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wrath and hate,

And sighing winds, that murmur thro' the wood,

Fringing the beach of that Hesperian flood.

Fair is that house of solitude-and fair The green Maremma, far around it spread, A sun-bright waste of beauty-yet an air Of brooding sadness o'er the scene is shed, No human footstep tracks the lone domain, The desert of luxuriance glows in vain.

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The love whose glow Expression's power And thither doth her Lord, remorseless,

surpassed?

Lo! on Pietra's brow a sullen gloom Is gathering day by day, prophetic of her doom.

Oh! can he meet that eye, of light serene, Whence the pure spirit looks in radiance forth,

And view that bright intelligence of mien, Formed to express but thoughts of loftiest worth,

Yet deem that vice within that heart can reign ?

-How shall he e'er confide in aught on earth again?

In silence oft, with strange, vindictive gaze, Transient, yet filled with meaning stern and wild,

Her features, calm in beauty, he surveys, Then turns away, and fixes on her child So dark a glance, as thrills a mother's mind

With some vague fear, scarce owned, and undefined.

There stands a lonely dwelling, by the

wave

Of the blue deep which bathes Italia's shore,

Far from all sounds, but rippling seas, that lave

Grey rocks, with foliage richly shadowed

o'er ;

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Yes! 'tis thy tomb, Bianca! fairest flower! The voice that calls thee speaks in every gale,

Which, o'er thee breathing with insidious power,

Bids the young roses of thy cheek turn pale,

And, fatal in its softness, day by day, Steals from that eye some trembling spark

away.

But sink not yet-for there are darker

woes,

Daughter of Beauty! in thy spring-morn fading,

Sufferings more keen for thee reserved than those

Of lingering Death, which thus thine eye are shading!

Nerve then thy heart to meet that bitter lot,

'Tis Agony-but soon to be forgot!

What deeper pangs maternal hearts can

wring,

Than hourly to behold the spoiler's breath Shedding, as mildews on the bloom of spring,

O'er Infancy's fair cheek the blight of Death?

To gaze and shrink, as gathering shades o'ercast

The pale smooth brow, yet watch it, to the last!

Such pangs were thine, young mother!— Thou didst bend

O'er thy fair boy, and raise his drooping head,

And faint and hopeless, far from every friend,

Keep thy sad midnight-vigils near his bed, And watch his patient, supplicating eye, Fixed upon thee-on thee!-who couldst no aid supply!

There was no voice to cheer thy lonely

woe

Through those dark hours to thee the

wind's low sigh,

And the faint murmur of the ocean's flow, Came like some spirit whispering" He

must die!"

And thou didst vainly clasp him to the

breast

His young and sunny smile so oft with

Hope had blest.

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And wake to life and light all flowers—but

these.

No sculptured urn, nor verse thy virtues telling,

O lost and loveliest one! adorns thy grave, But o'er that humble cypress-shaded dwelling

The dew-drops glisten, and the wild-flowers

ware

Emblems more meet, in transient light and bloom,

For thee, who thus didst pass in brightness

to the tomb !

ABSTRACT OF SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF

WESLEY.

(Concluded from Page 298.)

DIFFERENCE of opinion had occasioned disputation and dissension among the brethren of Fetter-Lane during Wesley's absence at Bristol. One Shaw, a layman, insisted that a priesthood was an unnecesary and unscriptural institution. Such a teacher found ready believers; and the pro priety of lay-preaching was contended for by one party in the Society, and opposed by another. But in spite of the opposition headed by Charles Wesley, a Mr Bowers began to preach, and some other innovators declared, that they would no longer be members of the Church of England. Whitefield, who had taken part with Charles Wesley in these disputes, having been refused admission to the pulpit of Islington by the churchwarden till he produced a licence, interpreted the prohibition as a manifestation of the divine favour to preach in the church-yard. Soon after this innovation, which, he says, his Master by his providence compelled him to do, he went out to Moorfields, where, in consequence of public notice, a great multitude had assembled to hear him. This place, "from the situation of the ground, and the laxity of the police, had now become a royalty of the rabble, a place for wrestlers and boxers, mountebanks, and merry-Andrews; where fairs were held during the holidays, and where at all times the idle, the dissolute, and reprobate resorted; they who were the pests of society, and they who were training up to succeed them in the ways of profligacy and wretchedness."

