture rewards and punishments, and generally all the prmapals of natural Rehgion." (Letter to Mr. D. Oct. 14. In his attempt to refute atheism he could not quote revealed rehgion and was forced to prove God's existence, wisdom and goodness from Nature. Like others he seems to have been wavering between doctrinal Christianity and deism, for he paraphrased psalms and part of Proverbs, Chapter VIII, and wrote a poem On the prodigies, which attended our Blessed Saviour's Crucifixion. But he also wrote (m a Letter to Mr. D. Dec. 3. 1711) that he read "the fine Philosophical Meditation of my Lord Shaftesbury,.with abundance of pleasure in a sort of rapture struck with dehght and admiration, by the majesty and beauty of the From a note we know that the Meditation here referred to is found in the 3rd part of the Moralists, a philosophical Rhapsody, printed in 1709. Joseph Warton in an Ode To Superstition, 1746, shows that he is on the side of Reason and against Revelation. He hails the friends of Reason as enemies of "Mystery's odious veil" and owns as his masters : Clarke, Wollaston, Locke, Newton and above all Plato. We may beheve that the mental attitude of many in the 18th c. with regard to the embarrassing conflict of philosophical and rehgious opinions found expression in Francis Hawling's Invocation to the Suprème Being. 1752. Confirm my mind in what is truly just Which form to follow, and which priest to trust. That Edw. Lovibond was an adherent of Natural Religion appears from his poetry and from his prose. Thus in The World No 132 for July lOth, 1755, he wrote an essay on The Suprème Being. In this article he refers to the conflicts of behefs. From the irregular distnbution of good and evil on earth, some argue that there will be a hereafter where all will be rectified. Some say that God governs by general, not particular laws ; laws that respect our happiness as a community, not as individuals. From simple occurrences he infers the relativity of good and evil and concludes, with Pope, that the prevailing system is wisest and best, "because fittest for mankind, to whose wants it is accommodated and to whose faculties it is proportioned." In Number 134, for July 24th 1755, he returns to the subject. He desires to confute "the behef of a Providence." Here he confesses himself to be an adherent of Natural Rehgion and in an interesting marmer he shows the attitude of his co-religionists to Revelation. This article, like Needler's definition, confirrns the difficulty we often experience in deternuning whether in hterature we are dealing with a deist or a behever in doctrinal Christiamty. "A well-supported revelation, that instructs us in the doctrine of a future state, may fidy be applied : for though revelation cannot serve as a basis to natural religion, on which it is only a superstructure, yet it may be extremely useful to reconcile the seeming inconsistencies of a system, discovered to be good by arguments of another kind; and reason will aquiesce in the truths it teaches, as agreeable to its own dictates." The war on Deism was also waged on the pages of The Christiaris Mag. which in Oct. 1766, contained an article The Inconsistency of Deism and the ExceUency of Christianity set forth. Toland is here called a kind of second rate deist. The Christian's Mag. rivalled the Deists in respect of adrniration of the Universe and the emphasis they put on the Benevoience of the Creator; e.g. in Nov. 1766 it published an article Observations upon the order and Harmony in the works of the Creaüon under the motto "Jovis omnia plena." We read t "We can have no doubt of the benevoience of their author. The same harmony is displayed in the brightest cbaracter over every part of the Universe." But neither "the Pulpit-fop, Saint Dodd" nor the favour shown by contemporary critics to the Deists could please Evan Lloyd who, in The Powers of the Pen, 1766, prefers Sterne and Rousseau. Robert Nugent may be supposed to have expressed the thoughts of many who wavered between Natural Rehgion and Revelation when he wrote, in 1774, in Faith, a Poem, that the "accord of things" is explained by Natural Rehgion but that "instinct, reason, law, for man traced out an imperfect plan" and that revelation was indispensable. He agrees in this respect with what Lovibond wrote in 1755, probably after reading Henry Dodwell's Christianity not Founded on Argument. 1742. Against unbeheving doctrines E. Rack protests in some verses On the Divine Wisdom as exemplified in the works of Creauon and Providence. 1775. In the Universe he sees wisdom unchangeable, but others "boldly upbraid t£e oeconomy divine through all his works." And in Night he claims the support of Dr. Young, "fair virtue's animated friend" who, he says, had recorded "in his deathless page" that an undevout astronomer was mad. Therefore, after a century and a half the quarrel between the revelatiorusts and the deists was not much farther than in 1621, when Burton wrote that the deists, compared with other men "of little or no rehgion" were "more temperate in this life" gave "many good moral precepts," were "honest, upright, and sober in their conversation," but "too much learning makes them mad." 22. BERNARD MANDEVILLE. The ablest of the attacks on deism was dehvered by Bernard Mandeville whose hterary greatness after a period of misrepresentation has again found due recognition in F. B. Kaye's The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, Publiek Benefits. By Bernard Mandeville. Two vols. Oxford 1924. MandevihVs fame during his lifetime is apparent from numerous editions of his works in English, French, Dutch, and German. (See op. cit. I p. XXX. seq.). Mandeville liimself tells us in A Vindication of the Book (op. cit. 409) that the "first Impression of the Fable of the Bees which came out in 1714, was never carpt at, or publickly taken notice of; and all the Reason I can think on why this second edition (viz. 1723) should be so unmercifully treated is an Essay on Charity Schools." The opposition to The Grumbling Hive (p. 1705) — later extended to The Fable of the Bees (1714) was therefore not primarily due to its opposition to deistic views. Mandeville stated the grounds of his attacks on Shaftesbury in the opening lines of A Search into the Nature of Society, 1723 ï the generahty of moralists and philosophers had maintained that there could be no virtue without selfdenial "but a late Author, who is now much read by Men of Sense.... imagines that Men.... may be naturally Virtuous," and that as man was made for society he ought to be born "with a kind Affection to the whole." In his First Dialogue, 1729, (op. dt. 43) he ironically refers to "the lovely System of Lord Shaftsbury" which is "cUametrically opposite" to that of "the Fable of the Bees/' and at the end of the Sixth Dialogue he states that the ideas Shaftesbury had formed of the goodness and excellence of our nature "were as romantiek and chimerical as they are beautiful and amiable." In another place he says: "the opinions of the ancients" viz., that there can be no virtue without selfdenial was the basis of his attack on Lord Shaftesbury, who "was the first that maintain'd the contrary/' asserting that men were directed in their choice of virtue by nature, (Third Dialogue, op.cit. 108). In Mandevüle's own words his book was designed for "the modern Deist...." By a deist he understood: "He who believes, in the common acceptation, that there is a God and that the world is rul'd by providence, but has no faith in anything reveal'd to us." (Third Dialoeue. On. cit. II, 102, and footnotej. V Joseph Clarke had tried to prove that the laws of right and wrong were not merely dictated by fashion; through him and his followers the phrase "eternal and inunutable'' had become a kind of catchword. Mandeville faced this belief with the observation that, in fact, they are temporary and variable. Pitting his relativism against the absolutism of deists and orthodox he asserted in A Search into the Nature of Society (Op. cit. 367) : It is in Morahty as it is in Nature, there is nothing so perlectly Good in Creatures that it cannot be hurtful to anyone of the Society, not anything so entirely Evil, but it may prove beneficial to some part or other of the Creation : So that things are only Good end Evil in reference to something else, and according to the Light and Position they are placed in." Women and children, i.e. "the weakest natures," Montaigne had said, were most subject to compassion.1) It is therefore interesting to hear Mandevüle's doctrines apphed to pity in An Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue (op. cit. 56). It is impossible to judge of Man's Performance, unless we are thoroughly acquainted with the Principle and Motive from » IZJfaSr^tïT*01110 demonstratiori of pity by women end children is mentioned, with disapproval, by Marana. See page 217. which hc acts. Pity, tho' it is the most gentle and the least mischievous of all our Passions, is yet as much a frailty of our Nature, as Anger and Pride or Fear. The weakest Minds have generally the greatest Share of it, for which Reason none are more Compassionate than Women and Children Of all our Weaknesses it is the most amiable, and bears the greatest resemblance to Virtue j nay without a considerable Mixture of it the Society could hardly subsist. But as it is an Impulse of Nature, that consults neither the public Interest nor our own Reason, it may produce Evil as well as Good.... and whoever acts from it as a Principle, what good soever he may Dring to the Society, has nothing to boast of but that he has indulg'd a Passion that has happened to be beneficial to the Publick. Mandevüle's conception of virtue made him declare that no action was virtuous, if it was inspired by selfish emotion and, as he considered all natural emotion fundamentaüy selfish, this imphed the ascetic position thatno action was virtuous, if done from natural impulse (op. cit. CXX). Again and again Mandevüle mamtains that he defends Revelation against the Deists, particularly against Shaftesbury, who "seems to have endeavour'd to sap the Foundation of all reveal'd Rehgion, with Design of establishing Heathen Virtue on the Ruins of Christianity'' (end of Sixth Dialogue). The Church, however, was hostile to Mandevüle. In his defuiition of virtue he had amalgamated both the views of the deists and the orthodox, and in testing aü human actions by this Standard he pronounced those acts alone virtuous "by which Man, contrary to the impulse of Nature, should endeavour to benefit others, or the Conquest of his own Passions out of a Rational Ambition of being good." Mandeville could find no actions that came up to that Standard ; as Kaye says : "The aftairs of the world are not managed in obedience to such transcendent views of morahty." *) n Dissatisfaction with life and a disbelief in human virtue was also a marked feature of the phüosophy of Beccaria, the great ItaUan reformer and author of Dei Delitti e delle Pene. 1764. See Crimes and Punishments by James A. Farrer. 1880, page 7. The title of Mandevüle's poem Private Vices, Publick Benefits was usually misinterpreted and gave him many enemies. "The true Reason" he says "why I made use of the Tide.... was to raise Attention" (op. cit. I, 412). Its real meaning was that "Private Vices by dextrous management of a sküful Politician might be turned into Publick Benefits" (op. cit. I, 369). Mandevüle evidendy disliked Shaftesbury's rhetorical apostrophe of Nature (II, 44). Though he refuses to call God cruel and stops further argument about God's attributes as revealed by Nature, by calling such things an "inexphcable Mystery" (II, 252), he has emphasized the "Industry of Nature in the Multiphcity of her Contrivances to kül" her creatures (II, 249), and has observed that "Mühons of her Creatures are.... doom'd to perish for Want of Sustenance" (II, 250). "There is nothing Good in all the Universe to the best designing Man," he writes inA Search into the Nature of Society, "if either through Mistake or Ignorance he commits the least Faüing in the Use of it." In his Essay on Charity1) he defends himself against the charge of inhumanity. "I have no design that is cruel, nor the least aim that savours of Inhumanity." The country should posses a sufficiënt number of hospitals. "Young children without parente, old age without support and all that is disabled from working ought to be taken care of with tenderness and alacrity," but beggary and laziness of the poor should be discouraged, and employment found for all who could work. He confirms the complaint of John Graunt, the statician, in 1661, about the vast number of beggars "swarming up and down this city," most of them healthy and strong and Mandevüle repeats Graunt's advice to find employment for them. Though Mandevüle's writings made him the centre of much hostüity, many of his views were sensible enough and justified by the state of society at that time. His essays should be read to form a just opinion of his *) It seems, from page 313 of the second ed. of The Fable of the Bees in 1723 that this article was parüy written in 1720. protests against sentimentality and exaggeration. But, evidendy, he wrote against the drift of public opinion» Judging from his Essay on Charity the trading classes took the lead in the establishment of charity schools and the cry for general education, and the clergy followed. So great was their enthusiasm for these charities and "the finery of the Shew" that whoever dared oppose them was "in danger of being stoned by the Rabble.'* Modern opinion would certainly not agree with Mandevüle's opposition to a better education of the poor. However, when Mandevüle argues that an educated man is not equivalent to a man of good morahty1), he defends an old orthodox principle. Moreover, the indignation roused by Mandevüle's attack on the Charity Schools was not due to any desire of the age to make the labourer comfortable, lessen his work, or raise his wages.a) His views rested on the current economie attitude; such complaint as was made against his brutality may be taken as due really to his having omitted the flavouring of sentiment and moralising with which his contemporaries sweetened their behefs; they were scandalised at his downrightness of statement, which here as elsewhere was able to make a current creed obnoxious by the mere act of stating it with complete candour (op. cit. LXXII). His remarks about the increase in the numbers of criminals — which he attributes to the cruelty of the laws — are worth reading; few wanted a thief to be hanged for a petty theft. In his Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn" 1725, he advocates prison reform and solitary confinement. Punishments, he asserts, among other things, lose their deterrent effect if intoxicating liquors are served to condemned criminals. His Fourth Dialogue contains a panegyric on the intellectual abihty of women. "There is no Labour of the *) Among the army of highwaymen, in and about London, was a barrister, several attorneys, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, a stockbroker," etc. Daniël Defoe. Hit Life and Recently discovered writings.... By William Lee. 1869. W £ *) To give or to receive wages at a higher rate than had been fixed by the justices in Sessions was punishable with imprisonment. See L. O. Pike, A History of Crime in England, London, 1876, p. 294. Brain, which they are not capable of performing." *) His condemnation of the killing of animals for food 2) was founded on the cruelty involved.8) His protest is, no doubt, due to Pythagorean influence, though he says that he does not want to urge anything "of what Pythagoras and many other Wise Men had said concerning this Barbarity of eating flesh." The eleven pages of his Remark O, (p. 1714) end with a story of a man pleading for his life with a lion, just as Pope's essay in the Guardian in the year before (see chapter 33) had ended with one of the Persian Fabies of Pilpay. With regard to the chase Mandeville remarks that it is "only Man, mischievous Man, that can make Death a Sport." From his vivid description of the killing of a young bullock we must believe that such horrible scènes deeply affected him. *) l) If A Conference about Whoring is rightly attributed to him — by the Cat. Brit. Mus. and by Stonehill — he would be one of the early advocates of a better education of women. 5 Thé Fable of the Bees, 1714, Remark O, pp. 146-150. 3) Op. cit, p. 157. *) Mandevüle's style continued to find imitators more particularly among the revolutionary elements later in the century. Speaking about his studies in his poem The Student, which he composed, we may suppose, long before 1773, James Graeme tells us that he divided his attention impartially between Shaftesbury and his antagonist Mandevüle. a) Mandevüle's style was imitated by John Hall Stevenson, who published his New Fable of the Bees, 2nd ed. 1768, under the pseudonym of Makarony; he irionically asserts the divine right of kings on a new principle, namely that bees have queens and that lice and fleas are governed by a sovereign prince ; God makes no difference between great and smaU AU kings are equal in God's sight Whether the monarch be great or smaü Whether a Brunswick or a mite. Another imitator of Mandevüle'e satiric style 6) was Thomas Penrose, (who died 1779). He tnaititatn» (in italics) that in society some are ripe and some are rotten, but aü promote the general good. And, — if the Muse, whose judgment nice is, Shows Publick good in private vices, The holiest tongue must cease to stir. He writes this in Essay on the Contrarieties of Public Virtue. The lines Learn the best to cull from evil, All saints take warning by the Devil show his estimation of their author. The essay satirises the evil in the state, and that was what Mandevüle had done, and Penrose also, though with a change of sentiment, when the latter wrote his Address to the Genius of Britain, in which he sympathises with the „felons, stamped the foes of social life by penury's rough hand." a,b) Not mentioned by F. B. Kaye op. cit., in his List of References to Mandevüle's Work. II, 418. 23. DEISTIC INSISTENCE ON GOD'S PERFECT GOODNESS. Though Shaftesbury beheved no more in revelation than Hobbes did, his method of attack on orthodoxy differed widely from the latter's and was influenced by the works of the Cambridge Platonists*) to whom I have referred. The Pythagorean emphasis on harmony which had resounded in Dryden's verses From harmony, from heavenly harmony2) This universal frame began From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran The diapason closing full in man, is repeated even more forcefully by Shaftesbury and echoed by numerous versifiers. God, he maintains, is the benevolent and all pervading force in Nature. It is blasphemy to represent him as angry with his creatures. The Deity is loved for his own sake and not because of fear of future punishments or for the sake of future rewards. Instead of being corrupt mankind finds internal guidance in its "moral sense." Our natural affections tend to the pubhc good; the love of humanity must be the ruling passion. The same opinion about the goodness of God had been expressed in Charles Gildon's introductory Account of the Author to the Miscellaneous Works of Charles Blount, 1695. Blount, he says, "had learn'd that God was the Cause of all Things was Goodness itself." That Wycherley, about 1695, held that "Heaven pardons all" has been observed. Shaftesbury's essays and Miscellaneous Reflections were l) ïohn Sherman had given reason its independent position (1641> by praising Plato's rule Ob tfe &XU tL The Cambridge Platonists recogmsed Christian doctrine as in harmony with the voice of nature and accepted pagan phüosophy as lending additional force to both. CJfX. Vol. VIII, ch. Xi. P ^ There was no reason why the orthodox should leave harmony out of thax poetry about the Universe; e.g. Matthew Pnor's poem A Pindanc Ode, on Exodus III, 14, 1707, has the lines: Why should each consenting sign With prudent Harmony combine, To keep in order, and gird-up the regular year.... published together in 1711 as Characteristics of Men, Mannen, Opinions and Times. Of the place of this author in hterature Leshe Stephen writes that his reputation is scarcely commensurate with the influence he once exerted. His teaching is to be traced through much of our literature, though often curiously modified by the medium through which it has passed. He speaks to us in Pope's poetry and in Buder's theology. All the ethical writers are related to him, more or less cürecdy, by sympathy or opposition. The causes and progress of his popularity until 1760 were discussed by C. A. Moore in an article mentioned before. However, there had been deists in England and abroad before Shaftesbury, and the pubhc had eagerly listened to the eloquent exponents of various phases of deistic thought, among whom Marana and Montaigne occupied a prominent place. My observations about the relations in which these authors stood to each other and to the hterature of melancholy are founded on independent investigation. Protests against the theory that Chance should govern the world and insistence on the harmony and perfection of the Universe and on God's goodness are so closely connected that it is not very well possible to quote poetry or prose that praises one without mentioning the other. The principle of inherent human goodness underlies Addison's essay in the Spectator, Nov. 6th 1711, in which education is compared to sculpture : "What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul." The philosopher, the saint or the hero may he concealed in the plebeian. For that same reason prinutive races are the source of interest to him, for their virtues are "wild and uncultivated." In 1712 Addison quoted classical authority, when, with unusual vigour, he turned against the gloomy representation of the deity ; "the atheist, who denies God, does him less dishonour than the man who owns his being, but at the same time believes him to be cruel, hard to please and terrible to human nature." Not Shaftesbury, but an Arabian author, Telliamed, is quoted by Pope in that remarkable essay in the Guardian (May 21, 1713) which goes far to prove that the 18fh century movement in favour of protection of animals from cruelty is in part due to the fact that they were included in the optimistic doctrine of the universal benevoience of Nature. Telliamed, writes Pope, has shown "how far a man, supposed to have subsisted in a desert island, without any instrucüon, or so much as the sight of any other man, may by the pure light of nature, attam the knowledge of phüosophy and virtue. One of the first things he makes hun observe is that Universal benevoience of nature in the protection and preservation of its creatures." I have mentioned Henry Grove's defence, in 1714, of God as "the most beneficent of all beings," who, as the common centre of the universe, answers to universal benevoience." Though Grove asserts that he has "always thought so, he uses Shaftesbury's arguments m his attack on Hobbes. tt , I £ The assumption that God could not be different from other benefactors had to defend the liberty to suïcide m OzelTs translation, 1721, of Montesquieu's Persian Letters. Henry Needler (d. 1718), in A Vernal Hymn in Praise of the Creator (p. in the second ed. of Works 1728), saw the perfection of the Creator reflected in Universal Nature: Whate'er of Goodness and of Excellence In Nature's various scène accost the sense To Thee alone their whole perfection owe. The Creator's attitude to the Universe is that of theParent. Chance does not enter into the Universe, whatever false Phüosophy" may teach. In prose he argues (On the Beauty of the Universe) that there is nothing that ariords more sensible proof of the goodness of God than the beauty of the Universe. In Thomson's Seasons, Ood is the Good Suprème (Winter, 1. 217), the Parent-Power (1 546) and evidendy identified with Nature when Nature also is caüed our "great Parent" (Winter, 1.106). In extasy we "taste the joy of God to see a happy world (Spring, 11. 902,3). When Thomson and his friends Scan the moral world" all "issues in general good" (Winter 1730, 11. 583—586). From The Excursion, 1726, it appears that Davïd Mallet does not consider God's vengeance to be inconsistent with his "unfathomed wisdom and goodness onconfined" and the ideal harmony of the Universe. The Almighty is the "still indulgent Parent of Mankind" in Richard Glover's Poem on Sir Isaac Newton, 1728. Soame Jenyns maintains, in an Essay on Virtue, 1734, "that God's our friend, Virtue our Good, and happiness our end." Henry Brooke's Universal Beauty, a philosophical poem in six books, 1735—1736, was the outcome of Shaftesbury's identification of the beautiful and the good. Mrs Pilkington's lines on Sorrow, 1735, Thou didst the jarring elements compose, When this harmonious universe arose suggest deistic doctrine. Close observation of the animal world causes Moses Browne to protest in Sunday Thoughts together with an Essay on the Universe, 1739, against the theory that "blind Chance, dead, unexisting name, could have produced such order, so complete a frame." The Universe shows an harmonious system which leads him to believe that only pride can be responsible for the thought that the other planets should be inhabited by beings with reasoning powers and by insects and animals. Ed. Lovibond, on the other hand, an advocate of Natural Religion approves of the theory that the creation may be explained by a fortuitous concourse of atoms. His Essays, however, make the impression of being very superficial productions. John Gilbert Cooper was an enthusiastic admirer of Shaftesbury and strongly influenced by his works. In his poem The Power of Harmony, 1745, he wants to show the ennobling influence of the contemplation of Nature, because he is convïnced that constant attention to what is perfect and beautiful in Nature will, by degrees, harmonise the soul to a responsive regularity and sympathetic order. In this connection he speaks disrespectfully of the priesthood. He refers us to the dialogues of PÏato and to the other philosophers of the academie school; to Lord 12 Shaftesbury and Huteheson among the moderns; he dwells on the comprehensive meaning of the word harmony and first makes the harmony of music the subject of his verses, next the harmony of Chastity and Justice. He condudes the second book with thoughts on the universal plan of nature, on beauty and proportion m "external objects" which harmonize the soul to a sympathetic order: ^ ^ Through the habitual intercourse of sense Is harmonised within, till all is fair and perfect; tul each moral power perceives its own resemblance with Iraternal joy, in every form complete and smihng feels beauty and good the same. David Mallet in his sentimental poem Amynto and Theodora, 1747, makes Aurehus, the Sage, say that the great community of nature's sons had the Deity as "Universal Goodness," which pervades earth, air, sea and all things that have hfe." A change m his opinions may account for the fact that he no longer writes of God s vengeance, Henry Jones emphasizes the harmony which guides the spheres and identifies this with the magie of ooetrv, which can charm the thought and command love, fear, and anguish. The Goodness of the Suprème Being is the subject of Chr. Smart's Seaton poem, Oct. 1755. The clergyman John Langhorne humanizes nature and makes her a tender parent in an Elegy, 1760: The eye of nature never rests from care; She guards her children with a parenrs love; And not a mischief reigns in earth or air But time destroys, or remedies remove. The voice divine, which waked sleeping nature at her creation, was the subhme source of Immortal Harmony in his Fragment, 1762. In his Autumnal Elegy, To.... written 1763 he puts much stress on the benevolent powers of heaven. . r_ Neither the occurrence of madness nor the frequency of suicide could shake the standpoint of the orthodox contributor to the Gent. Mag. in 1762, who rephed to the suggestion that Nature had its faults: "Nature must always work till it is united to the sovereign Good." Shenstone praised Shaftesbury's ethics and style highly and adopted his tides in part. This appears from his Essays e.g. on Men, Manners and Things. In one of these essays, viz. On Writing and Books, LXXXIII he expresses himself thus: "Lord Shaftesbury in the genteel management of some familiar ideas, seems to have no equal. He discovers an eloignment from vulgar phrases much becoming a person of quahty. His sketches should be studied like those of Raphael. His Enquiry is one of the shortest and clearest systems of morahty." To Hutcheson1) he refers in passing in an essay On Taste. The opinion of the British Biography, vol. X, 1780, about Shenstone's Essays can stül be ours : "mostly loose and detached reflections, thrown together without order and connection." John Langhorne observes (Enlargement of the Mind, Ep. II, 1763) that the cruelty of priests and pride of kings put nature to shame; she is "all benevolent." Nature teaches morahty, she "deigns to sympathise with art, And lead the moral beauty to the heart." Evan Lloyd, in his poem The Methodist, 1766, quotes arguments against the Memodists from those who are on the side of revelation as well as from Shaftesbury: Our Saviour's gracious plan Was to teach happiness to Man; By friendly arguments to win The World from slavery to sin. Man should obey from fihal love and gratitude and not through cowardly dread of law and "Owe all their virtues to their awe," in which we recognise Shaftesbury's ethics. In 1768 D. Bellamy's Universal Prayer was published by his son. It was a sort of "Our Lord's Prayer" made to harmonise with his own feelings and asks for a "reign of Universal Love." W. Kenrick in a letter addressed to Lorenzo On Human Certitude, 1768, points out "the harmony of Providence", though to the human mind the *) Hutcheson, while in essential agreement with Shaftesbury gives more prominence to the "moral sense" and emphasizes benevoience as the sum of universe may seem "capricious." The Pleasures of Contemplation by Miss Whateley, 1770, traces "th) The Fable of the Bees,... .with a commentary etc by F. B. Kaye. 2 vols. 1924 I. 53. !) Of the various references to the phüosophy of Pope's Essay on Man the following are of importance with regard to our subject. In an epigram On the Essays of Man 1754 Geo. Jeffreys observes that The fam'd essays on Man in this agree, That so things are, and therefore so should be; The proof inverted would be stronger far j So they should be, and therefore so they are. The Weddingday is a long poem in three parts, "by a citizen of London", 1762, who argues that the ruling mind ordained the general good, that all, general good may produce partial ül, but "Dl absolute! There is not such a thing. He advocates a cheerful religion and exalts Pope because that poet emphasized Man's foüy and God's wisdom. The poet of An Elegy on the Death ofa Fnend, Aug. 1764, signed "C" and published in The Christian's Mag. checks his despondent outburst of grief with the words: "Whatever is, is besr, printed in capital letters and Leonard Howard, 1765, in Verses on Mortality finds consolation in the maxim "Whatever is, is right." ... Belief in the truth op Pope's aphorism would have counteracted the activities of the splenetics bent on ^'reforrning schemes" of which Green wrote. The optimistic doctrine that partial UI is universal good, which was known to Katherine Phüips about the middle of the 17th century and was repeated by Shaftesbury and Pope, suggests the question "how shaU the man who thinks so be zealous to alter any ül save, by reflex action, the pinching of his own shoe. If he be reaUy concerned to mend human things, to what end does he insist that it is only from the ignorant human point of view that they need mending, and that a Benevolent First Cause has done aU things weUÏ a) a) Pioneer Hwnamsts by J. M. Robertson, p. 211. 25. SOCIAL INTEREST DUE TO PITY OR BENEVOLENT MOTIVES. An early orthodox protest against the cult of Solitude on the ground that "Society" has been "so built up that sympathy seems to links us to each other" is heard in Lady Chudleigh's prose essay Of SoUtude, 1710. The importance of this essay is the greater, as insistence on social love is generally fathered on Shaftesbury. Lady Chudleigh's appeal to her "dear suffering Saviour's blood" leaves little doubt about her orthodoxy. That Hughes, 1711, was convinced that a benevolent disposition contributed to public prosperity, has been mentioned. James Thomson's poem The Happy Man, 1729, combines "social love" with "the moral harmony of life." He praises charity, benevoience, beneficence, the social tear, the social sigh, the social passions, and social love, in Winter, U. 354—358, and Summer, 11. 1605 and 1641—6. In The Christian Poet or Divine Poems of the Four Last Things etc. 1735, a place is given to verses On Virtue, By Mr. Pope probably, because it insists on "love of God and love of Man." Rob. Nugent's poetical Epistles, 1739, contain an ardent plea for social love, "that sa ving portion of the eternal Ray," which he wants to see extended to the whole human race. He desires that it may Be, as it was designed, the World's great soul, Connect its parts and actuate the whole. The earth should be governed by the laws of Heaven, and he maintains that pohtical and moral are the same. For Shaftesbury's "moral sense" he uses the word "justice," and he concludes that "Justice fans the flame of social love."1) Social sentiment is combined with pity by Tob. Geo. *) It is difficult to understand why an author who defends such theories should turn against the deists and accuse them of being possessed of "blindfold rage." One feels inclined to share the opinion of the D.N.B., which calls his "later and obviously unaided efforts contemptible." Smollett in Advice and Reproof, Two Satires, first published in 1746 and 1747. Smollett here appears as the benevolist, who blames a brother poet for lack of sympathy. The tear of pity, ne'er bedew'd his eye, Nor his lewd bosom feit the social sigh. The "social heart" is mentioned together with "soft pity" in verses Occasioned by a little Miss's bursting out into tears upon reading the ballad of the Babes in the Wood. 1747. The poet, Josiah Relph, expresses the wish that this "Sweet softness" may retain This social heart, this sense humane Still kindly for the wretched bleed. Addison and this child, says the poet, had praised this ballad. I may here add that Pope, in 1713, Guardian 61, had drawn attention to the use that might be made of this and similar ballads with a view to the preservation of birds. "Social ardours" together with "melting pity" occur in Henry Jones's poem On the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin. 1749. He prays to Divine benevoience to inflame each heart with social ardours, and mutual love and wishes that humankind may become still "more refined." Richard Jago in An Elegy on Man, Jan. 1752, sees the active mind of man, urged by generous passions, occupy itself with "Friend, neighbour, country, all his kind." Dr. Johnson, in 1754, took Lady Chudleigh's view of Sohtude and protested against the condemnation of society which the cult implied. The interdependence of mankind for mutual good is insisted on by Is. Hawkins Browne (1705—1760) in De Animi Immortalitate. In the year 1754 there were three different translations of this poem : by Soame Jenyns, Richard Grey and William Hay. God, the Eternal Cause, is benevolent, Nature confirms social law, social virtue joins individuals. From motives of "Utility" mankind approves this law, "as every private bhss must spring from social love." The Enthusiast, 1754, W. Whitehead, admires Nature in the month of May and, influenced by phüosophy, he feels "a kind of visionary Zeal of Universal love/' All power mankind has at its disposal must be directed towards social good. Inactive enthusiasm is benevoience thrown away. The enthusiast has to mix with those of his own kind, for "Man was made for man." Marcus Aurehus, "the lover of his kind," inspires this poet to write an Elegy, To the Rev. Mr. Sanderson, 1756, whose benevoience and active zeal to serve mankind he praises as well as his "tender suffering for another's pain." John Dyer made it his object "to promote the public weal," to which we may think The Fleece, 1757, was due. The vogue of the Arabian Nights is attributed by Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams to wide human sympathy, in a poem On Benevoience (1759). This is accompanied by a desire to be thrüled "by charming horrors." For this some riot on the Arabian Nights, Each case is ours, and for the human mind Tis monstrous not to feel for ali manlrmH. Social happiness is referred to in A Poetical Epistle from the late Lord Melcombe to the Earl of Bate. An "advertisement" says that this poem was printed in 1761. Later Young had a hand in it, for it was republished with corrections by the author of the Night Thoughts," 1776. Curming is here objected to, because it "contracts the social plan, and narrows to self-love the soul of Man." The Pastoral experienced the influence of benevolent tendenaes towards social good when W. Dodd wrote a series of Moral Pastorals (1762—63), occasioned by a sinular work by Gesner. Their treatment of the subject, however, drffers widely. Dodd intended to discuss the whole social system." People had enough of "the contentions of Daphnis and Corydon about the beauties and perfections of their mistresses." Dodd takes his inddents from real hfe, some happened to himself in "the island of Thanet.' His subjects are: The Son, The Good Old Woman, The Servant, The Mother, The Husband and Wife, The Benevolent Man. Dodd shows his interest in the cares of country people. The good old woman goes from house to house when the cattle are sick to console the farmers, the benevolent man is the squire who gives a school. The loveable poet, according to W. Whitehead, in A Charge to the Poets, 1762, is the man who attends to social duties. He points out the social value of enthusiasts. "Social duties" are sometimes confined to the famüy circle. At other times they embrace mankind. Whitehead has instances of both acceptations. Shenstone also uses the word "Social" in a narrow sense when in Letter XXXIX, 1763, he writes to Mr. Graves On Social Happiness. Wives, children, alliances, visits, etc. are necessary objects of our social passions. The same restricted sense is found in W. Whitehead's poem On Friendship, 1774. Even the last pang of social life is sweet, The pang which parts us from a weeping friend. W. Falconer, in The Demagogue, 1762, calls that man a foe to humanity and Nature who does not pity widows and orphans and is dead to "friendship's social tie." Oliver Goldsmith mamtains in The Traveller, 1764, that he is wiser than the schooltaught proud man whose sympathetic mind, Exults in all the good of all Mankind. On the same ground as Isaac Browne John Langhorne argues that "from age, from infant weakness" it appears "that Man was destined for society." Brotherly Love, a poem of 32 lines (Christ. Mag. July 1764), is orthodox in tone, as appears from its opening lines: O God 1 My Saviour! and my King. The poet desires to be "the friend of all (his) kind." Social duties are identified with benevoience in Dodd's Character of Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, Bart. who died Sept. 23, 1759. The verses were published Sept. 1766. What Edw. Cartwright understood by the social laws may be read in Armine and Elvira, a legendary tale in two parts (1771): smw Benevoience, that unconfined Extends her liberal hand to all By sympathy's untutored voice Be taught her social laws to keep; Rejoice if human heart rejoice And weep if human Eye shall weep. An argument that Edw. Lovibond evidendy supposes to be effective is used by the seduced girl in her complaint that her feelings towards society have changed. (Julia*s printed Letter to Lord —" written in or before 1775). Her newly wakened love increased her love to society, "the social passions grew," New strung, the thrilling nerves harmonious rose And beat sweet unison to other's woes. Her love "enthroned mankind" and the soul "diffused Benevoience's rays." When E. Rack tries to give expression to elevated feelings inspired by the splendours of the starry sky in Night 1775, the vanishing of self-love seems to be the climax. The treatment of the social sentiment evidendy undergoes the influence of the subjects uppermost in the rninds of the authors in a certain period. Seduction and theories of education occupied the thoughts of essayists and poets in the latter half of the 18th century. Melancholy poetry and prose interested in sohtude, was condemned as anti-social; "From Men's preferring Company to Sohtude," Mandeville had said (First Dialogue, 1729), Shaftesbury had proved "the Love and Natural Affection we have for our Species." The display of interest in the good of society, where this is due to Shaftesbury's writings, was not accidental. The members of society had to be conscious of the social imphcations of their conduct if they were to be called virtuous (F. B. Kaye : The Fable of the Bees, 45). Shaftesbury had written: "And in this case alone it is we call any creature worthy or virtuous, when it can have the notion of a public interest, and can attain the speculation or science of what is morally good or ül, admirable or blamable, right or wrong." Though Mandeville wrote in a spirit of ridicule, he succeeded all the same in making it clear that the labouring classes could not be excluded from a claim to virtue in the orchnary course of their work in society (op. cit. II, 51, 52). Shaftesbury had never meddled "with anything so low and pityful" (op. cit. II, 47). Dodd, probably unwittingly, stressed that point, in his Moral Pastorals, and made the virtues of the labouring poor apparent. 26. THE AESTHETIC ELEMENT IN THE PROGRESS OF SENTIMENTALISM. Shaftesbury identifies the moral and aesthetic perceptions of man ; with him the beautiful and the good are the same. A cultivated taste will dictate the right line of conduct. There can be httle doubt that his writings stimulated the development of aesthetic sentiment. Quotations from contemporary authors show a growing interest in the subject, but melancholy predominates and some time passes before good taste may be said to imply love of mankind in general. Taste and fashion had become synonymous terms when Horace Walpole hved ; he makes a remark to that effect in his History of Good Breeding, chapter VIII, 1746. But Tilson uses stronger terms in an essay On Taste, in The World No. 67, 1754. "All the fashionable part of mankind set out with the ambition of being thought men of taste. This is the present universal passion." *) He repeats this thought in various ways and points out that true taste is inseparable from a love of moral order, which should be cultivated from an early age. A just taste of the fine arts and an "exquisite dehcacy in moral conduct" spring from the same sense. It deserves notice that he considers that the conduct of the aesthete should also be influenced by sentiment. *) One gets the same impression from Bramston' poem The Man of Taste, 1748 (first p. 1733?). That so many minor poets showed social interest and a taste for benevoience may be due to the circumstance that they wished to be reckoned among the people possessed of the aesthetic quality. Hence also poetic objections to "tastelessness" and "distaste" in moral matters, two instances of which may be mentioned here. Nathaniel Cotton in his Second Vision, Pleasure, 1751, sees "five ruthless tyrants sway the plain" and triumph over the mangled bodies, Here sat distaste, with sickly mien And more than half devoured with spleen. Mrs Elisabeth Tollet's verses An Epistle, 1755, are evidence that the aesthetic mind desired to retire into sohtude and objected to crime because it was tasteless : 'Tis tasteless all! I wish that I was hurled By some kind tempest to a calmer world Teach me, how from the odious world to run, Where most are wicked, or by some undone, This scène of guilt and wretchedness to shun. Teach you 1 Think you that resdess thoughts you can That anxious care will fly your sohtude? [exclude? Taste is in the service of melancholy when Richard Blackmore observed in The Nature of Man, a Poem, in Three Books, 1711, in praise of the regions of the Cam and Ouze that they produced sprighdy thoughts, "good Taste, and Humour fit, To sooth the Spleen, and form the Comick Wit." The tendency of Addison's taste was melancholy, for, as I observed before, in his opinion (1712), the pleasure of beauty was increased when it was softened by an air of melancholy.1) In 1712 benevoience had not yet become fashionable, nor become identified with good taste, for Francham could write to The Spectator (520) that "the fine gentlemen of the age set up for hardness of heart; and humanity had very httle share in their pretences."2) *) Joseph Warton ascribes "a delicacy and grace" in all Spenser's compositions to ' a certain pleasing melancholy in his sentiments, the constant companion of an elegant taste." Quoted by Beers, A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century, p. 163. *) For the criminal conduct of a club of young men of the higher classes Pope's epistle To Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, p. 1731, condemns fake taste chiefly in architecture and gardening. Taste becomes benevolent in The Man of Taste, an anonymous comedy, publ. 1735, where LordWeymouth is addressed in an Introduction, "because he had shown many singular instances of a benevolent disposition with regard to his fellow creatures/' "This (my lord) is being a Man of Taste in the noblest sense." John Bancks was a freemason. This appears from a note to his poem Of Masonry, an Ode. 1738. After haying invoked Mercy, who feeds the hungry poor, he mentions virtues that shall be kept alive among the freemasons. To these belongs "manly Taste, the chüd of sense," which shall banish vice and dulness there. James Hervey, the Methodist's Meditations among the Tombs 1745/6, and On the Night, 1747, called forth the praise of Nathaniel Cotton in 1748 j for Hervey's attempts "to prove the God of Nature friend of all" were meant "to form the taste, and form the nobler part, To mend the morals, and to warm the heart." Colman and Thornton neglect the moral quality in their essay in The Connoisseur, 1756, and so does The Ode to Taste. By Mr. H." (1770). It urges moderation in the use of terror in hterature. The poet loves "horrors" himself, but objects to the "Gothic Rage." The mtimate connection of benevoience, taste, romantic scènes, charming horrors and oriental tales in the rninds of the poets of the 18th c. appears with convincing clearness from Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams's (d. 1759) poem On Benevoience. Horace Walpole as the man of taste, was much interested in his poetry, as well he might be. A copy of his Collection of Poems in the hbrary of the Brit. Museum contains many manuscript notes by the author of The History of Good Breeding. After having observed that and the atrocious outrages they committed in 1712, see W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, p. 1878-90. p. 482. John Gray wrote a tragi-comical farce on the subject; The Mohocks, 1712. His Trivia also refers to it. Of all the monsters of the human mind, What strikes you most is the low selfish mind he writes 'Tis chiefly taste, or blunt, or gross, or fine Makes life insipid, bestial or divine. Better be born, with taste, to little rent, Than the dull monarck of a continent. His object in this poem on the various aspects of benevoience mentioned before is "to please the polished few, who taste the serious and the gay," and he writes lest "taste in benevoience should be decried." W. Shenstone, a Shaftesburian and aesthete, connects "social work" and the "social praise," consequendy gained, with taste in his poem The Progress of Taste : Even social friendship duns his ear And cites him to the public sphere. He also has a prose essay On Taste" ia which he refers to Hutcheson in passing. The benevolist Langhorne (Enlargement of the Mind, 1765) connects harmony and taste in poetry, with virtue, and, says he, Nature deigns to sympathise with art, And lead the moral beauty to the heart. In connecüon with the vogue of moral beauty1) it may be of importance to observe that Taste had now become a catchword, as we may gather from Geo. Keate's Burlesque Ode, 1772. Ah hither haste with all your taste. And also from Richard TickelTs poem The Wreath of Fashion or the Art of Sentimental Poetry, 1778, in which he identifies sentimentalism with "false taste." i) The charm of "the moral beauty" had also warmed Thomson's heart for Shaftesbury (Summer 1. 