THIS VOLUME
IS DEPOSITED WITH THE
NEW HAMPSHIRE
J51 r REV. SILAS KETCIH M,
ON THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
IT shall be subject: to the order of the said SILAS KETCH-
UM, or to removal by him at any time, on giving his receipt
to the Curator; or to be claimed by his legal representative
any time within one year after his decease. It shall be
subject to the same regulations as other volumes in the Soci-
ety's Library; and the Society shall assume no risk on the
same against loss by fire, the owner's right to insure being
reserved.
(Signed) SILAS KETCHUM.
THE above Conditions were agreed to by Vote of the
N. H. ANTIQVAKIAN SOCIETY, at the Regular Meeting, igth
of January, 1875.
GEO. . BLAISDELL, Record. Sec.
S.K.
..,-
MEMOIRS
OF THE
LIFE, WRITINGS, AND CHARACTER,
LITERARY, PROFESSIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS,
OF THE LATE
JOHN MASON GOOD, M.D.
K.R.S. r. R. S. L. MEM. AM. PHIL. SOC. AND F. L. S. OF PHILADELPHIA,
ETC. ETC. ETC.
BY OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL. D.
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY,
&.C. &C.
WITH THE
SERMON OCCASIONED BY HIS DEATH,
BY CHARLES JERRAM, M. A.
BOSTON :
PUBLISHED BY CROCKER & BREWSTER,
47, Washington Street.
NEW YORK . J. LEAVITT,
182, Broadway.
1829.
THIS edition of the Memoirs of Dr. Good differs from the Lon-
don edition, from which it is printed, in the following respects.
The preface, a few notes containing, for the most part, matter that
would be interesting only to an English antiquary, and some ex-
tracts from the writings of other persons having little or no refer-
ence to Dr. Good's history or character, have been omitted ; the
extracts, with which the Memoirs abound, from the works of Dr.
Good have, in several instances, been curtailed ; and there has
been added the funeral Sermon preached by the Vicar of the
church with which Dr. Good was connected for some time pre-
vious to his death.
PEIRCE AND WILLIAMS, PRINTERS.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
SECTION I. Memoirs of the Life
of Dr. J. M. Good .... 13
J. M. Good's family .... 14
His father's ordination and mar-
riage 15
Early concurring circumstances
in the formation of J. M. Good's
character 17
Put apprentice to a surgeon at
Gosport 20
His early Common-place-book '21
Attends the London Hospitals 23
Settles as a surgeon at Sudbury '2 1
His first marriage, &c. ... 25
Becomes acquainted with Dr.
Drake 27
Mr. Good's second marriage . 27
He becomes involved in pecu-
niary embarrassments . . . their
effect 28
Poems published in " theWorld" 29
Essay on Providence .... 32
Remark on our Lord's Miracles 48
Mr. Good removes to London . 49
Address to the Evening Star . 50
Verses to a Bath Stove (left be-
hind) at Sudbury 51
New perplexities and trials . . 52
Account of the Phannaccutic
Association 53
Ignorance of many country Drug-
gists in 1794 54
Mr. Good's translations from
Clcmenti Bondi 56
His generalizing study of lan-
guages 57
Contributes to the Critical and
other Reviews 61
Mr. Good loses his only son . . 62
Commences his translation of
Lucretius 64
Translation effected during his
professional walks .... 65
United with Dr. Gregory and
Mr. Bosworth in the Panto-
logia 68
Delivers Lectures at the Surrey
Institution 70
72
PACK
Occasional poetry : Another
Trifle, Birdbrook Parsonage,
The Wish, On the Death of
the Princess Charlotte, &.c.
Mr. Good contributes to the
British Review 77
Takes the degree of M. D. . . 78
Writes his System of Nosology 79
Study of Medicine . 80
Publishes the Book of Nature . 80
His declining health, and antici-
pations of death 80
Extracts from letters to Drs.