Preaching here was, as Whitefield observed, attacking Satan in one of his strong holds. He stood upon a wall, and addressed a great crowd without interruption. His favourite ground upon week days was Kennington Common, and both there and at Moorfields, he had sometimes fourscore carriages, and from thirty to forty thousand persons on foot gathered to hear him. At these preachings he always collected for the Orphan house, and received more halfpence from his poor auditors than a man could carry away. No fits or convulsions had as yet been produced under

Whitefield's preaching, though_he delivered the same doctrines as Wesley, and with greater vehemence of manner. But as soon as Wesley began, after his return from Bristol, the symptoms re-appeared with their usual violence. At Wapping, the second day after his arrival, while " weary in body and weak in spirit," he preached from a text which turned up by chance.

heard began to call upon God with strong "Many," says Wesley, "of those that cries and tears; some sunk down, and there remained no strength in them; others exceedingly trembled and quaked; some

were torn with a kind of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies, and that so violently, that often four or five persons could not hold one of them. I have seen many hysterical and epileptic fits, but none of them were like these, in many respects. I immediately prayed that God would not suffer those who were weak to be offended; but one woman was greatly, being sure they might help it if they would, no one should persuade her to the contrary; and she was got three or four yards when she dropt down in as violent an agony as the rest. Twenty-six of those who had been thus affected, (most of whom during the prayers which were made for them, were in a moment filled with peace and joy,) promised to call upon me the next day, but only eighteen came, by talking closely with whom I found reason to believe that some seemed to be patiently waiting for it." of them had gone home justified; the rest

Mr Southey mentions a great number of instances of a similar kind, under the head of what he calls "Extravagancies of the Methodists;" but we shall not enter into any farther detail on that subject in this place, as we believe our readers will be perfectly satisfied with specimens which have been already adduced.

Wesley and the Moravians had not clearly understood each other when they coalesced. They attributed his proofs of the work of grace to the effect of animal spirits and imagination, and his soul was sick of their sublime divinity. "Their practice," said he, "is agreeable to their principles lazy and proud themselves, bitter and censorious toward others, they trample upon the ordinances of Christ: see no middle point wherein we can meet." "Vain janglings pursued him every where ;" and he resolved to effect an entire separation. For direction in this, as in other weighty

matters, he had recourse to bibliomancy, and had his intention determined by turning up these words, What is that to thee? Follow thou me. He had also previously taken a large building in Moorfields, which had been a foundery for cannon during the civil wars, and for some time after the Restoration. He then remodelled the bands, relieving them from that perpetual disputation by which they were wavered if not weakened, and separated from the society in Fetter-Lane with the minority. "We gathered up our wreck," says Charles, "rari nantes in gurgite vas to, floating here and there on the vast abyss; for nine out of ten were swallowed up in the dead sea of stillness." Some attempts were made by both parties to bring about a re-union, but without success. And after the breach had been formally announced, Count Zinzendorff published an advertisement declaring, that he and his people had no connection with John and Charles Wesley. Soon after this a dispute arose between Wesley and Whitefield concerning the tenets of Calvin. The latter could never acquiesce in the doctrine of perfection, the free, full, and present salvation from all the guilt, all the power, and all the in-being of sin; and maintained those of election and irreversible decrees. And as the former was, at that time at least, of a pugnacious spirit, a separation became next to inevitable. The dispute was keenly maintained on both sides, and the separation was hastened by the zeal of Whitefield's adherents. A man of the name of Cennick was particularly zealous in enforcing Calvinism in opposition to Wesley. He had been employed in the school at Kingswood, and also in lay preaching, and was withal of a strong mind and resolute spirit. His opposition was the more cutting, as he had been his chosen assistant in the work in which he had embarked. But Wesley knew well the art of preserving his authority; and with that view, when the Band Society in Kingswood came together prepared for a discussion of their opinions and conduct, they were astonished at hearing themselves addressed in a manner which amounted to excommunication. In consequence of this, Connick, with about half of the members, withdrew. At this time Whitefield was on his

way the second time from America, and seems, by the letters which he wrote during the voyage, to have anticipated a separation.