1551). Book III of Mark Akenside's poem The Pleasures of Imagination, p. 1744, is strongly influenced by Shaftesbury's phüosophy; the author adopts Shaftesbury's views, regarding the efficacy of ridicule for the discovery of truth, and the benevolent order of the world. Our taste, particularly discernible in our recognition of the beauty of nature, no culture can bestow But God alone when first his active hand Imprints the secret bias of the soul. His definition of taste may imply moral discernment: 27. GOD'S WISDOM IN THE UNIVERSE. Among the causes, revealed by hterature, which contributed to the interest in Nature shown in the 17th and 18th centuries the following must be mentioned : scientific study and particularly Newton's discoveries j this is proved by numerous poems exalting his genius. Next the deists' attempts to demonstrate God's wisdom and to vindicate the ways of God to Man; they tried "to prove God" from Nature. Natural phenomena were critically observed in attempts at refuting the atom theory. Also the identification of the good and the beautiful led to emphasis being put on the beauty of Nature; observation of Nature yielded aesthetic as well as sentimental gratification. Marana's deif ication and ecstatic contemplation of Nature in sohtude is again heard in Shaftesbury's essay, The Moralist: a Philosophical Rhapsody. 1709. O mighty nature l arise O, Thou empowering Deity.... Thee I evoke, and Thee alone adore. To Thee, this sohtude, this place, and these rural meditations are sacred; whilst thus inspired with harmony of thought.... I sing of nature's order in created beings, and celebrate the beauties which resolve in Thee, the source and principle of all beauty and perfection. Literature shows that the love of sohtude in its various forms may also be due to a cause closely alhed to Deistic extasy, namely melancholy. Some of the preceding chapters contain ample proof that adrniration and contemplation of Nature suit the melancholy mind. In periods in which melancholy in its various forms is prevalent it must be expected that Nature will be a frequent theme of poetry. The characteristics of the two kinds of Nature poetry will differ accordingly. In the following notes no attempt will be made to keep the two varieties apart; this would require too much repetition of remarks made in other places. What then is taste, but these internal powers Active and strong, and feelingly alive To each fine impulse ? a discerning sense Of decent and sublime, with quick disgust From things deform'd, or disarrang'd, or gross In species. The work of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastie, 1653, proves her interest in the atomic theory as weü as in the animal world, e.g. in the life of insects. Mrs K. Philips' poems : A Country Life, Invitation to the Country and Upon Mr. Abraham Cawley's Retirement, 1664, show her admiration of the country. More space must be given to an enthusiastic description by Dennis of a mountain tour to Mont Cenis, in Miscellanies in Verse and Prose (1693). Dennis wrote a series of letters from Lyons beginning October 15th, 1688, in which he copied the notes he had taken down in his diary. His dehght in the "horrid, hideous, ghastly Ruins" of Nature are an early indication of the love of romantic scenery : The Alps are works which (Nature) seems to have designed, and calculated too in Fury. Yet she moves us less, where she studies to please us more. I am delighted, 'tis true at the prospect of Hüls and Valleys, of flowery Meads, and murmuring streams, yet it is a dehght that is consistent with Reason, a delight that creates or improves Meditation. But trarisrxjrüng Pleasures follow'd the sight of the Alps, and what unusualtransports think you were those, that were mingled with horrors, and sometimes almost with despair. But if those mountains were not a creation, but formed by universal Destruction, when the Arch with a mighty flaw dissolved and f*ll into the vast abyss (which surely is the best opinion) then are these Ruines of the old World the greatest wonders of the new. For they are not only vast, but horrid, hideous, ghasdy Ruines. After we had galloped a League over the Plain, and came at last to descend, to descend thro' the very Bowels of the Mountain as it were, for we seemed to be enclosed on all sides : What an astonishing Prospect was there? Ruins upon Ruins in monstrous Heaps, and Heaven and Earth confounded. The uncouth Rocks that were above us, Rocks that were void of all form, but what they had receiv'd from Ruine ; the frightful view of the Precipices and the foaming Waters that threw themselves headlong down them, made all such a Consort up for the Eye, as that Sort of Musick does for the Ear, in which Horrour can be join'd with Harmony. I am afraid you will think I have said too much. Yet if you had but seen what I have done, you would surely think that I have said too little. However Hyperboles might easily here be forgiven. The Alps appear to be Nature's extravagancies, and who should blush to be guilty of Extravagancies, in words that ™ak» mention of her's 13 Equally romantic is the description of scenery m a mountainous part of England by Tickell in The Guardian No. 125 1713. The poet standing by the wall of an old castle built upon a high hill, listening to the "wildly sweet'* song of the birds, "feasted his imagination every morning with the most luxurious prospect he ever saw." He followed the winding river until his "eye was led through two ridges of hills, and terrninated by a vast mountain in another county." The sinister attraction of mountams for the author ot the highly romantic poem Solitude, 1716, is heard in the lines O! how agreeablc a Sight These hanging Mountains do appear, Which the Unhappy would invite To finish all their Sorrows here. When their hard fate makes them endure Such Woes as only Death can cure. The charm of despair was not absent from Dennis' description. . tt„ , Lying on the "downy grass", a view of the flowry vale," and "craggy Mountains" had its atoaction for the Earl of Roscommon in An Ode upon Sohtude, 172U. Fancy is haüed as the "lover" of the "hoary mountam s side" in An Ode to Fancy, by J. Warton, 1748. The "distant mountains" "cap'd with ïce decorate the winter landscape in Mrs Leapor's unaffected and reahstic description of Winter, 1755. . . T, A different kind of nature attraction is heard m I ne Choke, 1700, where John Pomfret gives a charrning description of "a private Seat" on rising ground, fields on one side and a wood on the other. In 1704 Mrs Elizabeth Singer pubhshed poetry On the Creation, and John Hanbury expressed Hobbes' views m The State of Nature, and also wrote a poem The Mosatc Story of Creation. . Chaucer's love of Nature is mentioned m Wüham Harrison's Woodstock Park. A Poem, 1706, Where Chaucer (sacred name!) whose years employ'd, Coy Nature courted, and at length enjoyd. John Philips' Cyder, 1708, has the picture of the shepherd on the harren heath and the cackhng goose. The Tatler No, 89, 1709, shows appreciation of open air hfe, Anne Winchüsea's Nocturnal Rêverie, 1713, is frequendy mentioned in handbooks. On Solitude, 1716, shows a rare love of wild natural scenery, of river plants that "charm the senses," of elders, reeds, willows, etc. and of wild animal life. In 1716 Cooper's HUI was reprinted both as it was published in 1650 and after the Restoration, together with Robert Howard's The Duel of the Stags, and Andrew MarveU's poem The Garden, and a drinking song In Praise of Ale, which, in its simple way, shows that the countrypeople were not insensitive to the scenery among which they did their work. In his prose essay On the Beauty of the Universe Henry Needler (died 1718) maintains that there is nothing that affords a more sensible proof of the existence and goodness of God than the beauty of the Universe. No rhetoric can describe the beauty of flowers. The primrose and violet lead the van of the blooming train,.... with how beautiful a blush has (Nature) dyed the downy cheek of the peach How fine a blue has she spread over the grape and plum; and with how deep and full a red has she coloured the cherry. Man is not considered apart from Nature, but Man is "the prince.... the most excellent of all animals," He therefore condemns the theory of the "lucky concourse of atoms." Consistent with these ideas is his poetical Description of a Summer Night in the Country. The poor man is here pictured in natural surroundings long before Thomson did so. And here is the "horror of the gloomy grove," the "mournful nightingale," the "foreboding owls." Because the poem is not easily accessible some lines may follow here: The beasts and birds are now retired to rest,.... The winds too are asleep, and scarcely move Through the still horror of the gloomy grove. Now pearly dews refresh the gelid air.... AlTs hushed ; and universal silence reigns, Save where the mournful nightingale complains, Or where the wakeful dog affrighted howls, At the shrill shrieking of forebcding owls... Each bush with numerous Uving spangles glows, Diffusing all around a lustre far, Such as might guide the wandering travelier, As if a shower of stars from yonder sky Had fallen, and each designed with heaven to vie. The Freethinker was mclined to publish nature poetry; it printed Leonard Welsted's poem The Picture of a fine April Morning, April 17th 1719. Some lines from it follow here: The snows are melted and the frosts are past; No longer do we dread the winter blast... The changing skies, Grow black with gathering clouds that westward rise Thin scattered now the drops, like gems descend ; Now with the frequent shower the lilies bend; How calm the air. In the same year in which Thompson published Winter, Richard Savage published John Dyer's poem The Country Walk with another example of interest in Nature and humble life. The old man's smoky nest I see Leaning on a aged tree.... Here he puffs upon his spade And digs up cabbage in the shade: His tattered rags are sable brown; His beard and hair are hoary grown The dying sap descends apace, And leaves a withered hand and face. The poem Grongar HUI is in the same edition, reprinted 1727 and 1748. David Mallet's poem A Winter's Day, 1726, utilises nature descriptions to reflect the author's melancholy. The anonymous poem The Comparison, 1729, is in favour of a country hfe. Nature, anon. 1729, tells us that Nature is a "surprizing Being," which charms in every form. Her greater works "raise a Passion more sublime than Love." With Plato we rise to the Source of Beauty and fix our eyes on the Creator. Notwitbstanding Moses Browne's "melancholy" apostrophe to "Jesus, dear Name of Love, O Saviour God" in Sunday Thoughts, 1739, another poem, or Essay on the Universe, 1739, shows that this pencutter must have been deeply interested in deistic notions. His interest in the Universe includes love of Nature. This appears from his Pisca'ory Eclogues, A New Attempt in Pastoral, 1729, reissued with other work in 1739, under the tide of Poems on Various Subjects and again in 1773, as Angling Sports, in Nine Piscatory Eclogues. The charming descriptions of open air hfe they contain might well attract a modern reader. The first eclogue deals with the pleasures of fishing and the proper kinds of bait. It is headed The Weather. From weedy pools the croaking frogs complain And flocking jays await the coming rain: Behold afar the melting shower distils, And breaks in mists around the smoking hills.... For you two beds of river-reeds Til strew, Dry from the stream, yet green as when they grew ; With poppies each, and violet-flowers, bespread, And hazels, soft as wool, to rest your head, While winds and dropping rains a concert keep And through the rustling leaves allure to sleep. The second eclogue is called The Nocturnal. Two young men go out fishing at nudnight. The poet does not omit to observe the romantic colouring of the situation, for he mentions "the gloomy occurrences.... pecuhar to the solemn twilight season." The Argument speaks of "the melancholy of the time and place" which leads to sentimentahty, for the melancholy "excites, at last, some tender complaints and reflections" in one of the "swains". No Greek gods disturb their recreation until the 7th eclogue, when fawns, demigods, and river deities appear on the scène. "The scaly tribe" are in his poetry simply called "fish". The fishermen return home at daybreak and Thick overhead the rose and woodbine meet, Uniting shade to shade, and sweet to sweet, The pea, and blooming bean, their odours yield, And new-mown hay perfumes the fragrant field.... and so forth, a wealth of natural description which füls ten pages. He could appreciate love of nature in other people, evidendy deists, as appears from his lines To Mr. Thomson. Instead of desiring "empty elegance of dress and form" of the sons of vanity Thou better knowest to employ the amusive hour, Contemplative of Nature's ample page. Whether the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald owedanyofhis ideas to the deists or to Shaftesbury does not appear from his poetry; he devoted his Winter Evening to charity, and wrote an Ode on the pleasures of the country, and its "sweetly diversified scène," the change of the seasons, the fields and sports. His interest in the hves of the lower classes will be mentioned later, though his poetical theory was to be "apart from the inglorious crowd, the herd of mankind." (He died 1731.) The Rev. Francis Fawkes, a Church of England Divine, wrote On the Death of a Lark, 1738. The harmony of nature is tenderly described. Death, brought into itby man, disturbs its happiness. The sun goes up and all creatures hail him. Sweet pipes the shepherd, the fair morn to greet, To his stout team the ploughman whistles sweet, All nature smiles around. On airy wings The lark, harmonious herald of the spring Rises aloft to breathe bis mattins loud, On the bright bosom of some fleecy cloud. Joseph Warton, a "friend of Reason," gives the "Lover of Nature" as a variant of "Enthusiast." It may be remarked that enthusiasm which produced the love of God and of the Universe, also brought forth the love of Nature. And, accordingly, the two acceptations of the word are used side by side in the 18th century. Warton's ode To Evening, however, is better proof of his love of Nature, of the "calm, refreshful hour, and the hoarse humming of unnumbered fhes." In The World 1753, Horace Walpole notices the "progress made towards nature" with approval; particularly in gardening "the.... love of nature prevails." Dr. Johnson observes in 1754, in The Adventurer, that "the most pleasmg compositions in every age contain descriptions of the peace and happiness of a country life." Mrs K. Philips' poem A Country Life was reprinted in 1755. The approach of winter is described in The Robin, an Elegy written at the Close of Autumn. 1756. J. Earl's poem A Winter Thought, 1756, takes a cheery view of the season. Laetitia Pükington, in Delvile, the Seat of the Rev. Dr. Delaney, 1755, contemplates the "Creating power" in the beauty of Nature. Shenstone's verses In a Shady Vaüey, near a running water, 1758, show observation and love of nature : The trout, bedropt with crimson stains, Forsakes the river's proud domains j Forsakes the sun's unwelcome gleam To lurk within this humble stream. From his poetry it appears that the actor, John Cunningham, was interested in Free Masonry and in phüosophy, more particularly in Hume. (He died in 1773.) True observation of Nature appears from Evening : The blue most slowly creeps, Curling on the silver lake.... As the trout, in speckled pride, Playful from its bosom springs.... In 1770 Henry Woty published Spring Morning, Ode to Evening, Ode to January and The Moonlight Night, all containing true nature poetry. E. Rack published a poetical description of a Thunderstorm (1775). Thomas Warton's love of natural scenery and birds appears from Inscription in a Hermitage (1777). John Codrington (Bampfylde)'s Sixteen Sonnets, published 1778, supply abundant evidence of his close observation of Nature and his sentimentalism at the age of twenty-four. In The Return it is "the flowery-kirtled May Decks the green hedge and dewy grass unshorn With cowslips pale, and many a whitening thorn, ........such is the sight of thee, (returning day) Thy wished return To eyes, like mine, that long have waked to mourn, That long have watched for light, and wept in vain. That his sentimentalism was not pretended and his mind was unbalanced may appear from other evidence. He was the second son of Sir Richard Warwick Bampfylde of Poltimore in Devonshire and educated at Cambridge. He feil into dissipation, broke Sir Joshua Reynolds' windows, was sent to Newgate, hved later in squalor in a disreputable house, afterwards in a private madhouse and died of consumption in 1796. More of his fresh, natural descriptions may be found in the sonnets On the Morning, On the Evening, On a Stormy Sea-prospect, On a Calm Seaprospect. His interest in children, perhaps in imitation of Shenstone's Schoolmistress, appears from an ode To the Evening, in which "the boisterous string of schoolimps, freed from the dame's all-dreaded sight," are playing round the village cross. 28. THE LOVE OF BIRDS. Birds claim a considerable interest in the 18th century. They are mentioned early for various reasons.1) The nightingale became the accepted bird of night and contemplation and the owl the bird who adds to the horror of gloomy scènes of corruption in churchyard poetry. It is therefore no proof of interest in these birds, or love of nature, but rather conventionality that makes "romanttcists" mention them so often. The frequent references to the nightingale are primarüy due to the fact that legend had made her the bird of melancholy, e.g. in Barnfield's Address to the Nightingale, 1594 : "She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Leaned her breast uptill a thorn," and in G. Fletcher's Christ''s Triumph over Death, 1610, she also leans "on a thorn her dainty chest," and puts inexpressible grief into her song. The legend is repeated by Anne Winchilsea in To the Nightingale, 1713, in which the poet is said to sing best when his breast is placed against a thorn, and also in the anonymous On Solitude, (1716). The melancholy and sentimental William King (d. 1712) has again to be mentioned, this time because of his observation of bird life, which appears from his prose *) For Tryoo's love of birds see page 47. notes Of the Migration of Cuckoos: with remarks on Birds-Nests, (referred to in 1732).1) Richard Jago enjoyed the reputation among his contemporaries of being a lover of birds. His poem The Goldf inches. An Elegy, was dedicated to his friend Shenstone. Together with The Blackbirds, an Elegy, it was published in 1755 in Dodsley's Collection of Poems. The Blackbirds had been printed in The Adventurer of March, 13, 1753. The Rev. R. Graves' love of birds is apparent from his Invitation to the Feathered Race, (1763). His grove is a retreat for birds: Here freely hop from spray to spray, Or weave the mossy nest.... Here bathe your plumes; here drink your fill And revel in the shade.... He does not object to having his orchard plundered by birds : For you these cherries I protect, To you these plums belong ; Sweet is the fruit that you have picked But sweeter far your song.... It is to W. Dodd's credit that in July and August of the year 1764 he published R. Jago's poem The Swaüows in The Christian''s Magazine of which he was editor. Part I had been written Sept. 1748, Part II 1749, pub. by Dodsley in 1758. Dodd was a many-sided Christian sentimentalist, who played an important part in the progress of sensibility. The poet welcomes the birds. Your peaceful councils on my roof renew, And plan your setdements from danger tree, No tempest on my shed its fury pours, My frugal hearth no noxious blast supplies; Go, wand'rers, go, repair your sooty bow'rs Think on no hostile roof my chimneys rise. He listens to their "debates" and calls them a "thrice happy race." *) Of Thomson's love of birds the lines 574-788 of Spring bear witness. The subject is too well known to deserve more than a brief mention. The redbreast enjoyed the favour of the "melancholy muse"1) as a visitor. It is welcomed to his "homely board" by "Mr, J. G." in The Robin t An Elegy : written at the Close of Autumn, 1756," John Langhorne (d. 1779) was a great lover of this species of birds. This appears from his Monody sung by a Redbreast. Little bird, with bosom red, Welcome to my humble shed.... Daily near my table steal, While I have my scanty meal, Doubt not, little though there be, But Til cast a crumb to thee; Well rewarded if I spy Pleasure in thy glancing eye.... "Miss M-o" published a Sonnet to a Robin-Redbreast in 1770. Redbreasts also interested Bampfylde as is shown by bis Sonnet I, To a Redbreast, 1778. Identity of circumstances causes an anonymous writer to recognise the sad condition of captive birds in some verses Upon singing birds in a prisoner's room (1713): Poor innocents, how suits my case to theirs, Since either species has its iron bars.... They sing amidst their bonds while I repine.... Birds had a share in Ovid's favour and his muse gave them what protection she might: "nee volucrem viscata falhte virga." Therefore it is somewhat disappointing that Henry Needler (d. 1718) mentions the captivity of the bird only to flatter a woman. Indeed, he expresses some pity for the bird, but none about its being deprived of liberty in a cage : Well-pleased thou loss of liberty couldst bear, Nor envy'dst other birds, that range in open air. Thomson's ardent plea on behalf of the caged bird was published in 1728 (Spring 11. 702—713). That the matter l) Steele's and Pope's interest in redbreasts was primarily due to oriental doctrine. Thomson's love of the animal world may be ascribed to his melancholy as well as to Pythagorean influence. Some lines about the redbreast introduced into the second ed. of Winter in 1726 grew to ten in the ed. of 1730. might be considered too trivïal to deserve a poet's attention may appear from the opening lines: Be not the muse ashamed here to bemoan Her brothers of the grove by tyrant man Inhuman caught, etc There is no echo of his words until 1755, when in The Buüfinch in Town, By a Lady of Quality, a protest is raised against cages ; the bird longs to be "in fields where birds unfetter'd soar." The Complaint of the Ringdove by John Langhorne, has reminiscences of Gray's Elegy. The poem (written '59, pub. '66) is addressed to a girl who kept a ringdove in a cage. It "languishes in a lonely cell," Ah l view with pity, gende maid, your dove, From every heartfelt joy secluded here 1 Nature wants the ringdove to be free. Therefore, restore her to her "native wilds" again. The sentiment of Miles Cooper's Ode to a Singing Bird, pub. 1761, may be false. From an expression "deign with me to hve" one feels mclined to mfer that the poet is also the bird's jailer; however, as he lived in Queen's College, Oxford, there are other possibihties. He writes How canst thou little prisoner sing Hast thou no cause to grieve, That man, unpitying man, has rent From thee the boon, which nature meant Thou shouldst as well as he receive, i.e. to mate freely. Who could bereave such innocence Of life's best blessing, Liberty 1 He founds his protest on "the liberal heart" of his benevolent muse. Robert Scott (Christian*s Mag. 1766), complacendy moralizes about contentment in misery, when perversion of nature might have roused him to indignation in his verses On a Bird Singing in a Cage. The bird was created to be free, he says, but now For thee, fair freedom has no charm Long habit makes confinement sweet.... Each natural impulse seems forgot Unmoved tranquility is thine.... Sorrow in his own life becomes the subject of Cuthbert Shaw's Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady, 1771. His young wife died in 1768 and this poem evidendy caught the taste of the day, for a 4th ed. appeared in 1779. The sadness and "rage" of the bird, incffectually trying to escape from the burden of captivity, its setthng down to a miserable existence, depict the sorrows of the poet. The bird Serenely sorrowing, breathes its piteous case, And with its plaintive warblings saddens all the place. The tearfulness of the monody has been mentioned before. I think the earhest protest in the 18th cent. against the killing of birds is heard, in 1716, in On Solitude. This poem also deserves attention because of the interest of the poet in wild nature. It is one of the innocent attractions of solitude and of the peaceful cave, which he describes, that Here Water-Fowl repose enjoy, Without the interrupting care Lest Fortune should their Bliss destroy By the malicious Fowler's Snare ... Some ravished with so bright a Day, Their Feathers finely Prune and Deck.... Thomson gave the matter his powerful support when he protested against the "savage fowler's gulle" in 1727 (Summer, 11. 615—626), and again in 1730 (Autumn 11. 370—384 and 983—987); the "widowetf songster" increases his melancholy 1. 974). The disruption of the harmony and happiness of nature caused by the destruction of birds produced renewed poetical indignation from 1738 on, when Francis Fawkes wrote The Death of the Lark» A charming description of nature in a peaceful mood introducés the scène of murder: Ah! little conscious that he dies to-day He sports his hour in innocence away, And from the treble of his tuneful throat, Pours the soft strain or thrills the sprighdy note, Or calls his mate, and as she sweedy sings, Soars in the sunbeam, warbling on his wings. The ruthless fowler, with unerring aim, Points the dire tube — forth streams the sudden flame; The flying lead, the murdering sound i The strams unfinished with the warbler die, Float into air, and vanish in the sky. The moral about the suddenness of death sounds like a sacrifke to custom rather than that it should have been die object of his poem. This poet will be mentioned again in connection with his interest in birds. More vigorous, and vibrating with indignation at the wholesale slaughter of birds by farmers, is Joseph Warton's Ode XIII, On Shooting, 1746. The presence of birds is again identified with peaceful scènes : Nymphs of the forests, that young oaks protect From noxious blasts, and the blue thunder's dart, O how securely might you dweil In Britain's peaceful shades.... But that our savage swains pollute With murder your retreats ! How oft' your birds have undeserving bied, Linnet, or warbling thrush, or moaning dove, Or early-mounting lark. Here follows a description of innocent bird life, and a protest against bloodshed: When will dread man his tyrannies forego, When cease to bathe his barbarous hands in blood. (Does Man really dehght to destroy ? It would be better to protect birds, as well as their nests.) The fact that animals destroy each other can be no excuse for the man who goes shooting birds for pleasure, is Josiah Relph's contention in The Boy and the Birds, 1747. The remaining birds are made to exclaim by the poet: Why this dehght in giving pain? The hawk each grove with slaughter fills Yet never for diversion küls. In his fable about The Sparrow and the Robin he sympathizes with the robin killed by the farmer's son. R. Jago's Elegy on a Blackbird, 1753, describes the happy life of birds until the gunner appears, who küls the male. The story could not be told by the poet without tears. Mrs Laetitia Pükington emphasizes a theory she must have come across in reading Montaigne or Marana. When the latter had tried to find points of resemblance between man and beast they had also considered birds, and according to Mrs Pilkington many birds, each in its own way, had contributed some trait to the human character. In The Petition of the Birds to Mr. Pükington, on his return from shooting, 1755, they beg him to spare them on the plea that in killing them he is destructive of his kind. They add : Adraire not if we kindred claim, Our sep'rate natures are the same; To each of us thou ow'st a part, To grace thy person, head or heart; The chaste, the fond, the tender Dove, Inspires thy breast with purest love. To the eagle he owes his courage, to the finch his voice "to express his rapturous soul," to the hawk his eyes, etc. If the birds gave man so many virtues should he show no pity and be too fierce to let them hve ? Also The Ode to a Thrush by Miss P., 1758, is inspired by the love of birds. She wants them to hve in security outside the reach of the "bird-lime twig" and the "cruel gun" that destroys their brood. The anonymous author of Beneficence, a poetical Essay, second ed. 1764, condemns the shooting of birds during a hard winter which visited England at the time of his writing the poem. He deprecates the act of lalling thrush, linnet or lark as inhuman, and calls the fowler pitiless and a murderer. The killing of birds should be beneath "the lord of creation." However, the poet does not object to the man "pursuing nobler game." The Christian''s Mag. July 1764, published some lines Written near the entrance of a Fine Wood: Fowler! cast thy gun behind, Ere thou treadst this gentle grove. He should listen to the singing of the birds and see the blackbird on the spray. The "lord of creation" was not made to destroy birds. The animal world may take revenge, and the snake may bite him. If he had a spark of human nature, if he were not savage, he would not sport with the fate of other creatures. The poet entreats him for the love of his wife and children, if he hopes that heaven will bless him, to cast his murderous gun away. Ed. Jerningham in The Rookery, 1767, makes a rook complain of the injustice and cruelty of the man, their "unrelenting foe" who discharged a gun loaded with shot at a rookery, though rooks made themselves useful by destroying insects : These eyes beheld my pretty brood Fluttering in their guiltless blood.... The angry bullets pierced my mate I saw hun fall from spray to spray.... With tortured wing he beat the plain And never cawed to me again.... James Graeme (d.'72) complains of the cruel fowler in October. Hard is the fate of redbreast and wren, and in vain they flap their wings if they fall into his deadly s nar es. John Langhorne (d. 1779) is indignant at the thought that there are people who can eat redbreasts (in To a Redbreast). The danger to birds' nests from the "unfeeling schoolboy" was mentioned by J. Thomson (Spring, 1. 694) and the sorrow of the nightingale at finding her nest robbed of her young feehngly described (11. 714—728). The cruelty of boys, to birds, is also mentioned by Joseph Warton, who objects to bird's-nesting (On Shooting 1746). Josiah Relph makes the birds reproach a boy for shooting their species (in The Boy and the Birds, 1747). R. Graves can give his Invitation to the Feathered Race, 1763, because No schoolboy rude, to mischief prone, E'er shews his ruddy face Or twangs his bow, or hurls a stone In this sequestered place.... The Linnet is a tale of cruelty to birds circurnstantially told by James Graeme. Dr. Anderson added a stanza in which he traces the cruelty of the boy to the parent. With great feeling Graeme describes the love of the linnet for her young. The schoolboy comes upon the scène Trained by a rough unfeeling sire To cruelty and pride An infant ruffian passing by The harmless bird espied....(He shoots the bird.) S. J. Pratt, in An Elegy on a Nightingale, '75 condemns, at some length, the cruelty of a boy to that bird in the style of personal appeal: Couldst thou, behold, my infant younglings lie, In the moss cradle by our bills prepared, Babes as they were, unable yet to fly, Their wings defenceless, and their bosoms bared.... Hanbury Williams in his Ode on the Death of Matzel, 1748, a bullfinch killed by a cat, seems to address a child. The same seems to be the case in the lines On the Death of a Favourite Nightingale, 1749, by Henry Jones. From the first I quote : Matzel's no more, ye graces, loves, Ye linnet, nightingales and doves, Attend th' untimely bier; Let every sorrow be exprest,.... And drop the natural tear. And from Henry Jones's poem which seems to refer to a nightingale kept in a cage : How tenderly (Clarinda) stroked his neck and bill, How softly touched his taper legs and claws With lenient fingers smoothed each smarting ilL And gendy healed his little hurts and flaws.... Another girl's sorrow at the death of a tame bird, is the subject of Francis Fawkes's publication The Sparrow. From Catullus, 1738. The girl appears "languishingly, drowned in tears." The "wanton schoolboy" who plunders and destroys the birds' nests, and "the artful fowler who spreads his snares" are linked together in Geo. Keate's elegy On the Death of a Linnet. Written 1751." He buried his bird: Beneath this fragrant woodbine's shade A little songster's bones are laid,.... Ye warbling tenants of the grove Approach this spot and mark your love.... It was Pope's belief that prejudice might be made to conduce to the preservation of many innocent creatures, and birds evidendy enjoyed the unreasoning love of many poets. Little is heard of their laudable moral qualities on which Thomas Tryon founded his mystic preference; classical and oriental influence on their behalf — through Montaigne — is more apparent, but their visible distress seems to have appealed most to the feelings of benevolent poets. 29. THE LOVE OF OTHER ANIMALS. No particular interest attachés to Sam. Wesley's verses : An Elegy on the untimely and much lamented death of poor Spot, as loving a bttch as ever went upon two legs, who devarted this hfe, anno 1684. The same must be said of Sir Robert Howard's The Duel of the Stags, 1693, rep. 1701. The poem is full of moral lessons, e.g. on pride. Waker Harte's Soliloquy occasioned by the Chirping of a Grasshopper, 1727, is a sentimental and tearful love-song rather than nature poetry. The happy insect is for ever biest With a more than mortal rest, Rosy dews the leaves among,.... In the burning summer thou Warblest on the verdant bough Meditating cheerful play, Mindless of the piercing ray. But the poet lives in a continual state of despondence and his hfe is passed in endless jealousies and tears, he ever weeps and ever dies. The anonymous On the Death of a Lap Dog, 1729, seems to satirise that sort of grief. The hnes On a Spider, ia the same year, can hardly be serious : Artist, who underneath the Table.... Insidious, resdess, watchful Spider Fear no officious Damsers Broom, Extend thy artful Building wider, And spread thy Banners round my Room. The poet sees a sinularity between his own work and the spjder's. It draws its web out of its body and the poet spins materials out of his brain. William Collin's cameldriver Hassan, m (Persian) Eclogues II, 1742, shows a merdful 14 interest in his camels when lost in the desert. To him they are the mute companions of (bis) toüs, that bear In all (bis) griefs a more than equal share.,.. Mrs Jones's verses about animals are very trivial, although they were published in Poems by Eminent Ladies, 1755. She wrote an Elegy on a favourite Dog, supposed to be poisoned ; some lines on The Spider, which rolled itself up in the bosom of a sleeping woman and Consolatory Rhymes. To Mrs. East. On the Death of her Canary Bird. Duncombe's Petition of the Dogs in The Connoisseur, April 17th of the same year was written, because a bill had been brought into parliament for putting a tax on dogs and in consequence a great number would "have to swing." An essay by Colman and Thornton in The Connoisseur, Oct. 8th, in the same year protests against excessive fondness of animals ; dogs were even brought to church, where by their howlings they occassionally disturbed the prayers. The opening hnes of Leonard Howard's verses On finding a maggot in a nutshell, 1765, remind the reader of Burns's On a Mouse : Thou little creeping pretty vermin Whose station I could wish my fate, Your skin as sleek and soft as Ermin, Declares your easy happy state. You ne'er complain your bounds are narrow.... Where better food you find than marrow, Bestowed by Nature's bounteous band. However, he deviates from his subject later, when he satirizes girls. The above examples were quoted to show how unimportant animals seemed, if Oriental doctrine did not influence opinion about their relation to man. Philo-naturae shares the belief of the deists that "the study of nature is the study of divinity" and, therefore, she devotes the pages 145, 149, 150, 292 and 296 of the Female Spectator to observations successively on worms, ants, bees, caterpillars and snails. At least one of the papers (Sept. 15, 1745) shows the sympathy of the writer with the sufferings of animals j her behef in the goodness of Providence makes her suggest that they have "not a sense of the miseries entailed upon them, otherwise it would seem as they were created only to be wretched." William Hogarth's Four Stages of Cruelty were published 1 Feb. 1751, and evidendy intended to strike terror into the rninds of those who bore part in cruelty. Hogarth himself says that he engraved them with the^hope of correcting "that barbarous treatment of animals the very sight of which renders the streets of our metropolis so distressing to every feehng mind." James Townley wrote some poetry under them. The principal authors of the opposition to some forms of cruelty and the results of their efforts will be discussed in the following chapters. 30. GIOVANNI PAOLO MARANA. Giovanni Paolo Marana became best known in England by his Letters writ by a Tarkish Spy, who lived five and forty years andiscovered at Paris, continued from the year 1673, to the year 1682. Written originally in Arabick. Translated into Italian, and from theme into English.*) They give a survey of the conditions in Europe from 1673 (not from 1637, the date given by Nouveau Larousse lüustrè,) to 1684. Marana was an Italian born at Geneva, 1642, who died in 1693. His work was translated from the French by W. Bradshaw, edited by Robert Midgley, M. D. and published in eight volumes, London, 1687—1693. The twenty-second edition appeared in 1734. (An edition in 1748, mentioned by Martha Pike Conant must be due to the mistake of her copyist, for the Gen. Cat. does not give an ed. 1748, but 1753.) Twenty-two editions in forty-one years means one edition at least every other year ; indeed, no insignificant proof of its popularity untü 1734. The twenty-sixth edition was published in 1770. After 1734, therefore, one edition appeared about every *) Copied from the lOth ed. London, 1734. nine years ; the popular interest in this particular work had decreased, but was not quite gone. Another proof of its popularity may be found in imitations of its tide by later writers.x) Perhaps the most important of Edward Ward's works is The London Spy, prose interspersed with poetry, originally pubhffced in monthly parts, begirming in Nov. 1698, reprinted "compleat in 18 parts," in 1703. Other vols. appeared in 1703,1706 and 1709. His Field Spy, or the Walking Observator, a Poem, 1714, follows the general plan of The London Spy, in giving descriptions of all sorts of people and their mode of hfe. The Wandeling Spy; or, the Merry Travellers by the Author of the Cavalcade, z Hudibrastic poem, by the same author, was published in 1722. The Wandeling Spy, or, the Merry Observator, (consisting of the following familiar poems etc.) by Ned. Ward appeared in 1724. The Invisible Spy by ExpioraUbus, in 4 vols. 1755, owes much of its niachinery, (the invisibihty of the Magus, the ülusive powder, the sympathetic bell, the salts of meditation, the shrinking cap, the belt of invisibihty, the wonderftd tablet, etc.) to the vogue of orientalism. Stonehill attributes its authorship to Mrs. Eliza Haywood. The Sentimental Spy is an anonymous novel in two vols. 1773. The tide over the pages, but not otherwise given inside, is The Adventures of a Footman.2) As regards his theology Marana professes himself to be indifferent concerning the mysterious conduct of the Deity, "whether God governs this world by the influence of stars, or by the ministry of spirits or by his own immediate Power." Even though Chance should jovern the Universe and the world be produced by the "casual concourse of atoms" he finds something adorable in it. He objects to being called an Atheist and shows his x) The works following are in the Library of the Brit. Mus. *) It contains an observation about England's opinion of Rousseau : "Custom reconciles us to everything. The world a few years since shuddering at the picture which the ingenious Rousseau was pleased to draw of lts crimes, and called it a monster, the rêverie of a splenetic philosopher. But it was owing to lts own depravity that it did not acknowledge the justness of the piece. sympathy with deists : they profess the belief of a God, Creator of the World, but are sceptics in all things else. They have no imphcit faith in historical religion, but as they are endued with reason, they call into question the writings of mortals like themselves. Such people should not be called Atheists or Infidels but Phüosophers or lovers of Wisdom and Truth, "It is from them I have learned this unwillingness to be imposed on in matters of rehgion" (vol. V, 3, 1). He is interested in "Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Porphyry, and some others of the Grecian sages." (Vol. VIII, 4,4). He would like to be taken for a Christian, who neither takes parties, nor sides with any. But, honouring Jesus, as our common Lord and Master, I endeavour to obey his laws. He makes it his rule not to do to another what he would not have done to liimself and does not trouble himself about empty formahties and needless ceremonies (Vol. VIII, 15). He urges his reader and himself to shake off the prejudices of education with all the prepossessions and false dogmas of his early years, and "adhere to firm reason" (Vol. VIII, 9). He maintains that our sense, fancy, and reason are without bounds and part of the universe. Our conceptions are squared to God's eternal model of the world if we do not debauch our own thoughts, or suffer them to be corrupted by others. The Deity is prirmtive and original reason (Vol. VIII, 9). ^ As regards God's ethic quahties, he is convinced that "there is no envy in the Deity," and that He is perfectly good (Vol. VIII, 9). All things done by the Omnipotent appear aclrnirably beautiful and perfect (Vol. VI, 16). Men are partakers of the divine nature ; this world is the shadow of God Almighty's thought and a pleasant thing to hve in. In God's sense this Universe is perfecdy good, in ours it is mixed with evil. We mortals of human race are but so many parcels of the amruty m disguise ; we are all Gods in masquerade, so are the beasts of the fïelds, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. We are all drawn towards the centre. (Vol. VI, 10). All the perfections of the Universe are contracted in Man (Vol. II, 2, 20). He insists on morahty and goodness, which he observes and praises in the deists : I find them in all things men of great morahty and goodness, far exceeding the «ealots of the age in virtue and pious actions. But they make no noise of what they do. And whilst only their human frailties are conspicuous to all, then benefacüons lie concealed under the veil of unparalleled modesty (Vol. : v. 3, i). In a few lines addressed "to the Reader" in the Eighth Vol. some objections to Marana's attitude with regard to religion are answered. It is said there: In a word, he appears in his letters a Deist rather than an Atheïst, as some would represent him.... There are many among the Mahometans as well as among the Chnsüans. Though the author calls himself a Christian in one place and a "musselman" in another the explanation given m the Eighth Vol. is, no doubt, the truth. j About his own mental condition he says that he is extremely subject to melancholy, which makes him very thoughtful, and these thoughts then rock his soul with intolerable anguish (Vol. II, 2, 20). His own testunony affords a clear example of extatic communion with nature expressed in English by bis translators long before Thomson or Wordsworth wrote. He says that he recoüs from the degenerate race of man and goes into the fields and woods "to make his süent court unto the trees and flowers." He admires the oak: I could almost turn Druid for her sake, and take my residence up for ever in her hollow trunk ; where the kmd genu of the au would visit me, and teil me things to come, instructing me in the mysteries of nature; for I am in love even with those invisible beings, and often teil my passion to them ui the woods, or in some mountains, where the courteous winds transport my words and waft their secret answers back again. Then is my soul snatched up in sacred extasies, because the immortals condescend to talk with me. I often fall into a trance... and pass the night in this sweet solitude. Had I the tongue or pens of Cic«p and Demosthenes I could not to the hte express the pleasures that I feel at such a tune, when free and undisturbed I can for several hours behold the motions of the moon and stars. Oh God ! What thoughts, what contemplations rise within my breast. My ravished soul is ready to break the prison for joy, when it is inspired with certain demonstrations of the world's eternity. He imagines he sees the tenants of the moon and stars and nauseates the principles of ignorant and superstitious men. Then he has to return to the city, for he is not wholly born for contemplation. He therefore cheerfully prostrates himself on the ground, and adores the eternal source of all things (Vol. VIII, 5). Of his disinterested love of animals we have abundant evidence, e.g. in his letter on The Universal and Platonick Love, with which Mahmut always finds himself affected. In this letter, starting from his love to animals, he passes on to trees and flowers and is gradually led to contemplate it in its highest form, in which it appears as an exalted and spiritual yearning for supersensible beauty. "I love my friends without reserve/' he writes, and because there are very few among our mortal race, I contract familiarities with the harmiess animals : I study like a lover to oblige and win their hearts by all the tender offices I can perform, and they show their gratitude for they make him "a thousand sweet returns." When he feels something "prompting him to eternal softnesses, to wild melting fits of fresh Platonick tender passions," nothing can provoke him more than the sight of a butcher : his very face portends a present massacre, and all his words breathe nothing but a continued train of cruel wrongs and violences against the innocent. His pitilessness to animals he extends to the "fatherless and widows," (Vol. VIII, 5). Marana advocates kindness to animals on three different grounds : First, they are not devoid of reason; second, their characteristics may be observed in human beings, who resemble them in appearance; third, they have immaterial souls, which may migrate into other beings. All animals seem to him to be endowed with a faculty which, if it may not be called Reason, yet is something analogous to it. To support this contention he cites "Empedocles, Pythagoras, Plotinus and Porphyry, with many other ancient sages." He points out "the pohtical economy" of the bees, the way a spider catches flies, etc. It is culpable pride and envy in men, thus to blast the reputation of their animal kindred. As regards the second point, he maintains that there is no species of four-footed beasts, of birds, of fish, of insect, reptiles or any other living thing, whose nature is not found in Man. The tempers of some people agree to that of the fox, others are bears in human shape, etc. (Vol. VIII, 5). With regard to the third contention he opposes "Monsieur des Cartes" and other western philosophefB who follow him, for they assert that the souls of all living creatures, except men, are material and mortal, that a beast is but a machine, like a watch or a clock, not actuated or informed by any spirit distinct from the body. However, Aristode, the "Arabian doctors" and all the sages of the east held contrary opinions, for they ascribed Reason, discourse and inunortahty to the souls of beasts as well as to those of men (Vol. II, 1, 27). His letter on The contem.pt the franks show to the beasts emphasizes the above-mentioned arguments. It annoys him that the Christians ridicule the tenderness of those who go into the markets and buy birds that are sold there, on purpose to restore them to their native liberty, for, say they, am'tnak have neither soul nor reason, and are consequently insensible to all our good offices towards them. To please God, he investigated the practicc toward animals in olden tunes. He follows the historical hne made popular by Ovid, and speaks of "rehgious cruelty ;" next he explains the marmer in which people first came to be eaters of meat, which was afterwards adapted by Charles Lamb. *) In order to induce people to abstain from killing any x) "A priest taking up a piecc of broiled flesh, which had fallen from the altar on the ground, and burning his fingers therewith, suddenly clapt them to his mouth to mitigate the pain. But when he had tasted the sweetness ot the fat not only longed for more of it, but gave a piece to his assistant and he to others: Who all pleased with the new found dainties, feil to eating ot flesh greedily, and hence this species of gluttony was taught to other mortals (Vol. IV, 1, 5). living creature or hurting dumb animals the Egyptians gave their gods the shapes of animals. The Persian Magi taught the Doctrine of the transmigration of souls and insisted on tenderness and friendship towards animals, and abstinence from meat. The "Brachmans" among the Indians lived on mük and herbs and built hospitals for beasts as well as men. Some of them spent all their time in "tending on sick and wounded animals or such as have no sustenance elsewhere." Abstinence from meat had been tradition from immemorable ages. It was practised in France among the Druids, who also taught the transmigration of souls. By all this it is evident that the tender regard which the true faithful have for the brutes is no innovation or singular caprice or superstition, but the pnmitive practice of the ancients, the universal tradition of the whole earth. Nay, the eastern Christians, for the most part, hve an abstemious life, such as Grecians, Armenians, Georgians, Mingrelians and others that are scattered up and down in divers parts of As ia. In this respect he says, they followed tradition and the examples set by the Aposdes and Primitive Fathers. But the Christians in the west are different. The Pope (whom he calls "the Roman Mufti") gave them dispensation. Hence proceeded the Christian derision of those who show any tenderness to brutes ; for they are hardened in their gluttonous cruelty, and are but one remove from the most savage cannibal.x) "But thou, holy Man of God, pity those infidels" (viz. the Christians, Vol. IV. 1, 5).2) One of his letters (Vol. V. 2,2) particularly objects to discouragement of pity, which he observes in France, where they say "that pity is a passion only fit for women, children and fools." They consider it to be the best preparation for war, plunder and bloodshed, not to be moved by the sighs and tears of the miserable. But Marana maintains that the virtues of clemency and compassion are ornaments to a prince. He then discusses the effect of the Lex Talionis, which said that in all criminal cases the punishment should be in some circumstances adequate to the fault, and he also refers to the Mosaic Law on this *) Cf., Ovid XV, 9: Ritusque referre Cyclopum. 