Walton and Drake .... 81
Death 85
Brief character, by Mr. Ro-
berts, &c 87
SKCTIOX II, Review of the prin-
cipal publications of Dr. Good,
and an account of two impor-
tant works yet unpublished . . 90
Diseases of Prisons, &c. ... 91
History of Medicine . . . .93
Translation of the Song of Songs 95
Memoirs of Dr. Geddes ... 99
Refutation of one of his errors . 101
Translation of Lucretius . . . 103
Sketch of the System of Epicu-
rus 108
Exposure of some of its errors, 111
Specimens of the translation . 114
of the notes . . . 119
Anniversary Oration : Medical
Society 124
Essay on Medical Technology 125
Translation of the Book of Job, 127
Dr. Good's account of its nature
and contents 130
Translation of Job xix. . . . 146
Comparative specimens from
Mr. Scott, Dr. Smith, &c. . . 147
Specimen of Dr. Good's trans-
lation in heroic verse .... 148
Physiological Nosology . . . 150
Outline of Dr. Good's system . 151
Table of proposed affixes and
suffixes 154
Study of Medicine 157
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Quotation, on distortion of the
spine 161
Opinions of Medical Journalists 163
The Book of Nature .... 165
Extract, on the varieties of the
human race 169
Translation of Proverbs . . . 183
Extract from Introductory Dis-
sertation 185
Translation of the Psalms . . 198
Extracts from Dr. Good's His-
torical Outline 202
Specimens of the translation,
and comparisons with other
translations 206
Summary of Dr. Good's intel-
lectual character 216
SECTION III. A developement of
Dr. Good's religious character 218
Preliminary remarks on the
superiority of the religious to
the intellectual principle . . 219
On the law of reputation, and our
responsibility for our opinions 220
To what extent is infidelity pre-
valent among medical men ? . 223
Whether changes of opinion fair-
ly imply a want of principle 1 225
Dr. Good adopts Socmian sen-
timents 231
Notes extracted from his inter-
leaved Bible 233
His slow escape from specula-
tive error 237
Metrical translation of Psalm xlii. 238
Correspondence with his minis-
ter, on his separation from the
Sccinians 240
Becomes acquainted with Rev.
S. Marsden . . 244
PAGE
Extract from an essay on Hap-
piness . . 246
Verses on entering his 50th year 24*9
The Daisy, a short poetical ef-
fusion 250
The Resting Place . . . . .251
More notes from his interleaved
Bible 252
Effect of the alarming illness of
his two daughters 254
Illness and death of his son-in-
law, the Rev. Cornelius Neale 256
Specimens of his devotional
poetry 259
Selections from his Occasional
Thoughts : Enoch .... 268
On, My kingdom is not of this
world 269
Form of Prayer 273
On, The Way Everlasting . . 274
On, Be of good cheer : it is I ;
be not afraid 277
On, And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of the
evening 281
On, And as he reasoned of
righteousness, temperance, and
judgment to come, Felix trem-
bled s 285
On, Let us now go even unto
Bethlehem, and see this thing
which is come to pass, which
the Lord hath made known
unto us . 290
Dr. Good's last letter . . . .299
Account of his last illness and
death 301
Sermon occasioned by his death 313
MEMOIRS.
SECTION I.
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF DR. JOHN MASON GOOD, ILLUS-
TRATED BY VARIOUS EXTRACTS FROM HIS UNPUBLISHED
WRITINGS, OR FROM THOSE THAT WERE PUBLISHED
ANONYMOUSLY.
THE attempt to sketch the biography of a deceased
friend is at once delightful and difficult. It is delightful
to retrace those characteristics of mind and heart, which
excited our admiration, and kept our affection alive ; but
it is difficult so to accomplish this as to avoid the charge
of partiality ; and an apprehension of this difficulty, ex-
perienced by one, who, whatever was his attachment to
the deceased individual, wishes only to be just in his
appreciation of character, occasions a feeling of restraint
which is unfavorable to the due execution of the task he
has undertaken.
In delineating, however, the intellectual and moral
jwrtrait of Dr. JOHN MASON GOOD, the subject of these
memoirs, the difficulty to which 1 have here adverted is
considerably diminished ; because the papers, which
have been preserved with unusual care, in a tolerably
connected series, from his earliest youth, will furnish the
principal materials for the picture ; and thus will free me
2
14 MEMOIRS OF
in great measure from the temptation, either to over-
charge the likeness, or to intercept its exhibition by
placing myself before it.