This disunion from the Moravians, on the one hand, and from Whitefield, on the other, was favourable to Wesley's ambition, inasmuch as it made him the sole head and single mover of the sect which he now began to form and organize. One step drew on another. Exclusion from the pulpits of the establishment drove him to field preaching. This, in a climate subject to great and sudden vicissitudes, led to the erection of meeting-houses. These again required funds and ministers. And as few clergymen could co-operate with him, he found it necessary to admit the practice of lay-preaching. The admirable adaptation of the means to the end, which the system of Methodist discipline displays, is not the result of prospective wisdom, but was slowly developed and assisted in its progress by accidental circumstances. For defraying the debt incurred by the building in Bristol, it was proposed that each member in the society should contribute a penny a week till the whole was paid. The contribution of the class money thus began, and the mode of collecting it afterwards improved to a perfect system of inspection. When Wesley returned to London, he explained to his leading disciples the great difficulty he had hitherto experienced of properly knowing the people who had put themselves under his care. They agreed, that there could be no better way to come to a sure knowledge of every individual than by dividing them into classes, (each consisting of eleven persons,) under the direction of those who could be trusted, as had been done at Bristol. Thenceforth, whenever a society of Methodists was formed, this arrangement was followed: a scheme for which Wesley says "he could never sufficiently praise God, its unspeakable usefulness having ever since been more and more manifest." At first the leader visited every member of the class in his own house; but in a short time it was determined that every class should assemble weekly. Itinerancy was also taken up without foresight, but as the natural consequence of the course in which the Wesleys were engaged,

This practice was not new, but had been long in disuse in England, and was, therefore, regarded as a novelty. The first example of lay-preaching was set by a Mr Bowers. When Whitefield had finished a sermon in Islington Church-yard, Bowers get up to address the people. The same person, afterwards preaching in the streets of Oxford, was laid hold of by the beadle. The propriety of this innovation was disputed; but Wesley had raised a spirit which he could not suppress, and, therefore, endeavoured to give it a useful direction. The lay brethren were at first permitted to read, pray, and exhort; but the transition from expounding to preaching was easy. During Wesley's tours, a person named Maxfield was appointed to exhort the Society in London. He, "being fervent in spirit and mighty in the Scriptures, greatly profited the people." Multitudes crowded to hear him: "he began to preach; and the Lord blessed the word." This system was in a manner anticipated by a person named Nelson, a Yorkshire mason. He was the son of pious parents; married early and happily; and lived a while with his family in peace, plenty, and love. But he became unhappy from the fear of judgment. From the church he went to hear dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Quakers, without comfort; so returned to the church again. He heard Whitefield in Moorfields; "he was to me," says Nelson, as a man that could play well on an instrument." At length he heard Wesley. "Oh!" says he, "that was a blessed morning for my soul. This man can tell the secrets of my heart. He hath not left me there, for he hath showed me the remedy, even the blood of Jesus." He refused to work at the Exchequer on Sunday. "Religion," said the foreman, has made you a rebel to the king." "No, Sir," he replied, "the greatest enemies of the king are the Sabbath-breakers, swearers, and drunkards, for they pull down God's judgments both upon king and country. The work was not pursued on Sunday, and Nelson rose in the opinion of his employer. He rejoined his family at Birstall, and began to exhort his neighbours; he collected a large congregation, and then wrote to Wesley, telling him what he was

66

VOL. VII.

doing. Wesley replied that he would see him in the ensuing week. He came, and found both a preacher and a congregation raised up without his interference. This was his first expedition to the north, and he preached in Newcastle, and the neighbourhood, with the same success as in other places.

He visited Epworth, the place of his nativity, and stood upon his father's grave, and preached to the people; and there were few places where his preaching was attended with greater or more perfnanent effects. Methodism had now assumed a regular form, and its furious symptoms had subsided. But Wesley continued to preach "the doctrines of instantaneous regeneration, assurance, and sinless perfection." These tenets, promulgated by unlettered men with all the vehemence and self-sufficiency of fancied inspiration, gave very great and general offence; and taken in connection with the supposed Jacobitism of Wesley, excited mobs which beset him and his preachers wherever they came. Their long and toilsome journeys, in like manner, subjected them to much privation, as well as fatigue, curious instances of which are recorded in their journals, one of which we shall venture to quote.

"At the commencement of his errantry, he had sometimes to bear with an indifference and insensibility in his friends, which was more likely than any opposition to have abated his ardour. He and John Nelson rode from common to common, in Cornwall, preaching to a people who heard willingly, but seldom or never proffered them the slightest act of hospitality. Returning one day in autumn from one of these hungry excursions, Wesley stopt his horse at ther Nelson,' said he, we ought to be some brambles, to pick the fruit. Brothankful that there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the best country I ever saw for getting a stomach, but the worst that ever I saw for getting food. Do the people think we can live by preaching?" They were detained some time at St Ives, because of the illness of one of their companions; and their lodging was little better than their fare. All that time,' says John, Mr Wesley and I lay on the floor: he had my great-coat for his pillow, and I had Burkett's Notes on the New Testa-" ment for mine. After being here near three weeks, one morning, about three o'clock, Mr Wesley turned over, and finding me awake, clapped me on the side, saying, Brother Nelson, let us be of

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