2) Vol. V. 2, 2 also refers to this subject. point. His defence of the criminal, in this case a poacher, is remarkable, considering the times : Methinks it had been more generous to pardon the poor fellow a theft, which perhaps was the only method he had 16 preserve himself and nis family from starving. And for ought I know, he has as much right, according to the Law of Nature, to kill a stag as the owner has. But there is no talk to be made of right or wrong, when power overrules all (Vol. V. 2, 2). Marana protests against the barbarous treatment of slaves in North Africa (Vol. I. 3, I), and defends the escape of several hundreds of slaves from the "Musselmans." He thinks it natural that all men should covet liberty and cannot fuid fault with them for rejoicing that they have escaped the hardships of captivity (Vol. II. 2, 25). He sees no reason "why we should make such bugbears of women as not to trust them with as hberal an education as ourselves" (Vol. II. I, 12). He expatiates on the vanity and deceitfulness of astrology (Vol. VIII. A, 10) but beheves in witches, sorcerers and magicians and in "their diabolical arts." Montaigne anticipated some of these thoughts, for which see the next chapter. 31. MICHAEL MONTAIGNE. Michael Montaigne was born in 1533. As a man he had outwardly embraced the Cathohc faith, but his sympathy with pagamsm was strong. His greatgrandfather was a Spanish Jew, and one or two of his nearest relations were protestants. In 1580 he published books one and two of his Essays, of which the fifth edition, with a third book added, was published in 1588. In 1595, three years after his death, a new edition was published containing his last additions. His work was translated into English by John Florio and published in 1603 : The Essayes on Morall, Politike, and Millitarie Discourses of Lo. Michaell de Montaigne. First written by him in French, and now done into English. London. A second ed. of Florio's translation was published in 1613, a third in 1632. A new translation of Montaigne's work by C. Cotton was published in 1685, 2nd ed. in 1693, 3rd ed. 1700, 4th ed. 1711, 5th ed. 1738, 6th ed. 1743, 7th ed. 1759. The 8th ed. was published in Dublin in 4 vols. in 1760. The Cat. of the Brit. Mus. mentions another edition in 1776, London. Judging the popularity of a hterary work by its editions we see that the public required a new edition of Cotton's translation every nine years. There is a gap between 1632 and 1685 of 52 years in which the Essays were not republished. Cotton's translation of 1685 was followed two years later by Marana's Turkish Spy, which was then repubhshed about every two years until 1734. The interest in Marana's work until 1734 was evidendy four or five times greater than in Montaigne's; after 1734 there is not much difference. Montaigne's mclination to self-revelation has given him many friends and some enemies. He is a sentimentalist by predisposition, which he tries to resist by mental effort. He writes about the power of commiseration and pity, and confesses that he has a marvellous propensity to mercy and müdness, to such a degree that he imagines he would sooner surrender his anger to compassion than esteem. He quotes the Stoics, who resisted sentimentalism. They will that we succour the afflicted, but not that we should be so affected with their sufferings as to suffer with them (1,1). Of the effects of sighs and tears he says : the soul, beginning to vent itself in sighs and tears, seems a littie to free and disengage itself from the sudden oppression and to have obtained some room to work itself out at greater liberty. And with regard to his own condition he adds later : I am tenderly compassionate of others' afflictions, and should easily cry for company if upon occasion whatever I could cry at all. Nothing tempts my tears, but tears, and not only those that are real and true, but whatever they are, either feigned or painted. That on occasion he could be truly sentimental is clear» But Montaigne looks at these psychological phenomena with practical eyes and though he may have seemed sentimental to some while he was alive, he cannot be called a sentimentalist from his Essays. He is mentally no sentimentalist, for he maintains that he who by reason abstains from revenge is greater than he who does the same by good nature.1) As regards education he protests against the thoughdess dehght of mothers who are mightily pleased to see a child writhe off the neck of a chicken, or hurt a dog or cat to please itself, and objects to the father's approval of his boy's brutal treatment of poor peasants. "Custom is no little thing" and he beheves that our greatest vices derive their first propensity from our most tender infancy (1,22). He protests against "rods and ferulas, horror and cruelty" as educational means and exclaims : Away with this violence, away with this compulsion. If you want the child to fear shame and chastisement do not harden him to them (I, 25). He says of himself that he mortally hates cruelty both by nature and judgment, as the very extreme of all vices, but with so much tenderness withal that he cannot see a chicken's neck pulled off, without trouble, and cannot without impatience endure the cry of a hare in his dog's teeth, "though the chase be a violent pleasure." Montaigne was evidendy very fond of the chase. Yet one remark he made with regard to deerstalking deserves special attention, because later it is heard again from the whole and half-hearted lovers of animals : I cannot without grief see so much as an innocent beast pursued, and killed, that has no defence, and from whom we have received no offence at all. And that which frequendy happens, that the stag we hunt, finding himself weak and out of breath, seeing no other remedy, surrenders himself tous, who pursue him imploring mercy by his tears: questuque cruentus, atque implorand similis. Aeneid. L.7 That bleeding by his tears does mercy crave. *) This point of view was defended by The Spectator No. 601 and The Connoisseur No. 75. The stag shedding tears seems to have caught the sensitive imagination of many a poet. He agrees with a remark made by Ovid, Met. lib. 15, as regards the origin of the "killing trade" to which he adds further observations concerning the origin of the cruelties of the Romans, first to beasts then to men: — primoque a caede ferarum, Incaluisse puto maculatum sanguine ferrum. I think 't was slaughter of wild beasts that made Too docile Man first learnt the killing trade (11,11). The ordinary methods of justice in his day were too much for him to bear : "Nay, I cannot look so much as upon the ordinary execution of justice, how reasonable whatever, with a steady eye." As a magistrate, during a certain period of his life, he must frequendy have been called upon to be present at the torture of prisoners, but he condemns the practice in vigorous language : The savages do not so much offend me, in wasting and eating the bodies of the dead, as they do, who torment and persecute the living. And as regards cruelty at the executions he writes, "that all that exceeds a simple death, appears to me perfect cruelty." In Book II, Ch. 12, Montaigne quotes a work by Raymond de Sebonde, of which he approves. The views of this author agreed with his own. The novel doctrines of Martin Luther had staggered ancient behef and might have led the common people to Atheism. It was then that de Sebonde undertook to defend faith against Atheism. Faith, he maintained, had to be supported by Reason. He attached no value to faith estabhshed by cowardice and lack of courage. He finds divinity imprinted On the outward fabric of the world: "It were to do a wrong to the Divine Bounty did not the Universe consent to our behef." He is indignant that man should believe that the Universe was made for him, and that he should be the only creature that has the understanding to discover its beauty; pride makes man deprive the Universe of Soul, of life. of discourse, and arrogate reason to himself exclusively: It is by vanity of imagination that he attributes to himself divine qualities, withdraws and separates himself from the crowd of other creatures, cuts out the shares of animals, his fellows and companions and distributes to them portions of faculties and force, as himself thinks fit." Man cannot know the "internal motions of animals and has no right to conclude the stupidity he attributes to them." Plato, says Montaigne, in his picture of the golden age under Saturn, reckons among the chief advantages that man then had, his commumcation with beasts ; men were happier then. Animals have a sense of justice, they are capable of friendship. He then goes on to suggest intelligence in animals, for which the bees, the swallows building their nests, the spiders constxucting their webs, the ants storing grain for the winter and numerous other examples supply him with arguments. He tries to make the borderline between animal and man seem very faint. In his view man is an animal without any real preërninence ; his imagination only leads him to despair (II, 12). To support his protest against cruelty he refers to Pythagoras and the doclrine of metempsychosis, which "he had borrowed from the Egyptians." "But it has since been received by several nations particularly by our Druids." He then argues that transmigration of souls is compatible with Divine Justice, for, says he : the religion of our ancient Gauls niaintained, that souls, being eternal, never ceased to remove and shift their places from one body to another : mixing moreover, with this Fancy, some consideration of Divine Justice. For according to the Deportments of the soul... they said that God ordered it to inhabit another body, more or less painful, and proper to its condition. Therefore, there is a strong resemblance between men and animak with regard to characteristic qualities. He quotes: — muta ferarum Cogit vincla pad, truculentos ingerit ursis, Praedonesqué lupis, fallaces vulpibus addit. Atque ubi per varios annos per mille figuras Rgit letheo purgatos flumine tandem Rursus ad numanae revocat primordia formae. Claud. in Ruff. I 482, 491. Which Cotton translates thus : The silent yoke of brutes he made them wear, The bloody souls he did enclose in bears, The ravenous in wolves he wisely shut, The sly and cunning he in foxes put, Where after having, through successive years, And thousand figures, finished their careers Purging them well in Lethe's flood, At last in human bodies he the souls replaced. Montaigne then goes farther into the relation between animals and human beings and speaks of a genuine duty of humanity that ties us not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants. "We owe justice to men, and grace and benignity to other creatures that are capable of it." Therefore the Turks have alms and hospitals for beasts, and in Egypt animals are interred (Vol. II, 11). Marana evidendy made Montaigne's work his model; the facts that Marana called his essays letters, and that he made no use of Montaigne's numerous Latin quotations, make no material difference. Both authors give their personal views about what a later author called "men, manners, opinions and times." Whereas Montaigne hesitates to express his own convictions, continually balances the pros and cons, and suspends his judgment, Marana has his definite opinions. Besides, Marana is more of an emotional nature worshipper than Montaigne. Yet Montaigne loved animals no less than Marana and closely observed their ways. Montaigne lived and died a Cathohc with a strong love of pagan antiquity,x) Marana sympathized with the deists, but seems to contradict himself as regards his belief in revelation. They have both much in common with the later sentimentalists : Marana, because he is emphatic about *) He sympathized strongly with the attempts of Raymond Sebonde to defend Christian religion "by humane and naturall Reasons," which was not farremotefromdeism.(Florio*stranslationof TheEssayesof. .Montaigne,II,l2I^ God's goodness. the goodness of the Universe, and human goodness ; Montaigne because of his great tenderness and susceptibility to emotion. Marana frequendy mentions the disturbing influence of melancholy on his equanimity; his love of nature led him to extasy. They were equals in their disinterested love of animals; there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of their love of plants and trees, though they defended it on philosophical grounds. Montaigne may be considered to have been a leader in the hterary anti-cruelty crusade of the 18th century; his emotional appeal in this respect is much stronger than Marana's; Montaigne, for one thing, repeated and emphasized Virgü's feeling reference to the stag shedding tears. Marana is much more exphcit about the Greek philosophers on whose works he based his interest in animals and with whose arguments he tried to defend them against cruelty. In their defence both mauitain that animals have a share of reason ; the natural inclinations of many animals are identified with moral deficiënties or objectionable qualities in human beings. Both maintained that animals have souls, and thought metempsychosis logically acceptable. They quote Pythagoras and Plato to support their contentions ; if Marana, in this respect, took some hints from Montaigne, he is more emphatic, and also cites Empedocles, Plotinus, Porphyry, Aristode, and "Arabian Doctors," Persian Magi and the Brahniins to support his views. With the last-mentioned philosophers and priests Oriental doctrines are made to influence western opinions. Marana mentions as his classical philosophic antagonists : the peripatetics, the Stoics, and the Epicureans, and as his great modern philosophic opponent Descartes. Both find some support in the ol<| , Testament, but regarding the treatment of animals Marana condemns Christian influence, for which he blames the Pope. 32. OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. There can be httle doubt about the popularity, in England, of the Metamorphoses P. Ovidii Nasonis, and the great influence this must have had on the spread of the doctrine of metempsychosis as taught by Pythagoras. Liber XV, verses 60—478, deals with the subject, From the earliest employment — by Caxton — of the printing press, for the spread of knowledge, this I5th book of Ovid's work may have been before the pubhc, though the possibihty is shght. Before we pass to Ovid's share in the progress of sensibility in 18th century hterature we may be aÜowed a short analysis of part of book XV, verses 60—488. Pythagoras' protest, as poeticized by Ovid, is not founded on disinterested love of animals. It is their usefulness to man, in his view, that ought to protect them from being slaughtered : quid meruistis, oves, placidum pecus inque tuendos natum homines, pleno quae fertis in ubere nectar, mollia quae nobis vestras velamina lanas praebetis vitaque magis quam morte iuvatis? quid meruere boves, animal sine fraude dolisque, innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare labores? immemor est demum nee frugum munere dignus, qui po tuit curvi dempto modo pondere aratri ruricolam mactare suum, qui trita labore illa, quibus totiens durum renovaverat arvum, tot tulerat messes, percussit colla securi. nee satis est, quod tale nefas committitur : ipsos inscripsere deos sceleri, numenque supernum caede laboriferi credunt gaudere iuvenci. (116-129) Ovid first objects to the shèdding of blood : prodiga divitias alimentaque mitia tellus suggerit atque epulas sine caede et sanguine praebet. (81-82) Next he emphasizes the difference between man and savage beasts . quippe equus et pecudes armentaque gramine vivunt: at quibus ingenium est inmansuetumque ferumque, Armeniae tigres iracundique leones cumque lupis ursi, dapibus cum sanguine gaudent. (84-87) Apart from metempsychosis he exclaims : heu quantum scelus est, in viscera viscera condi, ingestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus, alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto 1 (88-90) 15 He protests against man lowering his state: scüicct in tantis opibus, quas optirna matrum terra parit, nü te nisi tristia mandere saevo vulnera dente iuvat ritusque referre Cyclopum? (91-93) The degenerating effect of the ltilling of animals on Man, which leads him to the Idlling of his own species he mentions: primaque a caede ferarum mcaluisse putem maculatum sanguine ferrum. (106-107) And with burning mdignation, quite modern in tone, he repeats this thought quam male consuescit, quam se parat flle cruori impius humano, vituli qui guttura cultro rumpit et immotas praebet mugittbus aures: aut qui vagitus similes puerüibus haedum edentem iugulare potest: aut alite vesa, cui dedit ipse cibos ! quantum est, quod desrt m istis ad plenum facinus? quo transitus mde paratur ? (463-469) His protests are based on the doctrine of metempsychosis because in "caede nefanda" he sees the expulsion of the souls of our relatives : ergo, ne pietas sit victa cupidine ventris, parcite, vaticinor, cognatas caede nefanda exturbare animas ; nee sangume sanguis alatur.(173-l75). He consents to the lulling of noxious animals, of those who endanger the life of Man but he expresses an unqualified condemnation of the kilhng of birds, deer and fish : , ï retia cum pedicis laqueosque artesque dolosas toUite, nee volucrem viscata fallite virga, nee formidatis cervos illudite pennis, nee celate cibis uncos fallaabus hamos. (473-476). Ovid does not use any of the words Latin knew for "cruelty," but Man in his dealings with useful animals is guilty of ingratitude : immemor est demum nee frugum munere *Wf:d u2) guüty of "nefas," (127) and of crime: ipsos inscripsere deos sceleri, (128). And, because the bodies of animals may be inhabited by the souls of relatives, he is guilty of "almost a crime'' : quantum est, quod desit in istis ad plenum facinus. (468-469) It is the manner in which Ovid dealt with this subject, the division of its component parts, and because his verse seemed to contain a protest against cruelty, especially in lines 463—469, that this poem became of so much importance to the poetical treatment of animals in the 18th century. We here return to Caxton's rendering of Ovid's work into English. Stephen Gaselee tlunks that Caxton finished his translation in the spring of 1480. It was published, with an introduction and notes, by G. Hibbert, 1819 : Six bookes of Metamorphoseos (X—XV) in whyche be conteyned the fables of Ovyde. Translated out of Frensshe into Englysshe, by W. Caxton" In 1924 Stephen Gaselee published a reprint of Ovyde His Booke of Metamorphose from a manuscript originally in Pepys' possession. It is not certain whether Caxton's translation was ever printed. An authority on the subject, William Blades, author of Life and Typography of William Caxton, thinks that it may have appeared in print, but that all the copies have been lost. Gordon Duff somewhat inclines to the same view. Stephen Gaselee supposes that the book was made ready for the press, but was never actually printed. He thinks it unlikely that a highly hterary work, hke Caxton's translation, could disappear, whereas popular works of fiction and devotion still exist in single copies or in fragments, and if this work had ever existed in print we might have expected some mention of it. He beheves that Caxton entirely relied on a French translation printed in 1484 by Colard Mansion or Jean Gossin. Caxton, he thinks, introduced into his translation much matter which is not found in Ovid at all. The manuscript of the first nine books of Caxton's translation has been lost. It is necessary to compare a few of the passages of Capitulo 3, The Scole of Pyctagoras, as printed by Caxton with Colard Mansion's work, and also with Ovid's Met. I. 15. I have consulted the copy in the Brit. Mus. with the opening lines : Cy commence Ouide de Salmonën son liure jntitule Metamorphose. Contenat XV hures particuliers morahsie par maistre Thomas v .. .docteur en theologie de lordre sainct Dominique Translate & Compile par Colard mansion en la noble ville de Bruges. No mention is made of Jean Gossin. In order to show how closely Caxton followed his French original I copy one passage from book XV: Aussi la humaine creature ne doit faire mal a^autrui pour saouler sa pance. Car eest grande cruaute dun corps qon met a mort pour repaistre L autre corps quant on peut tant de biens et de delices que la terre quy tant est plentureuse soustient, auoir et trouuer viande qui souffise a la nourriture du cörps domme sans espandre sang ne mengier de char et sans deffaire autnu corps. Caxton translates : also humayne creature oughte not doo harme to another for to fylle his paunche. ffor it is grete cruelte to put a body to deth, for to fed l) with it *) an other body, whan ther may be fonde so moche plente of goodnes & delyces that th erthe, which is so large and habondant, susteyneth & bryngeth forth. that is, to wytte, vytayllis whiche suffise unto the noryshyng of man, wf out shedyng of blood ne etyng of fleshe, ne w* out deffeating of other bodyes. This then is Colard Mansion's sununary — for it cannot be called a translation — apparendy of the lines 72—88 of Ovid's Met. hb. XV; "ffor it is grete cruelte is Caxton's rendering of "car eest grande craute, ftw which Ovid wrote "heu quantum scelus est" (88); fecit iter sceleri" (106) is freely rendered by "lyued by cruel metes for to fyll their glotonö paunches f "longius mde nefas abiit" (111) was paraphrased by Mansion thus : Or est tant acute la cruaulte q on ne met point seulement les bestes sauuaiges a mort. Mais chascun sacoustume a les mengier Et encores y a bien pis. Caxton, following Mansion, translates : Now is the cruelte so moche, that men put not only the wyld beestes 8) to deth, but they be accustomed also to ete them; yet is ther werse. i,V) I quote Geo. Hibbert's edition ; Gaselee & Brett-Smith give "fede" "beests , and omit *4t". That Ovid's poem was a protest against cruelty was evidently feit in England from the 15th centurju*m, and numerous translations and new editions helped to spread this view. In 1567 appeared: The XV Bookes of P. Ovd. Naso entytuled Metamorphosis, Itranslated oute of Latin into English Meeter by A. Golding,BJL. (W. Seres, London). The Library of the Brit. Mus. has another edition of this work, with Ms. notes, 1575, (W. Seres) and an edition printed by John Wïndet and Thomas Judson, London, 1584; another ed. Waldegrave, 1587 ; another ed. W.W. 1593, (printed date 1603, with ink altered to 1593); another ed. Th. Purfoot, 1612. Ovid's Metamorphoses were 'englished" (in verse) by G(eorge) S(andys), 1626, of which another ed. appeared in 1628, printed by Young, London, and a third ed. 1632, fourth ed. 1656, fifth ed. 1664, sixth ed. 1669 ; the 3rd, 4th and 5th ed. by George Sandys. Then followed : Ovid's Metamorphoses in 15 books. Translated by the Most Eminent Hands. Adorn'd with Sculptures. London, Printed for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear's Head. 1717. The collaborators were J. Dryden, J. Addison, L. Eusden, A. Mainwainng, S. Croxall, N. Tate, J. Gay, W. Congreve, and the editor, Sir S. Garth. Book XV was translated by Mr. Dryden and others." The Pythagorean Phüosophy by Mr. Dryden (lines 60—478), shows how much great hterary men were interested in the subject. He identifies "dapibus nefandis" (75) with pollution with blood: O Mortals, from your Fellows Blood abstain, Nor taint your bodies with a food profane. "Heu quantum scelus est" becomes "O impious Use 1 to Nature's Laws opposed." The killing of an animal for food, of which Ovid writes "alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto I" (90) becomes "rnamtained by murder and by death they hve." Lines 106—107 with "maculatum sanguine ferrum" are rendered by "and after forg'd the sword to murder Man." Dryden does not use the word "cruelty/' but he employs the word "murder/' and emphasizes the fellowship of man and animals j they are our "brethren." He speaks of "the wretch, (and curs'd be he), That envy'd first our food's SÜnphcity" in connection with the degradation caused by killing. The 5th ed. of this work was published in 2 vols. London, 1751. The pictures in it are on a smaller scale. (There is another ed. in 1794). The 15th book also occurs in : Fables, Ancient and Modern; Translated into verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer : with original poems. By Mr. Dryden. London for Jacob Tonson. 1700. This was reprinted in 1713, '21, '34, '45, '71, '74. Its heading is Of the Pythagorean Phüosophy. It is the eighth and last of the parts from Ovid in this work. The 18th c. attempt to assist in the education of women and to widen their mental horizon explains the anonymous pubhcation of Ovid's Metamorphoses Epitomized in an English Poetical Style for the use and entertainment of the Ladies of Great Britain. London. 1760. Printed for Robert Horsfield. The dedication to the "Right Hon. The Lady Lennox" calls this book a contribution towards "a more rational education" of women. The 15th book epitomized is headed The Pythagorean Phüosophy and gives notes about the transmigration of souls and moral justice in the punishment of the sins committed in this world, and so set right in the next world the inequahties of providence here. The epitome borrows heavily from Dryden, especially towards the end. It sometimes changes the order of Dryden's words somewhat; e.g. Dryden translates : O Mortals, from your Fellows Blood abstain, Nor taint your bodies with a food profane. And the epitomy: Abstain, o mortals, from your fellow creatures' blood Nor taint your bodies with a food profane* It leaves out Dryden's reference to bloodshed and murder. English translations and the Latin text were also published together in the 18th c.; as far as they are mentioned by the Cat. Brit. Mus. they follow here: Ovid's Metamorphoses in Latin and English, translated by the most eminent hands. With historica! explanations of the Fables written in French by the Abbot Banier. Translated into English. With a preface by Sir S. Garth. 2 vols. Amsterdam, 1732. P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon, ad verbum, quantam fieri potvdt, facta : or, Ovid's Metamorphoses with an English translation. By J. Clarke, 1735. The 8th ed. appeared "cum versione Anglica" by John Clarke. Glocester, 1790. Though possibly its first pubhcation falls outside the period I am dealing with the Cat. Brit. Mus. also mentions: Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated into English Prose byN. Baüev 4th ed. London. 1797. *) 33. THE PYTHAGOREAN LINK BETWEEN MAN AND BEAST. Judging from the two poems A moral Discourse hetwixt Man and Beast and A Discourse of Beasts 1653, Margaret Cavendish was acquainted with the Pythagorean theories more or less in the form in which they were being spread by Montaigne's Essays. In man all the qualities of animals are joined and beasts lying in the fields may be contemplating abstruse subjects. Unfortunately they lack the power of speech, she says, to make man wiser than he is. Her condemnation of "the hunting of the hare" is founded on Ovid's view about eating the flesh of animals. Charles Blount mentions Montaigne by name when he quotes him in Anima Mundi, 1673, in connection with the intelhgence of animals. Blount also discusses *) It may here be observed that the 15th book of the Metamorphoses does not occur in Chaucer>s Ghoast or, A Piece of Antiqmty, Contcdning twelve pleasant tables of Ovid penned after the andent manner of writing in England. Bv a Lover of Antiqmty. London. 1672. Neither does it occur in Epistolary Poems on several occasions with Several of the Choicest Stories of Ovid s Metamorphoses. Translated into English Verse by Charles Hopkins. 1694. Pythagoras' doctrine about the transmigration of souls into animals that resemble man in some way as regards some outstanding quality. * Marana "made his silent court unto the trees and flowers, when he went out into the fields to worship nature, and Montaigne feit a general duty of mankind which "even" included "trees and plants." The passions which John Philips attributed to plants may be an extension of these ideas : The prudent will observe, what Passions reign In various plants (for not to man alone,) But all the wide Creation, nature gave Love, and Aversion t Everlasting Hate The Vine to Ivy bears, etc (Cyder, 1708). The poem shows close observation of the habits of many animals. But in connection with the subject — the protection of young apple trees — his attitude to them, even to birds, is hostile. The year 1710 became memorable because of the fact that Steele, the declared friend of red-breasts, introduced protests against cruelty to animals into the moral essay. Starting from the doctrine of transmigration and the kindheartedness of Pythagoreans he penned down a vigorous condemnation of the low and cruel taste not only of the populace, but also of those higher in rank. The Tatler Feb. 16, 1709/10. Addison and Steele were interested m Pythagoras, apart from metempsychosis, e.g. in The Tatler 108, 1709, and 127, 1710, and also in The Guardian 132, 1713, but a remark attributed to Pythagoras and repeated by Addison in The Spectator 211, 1711, about the manners and dispositions which women have drawn from certain animals and elements, bears on our subject. Addison, also, makes WÜ1 Honeycomb explain the connection between the doctrine of metempsychosis and the oriental inclination to release captive birds: every animal may be a brother or a sister in disguise.*) Also the resemblance between men i) On Feb. 25 1711/12 W. E. sent a letter to the Spectator in which he founds his protest against horrible forms of cruelties to animals on his "charity" so extensive a) as to fancy "that all things living are in some sense a) Pope used the same argument one year later. and animals as regards humour is pointed out (Speet. 343. 1712). An unknown contributor to The Speet. June 12th 1712, connects metempsychosis with retribution for past conduct and Steele compares what Mahomet taught about the condition of the soul after death with the Druidic doctrine of retribution. (Guard. 18, 1713). The powerful influence of Montaigne's Essays, of Ovid's Met. lib. XV, and of Dryden's translation of this classic, appears from Pope's essay in The Guardian 61, 1713, by far the most important essay against cruelty the period produced, both because of the influence of the words of its author and the marmer in which he treated the subject. Pope recognises the value of hterature in the service of the prevention of cruelty to animals. He does not think it improbable that redbreasts owe their security to the old ballad of The Children in the Wood. Unreasoning popular superstition may be in favour of an animal or against it, and, accordingly the animal may be well treated or pursued. He condemns various forms of cruelty perpetrated on certain animals. The kind of aversion Marana had to a butcher is heard in Pope's objection to an 18th cent. kitchen "covered with blood and filled with the cries of the creatures expiring in tortures," etc. Pope founded his zeal in the cause of animals on the doctrine of the "universal benevoience of nature" which he ascribed to the Oriënt. *) but in doing so he mixed up two different principles pointed out by Lecky. *) Plutarch, says Lecky, was probably the first writer who advocated very strongly humanity to animals on the broad grounds of universal benevoience, as distinguished from the Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration. The serenity of the night induces Anne Winchilsea in but as one body and myself effected as a member thereof, with what befalls any part even to the minutest reptile." This letter was published in 1725 in Vrigincd and Genuine Letters sent to the Tatler and Spectator during the Time these Works were publisking. In a preface Steele informs the public that they had not been used before. Letter No. 11 protests against the brutal pastime of throwrng at cocks. . J. py^h?J°fas continued to interest authors e.g. Byrom, in Speet. 133, 1714; and William King (d. 1712) seems to refer to contemporaries as "Pythae°ï\3T%. m CraPulia <"> ^ Reeion of the Cropsicks p. 1732. d o*od by H*S' Salt3X1 article on Humanitarianism in the Westminster Keview, loo9* A Nocturnal Rêverie, 1713, to sympathize with the "inferior World," and think it "like her own/' Now Their shortliv'd Jubilee the Creatures keep, Which but endures whilst Tyrant-Man do's sleep. Ned. Ward's interest in Ovid's Metamorphoseon may account for the sad tone which is heard in The Field Spy, or the Walking Observator. A Poem, 1714. He admires the sky and the fields with the catde : Now on my staff, I stood and viewed The couchant catde as their cud they chewed. It is a peaceful scène, each ox, as he lay upon the ground, casting a friendly eye on his neighbours lying around him : How happy above man, who sheds their blood, And rends their muscles from their bones for food, That he may satiate an intemperate gust And in his vein support a pampered lust. And in itahcs he writes the moral: Thus Man who does so oft for Mercy pray, To savage brutes less Mercy shows than they. It is possible that the fact that he found Descartes "on a shelf," which he mentions in The Wandering Spy: or, the Merry Travellers 1722, is expressive of his aversion tohis theories. However, his interest in animals may have been merely literary for The Cock-Pit Combat or the Baiting of the Tiger, on Thursday March 9, 1698," is coarse and not in the least against cruelty. Henry Needler, 1690-1718, published a poetical translation of The Golden Age from the lst book of Ovid's Metamorphoses with a hne that then man "Nature's rights inyiolably maintained." He acts contrary to the doctrines of Pythagoras and the writings of Montaigne and Marana when he gives anglers advice in his poem Of the Seasons proper for Angling: Then let the angler with industrious care His guileful arms and implements prepare. From his Letter to Mr. D. Dec. 3, 1711, it appears that he disagrees both with Pythagoras and Descartes and has a theory of his own, a middle cour se : "I have always thought the many instances and tokens of reason and design, which are commonly observed in the actons and behaviour of brutes to refute the Cartesian opinion of their merely mechanical nature." Brutes cannot be "men in disguise" as some maintain, and he disagrees with "the opinion of the ancient Pythagoreans and metempsychosists." They "exalt the nature of brutes as much too high, as the Cartesian Hypothesis sinks it too low." He therefore takes "the middle way and ascribes to them a soul and faculties naturally inferier to the human." He may be supposed to have been acquainted with Montaigne's Essays, but as he disagreed with some of his opinions he translated The judgment of Monsieur Malebranche concerning Monsieur Montaigne's Essays, from the 2nd book of his Search after Truth, chapter V, in which Malebranche mentions his numerous objections to Montaigne's self-revelation, which he calls his vanity, and misrepresents Montaigne's love of animals, when he writes that this author "finds fault that men should separate themselves from the crowd of other creatures and distinguish themselves from beasts whom they call our brethren and our companions, whom he believes to speak and understand one another." In 1728 James Thomson blended Ovid's account of the Golden Age with Shaftesbury's theory declaring that, benevoience was law and in harmony with Nature in that remote period when man had not yet tasted the flesh of animals (Spring 1. 236 ff). Thomson gives a summary of the well-known passages about the Pythagorean doctrines in Ovid's Met. Ch. XV, and the two lines added in 1746 : Besides, who knows, how, raised to higher life, From stage to stage, the vital scale ascends ? imply that he thought the doctrine of metempsychosis worthy of consideration. The difference between East and West as regards the treatment of animals is again pointed out in the Weekly Register, May 13th, reprinted in The Gent. Mag. for May 1732. "The Christians," it is said there, "are the only people who are cruel to so great a part of the Works of the Deity they worehip." Montaigne's remark about the cruelty of children, which was repeated by Pope, is here again heard and the capricious kindness to certain animals, only as long as they are young, condemned. Pope's argument, the germ of which is found in Ovid, is here repeated. "Mïïdness to the brute Creation would teach us to be more mild to one another." Hawkesworth's essay in The Adventurer of Nov. 21, 1752, about the transmigration of a flea, reprinted in The Gent. Mag. in the same month, is not by any means so amusing as the first part of the story might lead the unsuspecting reader to think. Hawkesworth has a very effective way of making his readers listen to his arguments ; his predecessors had put the philosophic aspect of the question before the eyes of the public, now he makes them realise the terrible and sometimes revolting cruelty to which they exposé their fellow creatures. The conclusion of the story where the flea, put into the candle, becomes "a young lady of exquisite beauty" shows classical or oriental doctrine, through Montaigne or Marana, in the service of the struggle with "the social evil."a) In March 1753 Hawkesworth continued his essay of four months before. He objects to killing animals for sport and gives a few more instances of cruelty to brutes, more particularly to race-horses. His indignation leads him to believe that animals might participate in a future retribution. At the end of his essay he prints Jago's Elegy on a Blackbird. The transmigration of souls and the resemblance between men and animals to which Montaigne and Marana both refer, the tonner quoting lines by Claudianus, caught Geo. Keate's fancy, which appears from his verses To a Lady from her dead Bullfinch, written 1753. The bird has escaped from daily care, which it shares with other mortals. He has been caged from "infancy." But he is only dead in appearance: In Greece a sage did once maintain That bodies die, but souls remain l) The doctrine of metempsychosis continued to interest people. The question whether Pythagoras was its author or not is discussed in the Gent. Mag. in 1752. Hawkesworth has an Eastern Story in The Adventurer, Jan, 13, 1753, founded on the same theory. And without any creature seeing Slip into some new kind of being... (The bird is now a man again:) Snug in the body of a Beau I flutter round where'er you go, A light, fantastic, merry thing As usual, always on the wing. Further characteristic qualities of bird and young gallant are humorously mentioned. Pythagoras' doctrine1) as versified by Claud. in Ruff. is a favourite tenet of Soame Jenyn's (The World No. 163, Feb. 12, 1756) among other reasons "from the difficulty we are under to account for the suffering of many innocent creatures without it." It is gratifying for him to think that sportsmen may be terrified and murdered in the shape of har es, partridges and woodcocks. Justice is maintained because the hunted fox was once a crafty and rapacious minister, "and the buil, baited with all the cruelties that human ingenuity, or human malevolence can invent, was once some relentless tyrant, who had inflicted all the tortures which he now endures". In the same marmer he describes the torments of the roasted lobster, the starved and ulcerated hors es. He is aware that his sentiments will be treated as ludicrous by many readers, and, more or less, he plays with the subject himself. However, he maintains that he is sincere. That the return of pagan doctrines followed in the wake of enhghtenment we may conclude from his hope that the idea of retribution by transmigration of the soul may have some effect on people "who are too sagacious, learned and courageous to be kept in awe by the threats of heil and damnation." He returns to metempsychosis in a Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, published 1757. This doctrine is here used to vindicate the divine goodness, and the benevoience of the Creator. Against his accusers he maintains his object to defend Christianity. In the half serious, half comic tone in which so many l) I have referred to the influence of Montaigne's or Marana's writings on Mrs. Pilkington's poem The Petition of the Birds to Mr. Pükington, on his return from shooting. 1755. articles in The World were written, an anonymous author, in Number 190, for Aug. 19th, 1756, mentions Pythagoras' objection to eating the flesh of animals and the trouble he got into, when he wanted to prevent cruelty as practised by their fellow animus or by butchers' boys. He refers to the markets as the proper residences of inhumanity. Mr. Hogarth's prints on the subject had met with little success "and the streets of London show more scènes of barbarity than perhaps are to be met with in all Europe." He mentions the indifference of the Christian clergy who may have thought the subject "too trivial" for their notice, and draws attention to Oriental hterature : "Asia is too well known for compassion to brutes, and nobody who has read Busbequius will wonder at me for heartily wishing that our common people were no crueller than Turks." Though he knows that he will be laughed at he complains of "want of compassion in our laws," and then gives horrible instances of cruelty to calves. He mentions Addison's protest in The Spectator against roasting lobsters alive and whipping pigs to death, "but the misfortune is, the writings of Addison are seldom read by cooks and butchers." He eulogizes the dog and attributes the frequency of murder to the scènes of cruelty and the fanuharity with blood among the lower ranks of people. Edward Lovibond's observation about the harmonious whole in his poem On Rural Sportst 1775, in connection with the cruelties of bullbaiting, cockthrowing and war, is ultimately due to Pythagoras. Jackson Pratt, in a prose work Liheral Opinions upon Animals, Man and Providence, 1775—1777, identifies metempsychosis with immortahty, which he thinks will be the possible share of animals as the logical consequence of God's benevoience, which has also to be vindicated to brutes. He mentions Soame Jenyns among those who have taken up their cause. Pratt in his prose particularly protests against cruelty to horses: "Observe the driver 1 hark how the knotted whip sounds on their sides — the blood gushes at every stroke." He blames the commercial spirit of the city for most of the cruelty ; the laws of trade clash with those of benevoience ; "a man of business seldom regardeth any life, but such as is necessary to push the point of gain to the extremity." The claim of apjmal»; to a share of reason which had interested Margaret Cavendish and Charles Blount in the 17th century. is again discussed by Isaac Hawkins Browne in a Latin poem De Immortalitate Animi, 1754, of which three translations into English were published in that same year, viz. by Richard Grey, by William Hay and by Soame Jenyns. J. Cranwell published his translation in 1765, but with regard to immortahty "no other fear, no other hope is known, Compleady happy (they are) in this gift alone."x) Mrs Tollet wrote some poetry Against Chance and Fate, 1755. In beasts of every species she observes "A dubious reason which we blush to own." The Pythagoreans spoke of one pneuma which extended throughout the universe and alhed us to animals.2) Marana refers to this doctrine Vol. IV, 1, V, in connection with his defence of animals and Paul Hiffernan in The Deity, 1759, says : This one, this great, this universal soul, Breathes in each insect, animates the whole ; Smiles in the morning, and blushes in the noon, Swells in the waves ; and glitters in the moon ;.. From him, flow concord, friendship, peace and love, All flow from him, in hun all beings move. W. Kenrick in verses On the Immortality of the Soul 1768, adrnits that the sagacious powers of beasts may be superior to ours and cites the traditional bee and ant and also expresses the idea which Montaigne quoted from Claudii Claudiani In Rufinum, for there is a trifling difference beween sharpsighted, grave and fat Melinda and her tabby cat and "Faddle by nature's but an ape", etc. He mentions Descartes' view to the contrary There are, 't is true, who gravely hold That men and monkeys differ wide.... Striving to prove by various means, That brutes are nothing but machines. He repeats that they have a power of reason, which "spite of pride, no more to him than man (is) denied." However *) This had also been Pope's view in 1713, Guardian. 