If it be true, as has been often affirmed, that there has
rarely passed a life of which a faithful and judicious
narrative would not be interesting and instructive ; it
will surely not be unreasonable to hope that advantage
may result from even an imperfect development of the
circumstances that contributed to the formation of a
character of no ordinary occurrence ; one which com-
bined successfully the apparently incongruous attributes
of contemplation and of activity : where memory evinced
with equal energy its faculties of acquisition, of retention,
and of promptness in reproduction ; and where, in con-
sequence, the individual attained an extraordinary emi-
nence, not merely in one department of literature or
science, but in several ; and proved himself equally
expert in the details of practice, and in the researches of
theory ; allowing neither the fatigues of the one, nor the
absorptions of the other, permanently to extinguish that
thirst after the chief good which is the noblest character-
istic of true greatness of mind.
In attempting this development, I shall not wander from
the proposed point, if I commence with a short account
of Dr. Good's family. This family was highly respecta-
ble, and had for several generations possessed property at
Romsey, in Hampshire, and in the neighboring parish of
Lockerley. The shalloon manufacture, now greatly on
the decline, had for ages been carried on to a consider-
able extent at Romsey, and the family of the Goods long
ranked amongst the most successful and opulent of the
proprietary manufacturers. Inscriptions over the ashes of
several of them, for two or three centuries back, may be
seen in the aisles of the venerable abbey church,
some with the cautious monumental designation of " gen-
tleman and alderman of this town." The grandfather of
John Mason Good, who was actively engaged in this manu-
facture, had three sons, "William, Edward, and Peter : of
these the eldest devoted himself to the military profession
and died young ; the second succeeded his father as a
shalloon manufacturer, and possessed the family estates
at Romsey and Lockerley ; the third, evincing early in-
DR. MASON GOOD. 15
dications of piety, was devoted to the ministry of the
Gospel among the Independent or Congregational class
of Dissenters. To qualify him for this, he was first
placed under the care of the Rev. W. Johnson, then the
minister of a flourishing congregation at Romsey ; from
whom he was, after he had finished his preparatory
studies, removed to the Congregational academy at
Ottery-St.-Mary, in Devonshire, then under the charge
of a very eminent scholar, the Rev. Dr. Levander. Here
he made considerable proficiency in the Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew languages, and acquired a love for general
literature and its application to Biblical criticism and ex-
plication, which he never lost.
Having terminated his academical course, and estab-
lished a reputation for learning and piety, he was invited
to take the pastoral charge of an " Independent church
and congregation" at Epping in Essex. His ordination
took place on Thursday the 23d of September, 1760,
and the celebrated JOHN MASON " delivered the charge"
on that occasion. It was an interesting and instructive
composition, peculiarly characteristic of its author, which
I have read with great pleasure, in the Rev. Peter Good's
common-place book ; though I believe it has never been
published.
About a year after his establishment at Epping, Mr.
Good married Miss SARAH PEYTO, the daughter of the
Rev. HENRY PEYTO, of Great Coggeshall, Essex, and the
favorite niece of the Rev. John Mason. This Mr. Ma-
son acquired a lasting and distinguished reputation, as
the author of the universally known TREATISE ON SELF-
KNOWLEDGE ;* and was the grandson of another John
Maton, rector of Water Stratford in Buckinghamshire, a
* He wrote and published several other valuable works. In one of them,
'' A J-lain and Modest Pica lor Christianity," published in 1743, he com-
pletely exposed and refuted the pernicious sophistry, then producing a most
baneful effect, diffused in a treatise entitled " Christianity not founded on
Argument." Amoug his publications are, " The Student and Pastor ; or
iples of Harmony L
Poetical Composition :" An " Essay on Elocution," which was long em-
ployed as a text-book at Oxford ; and four octavo volumes of sermons,
published in 1754, under the title of "The Lord's-Day Evening Entertain-
ment." Most of these still retain an undiminished reputation. Mr. Mason
died in 1753, aged 58 years.
16 MEMOIRS OF
man of great genius as well as piety, who died in 1694,
and who left a little collection of devotional aphorisms,
published by the recommendation of Dr. Watts, and en-
titled " Select Remains of the Rev. John Mason, A. M."
This little book continues, most deservedly, to receive a
wide circulation. It is constituted principally of short,
but sententious and weighty reflections on the most mo-
mentous topics in reference to the Christian life ; and it
is defaced with fewer conceits than most works of the
same age, devoted to a similar purpose.
Miss Peyto resided almost from her infancy with her
uncle, Mr. Mason, and derived, both with regard to the
cultivation of her understanding and of her heart, all the
advantages which, under the blessing of God, so enviable
a situation could supply. At the time of her marriage
she was noted for the elegance and solidity of her acqui-
sitions, the soft and gentle fascinations of her manners,
and for the most decided piety.
Mr. Good and Miss Peyto were married in 1761 ; but
their union was not of long continuance. She died on
the 17th of February, 1766, at the early age of 29, four
days after the birth of her youngest child. She left three
children. William, born Oct. 19th, 1762 ; John Mason
Good, the subject of these memoirs, born May 25th, 1764 ;
and Peter, born Feb. 13th, 1766. William and Peter
are still living, and reside, one at Bath, the other in
London.
Within two years of the death of his first wife, the
Rev. Peter Good married a second, the only daughter
of Mr. John Baker, an opulent tradesman, residing in
Cannon Street, London. She was a woman of great
piety and extensive information, and discharged the
duties which devolved upon her with so much prudence,
affection, and delicacy, that many years elapsed before
John Mason Good discovered, with equal surprise and
regret, that she was not actually his mother. She had
one child, a daughter, who is still living, and resides at
Charmouth.
Shortly after his second marriage, Mr. Good was in-
vited to take the pastoral charge of a congregation at
Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, to which place he
in consequence removed with his family. But he did not
DR. MASON GOOD. It
remain there much more than a year. His elder brother
John dying unmarried, and without having made a will,
the patrimonial property and the business at Romsey
passed, by that event, into his hands ; so that it became
necessary for him to quit Wellingborough, and reside in
Hampshire. His first thoughts were to carry on the shal-
loon manufacture, with the assistance of his late brother's
superintendent of the works, until one of his sons should
be old enough to take the business. But he soon found
that this class of occupations drew him too much from his
favorite pursuits ; and disposed of " the concern" to some
individual accustomed to business, and able to conduct it
advantageously.
He then resolved to devote his time to the education of
his own children : no sooner was this determination
known, however, than he was earnestly importuned by
relatives and friends, and by many of the gentlemen,
clergy, and other ministers in the neighborhood, to
associate their children with his. After much delibera-
tion, he at length determined to engage an assistant of
extensive knowledge and sound principles, and to take
the general superintendence of a few pupils, fixing the
maximum at sixteen in number, including his own sons.
Thus, a desire to preserve his children from the more
obvious evils of public schools, and to supply them with
the advantage of select associates, placed him in a sphere
of employment, but not of heavy or anxious labor, with a
happy competency, and in the immediate vicinity of the
sweetly variegated scenery of the New Forest ; fond of
rural enjoyments, fond of domestic life, fond of acquiring
and of communicating knowledge, fond of select and in-
telligent society, fond of benevolent exertion, blessed
with the confluence of these streams of delight, and to a
high degree proving that the elegant delineation of the
author of the " Seasons" is as exquisite in real life as it is
touching in poetry.
Oh ! speak the joy, ye whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while ye look around.
And nothing meets your eye but sights of bliss !
A moderate sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease, and alternate labor, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving heaven !