61. *) Bolland: Oorsprong der Gr. Wijsbegeerte p. 48. their knowledge dies with the individual, but human genius hves on. The animal soul is not immortal. The only three philosophers he praises, however. are Plato, Locke and Newton. The esteem which Montaigne's Essays enjoyed in the first half of the 18th century appears from an observation in The Gent. Mag. in 1741 : Montaigne is another original writer, who thunderstruck his contemporaries with the discoveries he made in human nature. His Essays are inimitable, as they are without a pattern... Why these essays appealed to the English public of the year 1767 and the extent of their popularity may be judged from the following remark also in The Gent. Mag.: The Essays of Montaigne are properly Montaniana, that is, a collection of Montaigne's thoughts, without order or connection. This, perhaps, has not a little contributed to make him so agreeable to our nation, an enemy to the pains necessary to go through long dissertations ; and to the present age, an enemy to that apphcition which close and methodical treatises require.... You will scarce find a country gentleman, who is desirous to distinguish himself from the class of foxhunters, without a Montaigne on his table. To surnmarize, I think we may say that the spread of ancient Greek notions — borrowed from the East — regarding the relations between man and animals was mainly due to the study of Ovid, whose views — with certain alterations and additions — were popularised in England by Montaigne's Essays and Marana's Turkish Spy. Marana's extatic nature worship added new force to old arguments ; his love embraced the whole creation ; his views triumphed in England when Pope declared himself a convert to the behef that animals were included in the "universal benevoience of Nature." A merciful treatment of the animal part of creation harmonized with the melancholy tendency of hterature; Thomsón's melancholy inchned him to "the love of nature unconfined," (Autumn 1. 1020), and his feeling heart would tenderly suggest (Spring 1. 370) "that the life of the ox, who patiendy toils for his master, should be spared."1) *) However, he does not expert this treatment to be extended to animals, until mankind has attained a state of perfection (Spring. 11. 374-3/»). A few protests against cruelty remain which do not profess to be due to Pythagorean doctrine as interpreted by Ovid, Montaigne and Marana. William King's Mully of Mountown, a Poem, reprinted in 1722, owes its origin to the sentimentahty of the author when the cow was handed over to the butcher. Addison showed King's interest in birds' nests and was "infinitely dehghted with those speculations of nature which are to be made in a country life." This interest was, however, in part due to the desire to demonstrate the existence of Providence. His protest against vivisection in The Spectator No. 120, quoted from, is lukewarm compared with Dr. Johnson's indignant outburst in The Idler, 1758, reprinted in The Gent. Mag. in the same year. The Universal Spectator of Feb. 20, 1731, condemns eating the flesh of animals, not on the doctrinal grounds of the East, but because of the opinion of learned men, who had declared that such food was unnatural. The article repeats Pope's protest against 18th century kitchen atrocities. Montaigne's objection to parents who incite their children to cruelty (and Burton's disapproval of the selfinflicted torture of Roman Cathohcs) are again heard in The Gent. Mag. of March 1758. But even the above examples may ultimately be due to oriental influence. For catde had been the special object of Ovid's compassion; Addison's sympathy with Pythagorean theories is apparent; the learned men mentioned in The Universal Spectator may be orientals and Montaigne was a favourite author of the editors of The Gent. Mag., which was ever willing to reprint from other periodicals condemnations of cruelty to animals.1) Ovid had mentioned Pythagoras' objection to the l) Many more instances of Pythagoras' fame, more or less connected with our subject, might be given: Thomas Fitzgerald's translation of The Golden Verses of Pythagoras. Translated from the Greek (in or before 1731), and John Whaley's hoes On the Statue of Pythagoras, 1732, showed interest in his reported phüosophy. John Whaley connects him with the doctrine of metempsychosis .... The soul this endless change of being ran, Now lives again to prove that doctrine true. The Rev. James De la Cour, an Irishman, mentions him in lines On Poesy or the Fine Arts, pub.1778. He speaks of Pythagoras as the poet of high merit, who "From iron anvil hammered verse of gold." M catching of fish and Montaigne had recorded his personal practice of "hardly ever taking a beast alive, that I do not presendy turn out." To which he had added : "Pythagoras bought them of fishermen.... to do the same." This may account for the fact that the serenity and happiness which characterized animal life in the "den" in the poem. On Solitude, also extends to the fish in the stream which flows through it: Nor ever did the treacherous Hook, Intrude to empty any Brook. Though J. Thomson sympathized with the Pythagorean doctrines he was no whole-hearted convert: he dehghts in angling and, as Heaven's wis est will has fixed us in a state That must not yet to pure perfection rise, (Spring 11. 375-376). he instructs his readers how best to catch the "weak helpless uncomplaining wretch," (1. 392) with the least amount of cruelty.1) Among the instances of dreadful tortures animals have to undergo at the hands of man Hawkesworth, in his essay on transmigration, 1752, had mentioned those of an earthworm, strung on a hook. Thomson had done the same in Spring (11. 388—89). Dr. W. Dodd who, for all his failings, was second to none among his contemporaries in his advocacy of Christian benevoience followed suit and, in 1764, published, in The Christian*s Mag., an anonymous Inscription on a Tree near a Stïll-water : O let no hook's tormenting pain, Or worm, or sportive fish profane. Angler! Attend compassion's call.... Also catching fish in a net is objected to by Edward Lovibond (d. 1775). He founds his argument on the "harmonious whole." But what are ye.... Who drag the net, whose hook insidious wounds A writhing reptüe, type of mightier woes. *) These views agree with those expressed by Gay in Rwral Sports, 1713, who also thinks himself "less cruel" when he acts similarly. And later he exclaims : . Yet spare the tenants of the süver lake 1 But he calls in vain.1) 34. THE CHASE. Classical, i.e. Ovid's, influence is also evident in aversion to a form of cruelty more particularly practised by the rich, viz. the chase. Ovid would allow only noxious animals to be killed : perdite, si qua nocent, verum haec quoque perdite tantum Met. XV, 477. The marnier in which he gave this permission, however, implied disapproval of the chase. Among the eighteenth century disciples of Pythagoras opinions differed about the permissibihty of hunting certain animals. Lady Cavendish's thoughts on the subject were expressed in 106 lines on The Hunting of the Hare and The Hunting of the Stag.a) The anonymous poet of On SoUtude does not want his idylhc scène of animal life to be disturbed ....nor any hunted Hind hath here Her hopeless Life resigned up. With the exception of an essay by Pope the Spectator''s view is hesitant, half-hearted. Was it because the contributors did not want to lose the favour of the aristocracy ? Yet Montaigne's opinions did not prevent him from being very populair among the country squires in England. Sir Roger de Coverley, we read, goes coursing hares, and when the hounds are within reach of the hunted animal they are stopped ; Sir Roger then rides up, takes the hare in his arms and hands it to a servant with the order to put it in the orchard (Bludgell, in Speet. 116, 1711). But in another paper *) we read that he considers the anders of the deer he has killed in the chase the most valuable furniture of his house ; he has destroyed many thousands *) On Rural Sports. 2) See Introduction IJ. *) By Addison Speet. 115, July 12, 1711. of pheasants, partridges and woodcocks. His stabledoors are patched with noses that belonged to foxes he had killed. And he was as unsparing of his horses as he was of his dogs while in pursuit of game. After he had been obliged to leave off fox-hunting because old age came on, no hare was any longer safe within ten nules of his house. When the Spectator treated "fox-hunters with so httle respect" as Sir Roger de Coverley remarks, it was scarcely because of the cruelty of the chase. Gay's views on the sufferings of animals are also thoroughly inconsistent; he takes a cruel delight in the chase. (Rural Sports, 1713.) In addition to oriental doctrine and hterature Pope quotes Claud. Ruf: Questuque cruentus etc. when he objects to "sanguinary sports," and ladies at the killing of the stag handhng the knife "to cut the throat of a helpless, trembhng and weeping creature." (Guardian 61, 1713). Thom. Tickell feels that a hunting scène in a charming description of the pleasures of spring is incongruous and therefore he appeals to Christian doctrine to silence possible opposition ï after the happy lot of animals in Eden God's "wrath came down, and death had leave to reign." (Guardian 125, 1713, reprinted as A Fragment of a Poem of Hunting, anon. 1749). Addison thought that the chase "indulged in with moderation, might have a good influence on the mind and body." However, "the country affords many other amusements of a more noble kind" (SpecU 583, 1714). Beyond the "trembling prey" the description the old gypsy gives of the hunt in Lady Wmchilsea's Fanscomb Barn, 1713, does not encourage obtrusive demonstration of sentimental sympathy with the animal pursued. In the Nocturnal Rêverie, on the other hand, Lady Winchilsea is fully aware of the tyrannical power of man over this part of creation. J. Thomson's poem, Autumn, appeared in 1730. His view of the chase could not have the approval of later generations. He is hesitant and ülogical; he considers "the rude clamour of the sportsman's joy" (360) not a fit topic for "the peaceful muse" (379); the tendency of poetry of this kind must be to discourage cruel interference with the course of nature (380—384); he condemns the chase as "the falsely cheerful barbarous game of death;" man is destructive of nature for sport, but animals are driven by hunger and "lawless wantthe poor hare and the weeping stag have the poet's sympathy, but the wolf is "a nrffian", the fox and the spider are villains (Summer, 269). The beast of prey Blood-stained deserves to bleed. (Spring, 357, 358). Therefore give, ye Britons, then Your sportive fury pitiless to pour Loose on the nighdy robber of the fold (Autumn 470-473). Not a word of pity for the villain seized, and dying hard Without complaint; though by a hundred mouths Relendess torn. (Autumn 490-492). After the publication of Thomson's Seasons opinions on the subject remained divided : William SomervÜle's poem, The Chase, 1735, is retrograde with regard to the growth of sensibility; it takes Tickell's view. In a fictitious description of its history "the chase of beasts" is said to be bloody, "yet without guilt." His description of the wholesale slaughter of animals speaks for itself: At last, within the narrow plain confined, A listed field, marked out for bloody deeds, An amphitheatre more glorious far Than ancient Rome could boast. Whether the Eulogy upon Mercy (Book III) is righdy apphed, may in this connection be doubted, apart from the fact that he wants to flatter the king. Vergil, and perhaps Montaigne, may be recognised in hls description of the stag at bay: Beneath a weight of woe he groans distressed, The tears run trickling down his hairy cheeks, He weeps nor weeps in vain Moyed by "tenderness innate" the king calls off the pack. This promises well for the king's subjects. It may cause surprise that Leonard Howard, D.D., the author of On finding a Maggot in a Nutshett, should also have written Foxhunting, a Song, and Epitaph on Wonder, a good hound, 1765. However, the authorshtp of these poems is somewhat doubtful. His Epitaph on a Parrot that Betty, the Servant, through down the necessary house, 1765, is dirty and does not protest against the cruelty involved. Partridge Shooting, an Eclogue, 1767, by Francis Fawkes, may prove the insincerity of the customary sentimentalism of the "too delicate Belles" with regard to the chase. The poem shows love of open air life. The author retorts against charges of cruelty ♦. The rising partridge, as in air he wheels Receives the deathwound, which he never feels. But tender Cynthia, with the sweetest breath, Bids Rufo whip her sucking pigs to death; Trusts twelve dear linnets to a careless page, Who starves the lonely songsters in the cage. This huntsman is not quite callous, which appears from his description of the wounded partridge : Chuckling he mounts, he towers with pride elafe, But feels, alas ! the fiery wound of fate. The lines following he quotes from Pope's Windsor Forest.1) Because Henry Brooke contributed to the poetry of sensibility — which will be referred to in another connection — it is disappointing that he wrote The Foxchace, 1789, (first printed in 1792). It contains a lengthy description of the pursuit of the fox, its stratagems and the delights of the chase without any pity for the fox. But opposition to arguments in favour of the chase is also heard. Half humorous, half serious is The Wild Boafs Defence by Geo. Granville, published 1736. People make a fuss of their humanity, but they "murder" animals in sport, whereas We seek not you but take what chance provides Nature and mere necessity our guides. The Student, (number VIII, Aug. 16th, 1750), in a prose essay on Hunting, repeats Pope's objection to ladies being present at the killing of the stag.2) The writer dislikes a J) Ah! What avail his glossy, varying dyes, etc. ») Though Thomson thought the "horrid ioy" of the chase unbecoming to women, he had not dealt with this aspect of the case. country girl's "most exulting expressions of barbarous joy at seeing the poor beast torn to pieces" and he quotes Thomson's lines : The big tears run down his dappled neck, He groans in anguish, etc. An article in the Gent. Mag. of 1754 clearly shows the critical attitude some took up with regard to the moral aspect of some benevolent theories of authors earlier in the century. The writer starts with asserting that "all diversion which depends of the pain of a sensitive being is unjustifiable." He compares two forms of cruelty, fox hunting and deerstalking. Though many had "laboured to persuade" the public "that their hearts melted at the misery infhcted upon an innocent animal'' yet they were not free from "the tyranny of habit," and their benevoience was not pursued to its logical conclusion; Thomson was one of these preachers of benevoience, who while he labours to excite our pity for a stag, encourages the rage of a sportive cruelty against the fox, an absurdity so great that it could scarce be believed in any but a boor ; the fox is no more a "moral agent" than the hare, and '"sportive fury" can have no excuse for pursuing the fox. The progress of sentiment in this respect may be judged from the writer's words that he can never hear without great emotion of indignadon and pity, that any animal, however vüe, is tormented for sport. Lovibond's vigorous protest against various forms of cruelty, such as cock-throwing and bull-baiting are founded on his behef in Pythagorean harmony. Regarding the chase he writes (On Rural Sports, 1775 or before) that when the huntsmen arrivé havock looses the reins : A general groan the general anguish speaks, The stately stag falls butcher'd on the plains, The dew of death hangs clammy on hts cheeks.... The fluttering pheasant is covered with gore, etc. With regard to the chase opinion was evidendy divided. J. Wesley, who on Jan. 27th 1747 recorded in his Journal that he had returned to the use of animal food, cannot on principle have opposed the killing of animals. Without any comment he copied—in his Journal, on Jidy 16th 1756—a letter from somebody who feit sure. he said, that Wesley was not insensible of the pain given to every Christian and every humane heart by the savage diversion of bullbaitings, horse-racing, and hunting. The absence of comment seems to imply that J. Wesley too saw little difference between the cruelty involved in the pastimes of the people and in hunting, the pastime of the country squires. It is clear from the letter that it required courage to protest against these forms of sport. Though the deist considered himself on safe ground as long as he could point out the beauty and wisdom of the inanimate part of creation the animate side of nature presented serious difficulties. It struck him as being extremely cruel; the earth seemed a great rolling globe, covered with slaughter-houses; where few beings can escape but those of the butcher kind, the lion, wolf or tiger, and man "a kind of jack-catch, an executioner-general." Yet, he concludes, necessity makes man what he is. This perplexed deist, who can view no dying brute "in anguish, but from (his) melting eye descends a tear" misses reward and punishment in the ethics of deism and considers redemption essential for this cruel world. This letter Wesley put in his Journal on Dec. 2nd 1755, also without comment. It seems a typical instance of the perplexities of those who tried to reconcile the doctrine of God's perfect goodness, as interpreted by deism, with the evidence of their senses. From Feb. 16th 1709/10 on, when Steele began to popularise the doctrine of metempsychosis in The Tatler, protests founded on the different and better treatment of animals in the East continued to appear in the press at shqrter or longer intervals and mdignation at the cruel pastimes of the common people, consisting in cockthrowing, bull-baiting, prize-fighting, the bear-garden and similar diversions, gained in intensity. In May 17531) ») Similar articles had appeared in this Mag. in 1749 and 1751. Broadsides the Gent. Magazine contained a Caveat against Cockthrowing addressed to the public on behalf of our fellow creatures that cannot speak for themselves and are about to be exposed...... to the merciless humour of a barbarous and insensible mob. This article further protests against the custom of throwing or shooting at dogs, which it calls a reproach to the nation. The same magazine, May 1754, reprints an article from The London Gazette of May 1K It contains a vigorous protest against cruelties practised by "infuriated and irritated drivers and butchers/' Instances of cruelties of this kind are so frequent," it says, "and withal so shocking.. that they call loudly for a remedy." Respect for oriental doctrine made Soame Jenyns repeat the same complaint in 1756. A poet's recommendation of mercifulness to animals is contained in Book II of The Fleece, by John Dyer (1757) : Ah ! ne'er may he Glory in wants which doom to pain and death His blameless fellow-creatures.... Ev'n to the reptile every cruel deed Is high impiety. In 1759 Paul Hiffernan wrote some verses on The Virtues of Cockfighting in which he condemns the practice as cruel. Cunningham published a fable of The Fox and the Cat ia the Christian's Mag. Aug. 1764, in which he ridiculed the hypocrisy of people reproaching each other for cruelty of which all were guilty. W. Kenrick's lines On Moral Sentiment to Lorenzo, 1768, aim at hypocrisy in the matter of benevoience, limited to ftnanctal aid; the hypocrite should abstain from torturing the horse that draws the cart, Mangle the lamb before it die Or draw its heart's blood through its eye. Not until Jan. 1750 do we find the remark — in the Gent. Mag. — that the Christian Churches had neglected to utilise pronouncements of the Bible in favour of a merciful like The Mailcoachman's History, a new song against cruelty were written by well-meaning souls. treatment of animals ; Steele's protests of 1710 against the inhumanities of Shrove-Tuesday are repeated. In The World, Aug. 19th 1756, an anonymous author observes: I know not whether it is from the Clergy's having looked upon (the subject of cruelty) as too trivial for their notice that we find them more silent upon it than could be wished. This also apphes to Isaac Watts, the dissenting minister; however, in his "Defence against the temptations to selfmurder, 1726, he vigorously condemns "the bloody trade of prize-fighting," which he calls a degree of selfmurder. We may trust that people who pretended to "godliness" stayed away from such performances. At any rate, Watts, had none among his acquaintances who went there. He expressed a wish to see prize-fighting "utterly cashiered and renounced by a nation that professes Christianity;'' the sight of so much blood and wounds becomes too familiar, he says, and it makes human life seem cheap, besides teaching cruelty and brutal roughness. He is suppotted by W. Whitehead, who in some verses On Ridicule, 1743, expresses a wish that in our age, too prone to sport with pain, Might soft humanity resumé her reign. However, here it is "true good nature" that must alter the rninds of men.1) Only correct notions of the coarseness of the manners of the eighteenth century and of the various cruelties to which animals were exposed can make us realise the magnitude of the task the authors mentioned in the preceding pages had undertaken. Owing to lack of space a reference to the following works must suffice : Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Vol. III, 1775. The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England includjng Rural and Domestic Recreations....by Joseph Strutt, London, 1801. *) Mason on the other hand, in an attempt to put some new life into the II Penseroso fashion, Jtatifies Whitehead's complaint in a gruesome jest, II Bellicoso 1744. He hails the naval battle and catches "a sympatheüc rage While the numerous fleets engage.... And limbs dissevered hurled on high, Smoke amid th'affrighted sky. The Eighteenth Century or Illustrations of the Manners and Customs of our Grandfathers ; by Alexander Andrews. London 1856. The Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century in Illustration of Manners and Morals of the Age; by William Forsyth. London, 1871. Sport in the Olden Time; by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. London, 1912. Changes of opinion with regard to other forms of cruelty will be discussed in the following chapters. 35. THE CHANGE IN THE STATUS OF WOMAN. Within the hmits of the tide of this book this chapter necessitates a critical discussion of the hterary evidence of the views the 18th century took of the sexual relations between men and women. Towards the end of the 17th, and in the early part of the 18th century, women figure in coarse and obscene poetry in situations meant to be humihating to them. Such poetry is Thomas D'Urfey's Paid for Peeping, a poem occasioned by a peeping hole into a chamber where a beautiful and virtuous young lady logg'd, through which undiscover'd, I could observe all her actions, etc 1690. His "poetry" has the nauseating effect of Sam. Wesley's, the elder's, Dialogue between a chamberpot and a frying pan, 1685, and Swift's The Lady's Dressing Room, 1730. These men — it should be remembered, however, — did nothing but follow examples, not to say advice, given by Montaigne (op. cit. II, 12), and Burton (op. cit. III, p. 239 seq.), who, in their turn, could quote classical precedent. Edward Ward's poetry is inconsistent and his mind variable and unreliable. If we may judge from the tides of his works, Marana was his hterary example, but that author did not stoop to revolting products like The insinuaüng Bawd and the Repenting Harlot, 1703. He pretends to have written this prosework as a warning to ladies. In Fenton's opinion women are lewd and mercenary but they look devout: "Fee Jenny first, and never doubt, To find the saint a sinner." (OUvia, 1717). Burning several poems of Ovid, Oldham, Dryden, etc., a poem by Isaac Watts, 1706, expresses nonconformist opinion on prostitutes. Their appearance may be "Sweet, modest, divinely fair,'* but within they are "Stenen, impudence, and fire and ugly raging sin." Protests against injustice in the treatment of prostitutes are raised by Dan. de Foe in his Hymn to the Pillory, London, 2nd Aug. 1703 : Let no such Bride-well justices protect As first debauch the whores which they correct. The justices, he says, cornmit greater crimes than they punish. In the same year Ned. Ward, in The London Spy, maintains that justices are corrupt; if the poor prostitutes cannot pay they are punished, "not for their vices, but being poor." The prostitutes are the victims of informers, who take away their money And, devil-like, first tempt 'em to the sin :.... Then drag the wretch away to punishment.... His remark in The Field Spy, or the Walking Observator, a poem, 1714, sounds like an apology for the "starving prostitute." A little farther in that poem he shows that he might have treated the subject sentimentally, if he had feit so mclined: I met a strolling poor dejected lass Uncouthly dressed, with Bedlam in her face Gazing about as if she walked in quest of a green pool That at one dreadful plunge she might conclude A life perhaps both indigent and lewd And there intomb, regardless of her soul, Herself and sorrows in the dismal hole. She is, however, waiting for a "granadier." There is evidence of another spirit gaining ground, a spirit of more consideraüon, of better unders tanding and greater dehcacy of feeling when, gready moved by Addison's opera, Tickell, 1709, wrote of Fair Rosamund We spite of Fame her Fate reversed believe, O'erlook her Crimes and think she ought to live. Ned. Ward's Dialogue XXX, The Forgiving Husband and the Penitent Adultress, 1710, occupies a place by itself. It is a domestic drama off the stage. The husband is represented as blameless. He lectures his wife on the consequences which her immorahty will have to the famfly. The language is often harsh but sentiment is beginning to assert itself. He is very depressed that his "dear Lamia, once the only joy of his kind soul/' should prove "rotten at the core." She entreats him to forgive her and ease a wretch's pain, Thou best of husbands and the best of men..., Oh! let my tears and penitence atone For the sad ills I have so rashly done. But he objects that human nature cannot forgive such a wrong. Her children will doubt their lawful birth. "Doomed to misery and shame" she wants to take her hfe, as death has less terror than this existence. Then the husband is moved by her penitence. Yet, crimes like hers "in the most patiënt bosom gnawing he." However, he cannot withstand the flood of her tears and bids her rise from the ground. She is enraptured, for his pardon "has made a worthless wretch the best of wives." The moral is remarkable considering the times : Therefore when wives their weakness show, Pass not too harsh a sentence, But pardon wrongs upon their due Submission and repentance. John Whaley's Prologue to the Fair Penitent, performed by the young gentlemen of Norwich School, 1732, shows the emotion produced by N. Rowe's "melancholy tale of private woes." Who can unmoved such real anguish hear? Calista's woes demand tears, but he thinks the lesson will do the fair sex good, for guilty love has had its full reward. In 1711 Addison, in Speet. 203, mildly reproached "the loose tribe of young men" he had "not yet taken notice of' for making seduction their pastime. *) Steele, 1713, Speet. 45, confirms "the prevalence of custom" and objects to the unjust attitude of society to seducer and l) For the share of The Tatler and Spectator in tales of seduction and the influence on Richardson see The Drama of Sensibility by Ernest Bernbaum p. 113, seq. seduced. In 1740 Watts tells a prose story: The Rak» reformed in the House of Mourning. When Florino, the rake, overhears his friend's outburst of sincere grief, he goes away reformed. Henry Brooke moralizes about unwedded love in a fable : The Sparrow and the Dove. 1744. It describeS a common occurrence in the streets. When the sparrow and his newfound ladylove hide in a barn a turtie lectirres the couple quoting phüosophy and science for the purpose : While wcrób'd in space, primeval clay, A yet unfashioned embryo lay The source of endless good above Shot down the spark of kmdling love.... Each atom sought its separate dass Through many a fair enamour'd mass, etc The sparrow fhes away repentant. In poetry we come across some unmiügated preachment to women on the subject of chastity. Such is the object of The Fall of Lucia, a poem by Mrs Leapor, 1748. For the same reason Paul Hifferan wrote Ethics for young ladies, 1759. His prose is interspersed with poetry from Shakespeare's dramas and winds up with a story of a lady shooting an insolent French officer who had seduced her sister. With evident approval he tells his readers that the murderess was pardoned. The prevalent moral of the guilt of the fallen woman was attacked in the Essay on Virtue by Soame Jenyns, 1734. The poem demonstrates the deist's view of the relativity of evil. If everybody was convinced that "God is our friend" and that the Almighty cannot be "cruel or seyere, No more then, nymphs, by long neglect grown wise Would in one female frailty sum up viee. But of more importance is Henry Brooke's poem The Female Seducers, 1744, which shielded the fallen woman on different grounds. The poem, with two others by Brooke, is to be found in Edward Moore's Fables for the Female Sex. They differ greatly in tone from Moore's work. The latter's tendency may be seen from The Hun. Brooke's morahty is pure. Nic. Rowe's metaphor, in Jane Shore, 1713 : "She sets like stars, that fall, to rise no more," impressed him, as it did Paul Hiffernan (1759) and R. Anderson later (1773). Brooke's poemisanallegory. It describes the fall of the lovely maid Chastity and her being restored to virtue. Women are called "the unhappy sex." If once their fame is tainted nothing can restore it. He dwells on the hopeless struggle of the woman once fallen. She is cut off from every harbour of refuge, there is no repose for the wanderer Tin, by conflicting waves opprest, Her foundering pinnace sinks to rest. Pitiless are the questions and answers that follow: Are there no offerings to atone For but a single error? None. Though woman is avowed of old No daughter of celestial mould, Her temper not without allay And formed but of the finer clay. We require more of a mortal woman than of angels, says the poet, for even immortal angels feil. Everything on earth was formed to fall and rise renewed ; the ocean has its tides, the moon her phases, And must weak woman then disown The change to which a world is prone.... Yes. But should the spark of vestal fire In some unguarded hour expire.... Shall virtue's flame no more return No more with virgin splendour burn, No more the ravag'd garden blow With spring's succeeding blossom ? — No. Pity may mourn, but not restore; And woman falls, to rise no more. Brooke's fables or allegories follow the exposition of a moral diffictuty. Put in a few words the allegory is as follows: Chastity, the daughter of Temperance and Rehgion and the dehght of all Nature, begins the journey through life at the age of fifteen. The path is rough and difficult, but guided by Virtue the task may be accomplished, until the soul freed from Time, Care and Pain is prepared for etemity; but if once her shding foot should stray For thee lost maid, for thee alone, Nor prayers shall plead, nor tears atone.... Thy form be loathed by every eye And every foot thy presence fly. She passes through the awe-struck and adrniring crowds and in the month of May she stands on a high rock surveying the realms of "Sweet Perchtion/' Siren voices reach her from below. They approach her. One of the Sirens is Pleasure. Their touch gives her a thrill of dehght and they carry her along with them. She resists but the sirens o'er the fatal bounds convey'd The lost, the long reluctant maid. The poet now repeats the appeal to his fair readers, first heard in poetry in 1734 : Nor with the guilty world upbraid The fortunes of a wretch betray'd, But o'er her failing cast a veil, Remembering, you yourselves are frail. The allegory goes on to describe the despair of the girl, but when she called out, Slander raised her trumpet, Contempt aimed a viper at her heart, and Reproach breathed poisons over her face. She then knew shame. In her anguish she fhes back to the land of virtue, but Echo pursues her and, as to her friends, With fear they mark the following cry And from the lonely trembler fly. An even more degrading eighteenth-century scène follows, when they backward drive her on the coast Where Peace was wreek'd and Honour lost. Not daring to appeal to either heaven or earth, she falls prostrate on the ground. Virtue now casts a veil over her Which three sad sisters of the shade Pain, Care and Melancholy made.J) Virtue bids the "Lovely Penitent" arise, because her tears had wept her stains away. That Brooke is not a follower l) It is characteristic that the melancholy element in the girl's position in this kind of literature is recognised ; the nature of the subject particularly suited the melancholy mood. of Shaftesbury's1) may appear from these words addressed by Virtue to the prostrate girl: Pass the world, and what's behind? Virtue's gold by fire refin'd, From a universe depraved, From the wreek of nature saved. In Shaftesbury's view human ül does not affect Nature and does not count where all is harmony. In tender language Virtue bids "the little trembler" rely on her own inherent worth and forget the past for the future, though the world may be hostüe, heaven wül guide her friendless steps, and eternal rest awaits her. The cruel severity of the father to a seduced and deserted girl that returned home penitent is severely punished in The Cruel Parent, a Dream by Mrs Leapor, 1748. The paternal home is an aged casde with "crumbling" walls. The allegorical images of Revenge, Melancholy, Oppression and Cruelty await the arrival of the girl. In The Temple of Love the same authoress pictures the anguish and pitiful appearance of a girl in similar conditions. Paul Hiffernan, M.D. expresses sympathy in the warning motto — quoted from Jane Shore, 1713,—which introducés his Ethics for young Ladies (1759) : If poor, weak woman swerve from virtue's rule,.... In vain with tears the loss she may deplore. The despair of the forsaken girl, her flight, her consequent life with a diseased body in "deepest infamy" are described by George Canning, the father of the statesman, in Love and Chastity, w. 1761. Remorse at having seduced the daughter of a tradesman dictated — with "scorpion vengeance" — some of the lines of Charles Churchül's poem, The Conference, p. 1763. Shenstone's Elegy: Describing the sorrow of an ingenious mind on the melancholy event of a licentious amour, was published in The Annual Register, 1764. The poem is due to the remorse feit by Shenstone's friend at the seduction of a respectable girl. Jessy*s appeal to her lover l) Henry Brooke was deeply imbued with Boehme's mystic thought as his book The Fooi of Quality shows. C. H. L. Vol. IX. 17 Force nof my tongue to ask its scanty bread, Nor hurl thy Jessy to the vulgar crew, states the common 18th century alternative for girls in her circurnstances. However, she is drowned. Three Elegies — XI, XVI, XXXII, — by R. Anderson, p. 1773, show his particular interest in this subject, which gave him the desired occasion "to melt at others' woe." With tears "just bursting from her downcast eye" the girl leans "her pensive head" on a willow and "pores upon the brook that babbles by." The seduction of a girl provided ample scope for sentimental rurninations of this variety: Hackney'd in woe, my joyless youth dissolves in briny tears ; and withers on my downy cheek the bloom of boyish years. My earhest love, my only joy, deserted virtue's love ; ingulphed in infamy she hes, to rise, alas! no more. Tempests drive on, collect your rage, howl, genius of the storm ; extend ye rivers ! o'er the waste ; come Death in any form. Death comes, and he bids farewell to the "canker of his hopes," his "ruined maid." One of Crabbe's hterary predecessors, John Larighorne, takes a more practical view of the matter, in a realistic description of a nocturnal country scène. He beheves that superstition may weaken moral resistance and sees harm in the fortune tellers, who make the village girls beheve that "Ere yet ten months are o'er must ye be mothers ; maids, at least, no more" (The Country Justice, I, 1774). He vigorously protests against the legal consequences of the girl's fall: Oh, more than Goths, who yet decline to raze That pest of James's puritanic days, The savage law that barb'rously ordains For female virtue lost a felon's pains 1 Doorns the poor maiden, as her fate severe, To toil and chains a long enduring year.x) The "savage law" meant here runs as follows : And because great charge amseth uppon many places w'h in this Realme by reason of Bastardie, besides the greate Dishonor of Almightie God ; Be it therefore enacted by authontie aforesaid, That every lewde Woman ^ after this p> sent Session of Parliament, shall have any Bastard w<* may be chargeable to the Pansh, the Tustices of the Peace shaÜ cömitt such lewde Woman unto the House ot Correccion, there to be punished and sett on worke during the terme ot one whole yere : And if shee shall eftsons offend againe, that then to be cömitted to the said House of Correccion as aforesaid, and there to remaine unüll shee The girl's changed views with regard to society and the teachings of benevoience were Edw. Lovibond's (d. 1775) motives for writing Julia's printed Letter to Lord V The Gent. Mag. of Jan. 1731 reprints a letter from the Universal Spectator of the same month, in which a physician deplores the condition of prostitutes. His profession often obliges him to witness their despair for which he takes the seducers severely to task. The Church brought the problem before the king; this appears from an Extract from a famed Sermon, preached before the King at St. James's on Dec.11, 1748, by Edw. Cobden. DJ). It is the preacher's opinion that the best and wisest course the repentant prostitute can take is "to endeavour to wash away the stain she has contracted, with the tears of unfeigned repentance." Thus this sermon prepares us for the outward demonstration of grief, which afterwards became a feature of the public show which the vanity of Dr. Dodd made of this charitable work. A note draws attention to the description of the wretched life of prostitutes, found in Roderick Random, and, to some extent, also in Tom Jones and in Mrs Philips' Apology. *) It concludes : "Indeed as this subject is capable of very high colouring, almost every writer has exercised upon it his skill in painting," with doubtful advantage to the cause of morahty. Clarissa Harlowe, published in this year, is not mentioned. In the same year Edward Moore, in his Miscellanies, 1748, — The Trial of Selim the Persian — asserts that hunger was a well-known excuse for prostitution. In 1750 Dr. Johnson, in The Rambler, drew attention to the incredibly coarse manner in which a respectable girl, applying for a situation was treated by prospective can put in good suerties for her good behavior, not to offend so againe. A. D. 1609—10. 7° Jac I.c.4. From The Statutes of the Realm, Printed by Command of his Majesty King George the Third, Frotn Original Records and Authentic Manuscripts. Vol. the Fourth MDCCCXK. *) The course the law could take in special circumstances is referred to in On Benevoience by Hanbury Williams (d. 1759). The gibbet or the pillory could "claim the wretch who blasts a helpless virgin's fame." 2) Teresia Constantia Phillips (1709—1765), a courtesan wrote An Apology for the Conduct of Mrs Teresia Constantia Phillips etc The book was printed in parts and bound in three vols. in 1748. A second edition was called for in the same year, a third was published in 1750 a fourth in 1761. masters and mistrcsscs ; and in the next year, in the same periodical, he made a moving appeal, both on rehgious grounds and for the sake of common humamty that some provision should be made for women longing to give up a life of shame.1) Johnson's essay was reprinted m The Gent. Mag. of March 1751. The editor informs his readers that, as Johnson had omitted to recommend any method by which help could be given, the author ot a pamphlet entiled The Vices of London and Westminster now advocated a foundation for the support of repentant prostitutes. The idea was to make the mstitutton pay its own way by employing the women in the manufacture of "Dresden Work." The numerous short stones which were to follow about the victims of seduction, who were forced to a life of prostitution, are perhaps due to a hmt given by the author of this article : It might not perhaps be improper to oblige all the young women of the first class to make a short iiarrattve of their case upon oath, that their seducer's name and mfajnous artifices might be punished in the common newspapers. The first story of this kind, I think, is The Sweepers by W. Whitehead (p. 1754). It is written in blank verse. It warns girls against moving out of the quarter where they hve : St. Giles, the poor quarter, was safe, but Wnitehall was dangerous for them. After having been seduced by the noblemen they are cast into the streets again to perish. The wiles employed to make it impossible for a gul to leave a brothel — of which the public had been inf ormed by Ned. Ward in The Jnsinuating Bawd and the Repenting Harlot, 1703 — are once more related by Moore in The World. No. 97, 1754. The introductory part is, no doubt, due to Richardson's description of Lovelaces hne of conduct. The new trend of morahty manifests itself m the girl's aversion to this kind of life. The discussion about a hostel for repenmt prostitutes is resumed in the Gent. Mag. of Aug. 1757. The author sees, in a dream, the manner in which this class of women *) Benjamin Stillingfleet, in Some Thoughts omuhnUby' the late Earthauake. 1750, calling down vengeance from abpve on the unpumshed ËSiSets, hadg evidendy Ibst touch with the rehgious tendency of the times. is treated in Holland. It is to the credit of that country, I think, that the humane views it adhered to, both as regards the subject under discussion and concerning capital punishment, were more than once put before the eyes of the English public. A footnote leaves the honour of having started the subject in The Rambler to "the celebrated Mr. Sam. Johnson" : "a note being added to the paper on the subject, which was taken into the Magazine for March, 1751, recommending some provision for repenting prostitutes to the legislature." The subverted morahty of the period is satirized by Soame Jenyns in lines To the Modern Fine Lady, 1750, who weeps "if but a handsome thief is hung" and will become a prostitute from curiosity. In the same year Benjamin Stillingfleet in Some Thoughts occasioned by the late Earthquake protests against the impudent manifestations of "Sodom's sin — that crying sin, long here unknown." Perverted morahty is again the subject of a lengthy poem The Times, 1764, by Charles Churchül. The magnitude and the frequency of this kind of morahty induces him to take a very lenient view of the natural forms. A psychological explanation of the interest in the social evil which characterizes the period is outside the scope of this book, which only records hterary symptoms. Poetry and prose had for many years advocated a merciful attitude towards seduced women and also to that class into which they were almost irrevocably to be merged. The benevolent love of humanity would urge the deist to raise the fallen and a certain species of Christian charity would induce the orthodox to assist the deist, The sentimental tearfulness which is observed in the contemporary poetry of pity and compassion was not merely an accidental hterary embellishment, but true to life, and enjoyed by the crowds who came to listen to W. Dodd's sermons to the Magdalens. John Langhorne's Hymn to Humanity is the deist's apotheosis of sensibility. Sentimental and exaggerated as it may seem the sentiment was commensurate to the social horrors it tried to remove and of which The Country Justice, a poem in three parts, 1774—1777, gives some idea. In the above-mentioned Hymn the miseries of humanity provoke his virtuous tears: Parent of Virtue, if thine ear Attend not now to sorrow's cry If now the pity-streaming tear Should haply on thy cheek be dry: Indulge my vottve strain, o sweet humanity.... If he is too poor to give anything/' the wretch that passes by," gsti? "a soothing word, — a tear — a sigh." Hysteria does not seem to be far removed from some of the later parts of his poem.1) The efforts of Dr. Johnson and The Gent. Mag. bore fruit when, in 1758, Jonas Hanway, the governor of the Foundling Hospital — with Rob. Dingley and others — founded the Magdalen Hospital, at first called Magdalen House. It was opened on Aug. lOth, 1758, and W. Dodd preached the inaugurative sermon. In 1763 Dodd was accepted as the regular chaplain. He was a well-meaning sentimentalist; when Shenstone accused him of cc^uting popularity he arniably replied in a poem, in the Christian's Magazine, that there was no harm in being loved "by all your nature and your kind." The weakness of his character would appear later. For our purpose, which does not consist in writing his biography, it may be observed that he had shown interest in the slave question in 1749 in a poem The African Prince when in England. In 1751 he had protested against cruelty to birds in a poem The Cuckow. If a novel, The Sisters, 1754, had, indeed, been written by Dodd, his coarse descriptions of London life had made him a late successor of Ned. Ward. As a divine he was suspected of leanings to Methodism, but a treatise which he wrote makes this supposition untenable. Though he turned against the Methodists in his writings, he followed them in the manner in which he appealed to the emotions. When he dehvered his pathetic sermons in the Chapel of the institution the "Magdalens" seated on the gallery bebind an open lattice responded i) J. Thomson's words — "he comes, he comes" — announcing the approach of the melancholy and benevolent mood becomes Langhorne s : "It comes, it fills my labouring breast — oh! hear that lonely widow s wail, etc. with groans. The same morbid interest which made Lovelace-stories popular brought the crowds to the Magdalen House to hear and see. Dodd's hterary work in connection with this charity was nearly all printed or reprinted in The Christian's Magazine, which he conducted. In Jan. 1767 this magazine comes abrupdy to an end. The general tone of this periodical is one of benevoience and Christian charity. Several poems in it protest against cruelty to animals or express love of birds and have been mentioned, e.g. Written near the Entrance of a Fine Wood, anon.; The Swallows, by R. Jago; Inscription on a Tree near a Still-Water, etc. In July of the year 1764 W. Dodd reprinted, in The Christian's Magazine, Eyes and Tears by Andrew Marveil, no doubt, because its praise of tears sutted the temper of the tunes, but also because of the Latin footnote its author had added in the 1681 edition, which Dodd could connect with his charitable work.1) Tearful sentimentalism is the chtef characteristic of the many poems about Magdalens, which were published in the Magazine which Dodd edited e.g. Verses occasioned by seeing the Countess of Hertford in tears at the Magdalen House, by W. Dodd (w. 1758); Verses by a Magdalen, anon. 1761 ; The Magdalens, an Elegy, a lengthy poem by E. Jerningham p. 1763, (republished 1774) beginning : Lo! Kneeling at your rail, with pensive air, A num'rous train of suppliant nymphs I spy; a poem, signed Welkes, On hearing the Rev. Dodd preach 1764; A New Ode, as sung by the Women at the Magdalen Chapel; A Prayer for a Magdalen, and in prose Authentic Narrative of a Magdalen ; all in 1766. Not only the Christian's Mag. exerted itself for this charity; it occupied a not unimportant place in the thoughts and in the hterature of the period. In 1760 an l) The poet begins with the lines: How wisely Nature did decree, With the same eyes to weep and see.... It is further chiefly on the subject: All is vanity." Even laughter turns to tears, and the sun, drawing up water, in pity returns it in the shape of tears, the essence of what we meet with in this world. anonymous poem An Essay on Immorality, in three parts, observes, with regret, that the attempts of Pope, Addison and Young had f aüed to improve the moral tone of society : seduction fükd the streets with prostitutes, therefore, the Magdalen House should be supported. Education can bring improvement, for righdy did Thomson observe "Delightful task! To rear the tender thought."x) In 1764 Dodd printed an extract from an Epistle of a Liberüne. This letter proves to be a poem 5 Tom Careless to Ned Freeman, An epistle from Covent Garden Roundhouse* p. in H. Kelly's Works, 1778. Dodd had selected the passages Which condemn seduction; to those that were fallen no further harm could be done, in Kelly's opinion, and their company might be sought I This remarkable moralist also wrote a novel, in two vols.: The Memoirs of a Magdalen : or the History of Louisa Mildmay, p. 1767. It was written in a series of letters. A girl, belonging to a respectable family has been kept locked up in a house of ill-farne. She escapes at night when a fire has broken out and is charitably helped by a gardener's wife. She now insists on going to the Magdalen House, where she is accepted and shows herself a repentant prostitute. The book is very tearful; Theodosia Haversham, towards the end of the *) The importance of education, as a reformative agent, is also the subject of other poems, e.g.: In Canto III of The Shipwreck, 1762, W. Falconer reflects on the beneficial effect of poetry in "the barbarous age, when the human savage roamed the gloomy wild. Poetry then came The dark and solitary race to tame, The war of lawless passions to control, To melt in tender sympathy the soul; The heart's remote recesses to explore, And touch its springs. when prose avail'd no more. The Enlargement of the Mind was written by John Langhorne, 1765, and p. in 1766. Part II is dedicated to General Crauford. The poet opposes narrowness of mind and haüs the "tears, that warm from wounded friendship f low l and "Thoughts that wake to monuments of woe." When the poet returns to Crauford, and mentions "that liberal aspect and that smile humane" the pen falls from his hand. . . . Education is sentimentally treated by Edmund Cartwnght in Armine and Elvira, a legendary tale in two parts, 1771. Virtue but feebly warms, till science humanize the heart, and love softened the savage into man. When the father saw "the lawless train of passions" in the yöuthful breast He curbed them not with rigid rein, But strove to soothe them into rest.... The father knew that the real wants of life were few. He prayed to Fortune that his son might not be selfish. That prayer was granted and the youth knew "the sweetness of Pity's tear" and "benevolent and kind" he blessed others. story, "indulges herself in a dehcious flood of tears," and Lady Haversham writes to the Countess of Blandford : "The heart of the meanest person may be sentimentall y elegant as a prince's." If I have made no mistake in counting, besides simple "tears," there are eight "floods" of tears, one "deluge", two "showers", four times "slrreanung eyes", five times there is "sobbing", three times "weeping", not to mention the "burst" of tears, the "rolling" tears, the "drops" of tears and other varieties of "blubbering" and "crying". When H. Mackenzie published The Man of Feeling, in 1771, tearful literature was no longer a novelty; many virtuous tears of repentance had already been shed in the Magdalen House before a sympathizing or curious crowd of a very mixed character. The danger of contagion makes James Smith draw attention to hygienic measures in Holland and Italy, where prostitutes were ordered to hve in one street. In mis poem, The Art of Living in London, 1768, he writes of prostitutes: Woman, man's chiefest good, by heaven designed To glad the heart, and humanize the mind; To sooth each angry care, abate each strife, And lull the passions as we walk through life: But fallen from such a height, so very low She now has nothing but her form to show. Indeed, a remarkable improvement in tone since Ned. Ward's poetry. A new aspect of the problem, viz. resentment at social injustice, inspired the poet of The Beggars, 1771. Oppression has reduced the small farmer to beggary; his faïnily life has been invaded : My daughter — once the comfort of old age, Lured by a villain from her nauve home, Is cast abandoned on the world's wide stage And doomed in scanty poverty to roam. Mary Seymour enumerates famous women of classic lore as well as of her own day, and says, for instance, of Whateley that she gives "the tender plaining of melodious woe" and "the harmonious tear." She contrasts the sexes as regards sensibility in An Original Essay on Woman, in 4 Epistles written by a Lady, 1771. When fair Truth paints woman, radiant candour glows on the canvas, Soft-eyed Humanity appears in sight, With emanations of ethereal light, With tenderness behold soft bosoms heave, Sigh at each woe, and pant but to reheve. See mortal miseries the tear supply, And human virtue fül the sparkling eye,.... While man, with callous heart and vacant eye, Beholds distress without a single sigh; Thinks want of feeling is a rnanly sign, And souls inflexible appear divine. It does not appear from this study that she was right. Practically all serious opposition to unnecessary human and animal suffering came from men, and their poetry showed a tenderness, also to her own sex, which she herself certainly could not match. Contrary to the conventional views of eighteenth century society Steele and Soame Jenyns denied the magnitude of the moral guilt of the fallen woman. The cruel treatment she underwent is clear enough from prose and poetry. Brooke, while confirming the conventional moral views, condemned the harsh treatment to which she was exposed and expounded the principle of restoring the repentant sinner to society. The copious tears of seventeenth century funereal poetrj are now in hterature and real life transferred to the rescue work among fallen women, a subject which evidendy gave rise to much sentimental reflection* 36. INTEREST IN THE LIVES OF HUMBLE PEOPLE. Within the compass of this book there is no space to write about the economie element in poetry and essays which show an interest in the hves of humble people, i.e. the working classes.1) Writers that took up the cudgels *) For example D. Defoe An Essay upon Projects, London ; w. 1697, p. 1698. It consists of a series of essays on important public improvements suggested by the author. He recommends a pensions office for the reliëf of the poor in sickness and old age, savings banks and friendly societies, e.g. for the assistance of seamen and the support of destitute widows. These societies were to be for the poor1) complain of the injustice of the magistrates ; there are vague mutterings of oppression, which later in the century take a more definite shape when the consequences of eviction make themselves feit and when the workman resents the introduction of machinery. Barring Thomson's Seasons I have put down here some instances of sentimental, i.e. spontaneous and unreasoning interest in the working classes. The poetry connected with The Dispensary by Sam. Garth, 1699, says nothing about the conditions of the htourmg classes, but in William King's Dialogues of the Dead, 1699, reprinted 1722, the London butcher complains to Hercules of this lack of interest in the common people and mentions the cause: the ballad-singers make St. George and King Arthur the subjects of their songs and "our great Scholerds" are so much "taken up with such Fellows and this Hercules.. ♦ ♦ that they never mind my Actions, nor several other of their own Country-mens." Henry Needler gives a description of the miserable conditions of the shipwrecked sailors in A Sea Piece, 1711. The miseries of poverty are vividly portrayed in a long allegorical poem by L. Theobald in The Cave of Poverty, a Poem, written in imitation of Shakespeare, undated.a) The poet describes the gloom of the den of poverty and the hideous shapes of discord, dulness and ignorance. Poverty is their regent; she sits on "matted straw" in formed by mutual insurance for the reliëf of their members in times of distress. "The same thought" he says, "might be improved ... to prevent the general misery and poverty of mankind." He understood the demoralising effect of charity on the threshold of a period which was yet to glory in its manif estations: by his methods, he said, "not a creature so miserable or so poor, but should claim subsistence as their due, and not ask it of charity." John Bellers' aim had also been to remove the odium of charity; this Quaker's Colledge of Industry, p. 1697, was to be self-supporting and "an Epitomy of the World, p. 20. Three hundred people carrying on all sorts of useful trades were to live together in a "Community something like the Example of Primitive Qiristianity that lived in Common." He thinks that in this manner even "the Blind and Lame" might be able to do something towards a living. J) For example D. Defoe in The Poor Man's Plea, in Relation to all the... Acts of Parliament.. .for a Reformation of Manners," London, 1698. He appeals to the higher classes to set a good example, and insists on impartial enforcement of me law. The pamphlet passed through three editions before it was included in the first vol. of his Collected Writings. As Defoe had foreseen, the societies became chiefly intrumental in convicting offenders of humble rank, to whom the penalty of a fine was a serious matter. *) The Gen. Cat. Brit. Mus. suggests 1714. the company of famine, despair, sickness and death: Pale was her face and shriveUed was her skin Eyes sunk and starting bones; as she were now The skeleton of what she once had been. Tabiets on the wall portray her triumphs : a sailor curses poverty as the cause which compels him to this life "and would not grant a sustenance at home." Another picture represents highwaymen lurking behind hedges, "pressing want inspires their breasts to endless acts."*) On another panel again a sketch is seen "of more abstracted Woe," The lively semblance of domestic Thrall Where infants cry and mothers are in tears : In vain the goodman pleads the care of thriving What's care, strong poverty against it stxiving. Populous ciües and small villages suffer equally. The poet paints "the anguish and the appearance of the man in debt, and of the victims of the usurers. In this cavern one may see ragged old women "the triumphs of harsh need, and long hv'd trouble : At sight of whose distress, in fierce dismay, The village curs wotild bark and stand at bay. Though the vulgar "misdeemed them hags" they are the objects of the poet's interest and pity. Want has brought them to this pass. The first part ends with the lines: Sick of the hazy vaults the muse upsprings And spreads in purer air her süver wings. In the second part endless scènes of misery outside the cave are described and the cave itself resounds with the curses of those in the grasp of poverty. A pleasanter representation of the life of a poor fellow is heard in Needler's Description of a Summer Night in the Country (d. 1718). Here "the weary hind" stretched on his "homely bed" is sound asleep; "his wholesome labour gives a sweet repose." William King's poem, The Fisherman, 1722, is an example of the melancholy and sentimental man's interest in the work of simple people. Some lines of it are worth quoting : *) Henry Fielding in An Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers, 1751, deplores the destruction of morahty in lodgings in St. Giles where "a singleloaf had suppheda wholefamily with their provisions for a week." He'd through the Stream, where most descending, set From side to side his strong capacious Net; And then his rustiek Crew with might y Pales Would drive his Prey out from their owzy Howles, And to pursue 'em down the rolling Flood, Gasping for Breath, and almost choak'd with Mud, Till they, of farther Passage quite bereft, Were in the Mesh with Güls entangl'd left. John Dyer shows a poet's interest in an old man diggmg up cabbages in The Country Walk, 1726, and in the same year "the useful sons of the vïllage" are mentioned in David Mallet's poem, The Excursion. The cottage in this poem becomes the scène of a fire and domestic grief.1) In 1728 William Pattison published his Harvest Scène with a description of an old man leaning on his staff and watching the work of the reapers. Perhaps also the anonymous poem The Milkmaid, 1729, may be mentioned here; in a playful manner it treats an accident which happened to a dairy-maid. The metre connects it with the melancholy mood of IIP. Mrs Leapor gives a some what realistic description of the activities of a milkmaid in Winter, 1755. James Ralph contrasts the conditions of the rich and the poor in the marooned seaman in Night, 1729 ; the scènes were influenced by his melancholy mood, he tells us. With Stephen Duck's poem The Thresher's Labour, 1730, begins a series of descriptions of the hardships of labour with which the authors were acquainted through personal experience. Such descriptions have Crabbe's sour realism. The thresher-poet speaks of the monotony of his machinelike movements, of the impossibility to talk, of the dust In briny streams our sweat descends apace Drops from our locks, and trickles down our face No intermission in our work we know...... He complains of the exacting master, who swears at them. On a hot day mowing becomes torture, he gets so thirsty that he can scarcely swallow his bread. His description of hay-making takes no idealistic view of the workers, and corn-mowing has its difficulties : *) W. Thomson's interest in the lives of humble people is well known. Before us we perplexing thistles find And corn blows adverse with the rustling wind. At night they painfully go through all their work again in their dreams ; Thus, as the years' revolvïng course goes round, No respite from our labours can be found. In The Weaver's Miscellany.... By John Bancks, now a poor weaver in Spittle-Fields, 1730, similar complaints of the weaver's work are heard. In The Wish he writes of his place at the loom: In dire machine, of quadrant figure Exposed to all the pmching rigour Of hunger, poverty and cold I by my bum and belly hold Pendant, betwixt the earth and skie, etc He has enough money for all the needs of life. In Hudibrastic verse he discusses the kind of wife he wants, his house, furniture, books and friends. But all is a dream : "Still in the loom must I remain, all higher thoughts, I doubt, are vain." The Bricklayer's Miscellany, by Robert Tatersal, also owed its origin to Duck's poem.1) In The Bricklayer's Labours it follows the treatment of the subject suggested by Duck. Duck's observations about women at their work had not been entirely friendly. A reply followed in The Woman's Labour, an Epistle to Mr. Stephen Duck in answer to his late Poem, called The Thresher's Labour.... by Mary Collier, now a washer-woman, at Petersfield in Hampshire. 1739. The authoress thinks that woman Could never be for slavery designed, Till time and custom by degrees destroyed That happy state our sex at first enjoyed. The poem describes the hard life of a poor working woman. Her language with regard to her employers is bitterer than Duck's : J) The Brit. Mus. has a copy of the second ed. in 1734, and a copy of a pirated edition in 1735. So the industrious bees do hourly striye To bring their loads of honey to the hiye ; Their sordid owners always reap the gains And poorly recompense their toü and pains. Poetry like the above flatly contradicts the assertion of the Rev. Tho. Fitsgerald in Industry, 1731, that work brings The poor Mechanic and the lab'ring Swain, Health, peace and sweet content.... In The Fisherman, an Idillium of Theocritus, 1731, he writes down a quite different view of the hardships of the workingrnan: 'tis penury that whets the human mind To painful toil in crafts of every kind, Care to subsist, still carking in his breast Bar the poor lab'rer of his needful rest Works him by day, and haunts him in the night; Stirs his old stumps before the morning light: And late and early prompts his hard essay To earn the scanty pittance of the day. The poem further gives a detailed description of the marmer of living of two fishermen in their hut built of mud, surrounded by the implements of their trade. Joseph Warton's weary woodman and singing shepherd in Ode to Evening, 1746, are often quoted in handbooks. Henry Jones's lines On a fine erop of peas, being spoüea by a storm, 1749, sympathises with the disappointment of a hardworking gardener. C. Trotter, later Catherine Cockbume, uses the interest the queen had shown in Duck, "the Wiltshire Thresher" to appeal to her to include women in her desire "The low to raise, the fearful to defend" (1751). Some humorous poems show kindly interest m the lives of humble people e.g. The Taylor and Semstress anon. and Epithalamium or the Cobbler and Chimney Sweeper by Francis Fawkes. The fact that they were published m the Gent. Mag. 1754, is a guarantee that no harm was intended. Equally kindly meant are Fawkes's Elegy on the Death of Dobbin, the Butterwoman's Horse, 1761, and The Stage Coach, 1761. A conventional ideal view of the ennobling influence of labour and the moral excellence of the peasant is heard in Conscience by Sam. Derrick, 1755 : The toiling peasant's breast no cares annoy His life is labour, and his labour joy. His guiltless bosom knows not to relent Rich in his homely fare and sweet content. The "lone, humble cot," he thinks, is the place of suprème happiness. But that is not the general opinion of the 18th century; Sam. Johnson's review of S. Jenyns' Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, 1757, shows a keen appreciation of the demoralisation and degradation of poverty. Johnson denounces the shallow optimism of The Essay on Man and observes : This author (Soame Jenyns) and Pope perhaps never saw the miseries Which they imagine thus easy to be born. The poor, indeed, are insensible of little vexaüons... .but this happiness is like that of the malefactor who ceases to feel the chords that bind him when the pincers are tearing his flesh. The humble life and simple joys of the rural clergyman are pictured in The Country Parson, 1758. Sympathy with the farmer as well as with his animals that have to endure the rigours of a hard winter is expressed in the anon. poem On Beneficence, a poetical Essay. Second ed. 1764. Close observation of nature and sympathy with the troubles of the working class are shown by Michael Bruce in a fairly long blank verse poem Lockleven, 1766, and in The Deserter by Jerningham, 1774 ; The Chimney Corner by Henry Woty, 1770 , describes the time of dinner and rest of a farmer at home. Thus, in the period under discussion, two views were at variance : the conventional acceptation of the labourer's cottage as the place of contentment and happiness, and the sympathetic realistic representation of the hardships of labour in which Stephen Duck took the lead between 1730 and 1739. That this poet keenly feit the position of the labourerl) appears from what he writes of himself: "lately a poor thresher in a barn.... at the wages of four shillings and six pence per week." Queen Caroline's *) The contemporary note of despair is not absent from the history of this kind of poetry : Stephen Duck drowned himself in a fit of dejection, 1756. doctrine, it is said, was that all romance or sentiment was contemptible ;x) it is to her credit that she was sentimental enough to have the Earl of Macclesfield read out Duck's poems to her and that she rewarded the thresher handsomely. Notwithstanding Mary Bateson's remark about the state of society2) I think that the pubhcation of similar poetry between 1730 and '39 was serious evidence of the beginning of a fundamental change which was taking place in the characteristics of English social life and that the works of these poets were signs of the intellectual progress of the working classes. 37. PRISONERS AND PUNISHMENTS. In the days of John Howard no difference had yet been made between debtors and crmunals though the injustice of this had not remained unnoticed. Defoe, on behalf of honest but industrious traders, had proposed the appointment of a committee of enquirymtobankruptcy, 1697, and in the Review of March 1, 1709, he maintained that thieves and murderers were treated with more mercy by the public than debtors "though their crimes may be perfectly casual and inevitable." A few weeks later, «turning to the subject he demanded justice for debtors and expressed his belief that, if some of the creditors could see what was suffered by those whom they had put in prison, they could not bear the sight. In 1712, Speet. 456, Steele discussed the miseries of debt and bankruptcy. After Steele's essay the first other hterary work of importance about the subject was written in 1728 ; before this date there are some general reflections on the loss of liberty in a poem Upon singing birds in a prisoner's room, 1713. D. Mallet's expression of sympathy with prisoners in The Excursion, 1728, is perhaps due to the same cause as Sam. Wesley's poem, The Prisons open'd, a poem occasioned by the glorious proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to inquire into the state of the gaols of this Kingdom, in the year 1728.-) Humbly inscribed to James Oglethorpe. Esq. Chairman. V) Traül and Mann, Vol V, Social Life in England, p. 181, seq. 8) James Thomson also refers to this» 18 After the causes that brought people into debtors' prrsons have been mentioned he gives a vivid description of the physical sufferings of the prisoners : Their only bed dank earth unpaved and bare Their only covering is the chains they wear. Some cornmit suicide to hide their misery, others go mad. No complaints of the survivors can reach the Courts. The part Oglethorpe played in the parliamentary mqurry mto the villainy of Thomas Bambridge, the "Warden or iaüor oi the Fleet prison is explained m A Paladin of Philanthropy by Austin Dobson. Owing to Oglethorpe s exertions the more crying of the abuses in that prison were remedied, but what remained was horrible enough. ) Sam. Wesley returned to this subject in 1736, in an Ode to James Oglethorpe. Complaints about the tyranny and oppression of gaolers continue to appear m the penodicaJs from time to time e.g. in the Gent. Mag. Jan. 2, 1752. However, Leonard Howard in The Humours of the King s Bench Prison, a ballad, p. 1765, is loud in his praise of the Marshal's deputy of the prison, who treated the prisoners «like men and friends," and John Howard found that the gaol ot Newcasde-upon-Tyne was managed with humanity deserving of all honour.2) Charitable motives urged T. G. Smollett to descnbe the sufferings of a showman in Newgate m a poem Advice and Reproof, 1746. Debtors' prisons are also discussed in the Gent. Mag. 1737 and in 1752. The economie drawbacks of imprisonment of debtors and the unhygienic conditions of Newgate ») are complained of in the Gent. Mag. m 753. A line in The Day of Judgment, by Dr. Glynn, 1757, may be explained by the charitable custom of ransoming prisoners of which we read in the Gent. Mag. in 1764 and » In 174i the Dublin Gazette announced that two prisoners had died of Hales, 1758. ~ 1766.1) The Christian''s Mag. edited by W. Dodd also promoted this workby publishingRobert Nelson's "scheme for doing good/' which had for its object among other things "Reheving poor Prisoners." In 1758 and in 1759 Johnson returned once more to the attack on debtors' prisons condemning the system both on economie and ethical grounds. These two essays form, no doubt, a landmark in the history of reform. They were published\ in The Jdler and were reprinted in the Gent. Mag. *) Persuasion to abstain from cornnutting people to prison for debt is ' heard in a prose article, probably by Dr. Dodd in the Christian''s Mag. in April and June 1765. If that is correct Dr. Dodd acted upon Johnson's advice both in the rescue work among fallen women and in the matter of debtors' prisons j when, later, he was on trial for his life he read out the speech Johnson had written for him. Sympathetic references to prisoners belonging to the criminal classes are very scarce, but the sentiments some of them express are worth recording. Considering the fact that Dodd's biographer blames him for passing his time in prison writing poetry, while awaiting execution, it may here be observed that Dodd had himself published, in the Christian''s Mag. Dec. 1766 An Ode on the Melancholy Condition of Mr. Smith, an unhappy Convict, while under sentence of death in Newgate in the year Il$0. Written by himself. Numerous classical names have been crowded into the first few lines, but later the tone becomes natural and it then shows that the prisoner is deeply impressed by bis horrible surroundings. Resignation, and contempt of prosecutors, is found in To a lady under imprisonment, 1765, perhaps by Leonard Howard. The poet speaks of our sequestered ceUs. In William Woty's poem, On Music, 1770, melancholy is associated with Newgate : i) Horace Walpole sympathised with them and sent two guineas anonymously to "the poor prisoners that are sick in the New Jafl, Sotithwark" and one "for those in the common side in the Marshalsea." See "The Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. by P. Cunningham, 1857. The letter is dated Feb. 29, 1764. *) Also Henry Brooke, in The Fooi of Quality, 1763, complains of the severity of the law against debtors. Hence duU-browed Melancholy — Go where endless Horror dwells To Bedlam's walls, to Newgate's cells.... W. Keririck's essay in verse On Moral Sentiment breathes a generous spirit of benevoience and antipathy to cruelty ; he introducés a new element into poetry, when he says O learn to pity, not detest; Even looking with a brother's eye On wretches doomed by law to die.x) The moral which the reader can draw from John Langhorne's story of the humane robber, who saved a child's life rather than escape the gallows, is, no doubt, that there is some virtue in the criminal: "He feit as man, and dropped a human tear" (The Country Justice. II). When economie changes landed many respectable workmen in prison, opinions about prisoners were bound to be revised; therefore Thomas Penrose wrote, in 1776, m his Address to the Genius of Britain, How are they fallen The sons of labour, from their prosperous state Degraded l How, alas ! the crowded jaü Swarms with inhabitants that once had hope Of fairer evenings to their toilsome mom. Füled is each cell of sorrow and of pain With daily victim, etc The humane thoughts of the authors quoted aboye were far in advance of the practice of the period in which they lived. The poet of On Beneficence 1764, might write m the name of Justice Better the guilty nmety-nine escape, Than once meek suffering innocence should die, but this was not the opinion of the law, and Dr. W. Dodd was to become its victim. He did not suffer innocent; he committed what was then considered to be a capital crime: Dodd had got into debt and forged a cheque for four thousand two hundred pounds. The tircurnstanccs under which this took place are told by his biographer, i) A Statute of Elisabeth —not abolished untU 1808 —made it ai capital crime to steal a handkerchief or anything else which was of the value of a shuling from the person of another. Farrer, op. at., p. 59. Pcrcy FitzgeraldThen England wanted "to show the surrounding world a spectacle of stern, unflinching morahty," and Dr. Dodd was to pay for it with his life. His best friends in this extremity were the Methodists and Dr. Johnson; the share they had in attempts to save him has been recorded by Fitzgerald. Some poetry written by Wesley and bearing on the occasion has been overlooked by this author : of The Poetical Works of J. and W. Wesley, London, 1872, Vol. VIII contains A Prayer for Dr. Dodd under condemnation and another Written on the day of his execution, June 27, 1777, with the lines : The mercy which he sought from man, From cruel man he could not find. From The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley it appears that he visited Dodd four times; on March 15th, 1777, he found him thoroughly resigned to the will of God ; he visited him again on the 18th of the same month ; on March 24th he was accompanied by Charles. In his Journal he calls Dodd "a true evangehcal penitent." On July 25th he visited Dodd for the last time and wrote of him: "Such a prisoner I scarce ever saw before; much less, such a condemned malefactor." I have thought it necessary to add the above details in mitigation of Fitzgerald's account of Dodd's character, for Fitzgerald is frequendy not free from harshness ; in my opinion Dodd was the embodiment of the period in which he lived, with all its sickly sentimentahty, benevoience and rehgious emotionalism. The Christian's Magazine contains the best record of his interests and charitable activities. Himself the defender of God's wrath in his prose-writings, his method and aims must have made him the friend of the Wesleys and their adherents. What we condemn in Dodd may be condemned in the whole period in which he hved, which, to me, in hterature at least, manifests the emotion and the symptoms of a mental, if not a moral, crisis in which Dodd's "luxury of woe," Thomas Warton's "specious lays," and David Hume's *) A Famous Forgery $ being the story of the unfortunate Dr. Dodd. London, 1865. Essay dallying with the thought of suicide are the outcome of the degeneration of benevoience and melancholy. A man like Dr. Johnson, who involuntarily shrank from having anything to do with him, was interested in the same social aims, visited Dodd in prison, and also wrote a pathetic address, which Dodd read out at the Old Badey Sessions of May 26th. A petition drawn up by Johnson praying for mercy for Dodd obtained 23000 signatures. Johnson also appealed to Mr. Jenkinson, then Secrètary-at-War, to prevent, at least, Dodd's pubhc execution. That this letter was never noticed shows once more that hterature and the law moved in two worlds apart in those days. . . The poetry of despair enters the service of the cnrmnal part of humanity in Dodd's Thoughts in Prison, \T11. I think Fitzgerald is wrong in calling this poem "false; the psychological effect on the attentive reader is best expressed in the words of Dr. Johnson. When Boswell had read out some portions to him, Johnson gave lus verdict: "Pretty well, if you are disposed to like rt\ When he heard some more read, he liked it better. Dodd s Thoughts in Prison, written in blank verse, is poetry of sohtude dealing with prison life. The poem was begun, as the author says, without purpose or motive, that he might bear the "Terrors of this dire Place and the bitter Anguish of my disconsolate Mind." It puts before the readers the sufferings in prison of an educated man, who has been condemned to death. Rarely did a cause fmd an advocate in a poet who could so truly wnte from experience. Outside he hears imprecations and the clang of chains. More truly than Kenrick could he look "with a brother's eye on wretches doomed by law to die,' and that he did so appears from this poem: Hark! what a groan responsive from the Cells Of condemnation, calls upon my heart.... My Fellow-Sufferers, and my Fellow-Men. The English prison system, he says, can lead to no reformation of the prisoner. A debtor should not be put in prison, for debt is no guilt. He praises Hanway for a pamphlet he wrote Solitude in ImprisonmenU The poem cnds with the praise of "perfect, rare Benevoience.'* But the benevolent author was to die in accordance with the bloody code of these days. Thirty years passed in charity, to which Johnson had drawn attention in the Address, could not save him from the gallows. Others had to die for less. At the very Sessions at which Dodd was tried a poor rogue was sentenced to death for washing a halfpenny over to make it pass for a shilling, and a woman to be burnt in the hand for assisting in the same offence.1) Protests against the cruelty of the law had been' raised from the beginning of the century. Dan. Defoe, in A Hymn to Tyburn being a Sequel to the Hymn to the Pillory, 1703, in addition to pointing out the social injustice embodied in the criminal laws, had observed "how much it wou'd amend the Times" and respect for the law "to have Men's sufferings equalise their crimes." 2) He had urged clemency in "matters doubtful to decide, a little bearing to'rds the milder side." Ned. Ward's poem A Journey to H(ell) : or, a Visit paid to the D(evü), 1706, had, at any rate, manifested a keen realisation — not unmixed with pity — of the fear of the criminal in the clutches of the law. From the tides of his hterary work it appears that he was well acquainted with Marana's prose-work ; oriental influence must therefore be considered to be no stranger to a shght inclination to mercy noticeable in his work. Steele's essay in The Tatler, 134, 1710, is saturated with the spirit of the Oriënt; his protest against the horrors of public executions on the stage may therefore x) Coining was high treason and the woman found guilty of this crime was burnt at the stake. Pike describes a hideous scène in 1721, op. cit., p. 288. In the year of Dodd's execution a girl of fourteen lay in Newgate under sentence to be burnt alive for false coinage ; a reprieve only came just as the cart was ready to take her to the stake. Farrer, op. cit., p. 52. Women might also be burnt at the stake for other offences. "Nor was this of such rare occurrence as might be supposed." Hanging was substituted for it in 1790. Pike, op. cit., p. 379. The law was particularly cruel to women. See Pike, op. cit., p. 38. *) We know from A Journal or Historical Account of George Fox, London, 1694, that from Derby Dungeon, in 1651, he wrote to the judges "concerning their putting Men to Death for Cattel and Money and small Matters", showed them "how Contrary it was to the Law of God in old Time" and added a few courageous observations about taking gifts and rewards. He shared Burton's view of the matter, also with regard to substituting slavery for death in case the thief could not make restitution. In 1652 A Cry against... .killing of Men meerly for ThefY' had also urged leniency. be ascribed to that impulse. The same source exerted itself on the English mind through a French medium, when, in 1721, Ozell's translations brought Montesquieu's Persian Letters before the English public. However, Montesquieu's description of the clemency of European law in the matter of punishments is contrary to the truth, at any rate, with regard to English law. If his optimistic views.of the laws of Europe did not tally with fact, his Letter LXXVIII, at least, showed what principle might be embodied in them. The subject of that letter is the advantage of a mild government over a cruel one. Of the government in Europe he maintains that whether gentie or severe "the greatness of the Penalty is proportioned to the Crime." That was exacdy what Defoe and so many after him maintained that it was not. At the most, he may have made it clear to his contemporaries that the laws of Turkey were crueller than those of Europe, and for the matter of that he counteracted an English tendency to represent the East as the birthplace of mercy in various forms. Whereas in the eyes of some the laws of England dealt too leniendy with crime,1) Philanthropos Britannicus, writing to Fog's Journal, Nov. I, 1735, (reprinted in the Gent. Mag.) denies that "the annexing the like punishment to the taking of sixpence as to the committing of murder" can be a mark of lenity. Without mentioning Montaigne he almost quotes him hterally when he writes : "For if the punishment exceeds the crime, then that excess of punishment can only be imputed to cruelty." One of the stories with which this writer clinches his argument shows a close resemblance to Marana's story of the poacher (see. p. 218). That the lower classes were conscious of the poignant chsproportion between offences and their punishment we may conclude from the culprit's answer to the judge who pronounced the death sentence : that it was some comfort he should not be damned hereafter for this ») Such was the opinion of the author of Hanging not Punishment enough for Murtherers, High-way Men and Housebreakers, 1701. This tract advises Parliament to resort to torture as a deterrent to crime. See Literature oj KOguery, by F. W. Chandler. London, 1907. trespass. The sentence of death passed on a smuggler is by the same author condemned on the grounds that periods of economical stress produce this crime, and that not the man, but the pohcy of the government is to blame. A behever in the law of nature, wanting to justify suicide, denies the right of the magistrate to sentence a criminal to death. This protest against capital punishment for any kind of crime, is found in the Gent. Mag. May, 1737, and was therefore written twenty-seven years before Beccaria called into question the right of society to inflict death as a punishment. Though there is no overt condemnation of the rigour of the law in Henry Jones's : To the Right Hon. The Countess of Chesterfield, occasioned by her procuring a pardon for two soldiers condemned for desertion, 1749, this poem shows his keen realisation of the anguish of the two "wretches clinging to the verge of life," and the pity he feit for them. His praise of harmony, benevoience, and social ardour in other poems places him among those who owed their principles to deistic doctrines. After the deists had started the discussion, the frequency of executions in London was condemned on bibhcal grounds in the Gent. Mag., in 1750. The writer can find no authority in either the Old or New Testament for taking away the hves of so many people at every session for crimes not really punishable with death. More criminals had been executed in London in a year, he maintained, than in Holland for twenty years.1) For many crimes some form of corporal punishment might be appointed. Johnson devoted a whole essay in The Rambler, 1751, to the disproportion between crimes and their punishment, and advocated a "scheme of x) Later John Howard maintained that, whilst in Middlesex alone 467 persons had been executed in nine years, only six had been executed in Amsterdam. If the Bills of Mortality are reliable in this respect the maximum number of executions in London, in the period from 1700-1777, was 37 in 1728, the minimum 2 in 1706 and in 1756 ; a dash was printed in 1712. Between 1770 and 1777 the numbers were 26, 8, 15, 18, 13, 24, 16, 14. Lecky, op. cit p. 505, quotes a statement from Andrew's Eighteenth Century that in 1732 no less than seventy persons received sentence of death at the Old Bailey however, the number of executions registered on the Bills of Mortality in 1732 is 25. invigorating the laws by relaxation" which he ascribed to Sir Thomas More; Henry Fielding, in the same year, also advised the diminution of the number of executions. Yet, it is grimly significant of the spirit of the period that he should call the pillory and the loss of a man's ears an extremely mild punishment for a bad case of libel. He is one of those who declared the English penal system to be "the mildest and most void of terror of any in the known world."1) A dissentient voice is heard in the Gent. Mag. of April 1757. With a self-complacency bordering on the ludicrous "D" writes of the "lerrity of our laws in capital punishments." To this he adds : The manners and principles of the common people will scarce find a place in this account, the manners of those who govern them detennine continuance or dissoludon of the state. However, the "common people" suffered most from the laws in question, and not a few of the poets and essayists quoted in this study belonged to that class ; time has not confirmed the writer's assertion. Ohver Goldsmith, in The Vicar of Wakefidd (w. 1761—62, p. 1766), observes that it is among the citizens of a refined community "that penal laws, which are in the hands of the rich, are laid upon the poor," and warns against cutting away wretches as useless before we have tried their utility.... drawing hard the cords of society till a convulsion come to burst them. He repeats these views in his Chinese Letters *) published in the Public Ledger (1760—61). Comparing English laws with those of the "deist's pets"8), the Chinese, he finds that the same spirit of mercy breathes through the laws of England "which some erroneously endeavour to suppress." In 1762 Dodd published the substance of a sermon on The Frequency of Capital Punishments inconsistent with *) Enquiry into the Late Increase of Robbers, by H. Fielding, 1751. A change of system had also been advocated in the Gent. Mag., in 1750, vol. 20, p. 532. In 1752 the Commons proposed a certain moderation in punishments, but the Lords refused their consent, as from that time onward for more than eighty years. Farrer, op. cit., p. 51. 2) Republished in The Citizen of the World. i?62. Letter 79. *) The phrase is used by Lesüe Stephen, op. cit., L 149. Justice, Sound Policy and Religiou." He thinks the fact that the laws of England should know 150 capital cases1) contrary to the humane and benevolent spirit which characterised "the present time:' A sentence of death for a small offence could effect no reformation. To h^sermon he added "extracts from the Empress of Russias Code of Laws/' who had abobshed the highest penalty for small offences.*) She was therefore also mentioned among the famous women of whom Mary Seymour Montague was proud.8) The severity of the laws was agam critiosed m Dr Delaney's Sermons, of which some extracts were published in The Christian''s Mag., Oct. 1766. Delaney calls them the most unrighteous and unequitable that can be imagined. "The steahng of a cow, or a sheep, is death by law." Making a man work for his country would be a better form of punishment. The feeling of dissatisfaction not only with the state of the law but also with its adrninisteation, which had made Defoe in his Ode to Tyburn satirise the juries who suffered themselves to be "scared into false verdiets, caused Sam. Derrick to accuse the justices of arbitrary sentences. With regard to the victims of justice he remarks : 'Tis virtue that exalts the mind, To racks, to tortures still resigned.4) Benevoience induced W. Whitehead in A Charge to the Poets, 1762, to believe that the transported convicts m the West might grow pure by blending, virtuous by command ; Till phoenix-like, a new bright world of gold Springs from the dregs and refuse of the old. His praise of phüosophy and universal love in The *) The book on the Criminal Laws of the first ed. of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England>.1765-?) frequemly 'efers to Beccana_s treatise Blackstone was the first professional lawyer to fmd fault with the frequency of capital punishment in England, and to point out the presence of a hundred and sixty actions in the Statute book pumshable with death. •) Catherine II was anxious to establish a uniform penal code basedon the liberal ideas of the time. Her instructions read out to the Assembly of Russian deputies at Moscow, 1767, were often couched in Beccaria s words. Torture, for one thing, she considered to be contrary to sound, sense. *\ In An Original Essay on Woman, 1771. jgjjfgÉ ... . . «) Fortune, a Rhapsody. First written in 1752, now (ue. 1755) published with considerable additions. Enthusiast, p. 1754, entities us to attribute his optirnism to deism. The interior of a prison is described by Walter Harte in his poem, Boetius to his wife Rusticana, 1767, and the misery of a prisoner by an anonymous poet in the Christian's Mag. in The Humble Petition of a Rioter now under sentence of death. He complains of the social injustice embodied in the laws which suffer "the poor to go unfed," and sternly threaten them. As the disturbances were due to the economie policy of the government, he thinks that transportation or banishment should be the form of punishment instead of death. From the above it appears that Farrer's observation that men of letters.... in conscious opposition to professional and popular feeling expressed their doubt with hesitation that was almost apologeticl) is hardly consistent with fact. The poets and essayists rather represented the awakening conscience of the nation which, when once it had become conscious of guilt, could not be silenced again. The subject in all its hearings, then as now, must have provided food for much melancholy contemplation. The sufferings of prisoners subjected to various forms of torture had not remained unmentioned by the poets and essayists ; Ned. Ward, Steele,2) Sam. Derrick, and Evan Lloyd had referred to them with varying degrees of pity and horror. The abolition abroad of this judicial means to extort confessions, was celebrated by Bampfylde (John Codrington) in a Sonnet: On Hearing the Torture was suppressed throughout the Austrian Dominions, in consequence of Beccaria's Treatise on Crimes and Punishments.3) Op. cit., p. 49. *) "Sandford on the stage, groaning on a wheel, stuck with daggers, impaled alive.** Tatler 134, Feb. 16, 1710. 