*2
18 MEMOIRS OP
This piece of family detail will not, I trust, be thought
incongruous with my general narrative, since it shows
that the subject of it commenced his studies in a seminary
conducted by his father. Here he, in due time, made a
correct acquaintance with the Latin, Greek, and French
languages ; and soon evinced a remarkable desire to
drink deeply of the springs of knowledge and pleasure
which they laid open to him. Among the books placed
in the hands of the boys, besides those usually employed
in classical instruction, were most of the publications of
Mr. Mason, mentioned in a preceding note ; and it was
a great object with Mr. Good, not merely to excite in the
minds of his pupils a fondness for general reading, but
to explain to them the best modes of abridging and record-
ing, in common-place books, upon the plan recommended
by Mr. Locke, the most valuable results of their daily
researches. His own common-place book, to which I
have already adverted, is an excellent proof of the utility
of these repositories ; and those of his son, from some
of which I shall have occasion to make extracts, serve
equally to shew how successfully his pupils adopted the
plan.
They who remark in how many instances apparently
slight circumstances give the essential determination to
character ; who recollect, for example, the fact that both
the father and the husband of Michael Angela's nurse
were stone-masons, and that the chisel which she often
put into his infant hands as a plaything, served to create
the bent of genius which issued in the sculptures of that
admirable artist or who are aware how much the poetic
inspiration of the excellent Montgomery was nurtured
by the early perusal of Cowper's Poems, the only work
of taste and imagination which he was allowed to read
while at Fulneck school will not fail to notice what
various particulars concurred in the arrangements for
John Mason at this susceptible age, to implant in his
mind those principles of thought, and feeling, and action,
which, ultimately exfoliated, produced that character in
maturity which it is our object to portray. From Mr.
Mason's " Rules for Students," and from the example of
his father, he learned that these " five things are necessary ;
a proper distribution and management of his time ; a
DR. MASON GOOD. 19
right method of reading to advantage ; the order and
regulation of his studies ; the proper way of collecting
and preserving useful sentiments from books and con-
versation ; and the improvement of his thoughts when
alone :" from Mr. Mason's Essays on " the Principles of
Harmony," the illustrations in which are selected with
much taste and judgment, he early acquired a relish for
easy and mellifluous versification : from the example of
his parents, and from that of Mr. Mason, which they
taught him to contemplate with veneration, he imbibed
the persuasion that universal knowledge did not obstruct
the- road to eminence in any one pursuit; and a conviction
equally strong, though not so invariably in operation, that
true piety was susceptible of a happy union with talent
and genius : and, superadded to all this, the localities of
Romsey enkindled in his bosom a love for rural scenery
and rural pleasures, which he never lost.
Thus, in one of his poems, written a few years after
he quitted the domestic dwelling and the neighboring
regions, productive of so much genuine happiness, after
describing the sweet flowing river, the bridge then new,
the lawns, and glens, and vistas of Lord Palmerston's
seat at Broadlands, the ecstacy with which he engaged
in the game of cricket and other athletic exercises, he
exclaims, with that sigh of retrospection which is often
as natural to an individual just starting into manhood as
to one who feels himself sliding into the vale of years,
Ah ! scenes beloved ! to purer days decreed,
When first, unskill'd, I touch'd the Dorian reed.
Tho' many a sign has roll'd its chequer'd hours,
Since, rude of life, I left your tranquil bowers ;
And heaven has now my devious lot assign'd
Far from your thickets rough, or groves refin'd
Think not that time or space can e'er suppress
Thro' my fond heart, your wonted pow'r to bless :
Erase the soft delights, 'twas yours to prize,
Or make my soul those soft delights despise.
No while that heart with circling life shall beat,
While swells that soul, or memory keeps her seat :
Tho' heaven should doom me to some desert shore,
Where never human exile trod before ;
Still fancy's pen should sketch your prospects true,
Give all your charms, and every joy renew ;
20 MEMOIRS OP
Still paint your plains and academic shade,
Where Hoijle* at times, at times where Horace sway'd.
That felicitous alternation of study and exhilarating
exercise, however, to which our young aspirant here
adverts, was not, in the first instance, at all congenial
with his own taste and wishes. Such was the delight
with which he pursued his studies of every kind, that
it occasioned an entire absorption of thought ; so that
when he was little more than twelve years of age, his
habit of hanging over his hooks had produced a curvature
in his back, equally unfavorable to his growth and his
health. His father, anxious to remove this evil, earnestly
besought him to join with his fellow students in their
various games and sports ; and ere long he engaged in
these also with his characteristic ardor, and became as
healthful, agile, and erect, as any of his youthful asso-
ciates.