3) Blackstone quoted Beccaria's Crimes and Punishments (written in 1764) in 1765. The treatise was first translated into F-"g<''«h in 1768, with Voltaire's commentary. Burton's mood cannot have been unknown to this "lover of sohtude" who, while dreaming of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" remained all his life true to "the phüosophy that it is better to live as a Spectator of the world than as one with any direct interest in the game." See Farrer, op. cit., p. 22. And, lo ! the chains, At thy command, from off the convict feil, The wheel appeared no more, nor scaffold bell Bade him prepare for more than mortal pains. This sonnet, published in 1778 was probably written in 1778, as in that year Maria Theresa abolished torture in her German and Polish provinces.1) Dodd's appeal to humanity against public exposure*) before an execution echoes Montaigne's words "all that exceeds a simple death, appears to me perfect cruelty." In his poem Thoughts in Prison he hails Voltaire and praises his warm zeal in the cause of humanity: The Rack, the Wheel, the Dungeon, and the Flame, In happier Europe useless and unknown, Shall soon, — oh speed the hour, Compassion's God l Be seen no more. The despair of all reform about this time feit by most men of reflection is best shown in the letter which Ramsay, the Scotch painter and poet, wrote to Diderot (Oeuvres IX, 451 —66), after the latter had shown him a copy of Beccaria's treatise. Nothing less than a general revolution, he thought, would ever make the holders of pohtical power listen for a moment to the claims of philosophers; the general enlightenment, so much boasted of, he calls a beautiful and glorious chimera, with which philosophers love to amuse themselves. Men like Meredith, Burke and Fox, ceased to waste their strength against the conservatism of the House of Lords, and its fear of "innovations" and "subversion of the law." All hope of reform was out of the question, and the most dreadful atrocities were suffered or defended.8) The hterature of melancholy and despair *) Farrer, op. cit., p. 36. About the abolition of torture in Europe, see Farrer, Op. cit., p.2. Beccaria's assertion that the torture was not in use in England was true in a general sense. But the peine forte et dure by which a prisoner who would not plead might be squeezed to death by an iron weight, was not abolished till 1771. (L. O.Pike -.History of Crime in England. II,283,346.) Unconvicted prisoners might also be subjected to (the torture of) the whipcord. Pike, op. cit., pp. 284, 285. Until the Commonwealth torture was used as a matter of course in all grave accusations at the mere discretion of the Monarch and the Privy Council. Farrer, op. cit., p. 32. *) For foreign protests against the cruelty and absurdity of torture from Montaigne on, see Farrer, op. cit., p. 30. *) Farrer, op. cit. pp. 19 and 52. and its benevolent counterpart run parallel to these social and political phenomena. 38. SLAVERY. The pity excited by the lot of the negro-slave is a slxiking feature of the end of the eighteenth century. Whether the literature under discussion contributed to the growth of the sentiment may appear from the following remarks. Mrs Aphra Behn's story of Oroonoko *) dramatized by Thomas Southerne in 1696 continued to exercise its pathetic appeal to audiences, as we may conclude from John Whaley's : On a young lady's weeping at Oroonoko, 1732, and from Dodd's poem, The African Prince now in England, 1749. Defoe pointed out the evils of the slave trade long before the national consciettce had revolted against it.2) From a letter8) by T. M., a private slave trader, it appears that some of his friends had often tried to persuade him to "desist being concerned in a trade which they think altogether unlawful, insisting on some common notions, which they give as weighty reasons." He also states the specious arguments used by those who profited by the trade, himself among the rest. Another letter, by J. R.,4) may have been meant for an answer to the above ; it shows the detestation of slavery among the free nations of antiquity. John Whaley called the slave trade a "traffic accursed."6) x) A. J. Tiejc feels sure that Mrs Behn despite Cross — who calls Oroonoko "the first humanitarian novéTin The English Novel p.20 — is not in earnest when she demands that slaves be better treated. SeeThe Expressed Aim of the Long Prose Fktion from 1579 to 1740 in Journal of English and Germanic Phil. 1912, p. 402. a) John Dennis : Studies in English Literature. 1876, p. 91. A Sept. 5, 1711. Original and Genuine Letters, etc. London. 1725. 4) No. 51 in the same collection. ») In Cornaro and the Turk, 1745. The South Sea Company made a contract to supply slaves as late as the year 1713, when English opinion indolently acquiesced in the practice. Pike, A History of Crime, p. 347. No less a statesman than the elder Pitt had made the development of the African slavetrade a main object of his policy. On the other hand Oglethorpe inserted a clause in the charter of the colony of Georgia — founded in 1733 with poor debtors — absolutely prohibiting the introduction of slaves. Lecky, op. cit., pp. 51B-». The conditions of the negro slaves and the way they were treated drew the attention of Addison in Speet. 215, 1711. His notions of the "wild and uncultivated" virtues of savage nations led him to the conclusion that this "part of our species" should be put upon the "common foot of humanity." The murder of a negro slave should not be punished with an "insignificant fine." The story of Jarico and Inkle in the Speet. "Vol I, number XI"1) was retold in verse by William Pattison, 1728, by Stephen Duck m 1753 under the tide of Avaro and Amanda, and by Jerningham as Jarico to Inkle, in 1767, reprinted 1774. It is a tale of the villainy of a man who seduced a negro princess and then sold her, raising her price when she told him that she was pregnant. Defoe shared the Spectator's view about the character and treatment of the negro slave ; he possesses the same principles of natural generosity as others and should be treated gendy and receive moderate correction. *) The sympathy with the blacks takes a different turn m John Whaley's verses To a gentleman in love with a negro woman, 1732. He writes these verses to praise "the Aethiopian beauty." The natural beauty of a negress also forms the subject of James de la Cour's poem In Laudem Aethiopissae, 1778. The degradation caused by slavery is the subject of Dodd's poem The African Prince now in England, to Zara, at his Father's Court (1749). The detestation of the healthy slaves in Virginia for the criminal and indolent Europeans who were their masters is mentioned by John Dyer, in The Fleece, 1757. Shenstone (d. 1763) considers slavery inconsistent with Christian doctrine. In one of his elegies "he compares his humble fortunes with the distress of others and his subjection to Delia with the miserable servitude of an African slave." There is only a shght reference to Delia in the first four stanzas ; the following fourteen give expression to the *) Speet. March 13, 1710-11. j • ~ • i *} Quoted by W. Wilson in Memoirs. He expresses these views in Cotónei Jacque, 1722. despair of the slave which evidendy he considers to be of more importance. *) The passages of James Grainger's poem, The Sugar Cane, 1764, dealing with slavery, do not make pleasant reading. The author is eager to point out to planters the best way to get rich. He therefore has a good deal to say about the treatment of slaves. But that slavery should exist seems to him a matter of course. Yet he lectures the planters on humaneness. Sam. Johnson, therefore, censured Grainger for not denouncing the slave-trade. Want of capital prevented Grainger from becoming a planter; the money he could save he invested in the purchase of slaves. The sorrows of the slave and his rights are again the subject of a sonnet by Bampfylde, 1778, On the Abbé RaynaVs History of the Establishments in the East and West Indies. The melancholy tendency of the period to despair and suicide coincided with the interest in slavery and produced some very pathetic descriptions of the conditions of the slave. Pike remarks that the national conscience was roused to a sense of the cruelties that were being perpetrated soon after the middle of the 18th century chiefly by some active members of the not very numerous sect of the Quakers ; he then mentions the efforts of Wilberforce beginning in the year 1788 *) and entirely overlooks those who, in poetry and prose, prepared the rninds of the reading and thinking part of the population of England, in Words calculatedto stir profound emotion in the most obdurate hearts. *) This was written before Granvüle Sharpe, in 1765, interested himself in the case of Strong, the negro slave; and before the case of Somerset, another slave, led to the decision "that as soon as any slave sets foot upon English territory he becomes free." It should be observed that this decision did not refer to white convict slaves, for Englishmen in authority at that time did not let their left hand know what their right hand did and exported white convict slaves for sale to settlers in America. See Pike A History of Crime, p. 349. 2) Op. cit., p. 347. 39. LUNACY. The favour melancholy and despair enjoyed in poetry and essays justifies an enquiry into the treatment of insanity as a subject for gloomy ruminations.x) The tide of W. Wycherley's poem on madness is like so many others dealing with this subject, which have not been quoted : To Nath. Lee, in Bethlem, (who was at once Poet and Actor), complaining, in his intervals, of the sense of his condition; and that He ought no more to be in Bethlem for Want of Sense, than other Mad Libertines and Poets abroad, or any Sober Fools whatever (p. 1704). The peculiar melancholy turn of Wycherley's thought gives his poem a place among the literature expressing sympathy with the miseries of humanity. Lee is happier, Wycherley says, in his "loss of knowledge, the first and true cause of all misery, that ever feil upon humanity." He cannot feel his chains, he is not kept hungry or bare, not whipped for telling naked truths, nay, showing all he has, he is free from shame. Matthew Prior's On a Pretty Madwoman, 1740, takes Wycherley's view of madness; our own fate is more lamentable than that of the lunatic, our tears are misspent, for the lunatic is free from sorrow. The view that lunacy is not inconsistent with happiness, is again heard in Myles Cooper's poem The Pleasures of Madness, 1761. Some hterature on the subject of madness is less an expression of pity for the sufferers than an attempt at producing a certain hterary effect; for instance William Woty's On Music, 1770, makes the personification of melancholy — and also an unfeeling reference to the "endless horrors" of Bedlam — subservient to an attempt at imitating the II P. style. Though literary effect is chiefly aimed at in Thom. Penrose's Madness, p. 1775, his treatment of the subject tends to sympathy with the sufferers; this poem, according to Anderson, was read *) Near the end of the seventeenth century Defoe had urged the erection af an institution for the care and maintenance of idiots, whom he called "a particular Rentcharge on the great Family of Mankind." See Of Fools in An Essay on Projects, 1697. 19 with "general approbation." Although the poem may "challenge a comparison with the Music Ode of Dryden, the Passions of Collins, and the Bard of Gray" as Anderson says, regarding its contents, I think, he was much indebted to other authors who had written on madness, particularly Fitzgerald. Of two forms of madness Penrose writes : The fettered maniac foams along, (Rage the burden of his jarring song) In rage he grinds his teeth, and rends his sttearning hair.... The sttearning eyes Incessant sighs, Dim haggard looks, and clouded o'er with care, Point out to pity's tears, the poor distracted fair. Truly melancholy is the account Steele gives in the Guardian 79, 1713, of the poor fellow who feit mclined now and then to take "a walk of mortmcation" and "making himself profitably sad" by visiting Bedlam, to see "for an hour the utmost of all lamentable objects, human reason distracted." The figure that seemed "petrified with anguish" and other types of lunatics will be met again in later hterature, to excite our pity. The anon. blank verse poem The Lunatick, A Tale, 1729, tells the story of devoted charity restoring a lunatic to reason. In this poem we find an early indication of tearful sentimentality in the service of charitable work. Of this sensitive and melancholy young lady it is said that "to ev'ry tear she weeping sympathiz'd, to ev'ry groan she groan'd anew." The poet's description of the lunatic asylum is one of the finest parts of the work and in harmony with the gloomy subject: Rear'd on superb Augusta's ruin'd Walls, A spacious Sttucture stands, the dread Retreat Of Phrenzy, where the Demon's midnight Höwl Is heard tremendous. On either side of the entrance stands a statue : On this Terrifick Madness, with distorted Face, And rolling Eyes, raves furious, shakes his Chain, Swells ev'ry Muscle, churns his Foam, and roars Beneath his Pangs ; on this with silent Thought And inward Anguish, leans the pensive Wretch With Melancholy gloom'd and secret Pain. The next poem on this subject is the Rev. Thorn. Fitzgerald's Bedlam first published in 1731, republished in 1733. In about 180 lines he gives a vivid description of the sights and sounds of the asylum: Outrageous fury straight inflames the soul, Quick beats the pulse, and fierce the eyeballs roll; Rattling his chains the wretch all raving hes, And roars, and foams, and earth and heaven defies. The poet visits every apartment. His description of melancholy is truly pathetic t Her heaving bosom speaks her inward woe ; Her tears in melancholy silence flow.... To hopeless passion yields her heart a prey, And sighs and sings the livelong hours away. So mourns th'imprisoned lark his hapless fate, In love's soft season ravished from his mate.... Whereas poetry was evidendy alive to the sentimental and romantic appeal of insanity the subject is rarely discussed in the contemporary periodical essay. The Adventurer, No 88, 1753, contains a popular treatise on lunacy with an attempt to prove that lunacy is ultimately produced by material causes. An indignant protest by Edw. Moore against an abuse in connection with lunatic asylums is found in The World, No 23, 1753. He appeals to the Governor of Bedlam to stop the practice of admitting the public at 2d. each to practise all sorts of cruelties on the lunatics j he thinks it strange that in a country where christianity is, at least, professed humanity should, in this instance, so totally have abandoned the people. Another reference to the insane is found in the Christian's Mag. of Jan. 1762 ; it consists in a letter, willingly printed by Dodd, expressing sympathy with the lunatics of Bedlam. Thus descriptions of insanity show the involuntary attraction of melancholy; the most pathetic verses of the poet are devoted to this subject; however, from the time when the mystic Thorn. Tryon advocated a more humane and gende treatment of the insane1) until Edw. Moore wrote his protest, they were exposed to the brutality of the public. ') Pythagoras his mystic Phüosophy Reviv'd ; or, the Mystery of Dreams anfolded. 40. RELIGIOUS EMOTION. QUAKERS AND METHODISTS. With regard to rehgious emotion it is significant that in 1727, in Christ's Passion, an Ode by Christopher Pitt, for a subject altogether outside the sphere of human passion, tears are demanded. It is a clear example of rehgious sentimentality: At such a sight let all thy anguish rise, Break up, break up the fountains of my eyes. Here bid thy tears in gushing torrents flow, Indulge thy grief, and give a loose to woe. Weep from the soul, till earth be drowned, Weep, till thy sorrows drench the ground. Canst Thou, ungrateful Man l his torments see, Nor drop a tear for him, who pours his blood for thee? Henry Jones, in his poem, On a picture of our Saviour's examination before Caiphas, has nothing to say about redemption, but Christ is hailed as "the pious pastor." Another example of rehgious melancholy is afforded by Moses Browne, who in his Sunday Thoughts, 1739, tells us that he visits the solitary churchyard and takes shelter in the ruins of a lonely abbey during a thunderstorm. His "melancholy" finds expression in an appeal to "Jesus, dear Name of Love, O Saviour God." The question might here be asked whether the cultivation of broad human sympathies was accompanied by any appreciation in minor hterature of the activities of the most important rehgious sects. Of the various references to quakers only the following bear on the subject. Matthew Green, in 1737, accuses the quakers of avarice (in The Seeker). Moses Browne ridicules them in The Scarborough Reformation, 1739, and so does Leonard Howard in On a Quaker fighting (1765). These poets^show no appreciation of the charitable work of the "Friends" notably among prisonersx), when the magistrates, though "struck with compassion" were too much afraid to visit *) An Epistle to Friends Concerning the Prisoners and Sick, and the Prisons and Hospitals of Great Britain (1724). the buildings in their charge for fear of catching gaol fever, as James Neild reports.1) Rob. Lloyd's The Cobbler of Tissington's Letter to David Garrick, 1761, is against the Methodist's strictures on various forms of pleasure, particularly the stage.2) The same reason induced the actor John Cunningham (d. 1773) to write From the Author to a Celebrated Methodist Preacher. Lloyd's Familiar Epistle, 1762, ridicules the behaviour and emotionalism of the crowds at Moorfields, their common meetingplace. His dislike of the sect because "they save themselves, damn all beside" reduces his objection to a principle ; the Methodists had narrowed their sphere of interest in mankind, and had made their sympathy conditional on the acceptance of their doctrines. The same author prefers Shaftesbury's rambling style to the Methodist's in On Rhyme, 1774. His acquaintance with Shaftesbury's Essays may account for his aversion to a sect which threaten'd mankind with God's wrath. Francis Gendeman, the poet of Characters, 1766, reveals himself as a benevolist of Pope's persuasion, who protests against Whitefield's doctrines, because he considers the principle of God's goodness inconsistent with the trembling of children and the moaning of old women. Evan Lloyd's poem, The Methodist, (p. 1766) is another condemnation of the doctrine of heil and damnation. The fact that uneducated people are made into rehgious instructors of the masses also rouses his indignation. His poem, however, loses much of its value because of the personal character of several attacks. W. Kenrick's On the Investigation of Truth, an Epistle to Lorenzo, 1768, represents Whitefield's and Wesley's power over "The scripture-crazed fanatics" as dangerous to the state. On the Diversity of Rehgious Sects and Opinions accuses Whitefield of vanity. Geo. Keate, in Prologue to the Play of King John, 1769, charges the methodist preachers with deceit and theft. The shouting of the preachers and the "snivelling" of the crowds seems to have irritated more *) Memoirs of the Life of John Coakley Lettsom." By 1780 the Society of Friends had freed itself from the reproach of slave-owning. *) The Methodist revival began about 1740. than one poet. Lovibond's (d. 1775) hatred of the Methodists appears from verses To Laura on her receiving a Mysterious Letter from a Methodist divine. Except for Wesley's1) own poetry written in connection with Dodd's execution and, perhaps, Matthew Green's On Barclay''s Apology for the Quakers, 1748, the poetry examined yields nothing to show that either the quakers or the methodists took any interest in society beyond the spread of their doctrines, which, however, clashed with the deistic behef in God's perfect goodness. Hence the hostile criticism from benevolists of Lovibond's stamp, from an author interested in Pythagoras' teachings, viz. Geo. Keate, from Kenrick, the translater of Rousseau's works and the antagonist of the gloom of Young's Night Thoughts. 41. FREEMASONRY. If a statement by the Rev. G. Ohver2) is rehable, the number of lodges in the south of England at the close of the seventeenth century was four, consisting of very few members. In 1717 the Grand Lodge was revived. Its importance increased considerably when in 1719 several noblemen were initiated.8) The duke of Norfolk was 1) From J. Wesley's Journal it appears that he started his work among condemned felons Sept. 17, 1738 ;' he preached to debtors in Newgate Aug. 10,1744. His entry on Nov. 13,1748 describes the work of Sarah Peters among condemned prisoners. I have found no entry about prostitutes or the Magdalen House in his Journal. He thought Shaftesbury "a lively, half-thinking writer", but it does not appear that he had read the Characteristics" himself (March 5, 1769); he disagreed with Hutcheson's "picture of Man"; it was not "drawn from the Hfe . Mandeville went "far beyond Machiavel", (April 14, 1756); Rousseau's views on education were those of a "consummate coxcomb; "L. Sterne's Sentimental Joarney" was unintelligible to him; "sentimental" was not English, but this "nonsensical word" was becoming fashionable (Feb. 11, 1772). The reading of a book "published by an honest Quaker, on that execrable sum of all villanies.... the Slave Trade" draws the observation from him that he read of nothing like it in the heathen world (Feb. 2, 1772). He speaks of the mischief done by predestinarians among methodists, on April, 1751 and his duty to oppose Calvin's teachings in this respect (May 14, 1765). The deistic objections to Christianity had all "passed through his own mind" (Oct. 21, 1749), and this may be the reason why he published the deistic dilemma regarding the cruelty of nature and man (Dec. 2, 1755). 2) In an introductory essay on The Masonic Literature of the Eighteenth Century. *) A Freemason's Pocket Companion, London, 1831. Grand Master in 1731, the prince of Wales was initiated in 1737, the duke of York and the duke of Gloucester became members in 1766 and the duke of Cumberland in 1767.*) A Committee of Charity was established in 1725, but from the Constitutions it does not appear that the philanthropy of the freemasons went beyond their own circle. The recommendation of the Constitutions — drawn up in 1723 —2) to "cultivate brotherly love" was interpreted thus, in an address by Dr. Anderson, one of their early members : the object of the craft is "to promote morahty, charity, good-teUowship, goodnature and humanity.... universal beneficence and the social virtues of human life, under the solemn obligation of an oath." Isaac Head 8) and the Rev. C. Brockwell4) used words to the same effect, but the latter's remark that an upright freemason could not be a deist cannot have met with general approbation.5) Several poets are mentioned in masonic hterature but this does not always mean that they were freemasons; W. J. Chetwode Crawley's assumption that Dr. John Arbuthnot, Alexander Pope and Dean Swift were members •) has been proved to be untenable. *) Read's Weekly Journal for April 18, 17308), records the initiation of "Mr. Dennis, the famous poet and critick." Man Ramsay and Henry Mackenzie, the author of The Man of Feeling, are said to have been freemasons.9) The interest of the craft in reform appears from the activities of James Neild, a freemason, who in 1762, when visiting a friend in the King's Bench, was struck with the ») The New Masonic Year Book for 1925, p. 571. ") The Constitutions of Freemasons, 1723. Reproduced in Facsimile from the original edition. London, 1923. The introduction to this edition by Lionel Vibert contains more particulars than Hettner's chapter on Freemasons in his Litteraturgeschichte des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, Braunschweig, 1865. *\ On the Social Virtues of Freemasonry, 1752, op. cit., in note 1. *) On the Connexion between Freemasonry and Religion. 1749, op. cit., in note 1. s) Hettner. op. cit.: "In Freemasonry deism attempts to assume a form perceptible through the senses, and as such to spread over the whole earth." 8) Introductory Chapter to Masonic Reprints and Historical Revelations, by Henry Saddler. London, 1898. O By R. F. Gould in ^4rs Quatuor Coronatorum, 1898. *) A. Q. C. VIII, 134. •) The Masonic Genius of Burns. By B. W. Richardson. A.Q.C., V, 1892. horrible state of prisons, and, with the object of collecting data, began to visit prisons in England and abroad, at first with slight practical results. In 1773 the "Society for the Reliëf and Discharge of Persons imprisoned for small debts" was formed of which he became treasurer; it proved to be a very successful charity. Of the numerous references to the craft in poetry the following deserve mention: In The Bondsmen : A Satyr, Occasioned by a report that some persons had entered into a bond not to subscribe for books, 1736, Sam. Wesley classes the Free Masons among "the wretches whom none can move to follow duty, dignity and love." The objection to subscription had been that "they had of late become a trade." Wesley accuses the Masons of being partial: Have they e'er wasted idle sums of gold, The craft of sage free masons to uphold? No matter whether arts and letters hve, If gloves they buy and aprons they can give : No printed volume they desire to see, But the Grand History of Masonry. Why must subscriptions all their fury bear ? William Meston (d. 1745) praises "The Craft" for building both colleges and schools for the Mus es in To the Free Mason ; John Bancks, the weaver, turns the fact that he is a "brother of the craft" into an advertisement of his poetry. The public are required to look upon it as they would upon the Rhapsodies of an ancient priest.... every word is to be accounted a mistery in itself. The lines: And Manly Taste, the child of sense, Shall banish vice and dulness here.... may be due to Shaftesbury's insistence on taste and his identification of the good and the beautiful. Bancks' poetry, de facto, restricts the "Universal Love" of the deists to a group, for the "Genius of Masonry" is apostropbized to defend the craft; may she also With social thoughts our bosom füL The common charitable motive is heard too in "Mercy» who feeds the hungry Poor." John Cunningham's Eulogium on Masonry takes the broad deist's view of brotherly love: O ! may her social rul es instructive spread Till truth erect her long neglected head.. . I Tül all the peopled world her laws approve And the whole human race be bound in brothers' love.x) 42. SUMMARY. Compared with the vehement discussions about the rights of man and their temporary climax in the French Revolution the contents of the preceding pages seem tame ; the melancholy and sentimental authors in England were engaged in directing the current of benevolent thought» and the period under discussion comes to an end» when the first mutterings in response to revolutionary notions are being heard in England. Yet the deistic theory of the inborn goodness of man had produced a considerable amount of friction. This theory, in addition to the social and pohtical Utopianism to which it led» is condemned as "romantic" by John Foster8) in an essay On the application of the Epithet Romantic, 1806. This essay contains a puritan's views of sentiments which played such an important part in the growth of humanitarianism. It is interesting to learn from it that in his time those opposed to his rehgion called "the zeal to inculcate.... great exertions and sacrïfices for a purely moral reward.... romantic." But fear of this epithet does not prevent him advocating "benevoience without fame" (III» 336). On grounds heard before he condemns sohtude; the inclination to look for "wild and uncultivated" virtues *) This Eulogium was probably delivered in 1764, for the D.N.B. says that this actor, while at Edinburgh, became a great favourite with the Manager, Mr. Digges and the leading lady Mrs George, Anne Bellamy. The D.N.B. also gives 1764 as the date of Mrs Bellamy's stay in Scotland. 2) Essays in a Series of Letters to a Friend. By John Foster. 2 vols. Third edition 1806. First published in 1805. As Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke among the older writers mainly represented the deist position at the date of the French Revolution for English people of heterodox culture, they passed together from fashionable popularity to disgrace as soon as the upper classes realised that rationalism of every sort had begun to mean democracy. Pioneer Humanists by J. M. Robertson, p. 203. among "savage nations"*) could not meet with his approval: they are "stupid and ferocious tribes." For Foster pohtical and social Utopianism is a fundamental manifestation of the romantic view of life : such schemes "are inconsistent with the natural constitution of man." They cannot be reahzed without "some supernatural intervention" and should be "denominated romantic." The love of "projects of a benevolent order" is one of the marks of the "romantic mind" and characterized by "violation of all the relations between ends and means." It is not with joy that our author arrivés at these conclusions; they form his comment on the disülusion consequent on the French Revolution.2) The antagonism between humanitarianism and Christian principles and practice, is rooted in the past, and repeatedly fincis expression at the present day.8) The preceding pages have to some extent shown what share Christian and pagan notions had in fostering, in hterature, sentiments which are often gathered up in the word humanitarianism. In the summary at the end of the introductory chapters I have shown the interdependence of some aspects of melancholy and ethical sentiment; in the eighteenth century this fact is recognized and becomes the subject of a considerable amount of hterature. Instead of discussing the authors that come in for consideration successively, I have judged it more conducive to lucidity to follow the literary interest in their ideas. To the conclusions suggested by the discussion of some tendencies dealt with in the preceding chapters the following observations may be added. Melancholy becomes even more popular than in the days of Margaret Cavendish; it is the sign of personal merit, it is characteristic of deists and orthodox alike. In Thomson we have a definite example of a poet who Addison, Spectator 215, 1711. s) "He sees romanticism as the agelong expression of human resdessness; as waywardness ; as rebellion against brute fact; as longing for some confidence in human goodness ; and so as the substitution of sympathy for coercion both in the individual and social organism." Paul Kaufman, Mod. L. Notes, Jan. 1983 : John Foster's Pioneer Interpretation of the Romantic" *) See footnote, page 2. ascribes his (deistic) love of nature and of the human race to mdulging melancholy. One melancholy tendency, viz. the love of sohtude is seriously reprehended as not conducive to social weU-being, though Steele pointed out the good the charitably disposed man, in his loneliness, might do ; therefore, the love of sohtude is not incompatible with sympathy with others. Increasing emotionalism is observed, early in the century, in manifestations of the spleen, which inclined some to sympathy with "others' grief', to benevoience and to "reforrning schemes."1) There is ample evidence that audiences appreciated pathetic scènes on the stage , tearful rehgious emotion appears in poetry before the Wesleys swayed the masses. Erotic poetry and the ballad do little more than cultivating sentimental language. The meaningless tears and the gloom of the grave hve on in the eighteenth century ; in the poetry of night and of the churchyard the lot of the unknown poor is remembered. Personal sorrow occasionally vents itself in the language of despair ; poetry expressive of this emotion is decidedly calculated to evoke sympathy with others. The terror of death and the grave are closely allied to the theological representation of the divinity as the God of wrath; this theological view is, in part, due to a desire to protect society against the danger threatening from the practice of self-destruction to which excessive indulgence in melancholy frequendy led. The sentimental behef in the goodness of God, the perfection of nature and the perfectibüity of man was refuted by Mandeville, who, however, was no less outspoken in his condemnation of cruelty to animals. The contrast we observe between two representative members of society, Burton and Margaret *) This is confirmed by Gilbert Buraet, bishop of Salisbury (d. 1715) who, in A History of his own Times (p. 1723-24), calls the trading classes "the best Body in the Nation, generous, sober and charitable." The cities were the centres of "a better spirit" and "more knowledge". But this reference to better education seems to be restricted to the dissenters. He adds the remark, which we have heard so often, that many of the townpeople were filled with gloom and made their religion a source of melancholy (See Traill and Mann. IV. p. 832). Queen Caroline's doctrine that all "romance" or sentiment was contemptible (Traill and Mann V, 181 ff.) was neither the beüef nor the practice of an influential part of the people. Cavendish, i.e. between the clergyman and the Cavalier lady, typifies a difference in the treatment, in Hterature, of the sufferings of the animal world : the clergyman neglected them, they are protected by the Cavalier lady. Foreign sentimentality through Montaigne and Marana exerts itself in their behalf; melancholy and mysticism incline the English mind to listen to their oriental message of goodwill towards animals. Burton's melancholy mind occupied itself with Christian charity and Utopian reform. Sociologists find the causes of the humamtarian movement in the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century; it will therefore not do to attribute to hterature or phüosophy what is not due to them. The preceding pages have shown the growth of sentiment in a period part of which used to be called "the age of rhyme and reason" ; the accompanying circumstance cannot be taken for the cause. Judging from the hterature quoted in this book it would appear that, when the deists proclaimed a humane idea, some of the believers in revelation were quick to respond, and together they did their philanthropic work, while they quarrelled about principles. The lack of mental and moral balance, characteristic of the latter part of the period I have discussed, combined with a fondness of ostentatious sentimental philanthropy and sympathy with suffering animals, is strikingly shown in the person of Dr. Dodd, whüst another tendency of melancholy appears from the publication of Hume's essay on the subject mentioned under despair. THE END. London, August 15, 1931. APPENDIX. I have not succeeded in finding any record of the impression which L. Sterne and J. J. Rousseau made on English essayists and minor poets before 1777 ; the following notes may lead to further research. In the Christian's Magazine for March 1761 William Dodd published a strong condemnation of Tristram Shandy, of which the third and fourth volumes had then appeared. To "the wretched sons of vice and foul desire" Sterne's pages might be dear, but the wise and the modest viewed his work with concern. Dodd considers this marmer of writing particularly objectionable in a clergyman and wants us to believe that Sterne's writings and life were on a par. "Is it for this you wear the sacred gown, To write and hve the Shandy of the town.".... Seize whate'er of life remaineth to atone * For all the filth diffused, and evil you have done.' In the matter of indecency R. Lloyd suggests that Sterne tried to please the public of bis day as Swift did before him : And for indecency you know, He (Swift) had a fashionable turn, As prim observers clearly shew In t'other Parson, Doctor Sterne. Sterne's digressive style is mentioned by Geo. Colman (1763) in connection with Lloyd's manner of writing poetry ..... to shew, like handy-dandy, Or Churchill's Ghost, or Tristram Shandy, Now here, now there, with quick progression, How smardy you can make digression. Lloyd himself refers to this as well as Sterne's innuendo in A FamtUar Letter of Rhimes, To a Lady (1774)) Like Tristram Shandy, I could write From morn to noon,.... Sometimes obscure, and sometimes leaning, A little sideways to a meaning, And unfatigued myself pursue The dvü mode of teazing you For as your folks, who love the dweiling On circumstance in story telling, And to give each relation grace, Describe the time, the folks, the place, And are religiously exact To point out each unmeaning fact, Repeat their wonders undesired, Nor think one hearer can be tired.... Sterne's "pathetic prose," however, is praised in On Beneficence, a Poetical Essay, the second ed. London, 1764. "Beneficence, the destined goal" has led the author to Sterne, whose story of Le Fever he retells in 287 lines of blank verse: Here by pale sickness seized, constrained to halt With look serene the man of sorrow dwells, What tender scènes, Le Fever, round thee rise... He winds up with the words Reluctant the recording angel wrote ; Of seraph love the sympathetic tear, Starts in the eye ; the big round drop coursed down On characters indehble esteemed; Thrice happy tear! In The Powers of the Pen, by Evan Lloyd, published anonymously in 1766, and addressed to John Curre, Sterne is, however, praised above all others. Jove at a feast prepared for the gods, wanted to give them the best entertainment he could and therefore He shot his fav'rite quill to earth, And fixed it in the hand of Sterne, The fin est strokes of wit to learn. Literary research in connection with the eighteenth century is seriously handicapped by the custom of so many authors to hide behind pseudonyms, or, worse still, by publishing their work anonymously. The publisher does not facüitate matters, when he omits the writer's mitials, simply prefixing "Mr." to the name. This difficulty is particularly feit with regard to references to Rousseau, for at least three authors of that name came into prorninence in the eighteenth century, viz. Jean Baptiste (1671—1741), Jean Jacques (1712—1778), and Pierre (1725—1785). Of their fame a popular rhyme says Trois auteurs que Rousseau Ton nomme Connus de Paris jusqu'a Rome Sont différent voüa par oü : Rousseau de Paris fut grand homme, Rousseau de Genève est un fou, Rousseau de Toulouse un atom. As regards Fréron's assertion, in 1755, that J. J. Rousseau had published several poems in le Mercure, the author of the Introduction to Oeuvres Complètes de J. J. Rousseau, published in 1864, thinks that they must have been of slight hterary importance, for in a letter dated July 25th 1750, Rousseau writes that it is strange that after having published only one item, viz. a dissertation on modern music, in which there is no question of poetry, he has to pass for a poet in spite of himself, and gets complimented on poetry that he has not written, and was not capable of writing. John Bancks refers to Jean Baptiste, when in 1738 he writes that Rousseau beheved that the elegies of Ovid and the operas of Quinaut were capable of doing more moral harm than the tales of la Fontaine, or even than his own epigrams.J) The Ode of Rousseau, which suggested Fortune (p. 1751) to Sam. Derrick, was written by Jean Baptiste, who is also the author of the Cantatas mentioned by Derrick.2) The interest of minor poets in J. J. Rousseau l) See Pré/ace de la Première edition in Oeuvres de J. B. Rousseau; Ladrange, 1818. ... . T . *) Joseph Knight (D.N.B.) ascribes "Fortune, a rhapsody (in verse) London, 1751, translated from an ode of Rousseau" to Francis Genüeman, but admits at the end of his article, that the authority on which some works are fathered on this poet, is not always evident. I think that the words — in faded ink — "By Mr. Gentleman" on the 4to copy in the Lib. Brit. Mus. are a mtstake ; Fortune, a Rhapsody was "republished with considerable addmons etc. in A Collection of Original Poems by Samuel Derrick, London, 1755. The anonymous comment — in faded ink on page 168 — does not ascnbe Fortune to another author. appears from the fact that Paul Hiffernan claimed to have made his acquaintance at Montpellier. But L'Hypocrite par M. Rousseau which Dodd (naively?) printed in The Christian1 s Mag. for July 1764, and invited his readers to translate, is by J. Baptiste. In 1761 W. Kenrick translated J. J. Rousseau's JuUet ou la Nouvelle Héloïse, in 1763 his Emile and in 1767 his Miscellaneous Works. However, this did not mean that he agreed with Rousseau, for he opposed his theories of the natural state and of education in a poem On the Immortality of the Soul, 1768. Evan Lloyd on the other hand praised J. J. Rousseau above all others in The Powers of the Pen, 1766, particularly, because he Ourselves unto ourselves can shew, And teach the passions how to grow, With native vigour: unconfined By those vile shackles, which the mind Wears in the school of art. But he regrets the fact that Rousseau does not "honour the Son of God." R. Jago's poem, Labour and Genius or, the Millstream and the Cascades, 1768, without mentioning J. J. Rousseau, protests against the restraint put upon nature in the education at schools. An allusion to J. J. Rousseau is heard in John Hall Stevenson's New Fable of the Bees (1768) : A cat examined every tooi As nicely as Rousseau's Elève ... Thomas Day dedicated the 3rd ed. of The Dying Negro, w. 1773, to J. J. Rousseau; the publication of Sandford and Merton is not within the period I am dealing with* The correctness of J. J. Rousseau's moral judgment is owned in The Sentimental Spy, a novel, anon. 1773. The various incidents during J. J. Rousseau's stay in England from Jan. 13th 1766 to his hurried departure, in May 1767, cannot but have directed attention to his work. Though Johnson thought but ül of him the public generally regarded his sentimentalism with favour1) and honised him in London. His sentimental deism or his l) Article on Rousseau in Ene. Brit: views on suicide could not introducé new elements into English hterature; it is "as an exponent rather than as an originator of ideas" that Rousseau is noteworthy. *) His poetical worship of nature and self-indulgent enjoyment of melancholy moods which the C. H. L.2) ascribes to La Nouvelle Héloïse was not unknown to English hterature ; his influence, if any,3) within the period here discussed falls outside the scope of this study.4) l) Article on Rousseau in Ene Brit. 3 VcJ. X, p. 18. ■) English sentiment or sentimentality in the eighteenth century was domestic and humamtarian rather than lyrical and revolutionary. See The Snttimentalists by Garnett Smith in Macmillan's Mag. 1899. *) About Rousseau as a political reformer, see R. H. Palgrave's article on Rousseau in the Dictionary of Political Economy. 20 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Books of general reference such as the Cambridge History of English Literature or the Dictionary of National Biography will not be mentioned ; what follows is a list of the principal books consulted. Several other works and articles in periodicals have helped to throw some light on the subject; some of them have been mentioned in the preceding pages. The titles and dates are those given by the Gen. Cat. Brit. Mus. 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Bancks (John). — The Weaver's Miscellany, or Poems on Several Subjects. 1730. — Miscellaneous Works in verse and prose. 2 vol. 1738. Barber (Mary). — Poems by Eminent Ladies. 2 vol. 1755. Beattie (James). — Original Poems and Translations. 1760. — Poems on several occasions. 1776. Beccaria Bonesana (Cesare). — Dei Delitti e delle pene (Translated by Farrer (J. A.) : Crimes and Punishments. 1880. Bell (John). — The Poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill. Edinburgh., 1782—1783. Bellamy (Daniël), the Elder. — Ethic Amusements by B., revised by his son D. B. London, 1768. Bernbaum (Ernest). — The Drama of Sensibility. 1696—1780. 1913. Betterton (Thomas). — Miscellaneous Poems etc. 1720. Blackmore (Sir Richard). — A Collection of Poems on various Subjects. 1718. A Critical Dissertation upon the Spleen, so far as concerns the Question, whether the Spleen is necessary or useful to the animal possessed of it. 1725. 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Whiston (William). — Memoirs (Part III.) 1749—50. Whitehead (P). — The Poems and Miscellaneous Compositions of P. W. with.... notes.... and his life by E. Thompson. 1777. — Poems on several occasions. London, 1754. — Plays and Poems. London, 1774. Williams (Sir Charles Hanbury). — A Dialogue.... in verse. 1741. — A Collection of Poems.... 1763. — The Works of Sir Ch. H. W. 3 vol. 1822. Wilson (Walter). — Memoirs of the Life and Times of D. Defoe. 3 vol. 1830. Winslow (F). — The Anatomy of Suicide. 1840. Woty (William) and Fawkes (F). — The Poetical Calendar. 1763. — The Poetical Works of W. W. 2 vol. London, 1770. Wycherley (W). — Miscellany Poems.... London, 1704. The World. 4 vol. 1753—6. STELLINGEN U. Beowulf, 1. 2276. Hë gesêcean sceall (ho)r(d on) hrüsan, paër hë halden gold waraö wintrum fröd ; ne byö him wihte öy sël te emendeeren tot: har on hrüsan etc. b. Bugge's opmerking in Zeitschrift für Philologie, 1873, blz. 221, luidende : "hearg als bezeichnung derjenigen stelle, wo der drache den hort hütet, komt auch 2276 vor : Hë gewunian sceall hearh (on) hrüsan, pa*r hë hsëöen gold waraö" is onjuist. 2. Beowulf, 1. 2283—2284. Da waes hord rasod, onboren bêaga hord. „Die widerholung des wortes hord nat wol nur ein abschreiber (nicht ein interpolator) verschuldet. Ist das ursprünghche bêaga daH?" Sophus Bugge in Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie, blz. 212, 1873. Deze vraag moet ontkennend beantwoord worden. 3. In een zin van het type "Romulus and Remus founded Rome, which afterwards was to become the ruler of the world" kan men, in overeenstemming met modern taalgebruik, ook "would become" en "would be" verwachten. 4. De opmerkingen bij het woord "cost(s)", voorkomende in An English Grammar for Dutch Students by E.Kruisinga, 1928, blz. 7; H. Poutsma, A Grammar of Late Modern English, 1914, Part II, IA, blz. 196 ; en A New English Dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, Vol II, C. 1893, moeten tot verkeerde gevolgtreldcingen leiden. 5. De opmerking van Edward Bensly aan den voet van Blz. 199 (Oxford Bibliographical Society, Proceedings and Papers, 1922—1926, pub. 1927) over het • exemplaar van Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy ia de boekerij van het Britsch Museum (Press mark 8408, l. 10) vereischt rectificatie. 6. Ten onrechte plaatst F. B. Kaye A Modest Defence of Publick Stews onder de authentieke werken van Bernard Mandeville. (Zie F. B. Kaye : The Fable of the Bees; or Private Vices Publick Benefits. By Bernard Mandeville. Two vols. Oxford, 1924. Vol. 1. blz. XXXI.) 7. "An examination of Milton's works must undoubtedly start from the point of view offered" (S. B. Liljegren, Studies in Milton, Lund 1918, blz. XLX). Het bezwaar hiertegen is, dat Liljegren ongehjk heeft karaktereigenschappen van Milton aan het Calvinisme te wijten. 8. De methode door Henry A. Beers gevolgd, om tót een definitie van "romanticism" te geraken, is onbevredigend. (Zie A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century en A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century door genoemden schrijver). 9. De bewering van J. R. Lowell, geciteerd door H. H. Clark in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1926, blz. 224 : "Byron made motiveless despair fashionable," is onjuist. 10. Lic. Helmuth Kittel's vragen »„nach der inneren „Wahrheit," d.i. der Bedeutung dieser „Tatsachen," « ten opzichte van Cromwell's onderwerping van Ierland, werpt geen nieuw licht op Cromwell's motieven. 11. Lic. Helmuth houdt ten onrechte geen rekening met later onderzoek aangaande de inneming van Drogheda. (Voor 10 en 11 zie „Oliver Cromwell, seine Religion und seine Sendung, von Lic. Helmuth Kittel. Göttingen, 1928"). 12. Een Belgische Federale Staat Vlaanderen-Wallonië zal öf niet tot een staatkundige oplossing leiden, die de Vlamingen bevredigt, öf België zal uiteenvallen, indien dit wel zoo is. OBSERVATIONS ON SOME TENDENC1ES OF SENTIMENT AND ETHICS ifflEFLY IN MINOR POETRY AND ESSAY IN THE EIGH^NTH CENTURY UNTIL THE EXECUTION OF Dr, W; DODD IN 1777 J- HL HARDER EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TENDENCEES IN POETRY AND ESSAY OBSERVATIONS ON SOME TENDENCIES OF SENTIMENT AND ETHICS CfflEFLY IN MINOR POETRY AND ESSAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL THE EXECUTION OF Dr.W.DODD IN 1777 ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT TER VERKRIJGING VAN DEN GRAAD VAN DOCTOR IN DE LETTEREN EN WIJSBEGEERTE AAN DE UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM, OP GEZAG VAN DEN RECTOR-MAGNIFICUS, Mr. L H. HIJMANS, HOOGLEERAAR IN DE FACULTEIT DER RECHTSGELEERDHEID, IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN, IN DE AULA DER UNIVERSITEIT, OP VRIJDAG 13 JANUARI, DES NAMIDDAGS TE 3Yt UUR door JOHANNBS HENDRIK HARDER geboren tb nieuwendam DRUKKERIJ M. J. PORTIELJB — AMSTERDAM — MCMXXXIII Aan mijn vrouw Bij het voltooien van dit proefschrift betuig ik mijn welgemeenden dank aan allen, die mij bij mijn studie op eenigerlei wijze behulpzaam zijn geweest. Dank ben ik verschuldigd aan het personeel van de Amsterdamsche Universiteits Bibliotheek voor veel voorkomendheid. Owing to the nature of the subject of this study my special thanks are due to the Superintendent and the Staffs of the Reading Room and the North Library of the British Museum, where the principal part of this work was done. The assistance of Mr. W. Wonnacott, Librarian in Freemasons' Hall, London, has considerably facüitated the solution of some knotty problems in connectkm with the Craft. Dank ben ik verschuldigd aan den Heer P. J. Lechner, Ut. hum. docts. voor het geduld en de toewijding door hem betoond bij mijn voorbereiding voor het Examen bedoeld in Art. 12 der Hooger-Onderwijswet, al is dat reeds weer jaren geleden. Groote dank ben ik verschuldigd aan de Hoogleeraren der Amsterdamsche Gemeentelijke Universiteit, wier colleges ik korteren of langeren tijd volgde; met name aan Prof. Dr. B. Faddegon, Prof. H. Brughans, Prof. Dr. Tj. de Boer en wijlen Prof. Dr. R. C. Boer. Eerbiedige hulde wordt hier ook gebracht aan de nagedachtenis van Prof. G. J. P. J. Bolland, in leven Hoogleeraar aan de Leidsche Universiteit. Door U te noemen, Hooggeleerde Swaen, zeer geachte Promotor, voldoe ik aan mijn begeerte alle erkentelijkheid te betoonen niet alleen voor Uw onderwijs, maar ook voor de moeite, die U zich getroost hebt, om na mijn candidaatsexamen van den Minister van Onderwijs, Kunsten en Wetenschappen, in November 1923, voor mij de bewilliging te verkrijgen tot het afleggen van het „volledige nieuwe doctoraal examen in de Germaansche taal en letterkunde/' waardoor ik in de gelegenheid werd gesteld, in Maart 1926, de bevoegdheid voor het onderwijs in de geschiedenis te verkrijgen. Ook de bereidwilligheid om mij steeds met Uw groote kennis voor te lichten wordt door mij ten zeerste gewaardeerd. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TENDENCIES IN POETRY AND ESSAY. CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. Page 6, linc 7 from top; for poeta read poeta, „ 140, lines 13, 14 „ bottom; „ J. Thomson's „ the anon. „ 161, line 17 „ bottom; „ 1753 „ 1653 „ 181, „ 21 „ top; add c. 42 " l?' " 7 " toP' » philips read Phillips n 271, „15 „ bottom; „ sympathises „ sympathise „ 285, „5 „ top; „ 1778 „ 1778, ,, 305, ,, 6 ,, top; „ was were >, 308, „ 11 „ bottom;,, Colart „ Colard- TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Preface . I Introduction. L Burton's Anatomy of Mélan- choly 5 II. Tendencies of Sentiment and Ethics in the Seventeenth Century 15 III. Summary 49 1. Melancholy 5j 2. Solitude and Retirement 59 2a. The Poetry of Sloth 65 3. The Spleen 66 4. Appreciation of Pathetic Scènes on the Stage.. 74 5. Melancholy Love Poetry 77 6a. Melancholy Love Ballads 83 b. Sentimentalism Ridiculed 85 7. Elegiac Poetry 86 8. Personal Sorrow ; True Melancholy 89 9. The Poetry of Night ,^ 92 10. The Terror of Death and the Grave .. .. 94 Hg Opposition to the Terror of Death 99 12. God's Wrath. Predestination and Reprobation. The Day of Judgment 106 12a. Opposition to the Theory of God's Wrath. . . .' )|6 13. Despair and Suicide I2Q 14. Pity and Ck>mpassion 141 PAGE 15. Interest in Beggars .......... 149 16. Ostentatious Charity 150 17. The Pessimistic View of Mankind j Thomas Hobbes 153 18. Hobbes'Phüosophy Opposed 157 19. (a) Did Chance or Providence Govern the World ? 161 20. (b) The Deists » 163 21. The Struggle between Natural Religion or Deism and Revelation ♦ ♦♦♦♦ 165 22. Bernard Mandeville 168 23. Deistic Insistence on God's Perfect Goodness 174 24. Good Nature and Benevolence ..... ..... 181 25. Social Interest Due to Pity or Benevolent Motives 183 26. The Aesthetic Element in the Progress of Sentimentalism ♦•♦ '88 27. God's Wisdom in the Universe .......... 192 28. The Love of Birds 200 29. The Love of other Animals 209 30. Giovanni Paolo Marana 211 31. Michael Montaigne »♦♦ 218 32. Ovid's Metamorphoses ♦ 224 33. The Pythagorean Link between Man and Beast 231 34. The Chase ♦ 243 35. The Change in the Status of Woman. ... 251 36. Interest in the Lives of Humble People...... 266 37. Prisoners and Punishments 273 38. Slavery 286 39. Lunacy 289 40 Religious Emotion. Quakers and Methodists.. 292 7Q4 41. Freemasonry ♦♦♦♦ ♦ 907 42. Summary ♦♦♦♦ ♦ Appendix. L. Sterne and Rousseau . • 301 Bibhography ♦ 3°6 PREFACE. The title of this book requires an explanation. Several years ago I began to collect materials for a study of the growth of humanitarianism in English hterature. After about a year and a half I had to give up this self-imposed task owing to drcumstances over which I had no control. In April 1930 I resumed research with the result of finding that in some respects my work had been anticipated. Instead of putting it aside I thought it better to go on with it, as its general conception is my own and has not previously been published. The literature I had gone through had made it clear to me that of so vast a subject only a few aspects could be considered, if I did not want this study to degenerate into a mere enumeration of tides and dates. Moreover, Hterature and not philosophy, philanthropy or sociology was to be the basis of this work. But literature proper is no full and uninterrupted record of changes in sentiment and ethics; its chief occupation is to apply art to language and thought. Though a work of this kind must, therefore, of necessity disappoint the historian pure and simple yet, I thïnk that, in one or two chapters, it may not be without interest to the student of thought. This also accounts for the fact that sentiments rather than persons form the subjects of the chapters dealing with the eighteenth century. If I had used the word humamtarianism in the tide of this study some critics would, no doubt, have taken exception to opening chapters almost exdusively dealing with melancholy j but the history of humanitarianism is so closely linked to this mood that a discussion of the *) C; A. Moore wrote a thesis on this subject for the Harvard Universitv — Mumamtananism in the English Periodical Essay and English Poetry, 1700— 1760 — but this work has not been published and my attempts to consult it by personal apphcaüon to the autbor were not successful. 1 rnanifestationsof some of its tendenaes m English ^erature was unavoidable. The humanitarian thought ») finds its origin in a vast variety of stimuli of which emotion is the legitimate domain of the man of letters. But of aU the ramifications of emotion in literature only those tending to melancholy developed an interest m the suffermgs ot that part of the creation capable of sorrow or pain. In many cases, however, melancholy, though potentially humanitarian, is too self-engrossed to devote attention to the feelings of others ; these causes too I have bnefly put on i) Apart from the theological acceptation of ^^«ÜÏÏ^f^ Oct. 1906, describes the progress of the movement :m the &bitt in' The discusses the hek: of ^^rf ^Zrdtarianism after having noted the ideaspointsout that, owing to the ^^^^^ religi0n could exert position in the western world thejmin*i ^humanitarian movement in SrSr^is one w/c objects »(^£^iteflJ(ffi they cure. The whole topic is so vasr .... a) «Onewho believes Christ a mere Man", J. Worcester, A Univenal and ƒ. G. Herder by T. Churchül, London, 1800.) record ; they have the merit of showing the reader where not to look for altruistic sentiment, though the mental setting may seem propitious. Instead of being a recórd of humamtarian thought this book contains rather what I have expressed in its tide: observations on some tendencies of sentiment and ethics ; one sentiment may be feit to merge almost imperceptibly into the other : this accounts for the sequence of some chapters. I have tried to show what melancholy, sentimentalism and benevolence have in common and how, ultimately, they may foster humamtarian sentiment. Starting with Burton I intend following the development of melancholy in the seventeenth century on the lines indicated by this author, and drawing attention to a few selected writers, who by particular characteristics of the language they employed, or by the sentiments they expressed, foreshadowed the trend of thought of the next century. For the eighteenth century I shall apply the method of observing the tendency of sentiments which, emotionally, theologically or ethically contributed to the development of the humanitarian idea. The death of Dr. Dodd will provide me with a suitable date for the conclusion of this study, which, if continued, would lead to a discussion of the influence of the French Revolution on English hterature. For evident reasons I have preferred to arrange material that came to hand historically; in numerous cases where poetry or prose was undated I have consulted the oldest echtions in the Library of the British Museum, and have left unrecorded a fair amount of interesting literary material of which I could fix no dates, rather than, possibly, exceed the period this book deals with. Only in a few ins tances — when I was certain of dates — have I departed from this rule. The eighteenth century habit of publishing anonymously has necessitated a good deal of comparing of isolated poems with collected works; in many instances I have had to rely on Halkett and Laing *) or on Anonyma and Pseudonyma.2) 1883 4kJókary °* Amnymom and Pseudonymons Literature. Edinburgh, ") By Charles A. Stonehill, A. Blockand H. W. Stonehill, London, 1926,4 vols. I Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Robert Burton was Vicar of St. Thomas's Oxford, and residing at Christ Church when, in 1621, bis famous book, The Anatomy of Melancholy, was published. It sums up the knowledge, which, by diligent reading, he had obtained about the subject.1) Burton hved a solitary hfe (1—16) and wrote about melancholy to avoid it (1—17). He dates the first edition from his "studie in Christ Church, Oxon. Decemb. 5.1620/' and calls liirnself Democritus Junior, because here sembled ham in his melancholy, and in his investigation of its causes (1—17). The book is a storehouse of information. Milton knew ctf L?wrence Sterne plagiarised its ideas for his Tristram Shandy; Dr. Johnson declared that it was the only book which fetched him from his bed two hours before his usual tune for rising. The eighteenth century writers of melancholy hterature were tree to consult it. The popularity of this book may be concluded from frequent new editions, namely in 1624, 1628, 1632, 1638, 1651-2, 1660, 1676. Its chatty, familiar style must have been highly conducive to its popularity. From the Latin verses addressed to his ) Burton was not the first Englishman to attempt a systematic treatment of the subject; A Treatise of Melancholie by T. Bright/Doctor of PhMcke 1586, wasi wntten "m our mother tong that the benefit ... might b? moré common," and addressed "To his melancholieke friend : M." It óffers from Burton's Anatomy in that it contains neither digressions norLatin quotation^ B,!^nPH0nS °f the symPt0ms,of melancholy do not differ rnaSyS Burton s. He explains the love of solitude, the bashfulness and sensitivenesT the tenderness and the love of moral rectitude of the melancholy manTo 17Ó seq.). The chapters XXXII-XXXIV are devoted to one ofThe princ^l (causes m d*yV "C?.aU ^ of ****** that befaü un o man! chaoter XXXV^tw ^ ^ fiseth of, ^ sense of God's wra£.» In cnapter XXXV he bnngs the sufferers consolation. In the followine chaoters bhr=ly0fWr Td^eSes0/StUdy ^ cStS^SSS bookx) it appears that popularity is what Burton aimed at: Vade liber, qualis, non ausim dicere, felix, Te nisi felicem fecerit Alma dies. Town and country, men and women he expected to read his book. But his appeal is especially to the simple poets of the people : At si quis non eximius de plebe poeta Annue ; namque istic plurima ficta leget. among whom he classes himself: Non sumus e numero, nullus mihi spirat Apollo, Grandiloquus Vates quilibet esse nequit. The Author's poetical Abstract of Melancholy gives the sweet and the bitter of melancholy. It begins with castles in the air and ends in suicide. In the opening lines sorrow and fear are absent, but introspection, "recounting what I have ill done", soon put the writer under therr tyrannical sway. The love of nature, the leisurely hidden sohtary walks by the brook and through "the wood so green are, from Burton on, identified with the sweets of melancholy sentiment. But the "dark grove, or irksome den" is the place for its gloomy broodings. Here funous discontents find expression in moaning sighs. The emotions produced by "sweet musick interrupt the description of melancholy which, "with its thousand miseries at once" has become depressing. The next stage borders on madness when the agonising reiteration "methinks I hear, methinks I see" prepares the reader for the doleful outcries of the ghosts, goblins and fiends that strike terror to his soul. His comment here is naturally the same as at the end of the poem : "(None) so damn d as Melancholy." and Errors irTSuccessive Editions of the Anatomy of Melancholy by Edward BeThe' first edition (Cat. Brit. Mus. C.45. c.30) bcars the pseudonym "EÏmocritus JurTor"1^on the tide page, but in The Cpncluswn the name of the a^thor of "thisTrage-comedie'^—as Burton calls it -is revealed to the «aden The pageï of tiüs conclusion have no numbers, wmch bears out Burton s statement: *I intended at first to have concealed my selie. The dehghts and the torments of love occupy about the middle of the poem; his appreciation is couched in the moderate terms : "sweet" and "harsh". But now the melancholy man detaches himself from society, it is his desire to be alone, and, in its first stage, this is his delight, his bliss. However, sohtariness has its ficrce Nemesis, the dreamer becomes a beast, a monster alone. Fear, discontent, and sorrow increase in loneliness. The panacea for all the evils of melancholy he mentions just before the end ( contentment. If that cannot be found he seems to know but one solution, which he is reputed to have ehosen hunself when he had reached his clirnacteric year in 1639-40: I'll change my state with any wretch Thou canst from gaol or dunghill fetch, My pain is past cure, another Heil, I may not in this torment dweil, Now desperate, I hate my life, Lend me a halter or a knife. All my griefs to this are jolly. Naught so dam'd as Melancholy. In this poem Burton gives practically the whole range of subjects dealt with by English poets after him in their melancholy mood. Some take the lighter phases of melancholy, but the majority insist on its darker and darkest symptoms. Burton's Anatomy adds a few remarkable details to the general oudine given in the Abstract So far as they are of importance to the later literature of melancholy dealt with in this study they will be briefly discussed here.J) Burton's book in its details does not follow the division he sketches in his introductory poem. He divides his work into four distinct parts. In the first Democritus Junior addresses the reader ; in the second, (The First Partition), he chiefly deals with the causes and symptoms of melancholy; in the next, (The Second Partition), he desenbes the cure of melancholy. The last part, (The Third Partition), treats of love towards God and our t> \7hie foU°wing quotations refer to the cd. in threc vols. by the Rev. A. R. Shületo, M. A. London, 1923. fellow-men, and of love towards wonen. The last section oftta""Partition" discusses rehgious melancholy and dCrCón considers melancholy to be a disease of the soul andTa d^ine he thinks himself jusufied - —mg on the profession of a physiaan (1.35,36). Its &™™^Y calls for a discussion, so that it may be recogn sed and a ou-e effected (1.37), and later generaüons also may diely related, delirium, he thinks, is a common name to all H 39): ... «Take melancholy in what sense you will, in disposition of Sbil forTleasuïe or for pam, discontente, fear, sorrow, madStrulyor metaphoricaUy,'t is all one (1.40). As follv enters largely into the compositionof melancholy, he hkes■ tc: pictureVhimself a world of human beings eoverned by wisdom. a «I will vet. to satisfy and please myself, make a Utopia of my own, l New Atlantis, a poetical Óommonwealth of mine own." (1-109). He wants to build its cities, and frame lts laws. And iust as the melancholy man buüds castles m the air, in ^opening lines of his poem, "voidLof «*£ and void of fear," so Burton here constructs his Utopia. It is the sweet oastime of the melancholy man. HÏ Aoughts travel far beyond the real world which surrounds hL. His views on hygiëne, far m advance of hTtiTet mdude such things as "separate places o bury S dS in, not in churchyards." Hospitals of all kinds, for cnildrTn, orphans, old folks, sick men, mad men, SdieS and pesAouses^must be built "ex pubhco aerario, a?tirPubhcPexpense, not by "gouty benefactors," who. Ster a hfe spent m extortion and oppression,in this manner trv to make their peace with heaven (1—1 lijk ^Tne melancholy Poet of the Abstract building casdes in the air, "void of sorrow and void of fear , and Burton olamung his Utopia in an introductory chapter, coinade. CmS Sevele construction to have been intenüonal. The melancholy man then, evidendy, at the outset, is not self-engrossed, but cbaritably inclined, and occupied with thoughts of better material conditions for mankind. Burton is against "parity" in the state and in favour of monarchical government, but he "hates decrees that exclude plebeians from honours" (1—114). The harsh laws against criminals require mitigation;x) in his Utopia "murder and adultery shall be punished by death, but not theft, except it be some grievous offence, or notorious offenders: otherwise they shall be condemned to the gallies, mines, be his slaves whom they offended, during their lives." To prevent mischief "no man shall wear weapons in any city." Burton hates all hereditary slavery (1-119). Our author realises the difficulty of defining his subject for "the tower of Babel never yielded such confusion of tongues, as this Chaos of Melancholy doth variety of symptoms." Yet, for all the differences, the various kinds of melancholy have much in common (1—456). He bases his definition on the opinion of older writers on the subject. The ordinary companions of the complaint, they say, are fear and sadness, without any apparent occasion. Anguish of the mind is the "summum genus" (1—193). Fear and sorrow make it differ from madness. Melancholy is either "a disposition", i.e. a mood, or a habit. It may also have been inherited from parents (1 —241). The dull, sour, sad, ill-disposed and therefore solitary man is improperly called melancholy. "From these melancholy dispositions no man living is free," he says in one place (1—164); "the very gods had bitter pangs" (1—165), as their own poets teil us (1—165). But "disposition" may become habit, and ultimately disease (1—166). The variety of melancholy he is going to discuss in his book is the pleasant or painful habit (1—167). Melancholy forms part of the curse of mankind, pronounced over Adam after the fall. The first melancholy man was Cain (1—289). As God is its ultimate cause, the *) A poor sheep-stealer is hanged for stealing of victuals, compelled peradyenture by necessity of that intolerable coldThunger, and thirst, to save nimsell from starving.... op. cit., I, 66. sinner ought to call to Him for mercy, otherwise his disease will be incurable and he will find no rehef (1—205). Two important causes of the disease are sohtarmess and idleness. Nothing begets it sooner than idleness (1—279). It is therefore the inseparable companion of those who hve at ease, e.g. the great ladies and gendemen (1—280), and it particularly attacks those who after a busy hfe are compelled to inactivity. Such people are neyer well in body or mind (1—280). They are ciissatisfied with everything and weary of their Uves (1—281). Burton is enraptured with voluntary sohtarmess. He hkes "to walk alone in some solitary Grove, betwixt Wood and Water, by a Brook side.... A most mcomparable delight it is so to melancholie, and build casties m the air.... acting an infinite variety of parts," and dream of things "present, past and to come." Time is of no consequence to those wrapped in "phanttstical meditations" (1—283). In the stanzas 1 and 3 of his Abstract these passages have evidendy been summansed. But the habit of daydreaming makes melancholy people unfit for regular work (1—283), and at last gets the better of them : "They run earnesdy on in this labyrinth of anxious and solidtous melancholy meditation, and cannot well or willingly refrain.... until at last the scène is turned upon a sudden.... and they, being now habituated to such vain meditations and solitary places, can rurninate of nothing but harsh and distasteful subjects. Fear, sorrow, suspicion.... discontent, cares, and weariness of life, surprise them in a moment and they can think of nothing else.... This infernal pague ot Melancholy seizeth on them, and crucifies their soul, representing some dismal object to their minds, which by no means, no labour, no persuasions, they can avoid. At this stage it deserves attention that in another place he remarks that melancholy and madness should not be confused as many writers had done (1—160, 194). The imagination is particularly active in melancholy people. It retains its objects unreasonably long, distorts them and magnifies them by continual meditation. buch people become sleepless (1-441), they grow weary of their hves, and feral thoughts to offer violence to their own persons come into their rninds; taedium vitae is a common symptom (]—449). Some of them, occasionally, are humorous beyond all measure, "sometimes profusely laughing, and then again weeping without a cause, (which is familiar with many Gentlewomen), groaning, sighing, pensive, sad, almost distracted." (1—452). The habit, which Burton wrote so pleasantly about, when he dwelled on the greatest sweets of melancholy, viz. "to lie in bed whole days" (1—283), grows into slothfulness when the disease gains on people. They become taciturn and above all things love solitariness to indulge their sense of fear and sorrów. The kinds of natural scenery that suit this mood are "lïoods and waters and desert places." They love to walk alone in "orchards, gardens, private walks, and back-lanes; they abhor all companions at last, even their nearest acquaintances" (1—455). Gruesome images of death begin to delight them or perhaps torture them, dead men's bones, ghosts, tombs and graves are ever in their rninds. Night becomes hideous and they are afraid in the dark. In that state of mind they are fond of anything tragical, and sure to remember it. Suicide often puts an end to their lives (1—476). For though they fear death they are in a marmer forced to take their own lives to be treed trom their intolerable pains. Burton gives a strangely pathetic description (1—496) of the agonies people thus afflicted pass through before the final deed is done. Though he condemns the act, he realises their sufferings ; his language is so vivid that he seems to write from personal experience; he is convinced that "if there be a heil upon earth, it is to be found in a melancholy man's heart." Burton then summarises the classical controversy about the hwfulness of suicide, also quoting biblical cases, e.g. Samson. Among the moderns who tolerated suicide he mentions Sir Thomas More. Burton must have been acquainted with Montaigne's Essay on the same subject,x) St^Li" J?h£ f^S°X ^PSti*01* Uebersetzung der Essais Montaigne's.... trS?* '•V9?3' F',D»eckow has proved tiat Burton consulted Florio'» translation of Montaigne s Essays. for though he does not mention him here, he does so in several other places. He differs from Montaigne s conclusion, which justifies suicide in certain circumstances; on the one hand our author condemns the arguments in favour of the deed as "fake and Pagan positions and maintains that the "Heathen Philosophers are upon impious, abominable and wrong ground, on the otner he wants us to pass charitable judgment on those who have sought a voluntary death. "It is hiscase, it may be thine God be merciful unto us all I" In the second "Partrüon" Burton desenbes the Cure oi Melancholy. He considers change of air and exercise sovereign remedies. As such he advocates fowling and hunting. Here we miss Montaigne's pity for the hunted animal, but to the parson leading "a monastiek Meina College" (1—480) the chase could not be so real as it was to Montaigne. No more is there any condemnation of the cruelty to animals involved when he mentions the delight of "many countrymen and citiïens'' in frequent buübaitings and bear-baitings (2-92). Just m P*J"| quotes as a fact that"England is a heil for horses (3—305), the implications of the phrase "quid meruistts oves ) were well-known to him, but he does not quote Ovid with the object of later, particularly eighteenth century authors. His description of angling foreshadows later löth c. piscatory Hterature in as much as he puts stress on the delights of nature apart from angling: "If so bc the angler catch no Fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the Brook side, pleasant shade by the sweet silver streams ; he hath good air and sweet smells of fme fresri meadow flowers, he hears the melodious harmony of Birds, he sees the Swans, Herons, Ducks, Waterhens, Coots, etc. and rn^nTotheï Fowl, with their brood, which he tWnketh better SVrnoise of Hounds, or blast of Horns, and aU the sport that they can make" (2—85). In shrill contrast with his pictures of Utopia in the first part of his book and the casties m the air ot rus Abstract is the chapter about Love-Melancholy where he *) Sce page 225. speaks with much bitterness of the lack of charity in the "iron age" in which he lived. No supplication in the name of a thousand orphans can move the rich man ; a hospital, a prison may badly want his aid, he is indifferent. The prisoners may be hungry, be devoured by viimin, "rot in their own dung, he cares not." Gratification of his vanity, the knowledge that his name shall be registered in golden letters may, on occasion, induce him to contribute (3—39 seq.). This want of charity he considers to be "the cause of all our woes, miseries, discontent and melancholy." Following older example (3—359) Burton places love of women and love of God together, in one "Partition." He maintains that he is the first to write distincdy on the subject, therefore he can imitate nobody. His views on religion are very tolerant, though his attitude to the Roman Catholics is frequendy very hostile particularly be cause of the power of the Pope and the priesthood, and because of their self-torture (3—382) and the rash vows of monasteries obliging men and women "to lead a single life against the laws of nature." (1—480). He classes the Deists among the men of "litde or no religion" (3—440) but, he says, they are "more temperate m this life, and give man good moral precepts", are "honest, upright, and sober in their conversation," but unfortunately "too much learning makes them mad." How else could they attribute all to natural causes, or hold all religion a fiction, opposed to reason and philosophy. It is only fear of the magistrates that prevents them from professing their views publicly. (t People suffering from rehgious melancholy will prophesy the end of the world to a day almost." They are actuated by a blind zeal, by fear of eternal punishment and the last judgment. They spend their time in needless speculation, and fruidess meditation about election (3—482). Though Burton does not believe that "the world shall end like a Comedy," or, in conclusion," in nihil evanescere" (3—484), he holds that we are not to determine who are to be punished for their sins (3—485). But the worst mental disturbances arise from the fear of „God's heavy wrath." People afflicted in this way "suffer the pains of Heil," "smell brimstone" (3—485) and are ever ready to destroy themselves. 4 t . . , Burton reasons with them hke their good Angel and advises them no longer to listen to the fearful tones of "rigid Preachers." His parting advice to everybody is x "Give not way to soUtariness, and idleness. Be not sohtary, ^B^ton^'analyses of the Three Partitions of his work show the numerous and intricate subdivisions of melancholy at a elance : the love of soUtude, of contemplation, ot nature, of man, of reform, and the general tendency to sympathize with the physical, mental and social suffenngs of humanity. The literary treatment of only a few of its symptoms will be followed here within the limits of the tide of this book. II. Tendencies of Sentiment and Ethics in the Seventeenth Century. John Donne's (1573—1631) poetry and prose show a pronounced melancholy tendency. According to his own testimony in a verse letter to Ben Jonson, 9 Novembris 1603, "every petty cross" troubled him, and every hurt that was done him, he feit doublé. He was aware that he was accused of weakness of character, perhaps because he did not feel inclined to retaliate, "though great men wronged him." The period of his life after 1601, when he lost his post as secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, must have been particularly trying. The year 1616 brought reliëf when he became rector of Keyston, Huntingdonshire, and Sevenoaks, Kent, but in 1617 the heaviest calamity which could befall him, the death of his wife, Anne More, to whom he was passionately attached, cast its dark shadow over his life. Death and corruption in its ugliest forms are frequendy the subject of his poetry. In the second Elegy on Mistress Bouktred (w. 1609, p. 1635), probably a kinswoman of his benefactor, death is "the executioner of wrath", its coming "terror, anguish, grief denounces." The Relic suggests the possibility that the gravedigger when he digs up again the place in which two lovers lie buned and "spies A bracelet of bright hair about the bone, will leave the remains unmolested. Donne^s poem The Anatomy of the World takes a verv pcssinustic view of life because of the decease of üüsabeth Drury, in whose praise it is written. A subdivision of The Anatomy is the poem Of the Progress of the Soult 1612. In this A just estimatton of the world contains the advice "forget this rotten world".... The world is but a carcass; thou art fed By it, but as a worm that carcass bred; And why shouldst thou, poor worm, consider more When Ais world will grow better than bef ore, Than those thy fellow-worms do think upon That carcass's last resurrection ? Donne wants his reader to imagine himself to be lying on his deathbed. It may be observed here that he evidendy practisedwhat he preached, for during his long ïUness, which ended in his death, he had himself painted m nis ShThe poet broods on the horrors of death, but finds solace in the contemplation of the heavenly glory which awaits him, and which he continually mentions for the sake of contrast: Think that thy body rots, Think thee a prince, who of themselves create Worms, which insensibly devour thy state, Think these things cheerfully, for the soul will be set free. Donne's intimate knowledge of classical learning had made him acquainted with the so-called Pythagorean doctrines, e.g. in The Anatomy he refers to "that anaent who thought souls made of harmony." To his Poema Satyricon he prefixes an Epistle dated 16 Augusti 1601, on the subject of Metempsychosis, m which he puts stress on the fact that the Pythagorean doctrine does not only carry one soul from man to man, nor from man to beast, "but indifferendy to plants also. In his unfinished poem "this soul, to whom Luther and Mahomet were Prisons of flesh, passes from Eve s apple into a poppy and a mandrake, a sparrow, a fish, a mouse, a bitch, an ape and into the sister of Cain. From Ben Jonson we know "that his general purpose was to have brought in all the bodies of the Hereticks from ^ the soul of Cain, and at last left it in the body of Calvin. The adventurotts passage of the soul through many animals, and, no doubt, Donne's knowledge of the Pythagorean sympathies, naturally leads to observations about the danger to which animals are exposed. Of fish it is said that they are perfecdy harmiess to man for Fowls they pursue not, nor do undertake To spoil the nests industrious birds do make; yet they are the prey of all, and to kill them is an occupation, "and laws make fasts and Lents for their destruction." When the world was young Man did not know Of gummy blood, which does in holly grow, How to make bird-lime, nor how to deceive With feign'd calls, his nets, or enwrapping snare, The free inhabitants of air. It is evident that Donne took his hints from Ovid's application of the Pythagorean doctrine in Metam. bk. XV. Donne's playful observation about the absence of laws "in this world's youth" also points to Ovid. We may believe that in the gamut of melancholy the greatest depth is reached when the key of suicide is struck. This was the case when Donne wrote his prose work Biathanatos, and when he had finished it he forbadeit "both the Presse, and the Fire." But that did not prevent his son from publishing it.1) It is sometimes supposed that Donne wrote it after he lost his post as secretary. Geo. Saintsbury in his Introduction to the Poems of John Donne refers to the "unparalleled melancholy which appears in his later works, and seems to have characterised his later life," for which several reasons are given, namely, broken health, the loss of his wife, thwarted ambition, sincere repentance for youthful follies and the spirit of the Renaissance which gained in gloom and force when it made its way north. It is a very learned work and the ablest modern defence of a conditional right to suicide. It gave rise to a good deal of controversy.2) lts object appears from its tide: ) P1®]*??15 beais ^ imprimatur of "Jo: Rushworth 20. Sept. 1644." ) In 1652 appcared Pelecanicidium or the Christian Adviser against zeif-murder.... in three books by Sir William Denny. It gives the reader an lüea ot the frequency and the causes of self-murder about that time. The Biathanatos, a Declaration of that Paradoxe or Thesis, that Selfe-homieide is not so Naturally Sinne, that it may never be otherwise. Wherein The Nature, and the extent of all the Lawes, which seeme to be violated by this Act, are diligently surveyed. Written by Jo n Donne, whoafterwards re Led orders from the Church of England, and dyed Deane of Saint Pauls, London. Published by Authonüe. London, Printed by John Dawson. Donne's son dedicated the book to Lord Philip Harbert. Donne explains the reason for this döcourse, vu. "Incitements to Charity towards those which doe it. In this respect he agrees with Burton. Apart from their melancholy tendency which perhaps concentrated thetr attention on this subject, it is not surpnsing to find two men of the cloth, sons of the Renaissance, steeped in classical learning, broach a thesis which takes up so mucn room in classical hterature.1) If Geo.Saintsbury calls Donne one of the latest and yet one of the most perfect exponents of the Renaissance because of the conjunction of spirituahsed woridhness and sensuality in one part of his work and of spirrtuahsm Which has left worldliness far behind m another, the same mav be said of Robert Burton, witness his sly way ot addressing the virgins and handmaids (m Democritus Junior ad Librum Suum) with reference to the Third Partition of his book, as well he might: Z 7ZZZ ~m^*A «at the Steam of so much Humane Blood, running in been borrowed from Burton; they are .. .«cloudie Natures, swaUowing stumd Follie, Like Püls, wrapt up in pleasing Melancholie. He advises them to be «spciable Creaturen idleness will lead them to an. "Have a Care ofSohtude,«tT Thfèen of foul appear." Every poem is followed by a Perspectwe ano a monu. i) The chief defenders were the Epicureans and the Stoics. At si virgo tuas dignabitur inclyta chartas Tangerc, sivc schedis haeret üla tuis : Da modo te farilem, et quaedam folia esse memento Conveniant oculis quae magis apta suis. And compare with this his stirring Renaissance sermons, e.g. against Poverty and Want, in which pagan and Christian hterature are ransacked for consolatory arguments with audacious translations of this kind: "Dac me, O Jupiter, et tu fatum, etc. Lead me, o God, whitherthou wilt, I am ready to follow." The hterary tastes of the English nation in the 17th century can be best judged from the popularity of the poetical works of Francis Quarles. His Divine Poems were published in 1630. The Old Testament provided the subjects of the poetry in this collection : A Feast of Wormes set forth in a Poem of the History of Jonah, (first printed 1620); Hadassa; or the History of Queene Ester, (first printed 1621) ; Sions Sonnets sung by Soloman the Kingt (1625) ; Sions Elegies wept by Jeremie the Prophet, (1624); Job Militant, (1624). An Alphabet of Elegies upon Doctor Aylmer. Of this collection consisting of 400 pages of close print the following editions were known to Dr. Grosart, who edited his works : 1632, 1633, 1634, 1638, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1649, 1674, 1680, 1706. The success of his Divine Fancies, etc. was almost as great. Óf two later works, his Emblemes, 1635, and Hieroglyphickes of the Life of Man, 1638, thesame authority writes that editions have been "well-nigh innumerable." Francis Quarles was a royalist and a member of the Church of England. He had probably been educated by a "godly puritan." Anthony-a-Wood, discussing him, calls him the "sometimes darling of the plebeian judgments," but he was equally popidar among the better educated and the scholarly, who evidendy liked his pious reflections on biblical hterature which he expressed in the inevitable meditatio and apphcatio accompanying every small bit of Holy Writ he paraphrased. His first poetical production, A Feast for Wormes, is less gruesome than the tide suggests and it must have seemed a httle out of the common to himself, for he writes: "Wonder not at the Titie.; i. What are Men but Wormes ? and what greater feast could be granted to these worms than God's mercy. However, he départs from this explanation in his Meditatio Prima when the grave and its corruption are used to impress the godly as well as the ungodly with the vanity of their existence: Why what are men? But quickened lumps of earth? A Feast for Wormes ; A bubble full of mirth i A Looking-glass for griefe ; A flash ; a minute ; A painted Toombe, with putrifaction in it; A mappe of DeathA worme of five foot long; Begot in sinne, etc In his later poetry, especially in his Emblema, he again and again recurs to the transitoriness of earthly existence, but he then abstains from this sort of language except tor an occasional reference to "the worm of five foot long in Pentelogia, or the reflection that "the world s a base dunghill," in the Emblemes. Later it is the hourglass, the time-devouring minutes, the winged hours, the secret wheels of hurrying time, the weary pdgrimage (Emblem XII, Job 10.20) that convey the idea that all is vanity- Quarles is the great prophet of the dies irae ; the God of Wrath is "the flame-ey'd Fury" whose vengeance: is terrible (Emblem XII. Job. 14.13.). The whole Bible, but especially the Psalms and the Book of Job, provide material for fiery language. , In his Pentelogia Mors tua descnbes death with sythe, the doleful passing knell, the dance of Death and the deathbed scène. 2 «i i t,»„«. Dolor Inferni, i.e. the last of five stanzas, lacks no heat To make the torments sharp." . Two short poems in Divine Fancies on Sophroma touch on the question whether suicide is permissible to a woman to defend her chastity. His reply is that she should not commit sin to prevent shame. . , In Sions Elegies references to cruelty to animals serve didactic religious purposes and cannot be taken tor intentional protests, e.g. So hath the Fowler with his slye deceits Beguiled the harmlesse bird x so withi fatee baits The treach'rous Angler, strikes the nibbhng prey. William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585—1649) resembles Burton in his love of study and contemplation, and in his melancholy acceptation of life. He passed most of his time in the seclusion of Hawthornden, "far from the madding worldling's hoarse discords." He loved the "silent horrors" of its "dear wood" and "the sweet delights a quiet life affords." (Sonnet XLIII (1616). Probably in 1615 the blow feil that cast its gloomy shadow over his life. He was deeply in love with one Miss Cunningham, but when everything had been fixed for their marriage she feil ill and died. In 1616 Drummond published a litde volume of sonnets, songs and madrigals, divided into two parts. The majority of die poems of the first part seem to have been written by him to the woman he loved while she was still alive. Yet lines like the following seem to be due to other causes than love. After the tortures of a sleepless night he observes the first signs of the dawn. May the sun bring the so long lingering morn ; A grave, nay heil, I find become this bed, This bed so grievously where I am torn; But, woe is me! though thou now brought the day, Day shall but serve more sorrow to display. (Sonnet XI). In Sonnet XXVIII music has to interpret the woes of the lover and "woods' solitary shades" and "the black •OX*?S °f 016 blackest night/' are his companions. But it is difficult to account for the tone of Sonnet XXXII, unless it is attributed to sheer weariness of existence. The depth of gloom may be fathomed from the last line but one : If crost with all mishaps be my poor life, If one short day I never spent in mirth, If my spright with itself holds lasting strife, If sorrow's death is but new sorrow's birth; If this vain world be but a sable stage Where slave-born man plays to the scoffing stars, u youth be tossed with love, with weakness age, 11 knowledge serve to hold our thoughts in wars; If time can close the hundred mouths of fame, And make what long since past, like that to be, If virtue only be an idle name, If I, when I was born, was born to die; Why scck I to prolong these loathsome days? The finest rose in shortest time decays. Sonnet XXX pictures black despair, with which the imagery agrees, for the poet is "nail'd to torments, in pale Horror's shade." He expresses the wish never to have been born, and prefers "eternal night" to the light of life The concluding lines of Sonnet IV, though a translation of the 15th sonnet of Sanazzaro, may here be menüoned ; they are-cquaUy despondent. The yawning grave is ever present vvitfc the poet in Sonnet V. The Praise of a Solitary Life (1623) agrees with Sonnet XLIII (1616) as regards subject and m some respecte as regards phrasing. But how different is his melancholy contemplation from Jordan's for instance, and how closely allied to nineteenth century thought. The poet calls those happy who can be content to live near a shady grove far from the clamorous world. Though solitary, they are not alone when they "converse with that eternal love. In the harmiess shades of the wood the poet finds retuge from the horrors of the world. Natural sounds are in harmony with his mystic contemplative mood. With melancholy pleasure he listens to the "hoarse sobbings of the widow'd dove." This stirred deeper emoüons m the poet than in the ordinary reader, for m Madrigal IV (1616) he had translated from Tasso : Poor turtle l thou bemoans The loss of thy dear love, And I for mine send forth these.... Groans. That Drummond, in calmer moments, clung to Christian faith appears from Sonnet XII, which, mddentaUy, justifies the psychological correctness of the juxtaposition of carnal and religious love in Partition III of Burton s Anatomy; he transfers his love "made pure of mortal spots" from the beloved dead to God. The considerations of Song II (1616), meant to reconole him to his loss are deeply tinged with Platonic phaosophy. They recur, in proseform, in A Cypress Grove, published in 1623. The life of the lamented dead was but a piece of the life of the great All," and it does not behove the creature to give laws "to the first eternal cause", but he must obey them. In his attempt to lessen the terror of death he speaks scornfully of life and calls it that "füthy stage of care" .One year will serve to see the beauties of nature; we breathe "the air of woe." "Earth's sweetest joy is but disguised woe." The souls desire to be released from the bodies, which are loathsome jails of care and pain. Pessimism of this kind passes the bounds of the conventional orthodox "all is vanity" theme and savours of the conclusion of Sonnet XXXII. The identification of the natural and the good, apart from Chris tian doctrine, in justification of death, appears from such a contention as the following from A Cypress Grove : "If death be good, why should it be feared, and if it be the work of nature, why should it not be good ?" Death's Last Will (1630) reverts to the horrors of death and considers a life ruled by the fear of imminent death desirable on rehgious grounds. Fear is also the keynote of The Shadow of Judgment, An Essay on the Great and General Judgment of the World. This poem is unfinished. The complaints of allegorical personages introducé the main event: Piety and Charity appear befbre God and denounce mankind because of their lack of charity, for hospitals and temples have been levelled to the ground, and "Nought so relendess unto man as man." Then God reveals his wrath in earthquakes and elemental disturbances Heil bursts, and the foul prisoners there bound Come howling to the day, with serpents crowned. But "earth's chosen bands" hail this day in words from the Apocalypse. The reference to the people whom "God has chosen out to live with him," to "those throngs of old prepar'd^for heil" and to "earth's chosen bands" who will be "Joined with those in heaven," seem tosuggest that Drummond, the broad-minded Christian, the royalist and anti-Presbyterian, about this time beheved in election and predestination. It is possible, however, that this allegorical poem is not to be taken for a confession of faith.x) x) Some üaes showing pity for the hunted stag need not express Drum- The poetical sources of Milton's contribution to the poetry of melancholy, // Penseroso (w. 1632 or 1633), are given in diverse manuals j1) a comparison with Burton s Anatomy suggests the following remarks : Burton prötests against various forms of folly, and like Democritus he laughs at those to whom folly seems wisdom" (1.53 seq.); this readüy recalls the opening lines of Milton's II P. Burton frequendy refers to the part the imagination plays in melancholy and the assoaation of melancholy with "blackest midnight.... mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy in L Allegro, rcminds us of the "doleful outcries" mentioned in the Abstract and of what we read in the Anatomy (1.476) l dead men's bones, hobgoblins, ghosts, are ever in their rninds ; and meet them still in every turn: all the bugbears of the night and terrors, fairy babes of tombs and graves are before their eyes and in their thoughts. Not when Milton indulges in the pleasant melancholy mood, but when he banishes it from his nund, in Lf Allegro, does he mention its darker aspects. Any tragical object" to which the diseased melancholy nund, m Burton s Anatomy (1.476), at this advanced stage sticks, is somewhat toned down and becomes reading a tragedy in Milton's poem. . t ... . , _ Milton connects melancholy with saindiness, wisdom, sohtude (saturn), purity (Vesta), peace and quiet, contemplation and süence. These are not mentioned in the Abstract, but the Anatomy (1.283-285) menttons "the meditation, contemplation, and kind of sohtarmess which the Fathers so highly commended and magnifted in their books, "a Paradise, and Heaven on earth, d it be used aright," with a commendation of a countryüie to serve God. The protestant Burton, who m other places of his book strongly disapproves of Roman Catholiosm, mond's Pe-o^eUng^: ^ ^ ^ ^ TUI that ooor beast, a shaft be in his heart. The r^7taStePd these lines from Sonnet* del Bempo Hu> poem PhylLmthe Death of her Sparrow is no expression of love of animate nature, nor a protest against human cruelty. ï) É.g° Milton, Early Poems, etc Umveraty Press Ltd. here speaks with much respect of the devoted moriks and thinks it a pity that all abbeys and religwus houses, everlasting monuments of our forefathers' devotion," have been promiscuously pulled down. Some might have been spared for other men and women to live in, to sequester themselves from the cares and tumults of the world that they nright freely and truly serve God. "The pensive Nun, devout and pure" of II P. may be due to these and similar passages, e.g. "Albertus Durer paints Melancholy like a sad woman.... with fixed looks" (1.451). The anchorites, who abandon the society of other men and betake themselves to a private cell and the Carthusians that keep perpetual silence" are mentioned on page 282 Vol. 1, and remind us of other elements of IIP Mdton fully utilizes Burton's suggestion "that it is an mcomparable dclight so to melancholie.... acting an infinite variety of parts, which they suppose and strongly imagine they represent, or that they see acted or done" (1.283)? "The solitary Grove, betwixt Wood and Water, and by a Brookside" are Burton's own haunts when he feels mclmed to pleasant melancholy meditation (1.283). Later when the disease has assumed a gloomier cast he mentions: "orchards, gardens, private walks and backlanes as the places where the man "averse from company^ spends his time. Milton's "retired Leisure" dehghts in trim gardens" and at night he "walks unseen on the dry smooth-shaven green." The süent wood that attracts hun at dawn is untouched by the hand of man. He hears the curfew "over some wide-watered shore" and wanders through "arched walks of twihght groves " Sleep and forgetfulness of time — for he walks the whole night — enter into the composition of Milton's u t>. as well as into Burton's Anatomy t Md^htSOtT * ue to?i m at first' they «»M spend whole days and nighte without sleep.... in such contem- drSm?..