As the season approached in which it would be proper
for Mr. Good to put his sons into more immediate training
for the professions which they respectively selected, he
gradually diminished the number of his pupils, in order
that when they had quitted home, he should only retain
two or three students, and they of more mature age.
His eldest son William was at fifteen years of age, arti-
cled to an attorney at Portsmouth ; John Mason, at about
the same age, was apprenticed to Mr. Johnson, a surgeon
apothecary at Gosport, son of the Rev. W. Johnson of
Romsey, before mentioned ; and the youngest son, Peter,
was placed in a commercial house at Portsmouth. The
father being now at liberty fully to resume the pas-
toral duties, (having, indeed, continued to preach fre-
quently at Romsey.) acceded to the invitation of a con-
gregation at Havant ; to which place he removed in the
year 1779 or 1780. Here he was within a few miles of
all his sons, and kept alive an intimacy between them and
his two remaining pupils ; one a son of Sir John Carter,
of Portsmouth, the other a son of the Rev. J. Renaud,
then rector of Havant. This latter I specify as an indi-
cation of the catholic spirit which actuated these two
ministers of the Gospel of different persuasions. They
* The writer who first digested the laws of the game of cricket.
DR. MASON GOOD. 21
seem to have imbibed the happy sentiment recommended
by Matthew Henry : "Herein a Christian commendrth his
love, when he loves those who differ from him, and joins
in affection to those with whom he cannot concur in
opinion."
Our young friend quitted the paternal roof under the
influence of all the emotions that are usually excited on
such an occasion :
" Some natural tears he dropt ; but wip'd them soon :"
the buoyancy and hilarity of youth, and the direction
of his ardent and aspiring mind into fresh channels of
research, soon rendered him happy in his new situation.
There is no difficulty in conceiving with what jocund
activity he would go through the varied employments
and amusements of an apprentice to a country surgeon.
He quickly acquired and discharged the pharmaceutic
functions ; he studied the Clinical Guide, and the Dispen-
satories of that day, with old Quincy, and other books
recommended to him by Mr. Johnson ; he now and then
snatched an evening hour to give to his beloved cricket,
and the exercise of fencing ; and [often did he recreate
his spirits by the study of music, and in playing the Ger-
man flute, an instrument in the use of which he became
a very respectable proficient. But these, though they
evidently occupied much of his time, he did not suffer
to engross the whole ; for even at this early age he began
to exercise his powers in original composition, as well as
to digest plans for the augmentation of his literary and
scientific stores. At the age of fifteen he composed a
" Dictionary of Poetic Endings," and several little poems.
He also drew up " An Abstracted View of the Principal
Tropes and Figures of Rhetoric, in their Origin and
Powers," illustrated by a variety of examples, original
and collected. Shortly afterwards he made himself mas-
ter of the Italian language, thus becoming enabled to
cull the sweets of Ariosto, Tasso, Dante, and the devo-
tional Filicaja, whose works he perused with the most
enthusiastic avidity : and simultaneously he reduced into
active operation the plan of common-place books, so in-
cessantly recommended by his father. These he threw
into separate classifications, and, commencing with a
22 MEMOIRS OF
series of books, each of a convenient size for a coat-
pocket, he made one or other his constant companion :
and thus, wherever he went, and could get access to a
book, he was prepared to select from it, and add to his
own stores.* The evidences of these early labors now
lie by me. One of the books is entitled Extracta ex
Autoribus diversis, and relates principally to such topics
as would interest a lover of poetry and the belles lettres,
but the spare corners are most amusingly interspersed
with gleanings of professional lore, under the heads of
Spt. Mendcrcr., Vin. Vermifug., Vin. Antimon., Vitr.
Cerat. Antimon. &c.
The " Extracta" shews with what taste, as well as
diligence, the collector augmented his literary stores.