ü (ifiS)08 Stations, which are like unto The "knell" of his contemporaries becomes Milton's «sullen roar" of the far-off curfew. He avoiAthe "piercing sigh" and the "parting groan and allm«ition of "bonls" stretched "in a still, gloomy valley,'' though he borrows the down-cast look and silence, which Fletcher mentions as attributes of melancholy in a song occurrnig in The Nice Valor. The "gloom" of Milton's melancholy was only "counterfeit" (line 80) during the years at Horton, which is only natural ^ ^ Friends, spare no cost to bring us up in our youth in all marmer of virtuous education" {Anatomy, 1. 282). After the demoralising effect of voluntary ban*hment from society of Burton's melancholy man of the Msiïact, the poet finds ravishing joy agam in contentment. Milton s concluding subjects are the cloister, music, rehgious eXy and the prophetic hermit, which means rehgious voluntary exile; evidendy "otio superstitioso seclusi (AnaTmy 1.282) attracts Müton; Burton's Anatomy w^rup with the discussion of rehgious melancholy and ™pair,and his Abstract ends with suïcide. Mdtons last poem w. a httle after 1665) is the metaphor of the ü-agedy of his own life, Samson Agonistes, the Hebrew suicide, through whom he says Nature within me seems In all her functions weary of herself; My race of glory run, and race of shame, And I shall shortly be with them that rest. ) Burton probably took his own life, but Müton concluded his "in calm of mind, all passion spent, as he had said in the last line of the poem quoted. The seventeenth century elegy is by no means always a variety of "solemn or plaintive" poetry. This may also be Sd Yof the broadside elegies, which weref muchused after 1640. If they were not employed ^ pabttcal ourposes, the death of the Earl of Essex, 1646, or the Stion of Charles I, they might express som>wrtte decease of a worthy nonconformist minister. Intense kSÜS ^&ÜZ£22l%S&*'S God', w personal feeling cannot be expected in an inferior kind of poetry specially made to be read at a funeral. But these broadsides give an idea of what popular taste considered to be the true expression of sorrow. Some are tearful to excess, e.g. the Elegy on Dr. William Bates, Minister of the Gospel: Floods follow floods, waves after waves arise, Scarce have I drain'd the Fountain of mine Eyes, But here 's a sudden stroke calls for a Sea Of flowing tears : Rivers too few will be. Friend and enemy alike commanded the tribute of tears, as may appear from An Elegy on the famous seacommander Michael de Ruyter, 1676. Seamen (though Enemies) Cannot restrain the Torrents of their Eyes ; Even those that never wept before, strike Sail To Grief. One notable broadside elegy bears no date but would seem to be a meritorious companion piece to Jordan's Midnight Meditations of Death, etc. 1645. The tide is Devine Meditations on Death, made upon these nine Words, Nothing more sure then Death, for all must Die. The woodcut represents a skeleton lying in earth with an hour-glass behind the skull. The poem consists of nine stanzas with an additional one on "Man." The meditation on the word "must" follows here : All then Die ; then all must think on Death : All things vanish ? Sun, and Moon, and Stars ? Every single creature yield his breath? All things cease, our Joys, Delights, our Cares? Yes, All with a united voice do cry, Nothing more sure then Death, for all must Die. Etc. i) In some broadside elegies, therefore, we recognise the pecuhar gloom of rehgious melancholy, mentioned by Burton, in addition to early crude and unconvincing attempts at emotionalism. It is worthy of note that Milton in Lycidas yielded no more to the Puritan inclination to dweil on the grim details of corruption than he succumbed /) Prof. H. W. Draper, who published this meditative lyric in A Century of Broadside Elegies thinks that it may have been written in the latter 1640's. to the love of gloom in II Penseroso. The "desert caves are added to the "woods," but the gruesome particular of the lines Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled; almost escapes notice. Protestant poets kept the gruesomeness of corruption and the terrors of the Judgment Day dihgendy before people's eyes as incitements to "godly" lives. This had been recognised by Burton as a symptom of an advanced stage of unhealthy rehgious melancholy. A striking instance of the attraction of the process of the decomposition of the human body on a puritan poet is afforded by "Midnight Meditations of Death with Pious and Profitable Observations and Consolations: Perused by Francis Quarles a UttU before his Death" Published by E. B. London, 1645. As death is certain the poet does not want to be caught unawares. Though he is in perfect health "deaths-heads, graves, knells, blacks, tombs" shall be ever before lus eyes ; "each sigh and scrich, and every deathbed-grone" will be a lesson. The ghastliness of the appearance of a dying friend, his sluivelling hps and grinning teeth are the reward of original sin and death is the penalty he will have to pay. After the aspect and the agony of the dying, the poet describes the funeral in which his own "lifeless carcase" is to figure; and tells us what is left of him in the grave : Here one bone and there another, Here my ribs, and there my scull, And my mouth of earth be fulL I must call the worms my mother. The tree, which has been cut down, the summer passing into winter, the fading flowers, every natural phenomenon involving decay gives rise to renewed meditations on death and the day of judgment. Life is shortened by diseases which make the corpses loathsome in appearance. !) Dr. Alex. B. Grosart restricts himself to mentioning the title of this book in order to make it dear that Thomas Jordan and not Francis Quarles is its author. See Memorial Introduction to The Complete Works m Prose and Verse of Francis Quarles, 1880, pp. XXXI, XXXII. The transiency of female beauty is a tempting text to preach upon. It is in this century a perverted inchnation to hurnüiate the sex, of which not even Burton in his attempted explanation of the lure of female beauty, is free, and which Swift and others were only too willing to follow. However, they did so on classical authority (Vide Burton s Anatomy, 3.239,240). Our author leaves a woman no rest in her grave; his zest is revolting to a modern reader, but the "aU-is-vanity" theme has to be pursued at any cost: If wc might be so bold to dig the grave Some few years hence where this good woman Hes, Sure we should find this beauty but a slave To pallid putrefaction, and a prize To those silly, vermine worms: As they crawl in stinking swarms She does hug them in her arms And does give them suck by turns. «o?Jf l°7 diSa7t to, understand how Francis Quarles, a httle before his death" could read through three hundred and eighty stanzas of such hterature. The ostensible object ♦ Te.f°et' ï0™™' * not to terrify his readers, but to teach them that, though death is terrible, it puts an end to ah misery, sickness, tod, and oppression. in T£? ¥T V? ^*oundTin A Collection of Pamphlets, "ion ^ * * te «d * « Ja 2* n 3 gt°^ °f n**"*» «owned with violets, S£#££ Z^f 18 approached by * ™1ïr^ -re She points to the milhons she has slain, and moralises on the uselessness of human endeavour. No one cTn S stand the cruelty, the wrath, the inexorable hand of de*h ; and* 1ÏÜ^«^-J^ °«v consulted the Italian no cries, no moaning plaints avad. Yet there isconsolatton in the prospect of death for it is the end of pnson and dark woe to well-bred soules" and a terror only to those who place "on earthly drosse their love.' Sickness and the cruelty of tyrants have made death bitter ; the torments of heil will be worse, but the soul may be supported by hopes of heaven. Death in Petrarch's poem is not. less terrible and inexorable than in the poem perused by Francis Quarles/' but the nauseating- descnpüons of the grave and its corruption are absent. For companson witii the seventeenth century protestant's description of the dead beauty, quoted above, Petrarch's hnes on the death of his beloved Laura, in conclusion of The Tnumph of Death follow here: Thus went the soule in peace, so lamps are spent, As the oyle fails which gave them nourishment; In summe, her countenance you stUl might know The same it was, not pale, but white as snow, Which on the tops of hills m gentle fleakes Fals in calme, or as a man that takes Desired rest, as if her lovely sight . Were clos'd with sweetest sleep, after the spngnt Was gone. If this be that fooles call to die, Death seem'd in her exceeding faire to be. John Quarles followed in his father's steps when he wrote: Fons Lachrymarum; or a Fountain of Tears\J™" whVnce doth flow Englands Compim*;. Jeremiahs Lamentati^ Paraphras'd with Divine Medjtatwns; and an Elegy upTn that Son of Valor Sir Charles Lucas. London, 1648. To express dogmatic scorn of the world he calls it "a dunghill,'' as his father did before hun. (An Elegie on.... James Usher. 1655). . , " The manuscript of the treaSe ?ack of those who w«»t political refugee, of whom there we^Lnt in Holtt *ï by 311 En8K* it afao found an English printer u? the sZp vp,. f d.f ^ H°wever, Lib. Brit M»*^^ They who undertake to defend the I^wfulness of Selfmurther, (of which there are many in this Age) proceed chiefly upon Natural Principles and will not hearken to anything from Revelation till these are answered : wherefore my Design at present is, to consider this Action according to the Prmaples of Natural Reason only. From his introduction we gather the influence of Donne's Biathanatos, for the author informs us that it has been "highly esteemed by some people," and that Donnés arguments were agreeable to "the present age. He is also aware of the moral weight Donne's position as Dean oi St. Paul's must lend to his arguments. For many years Donne's book had remained unanswered ; Adams wul now adduce such argumentative material as he can fmd scattered in ancient and modern writings to exposé the fallacy oi the Stoical standpoint. For the Stoics, he mamtained, defended "the reasonable exit." "The door being open they encouraged people "to walk out." His arguments bring nothing new ; *) Adams strongly condemns selfmurder and considers it a greater crime than ordinary murder. As the suicide can receive no punishment in this world which he can be sensible of, he will be pumshed the more Before the century closes there is another unorthodox attempt at mitigation of suffering. The[Jortxeih^ hst of sects*) mentioned in The Post-Boy Robb'd of his Maü is that of the Tryonites8) who forbid eating of Flesh, Fish or anything that is kaïed, as contrarv to Scripture (tho' the Opinion denves it self from the BanTans of die East-Indies; and other Secte of Pythagoreans, or SS that hold the trar^migration of Souls)..and the Command of God, and the Example of Christ, and his Aposdes. The grounds on which Tryon is here said to have opposed the practice of kilhng animals are mterestmg, because they show that he did not knowingly found his rules on % Tht letter dealing with this sub,eet is datedJuk lgh 1692. 4 It is doubtful if their organisaüon ever took shape. t>ee * rytnug of the Seventeenth Century by Alexander Gordon. 1871. classical authors. Tryon himself expressed one of his Pnnaples, Maxims and Laws" thus: Thou shall: thercforc believc that it is a great and heinous Evil against thyRather, to oppress, starvc, or kill any Crcature, they being all his Children, etc ). ' Then follow his mystical motives : *) That to know God, and distinguish his Laws is the true Music of Heaven and Earth, which unites Man's Soul to God ; to which blessed Union the Observance of the following pirecnons and Maxims will mightily conduce and joyn thel to all that is good and equal: 1. Thou shalt not kill oppress, hunt, hurry, nor offer any kind of Violence either to Mankind or any Creature, either of the Air, Earth, or Water: they all bear their Creator's Image, etc. 7 1 This also includes a prohibition to use "the Skins of any hving Creature" or the use of feathers. Thirteen years (tu W3S PubHshed> he had devoted several pages of The Way to Health to protest against the cruelt?to which cows, oxen, sheep and horses were exposed.*) Tryon s love of birds is due to the belief that ïf;™°r^£e any Creatures keep themselves from communicatmg with Mankind, the more they act within the circle.77. them!^).0Wn °ng * \' L°Ve Whercwith their Creator bound Such bitter reflections on the depraving influence of mankind on the ammal world are consistent with his plaintive and moving eloquence in discoursing on "the ExceUenaes of Sohtude, and the Advantages of a Retired ^ountry-hfe. This dreamer advocated more humane and gentk treatment of the insane °) at a time when the ravings of the poor lunatics were exhibited as a sport; his Friendly Advtce to Gentlemen Planters of East and West Indiest 1684, contamed an enhghtened plea for humane dealings JLnfv^J^r 77,?f Somt Memoirs °fthe u1* i Mr. Tho. Tryon... ™!ff, Irl^elf- T°ëether «*tA some Rules.... London 1705 TteDNli ffiïftT Brit Mus. is mn^Ti^ evidend'? to f Op?& SSn Jtt8* * "0d"r» süghdy'soifed, GAsk* unLdiT^Ztkly^JCf'f^>hy Reviv'di or> the AteryofDreams Tenderness, is one of the symptoms of the ooet's b^^0r ^ appn>ach °f mood * ^oSnced by the sudden startmg tear," and "the softened feature » He feels mspired "with every tenderness." His melanchoïv reh^ous extasy is closely alhed to Marana's contemplation though the tranee is absent. Of MehrnXl^ p'er aU the soul his sacred influence breathes; intlames imagination ... and far Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought. Ten thousand fleet ideas, such As neyer mingle with the vulgar dream Crowd fast mto the rnind's creative eye, As vaned, and as high — devotion raised i o rapture, and divine astonishment: ine love of nature unconfined.... This is the extasy of deistic1) nature worshippers of the types of Marana and Shaftesbury. tvJ\deSerVeS n°tice that Thomson distincdy ascribes Ae above sentiments to his melancholy and not tl Shaftesbury's influence. Melancholy induces C to emphasize his love of nature "and, chief ofhuman^ace ° with the sentunental desire - which he c^L^e We ambitious wish" - "to make them blest.'^e^S pang which he feit (1J009) and his "sigh for sufS Wf°!hh;H1r0St mf°b»' accord ™ll with 4e tendenc^ ^^SZ^^^^ 1696 had begunS vro^LZ^fy m°?d passes' but hisextatic nature worship recurs frequendy in The Seasons e.g. at the end partjeTMa^n'^13117 does not ^ lmySÜC faptUre- To be exact> Thomson does not describe his personal feelings in 11.1004—1029 but the general tendency of the mood. HoweTr *the thoughts expressed here agree so well ™dTthe whole poem, we may reasonably believe that he inXleVhinïelf In the passage which follows mrnseir. Pols fn%Sa^L^'jZ lilt'' £"** W** an* Thomson, Dy adoptingthe theorvof \t ^ s°hs?™*™ (p- 281) that important humanitarianpoet ir,SaSd wf^f1 aff^0^ .branie the first evldendy heUeved that ^SSS^^^iS^S^ O l bear me then to vast embowering shades To twilight groves, and visionary vales, To weeping grottoes, and prophetic glooms; (11.1030—32). he is careful to point out his personal preference to the gloomy type1) of melancholy, which, he thinks, might not be to Ac taste of his readers (1.1037). The cast of his melancholy may be gathered from his reference to the "Irindred gloom" and the "co-genial horrors of Winter (l.^seq.). Despair breathes from the hnes 61 -62 The soul of man dies in him, loathing Hfe, "pr ' And black with more than melancholy views. He sympathizes with the victim of despair thought he condemns the man's rash act (Summer y-'675-l67¥). His religion takes its colouring from his mood ♦. the naunts of meditation are midnight depths of the grove^ where «all is listening gloom around" (Summer 1.516). His pessimistic view of hfe when the gloomy fit is on nim, is in strange contrast with Shaftesbunan optimism, e.g. in Spring (1.274 seq.) he writes of "these iron times, these "dregs of life," and of "the foul disorder and m Winter (1.209) of the "lying vamties of hfe. Nature disturbed j*¥* It seemed, vindictive to have changed her course (1305). One of his protests while the melancholy mood laste (11 950-1207) is directed against the careless and cruel ireatment of a hive fuü of bees, which causes him to exclaim indignandy against the cruelty of man 01.H72-12Ü7), a clear proof that in hterature the mood was producüve of compassion on the animal world. David Mallet's poem A Winter's Day. Written in a State of Melancholy was praised by his fnend James Thomson in 1725. This is melancholy of the gloomy type poetically analysed by Margaret Cayend^h seventytw^ years before he wrote. He seems to follow her analyses on a larger scale, and hke her, to protest against affectation. It does not imply a protest against stress on the terror of the tomb, because it is night that rules the grave. Works of James Thomson, 1908, p. VIII. The Moontight Night is the subject of a poem by Henry Wotv, 1770. Nathamel Evans addresses verses To Melancholy in 1772. In Milton's manner the "Queen of pensive air" is invited to come in her "sablesooted car, by two mournful turdes drawn." That Edw. Lovibond sympa^ised with the melancholy mood and behevedin its moral quahty aooears from Stanza, 1775, with the motto ^rd unmistakably demonstrate the mulüfanous andmter dependent features of later eighteenth century melaTicholy. He is consciously romantically fond of subhme and. dreadfid scènes, the ocean, darkness, and the storm, combmed with dehght in the paraphernalia of seventeenth century gloom, gravï "corsespale" and ghosts that to the c^f^P» Long and drag a length of clanking cham ; purely sentimental, if a sigh would sometunes ïntervene And down his cheek a tear of pity roll, A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wished not to control. He sees "goodness untainted" in Nature, which has no room for warlike heroes ; he is replete ^^.^ condemns the "huntsman's puny craft" and loves to.see animals perfectiy tame and fearless of man. that we should "attend to Nature's voice , that Nature a our guide by "Heaven ordained" and that she ' leads us rvSue" (L The Judgment of Paris) were first taught byAssertionstSthat after Müton melancholy was foi: né:arly a hundred years tabooed in English hterature, that the shadow of the grave and the mystery of the future were shunnedby the rational Augustan," that in 1721 Thomas Parnell "restored melancholy to hterature"*) are evidently not consistent with facts. Melancholy persisted in English hterature until the end (1777) of the period under discussion, receiving its colouring from rehgious and ethica! changes. 2. SOLITUDE AND RETIREMENT. Burton's work concludes with the warning words : "Be not sohtitary, be not idle." In an age characterised by melancholy we confidendy expect to find hterary evidence that his warning words had been neglected and that sohtude and idleness were courted instead of being shunned. Observations on sohtude, retirement and idleness will therefore occupy the following two chapters. Mrs. K. Phihps had written two poems in praise of the country, in 1664, namely : A Country Life and Invitation to the Country. In the same year her poem Upon Mr. Abraham Cowley's Retirement. Ode, was published. She bids farewell to the world because in her retirement she wants to admire nature. In the country she experts to be able to satisfy her love of retirement and to be free from trouble and guilt, her heart being a dwelling for God and his Angels : When my Soul her Wings does raise Aboye what Worldlings fear and praise, With Innocence and quiet Pride ril sit. There is neither gloom nor apparent melancholy in this poem. J Some verses by Charles Dryden, John Dryden's eldest ïïoAW^e Se,nM° father from Italy Published in I0V4: Un the Happiness of a retired Life. This poem has been discussed. (Pages 40, 41). Pope wrote an Ode on Solitude when he was about Wi^bf ILHg cfart?°teS' lm The StBdy of Melancholy in Edward 12 years old, in which he praises the simple life, innocence, and meditation. . The author of the anonymous poem The Retirement, 1701, has reached the depth of despondency and harbours suicidal thoughts. (See the chapter on Despair and Suïcide). Lady Chudleigh's poem on Solitude, p. 1703, breathes the same extasy we found in Mrs. Phüips' poem: Happy are they who when alone Can with themselves converse.... .... in some obscure Recess, They could with silent Joy think all their Hours away, And suil think on, tul the ronfining Clay Fall off, and nothing 's left behind Of drowsy Earth.... So they might ascend to "those glorious Beings whose exalted Sense transcends the highest Fhghts of human Wit." But few are fit for retirement and waste their tune in "crowds." A discussion of despair which is indirecdy caused by the turmoil of atoms in chaos, and a defence of the "native Right of Reason" prove her sympathy with unorthodox views. (See, however, below). W. Wycherley connects A Song, in Praise of Sohtude, p. 1704, with benevolent insistence on Charity and references to Hobbes' phüosophy. That man is happiest who, living in the world, is unknown to it. Lady Chudleigh's essay Of Solitude, p. 1710, in prose, ending in verse, contains reflections on the constitution of society to which we shall refer later. She does not differ from Burton when she maintains that solitude ought never to be our choice and that for happiness in solitude a pure life is required. From the solemn prayer which ends her essay we know that she was orthodox, for she refers to her "dear suffering Saviour's blood." A very striking feature of the hterature of sohtude, about this time, is its insistence on benevolence m the form of charity or sympathy with mankind. We rind another instance of it in Steele's Essay, in the Spectator, No. 264, Jan. 2, 1711—12, On living in a particular way. With an appeal to classical example he maintains that from age to age it has been an affectation to love the the hterature of sohtude was to deal with, had been mentioned, What follows is repetition and expansion, and criticism of the social imphcations of its cult. As regards the assertion by the same author') to the effect that the "germs of (the) doctrine" that "sohtude nourishes virtue" are to be found in Young's Night Thoughts I think that I have shown that this notion is repeated in poetry and prose from Margaret Cavendish on. 2a. The Poetry of Sloth. Strange to say W. Wycherley has nothing but good to write about sloth. In Praise of Laziness p. 1704, a poem of about eighty lines, he asserts that laziness is a "Godlike State." In its rags it can ensure the innocence, peace, ease and rest of its adherents. He apparendy wrote down what many thought, and Steele, as usual, protesting against the vices of the time, wrote an essay On Habits of Sloth and Vice. Because appeal to Scripture had lost its effect on the lethargie younger generation he warns them that sloth will inevitably lead to spleen and "melancholy inquiries" about their health, and general unhappiness. William King, d. 1712, was undoubtedly an example of one who "feil in Love with lazy retirement," and a melancholy companion. His Remains etc. from which I quote this, were published in 1732. In 1748 J. Thomson's poem The Castle of Indolente appeared, the slow and leisurely composition of nearly fifteen years. "Fierce Fiends and hags of heil" are the "only muses" of those who have fallen ill in consequence of idleness. In the part which Dr. Armstrong contributed to this poem, thirteen lines (I, 672—684) are used for an allegory of "Hypochondria, mother of spleen". This is by far the longest description of resultant diseases. He confirms the remark made by others at that time, which has to account for much of the popularity of Hypochondria : 'Some her frantic deemed, and some a wit." *) In a second article, April 24th. "The gentle Knight" is moved to tears by the language of despair: ... .what for us the children of despair, Brought to the brink of heil, what hope remains? Repentance does itself but aggravate our pains. II, 618—620. The description of those who have committed suicide fills a whole stanza (II, 68). Evidendy with the force of Burton's arguments he supported Steele's warning W°wf *Shenstone's Ode to Indolence, 1750, published in Dodsley's Collection, Vol. VI, 1758, again sings the praises of sloth. There are no gloomy thoughts in these verses > every anxious thought is forgotten in sleep. Comment on idleness continues to be heard, e.g. m the anon. The Indolent, but Sir Wilham Denny (1652), Steele, and Thomson, each according to his own nature, seems to have been impressed most by Burton's warning against the dangers of idleness. 3. THE SPLEEN. The morbid features of the growing emotionalism are mentioned by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, in The Spleen, a Pindarick Ode, published anonymously in London, in 1701. The symptoms strike her as new. She was evidendy not acquainted with Burton s Anatomy, tor in Symptoms of the Mind passim and especially 1,452, she might have found all the symptoms of the "new disease and many more. The profusion of tears as well as the laughter she cannot account for, suggest to the modern reader the thought of hysteria. Her mention of the vulgar crowd" in this connection may point to a new sooal phenomenon. What art thou, Spleen, which everything does't ape.... In ev'ry one thou dost possess, New are thy notions and thy dress. Now, in some grove a list'ning friend, Thy false suggestions must attend, Thy whispered griefs, thy fancy'd sorrows hear, Breath d m a sigh, and witness'd by a tear • Whilst in the light and vulgar crowd, ' Thy slaves, more clamorous and loud, By laughters unprovok'd thy influence too confess In the imperious wife thou vapours art, Which from o'er-heated passions rise, In clouds to the attractive brain, Till, descending thence again, Thro' the o'ercast, and show'ring eyes Upon the husband's soften'd heart, He the disputed point must yield. She identifies the spleen, in certain respects, with melancholy and the love of sohtude. Rehgious scruoles are symptons of the diasease, of which the authoress confesses she suffers herself. The disturbed state of her nund, when she is oppressed by melancholy, gives her no rest m sleep; at nudnight she hes awake, and when sleep comes, gloomy terrors" crowd her dreams Delusions, spectres and "aiery Phantoms rise." She asserts that the complaint is mental rather than physical and mentions stunulants tried to counteract its symptoms. That the subject attracted attention appears also from an Eptstle to Flavia, on the sight of two Pindarick Odes onthe Spleen and Vanity. By N. Rowe Esq., also pubhshed m 1701. Rowe knew the spleen from personal expenence and he refers to its various forms. He repeats the symptoms mentioned by Lady Winchilsea: "Vain empty Laughter, howling Grief and Fears, False Toy, bred by False Hope, and falser Fears." His physical sensattons of dulness and cold are mentioned as the consequences of "pale cares and anxious thoughts." The sentimental state of mind of the lover and the curatives mentioned by Lady Winchilsea are the subjects of W. Wycherleys hnes : "In Answer to a Merry Doctor's Advice to drink my Spleen and Love away. (p. J704 w. nine or ten years earher, he said.) However, he spoils' the strength of his wine with his tears. That the use of nobler hquids might be vain had been observed by Lady Wmchilsea. But Montesquieu, in his Lettres Persanes, No XXXI, from Usbek to Rhediat Venice, dated: Paris, 1713, observes that "it is the wisdom of the Onentals to seek remedies against melancholy as much as against the most dangerous distempers." When any misfortune befalls a European, "he has no other refuge but to read Seneca, — to which Montesquieu attachés a sinister meamng, — «the Asiatics, much more prudent,^ use of making the heart of man glad." Burton (1621) had recommended "the thinnest, whitest, smallest wme (11,26) as a common beverage. . The witty melancholy splenetic might occasionally be willing to listen to reason j sense in few words best go down with him. Brevity is essential "to make the melancholy man endure, less from his bad distempei: than_ül cure " says W. Wycherley in To a very Noiste, Talkative Cox'comb, who said he wou'd Cure my Spleen Rowe's melancholy fit may yield to the influence of tjoetry, Anne Winchilsea's can be soothed by music too sweetly sad," and Steele also beheves in musi c as a remedy for poetic vapours (1708, Taller No. 47, July 28). Steele tries make the splenetic beheve that Ae world is not so bad as he thinks it is and tries the effect of nchcule. The "very low and languishing pulse" which he observes compares well with the |Wn blood" and "sluggish veins" of N. Rowe (op. cit.). Sensitiveness was considered a mark of culture^) and identified with certain splenetic symptoms. This prompted the foolish, though probably fictitious letter Hughes published in No. 53 of The Spectator, May, 1711. With SS affectation the writer informs us that his spleen arises "from having contracted so great a dehcacy by redding the best authors and keeping the most refmed companythat he cannot bear the least unpropnety of kXn?*Wmchilsea regretfully remembers the ease with x) In 1711 Mandeville published A Treatise4^H^^a*™l Hy\terickPassions. On page 95 he says^^^l^lfZ^Z Men of Sense, thafs very true tNot that tóe öpieenis m Hysterick on to the story of the woman who rejected a faithful lover and repented too late. She spends her time in dark unknown recesses and in the thickest shade. In the gloomy grotto she listens to the murmuring stream. At night she makes her room "the Seat of süent Melancholy. Sable blackened all within." Only one midnight taper burns whüst she sits musing, "with hair loose flowing, and disorder d dress, Revolving ah her Woes." To her aspirine lovers she "avow'd a bleeding Heart, and Grief too strong! For aught but Death to cure." With tears her lovers listen te the story of her "tragiek Woes" and while lovers and virgin are m tears there is plenty of scope for sentimentahty. She tells the tale of the rejected suitor who enlists and seeks death fighting in the foremost ranks, therefore a story of love's despair and suicide. Before he joins the army he returns and fixes his "ghasdy Eye" on the girl i all his soul "rack'd with Agony" he bids her farewell' then groans and leaves her. On the battlefield he wins back a lost barnier. But also "in his Breast one fatal Wound yawn d wide, and Death, so long implor'd at last approachd." He returns to Flavia in haste and "with melancholy Voice" he tells her that he is dying. Too late she reahses what she has lost and over his grave she places his statue ....gloomed with melancholy, stung with grief And fainting with his wounds, as when he feil At Flavia's feet, and bied from ev'ry vein anew. True nature description is combined here with the nvulet running through the grotto in the approved melancholy style. The sentimentahty is that of the lovers in pastoral poetry. A lover's grief is combined with the scenery and language of gloom. The ghasdy appearance ot the despairing lover had been pictured by John Dryden. Indeed, a remarkable romantic production. t J^JÏ?^atd addresses of a lover poetically inspired m 1732 sentimental Epistle written by Moonlight Break, rather break my tortured heart, Than only live, to live in woe. -. A hollow melancholy sound Dispers'd an awful Horror round, And hideous Groans thro' all the Grove resound. Nature and the birds are terrified. There is sudden gloom and dread and the British Genius appears with dejected mien to proclaim the death of the king. A Monumental Ode to the Memory of Mrs Etizabeth Hughes obiit 15Nov. 1714. By John Hughes, Esq. (p.1720) returns to the puritan "treatment of the gloom of death, by means of the mouldering dust, the vast and gloomy vaults and gathering tears. M. Concanen, an Irishman, continues the tearful elegiac style of the 17th century. In 1722 he published, in Dublin, Mehora's Tears for Thyrsis, a pastoral, lamenting the death of the late Lord Southwéll" i Have I not cause to swell with endless sighs? To pierce the air with never ceasing cries? To wring my hands, and frantic with despair, To beat my breast, and rend my useless hair? With ever-streaming floods of woe deplore, My lcVd, lost joy, and Thyrsis now no more? For Francis Fawkes too it is customary to mention the tears shed on graves, e.g. in his lines On a Young Gentleman, who died 1743, Aetat. 15. All eyes o'erflow with many a streaming tear, And each sad bosom heaves the sigh sincere. Something sinular he writes in On Mrs Fountayne (1750). Like Lady Chudleigh, Joseph Warton connects melancholy retirement with elegiac verse in his Ode on the Death of ... 1746 : Let me to that deep cave resort Where sorrow keeps her silent court, For ever wringing her pale hands, While dumb nusfortune near her stands, With downcast eyes the cares around her wait, And Pity sobbing sits before the gate. Grey's Elegy written in a Country-Churchyard (1751) gives expression to a modified form of reflective melancholy. The graves continue to suggest the transitoriness of earthly grandeur, but the poem shows the awakening interest of the times in the hves of the humble and labouring classes and in their social improvement through education.x) The mourner weeping because of the death of a fnend, becomes weeping virtue in John Langhorne's verses To Mrs in Tears, for the Death of a Friend" (1762, p. 1766): So feeble Nature weeps o'er friendship's grave, And mourns the rigour of that law she gave : Yet why not weep? .. Virtue wept, for—dropt a tear. In the Autumnal Elegy To by the same poet (w.1763, p. 1766) the generous tear, Pity's softness and the "benevolent" powers of heaven figure largely. J. Cunningham moved a step farther than Grey and wrote a romantic Elegy on a File of Ruins. (p. 1770.) He retains sohtariness and the dignity of melancholy contemplation : There contemplation to the crowd unknown, Her attitude composed and aspect sweet, Sits musing on a monumental stone, And points to the memento at her feet. Her environment consists in the mins of an abbey and shrines in gothic grandeur, the rude remains of a casde, and secret caves. The birds among the ruins are ravens and rooks; Oriental influence is noticeable in thepresence of Saladin and the Macedonian Monarch. Jerningham's Elegy among the Ruins of an Abbey and Cunningham's poem were published in the second ed. of Pearch's Collection, 1770. J. Graeme's general sentimental tendency appears in this kind of poetry when, e.g. in Elegy XVIII (p. 1773), he finds it necessary to drop a tear on a Druid's grave. Graeme died in 1772. *) John Scott's Elegies written in the Hot Weather, July 1757, in the Harvest, and at the Approach of Winter, show the scope of the elegy. 8. PERSONAL SORROW. TRUE MELANCHOLY. Profoundly feit grief at the loss of a child had inspired the hnes by Mrs Katherine Phihps In Memory of TJ>. etc. (w.1660). In the same circurnstances Lady Chudleigh longs for death, in her poem On the Death of my dear Daughter Eliza Maria Chudleigh. A Dialogue between Luanda and Marissa. (p.1703). In this dialogue the poetess_reasons herself out of her eager longing for death. The desire is recognised as suicidal and met with the argument, then frequendy heard, of the soldier quitting his post. We have to wait long before we find anything sirnilar, tor the sorrow of Mrs Elisabeth Rowe's poem On the Death of Mr. Thomas Rowe (d.1715), loses much of its effect because of the conventional language of melancholy in which she clothes her thoughts. She is lost in despair, scènes of horror swim" before her sight, Grief and despair in all their terrors rise, A dying lover pale and gasping lies. Especially the last line is reminiscent of I7th century puntan descnptions of deathbed scènes. She expresses her intention to retire at once from the world, "To feed m sdent shades, a hopeless fire." Evidendy the imagery ot melancholy does not suit true emotion. Mary Barber's Hymn to Sleep, written when the author was.JlFk> Pub- 1734, is too simply worded to suggest artmciahty, though the poem is melancholy in tone. She seems to have been really depressed and weary of life when she wrote : Your brother death your place supplies, And kindly seals the wretch's eyes. Her interest in a poor individual appears from The YjdwGordon s Petition, written for an officefs widow, UM. rhe Petiüon had been written to the poetess in despair; poyerty and oppression have made the writer weary of hfe. She doubts God's justice in his deahngs with her, for she had been mdustrious in aU works of chanty: Did I not weep the woes I could not heal? Why then, thou gracious, thou all-powerful God, Why do I feel th'oppressor's iron rod? On which the poetess comtnents: Foregive me, Madam, that I thus impart The throb, the anguish, of a breaking heart, Oft, when my weary'd eyes can weep no more To sooth my woes, I read your letter o'er. The remaining part is written in a state of great depression; the poetess desires her own death; some of her friends are dead, and others living are dead to her: Of friends and children both I am berenAnd soon must lose the only blessing left, A husband, formed for tenderness and truth. Really moving and heart-felt, though it may have been only for a short time, are Mrs Pükington's hnes on Sorrow. She adds, in a note, that her husband was then suing for a divorce. The poem must therefore have been written shordy after 1734. While sunk in deepest solitude and woe, My streaming eyes with ceaseless sorrow flow, While anguish wears the sleepless night away.... Lost to the endearing ties of life, And tender names of daughter, mother, wife; Can no recess for calumny be found? And yet can fate inflict a deeper wound.. And thou, (her husband) my soui's once fondest, dearest part Who schemed my ruin with such cruel art... My death shall give thee thy desired release And lay me down in everlasting peace. Her poem Expostulation, written in distress is equally pathetic and personal. Through ev'ry scène of life distressed, As daughter, mother, wife, When wilt thou close my eyes in rest, And take this weary life. An Elegy (1739) by Robert, Earl Nugent, who later assumes the name of Craggs, shows Nature in harmony with the mood of the poet. Real personal grief seems to have been the cause of this elegy. The "melancholy raptures" are not the expression of a morbid mood, but may mean the raptures of memory. Wrapt in a sable cloud the mom appears, And every object sorrow's livery wears. Slow move the kaden Hours, my labouring breast Struggles beneath the weight of grief oppressed, The swelling sigh burst forth, tears gushing flow, While all within is anarchy and woe... O'er the dim eye eternal slumber sheds, The clay-cold cheek with ghasdy pale o'erspreads... In melancholy raptures will I tracé Thy every charm, and each transporting grace. Aaron Hül died in 1750. His poem Resignation speaks for itself. What the human heart can bear, until the breaking point is reached, is expressed in those sixteen lines. Without the faith to uphold him, he would cross the borderline of despair — like so many of his time. Well, be it so! - Sorrow, that streams not o'er, Spar es but the eye, to wound the heart the more; Dumb, infelt pangs, too well supply the woe, That grief, in suff'ring silence, shuns to show... Whatejer has been 't is madness to regret; Whate'er must be, shocks least when braveliest met. God's wül be done. Sorrow and despair fïnd expression in John Scott, the Quaker poet's Elegy, written at Amwell, 1768. In a short space of time his wife, child, and parents died. O, the dread scène! 'T is agony to teil, How o'er the couch of pain declined my head, And took from dying lips the long farewell Less convincing, because of its melancholy stock-in-trade, is Cuthbert Shaw's Evening Address to a Nightingale, pub. 1771. The poet wails over the loss of his wife and htde daughter, who died in 1768. The bird is not Like the worldling tutor'd to forego, The melancholy haunts of woe. The bird may have been bereft of its darling young. The poet very tearfully dwells on his own loneliness and this poem becomes virtuous and melancholy is its friend : Come blissful mourner wisely sad.... By Tombs, where sullen Spirits stalk, Farniliar with the dead I walk ; While to my sighs and groans, by turns, From Groves the midnight Echo mourns. Open thy marble Jaws, o Tomb 1 Thou Earth conceal me in thy womb ; And you the Worms, this Frame confound, Ye Brother Reptiles of the Ground. FoUows a meditation on the shortness and frailty of hfe. Life is one long scène of misery, with cries at our birth and groans when we resign our breath. The fact that A Thought at Waking anon. also in 1729, immediately returns to the thought of death, induced me to mention this poem here. Such was the fear of death, which had found expression in poetry and essay when Young, in the years 1742—5 published his well-known Night Thoughts and Blair his poem The Grave in 1743. Elisabeth Tollett's verses On a Death's Head, 1755, for "a lover to gaze on" reminds us of Burton and Jordan. She advises him to Reflect a while, then drop a tear For all that's beautiful and dear. Burton had suggested, in his Cure of Love-Melaneholy (III—240), "suppose thou saw'st her sick, pale, in consumption, on her death-bed, skin and bones, or now dead," etc. In passing the Ode to Death by the king of Prussaa and translated and published by Dr. Hawkesworth (1756), may be mentioned here. "The Rev. Mr. Moore of Cornwall," in A Soliloquy written in a Country Churchyard (1763) is "struck with rehgious awe and solemn dread" when he "views the gloomy mansions of the dead." He meditates on a skull and the hollow sockets, which once "two bright orbs contained." Melancholy is also associated with the churchyard in Michael Bruce's Elegy written in Spring. 1766(?) Ugly forms of death in consequence of diseases and the tendency to suicide are mentioned by Charles Emily in Death. (1770). If his "deathbird" croaked its "warning moan," what must be said of Miss Carter's Ode to Melancholy in the same year, is worse. Thro' yon dark grove of mournful yews With solitary steps I muse ..... Consociate with my sister worms, And mingle with the dead. The silent tomb and its contents are once more the objects of meditation: Here shall my weary eyes be clos'd And every sorrow lie repos'd In death's refreshing shade. After the "All-is-Vanity" theme we hear an appeal to religion: 'T is thine the trembling heart to warm And sof ten to an angel form The pale terrific king. Indeed, that was Francis Quarles' consolation after he had read Tho. Jordan's Midnight Meditations of Death. 1645. 11. OPPOSITION TO THE TERROR OF DEATH. Not to all and not in all cücumstances had death been painted as dreadful in the hterature of Melancholy. Some protestants had taken their delight in ffllitig their imagination with repugnant pictures of death, the common fate of all. For their fellowmen, who differed from them in matters of faith, lurid descriptioiis of the torments of heU were added to the customary inventory of terror. But for those who were weary of life Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy and Montaigne's Essays supplied easily accessible classical arguments to the contrary either in Latin or English, or in Latin and English, Burton e.g. in this marmer : "Seneca among the rest, quamcunque veram esse viam ad hbertatem, any way is allowable that leads to liberty, let us give God thanks, that no man is compelled to live against his will: quid ad hominem claustra, carcer, custodia? hberum ostium habet, death is always ready and at hand/' Quotation after quotation showed that death meant liberty. Others who argued more or less in this marmer have been mentioned in my introductory chapter. r Dryden's translation of Lucretius Against the tear of Death was reprinted as late as 1760. His arguments have been referred to. The orthodox Mrs Katharine Philips, the matchless Orinda, expected "to die as infants go asleep." Thomas Fletcher, in The Departure, p.1692, had expressed an extatic longing for death and the joys of heaven in such lines as the following: "Dissuade me not, I cannot stay, Hence with cruel Piety 1 If ye from Death would set me free, Quicker, oh 1 quicker let me die 1" etc. In Examen Poeticum, Being the Third Part of Miscellany Poems, etc, 1693, a poem Against the Fear of Death had been published "By a Person of Honour. When this poem was republished, in 1701, this appeared to be the penname of Sir R. Howard. Though he takes the titie from Dryden's translation of Lucretius' work, the soul is not destroyed in his poem. There is quiet resignation and rehgious confidence in his lines : Since all must certainly to death resign Why should we make it dreadful or repme? How vain is fear... ... j • l We all must pass through Death s dread sea and night, To reach the haven of eternal light.1) The rernaining part of this chapter will deal only with the expectation of normal death. The attack on the fear of death is continued with classical, i.e. pre-Chnstian, arguments. In 1702 The latter Part of the 3rd book of In M. Prior's complimentary lines, 1694, To My Lady Dwd»y,0* Her Reading Milton's Paradis* Lost an unorthodox view is taken of sin, wnicü may be mentioned here in passing: You, happy Saint, the Serpent's pow r control, Whilst scarce one actual Guilt défilés your Soul; And Heil does o'er your Mind vain Tnumphs boast, Which gains a Heaven, from Earthly Eden lost. Lucretius, Against the Fear of Death, i.e. Dryden's translation, was republished in Sylvae, or the Second Part of (Tonson's) Poetical Miscellames, and reprinted in 1760 £C 831116 year 1702 M