In this little volume he has laid nearly a hundred authors,
Greek, Latin, Italian, French, English, under contribu-
tion. In others his quotations relate more to chemistry,
or the broader outlines of natural philosophy. But at
this early period I trace no indications of his having be-
gun to explore and classify the profusion of bounty and
beauty poured before us in the vegetable world, the sub-
lime and impressive peculiarities of the mineral kingdom,
or even the touching and instructive varieties and resem-
blances which the animal world exhibits ; except so far
as these latter fell under his notice in the professional
study of comparative anatomy.
Before our young surgeon had completed his eigh-
teenth year, Mr. Johnson's health became so indifferent,!
that he was obliged to engage a gentleman of skill and
talent to conduct his business. For this purpose he
selected Mr. Babington, then an assistant surgeon at
* Most auspiciously for him, at this spring-tide of his intellectual facul-
ties, his father had recommended him to the watchful eye of the Rev. Dr.
Wren, then resident at Gosport, with whom he always spent his Sunday
evening's, and to whose valuable library he had free access.
t Since the above was written, I have ascertained from an authentic
source, that even before the subject of this narrative had completed hissia:-
teenth year, the bad health of Mr. Johnson caused to be thrown upon his
apprentice an unusual weight of responsibility for one so young. He had
to prepare the medicines, to enter an account of them in the several books,
to send them to the respective patients, &,c., almost entirely without super-
intendence. All this, however, served but to consolidate and establish the
habits of order and regularity in which he had been trained ; and tiius sup-
plied another link in the chain of circumstances which operated in the for-
mation of his character.
DR. MASOX GOOD. 23
Haslar Hospital, and since well known as a physician of
high reputation in London. Mr. Babington was older
by a few years than Mr. Good ; but the disparity was not
jsuch as to prevent their forming for each other a cordial
esteem. Since the death of Dr. Good, Dr. Babington, on
being asked by a friend of mine, as to the impression
which he retained of his early disposition and habits,
he replied, that when he first became acquainted with him
at Gosport. he was not, he thinks, quite seventeen years
of age ; that he was of excellent character, both of moral
and intellectual qualities ; that he was a lively, quick
youth, of very ready apprehension, and with a mind even
then fully imbued with more than the elements of classi-
cal literature ; that his professional ardor was considera-
ble, and his capacity and taste for scientific acquirements
rapidly developing themselves.
Satisfactory plans for the efficient cooperation of these
two individuals had scarcely been formed, when the death
of Mr. Johnson, and opening prospects of another kind
for both, prevented them from being reduced into action.
A favorable opportunity presented itself at this juncture
for Mr. Good's reception into the family of a surgeon of
great skill and extensive practice at Havant, where his
father then resided, he removed thither ; and thus was
permitted, though only for a few months, again to enjoy
the full advantages, v.-hich he had long known how to val-
ue, of the paternal advice. A few occasional visits to his
grandfather, Mr. Peyto, still living at Coggeshall, prepar-
ed the way for his entering into partnership with a Mr.
Deeks, a reputable surgeon at Sudbury, in the neighbor-
ing county. To quality himself as far as possible for the
duties he was about to undertake, he spent the autumn
and winter of the year 1783, and the spring of 1734, in
London ; attending the lectures of Dr. George Fordyce,
Dr. Lowder, and other eminent professors of the various
departments of medical science and practice ; taking
down those lectures very accurately in short-hand (which
he wrote with great neatness and facility) and afterwards
transcribing them fully into larger books, with marginal
spaces, on which he might record subsequently the results
of his reading, as well as of his professional experience.
24 MEMOIRS OP
The greater portion of the papers and memoranda he thus
collected, were carefully preserved, and are still extant.
Though he probably quitted home, on this occasion,
with a heart eager in expectation and buoyant with hope,
he was too much influenced by the sensibilities enkindled
by domestic life, and too fully aware of the evils to which
he might be exposed, to leave the scenes and the associa-
tions of so many happy years without a pang.
On his arrival in London, he found a few associates of
kindred minds ; and amongst them a Mr. Godfrey, son
of a surgeon at Coggeshall, and devoted to the same pro-
fession. With them he ardently pursued his theoretical
and practical inquiries, not merely attending the lectures,
and going assiduously through the hospital practice, but
becoming an active member of a society for the promotion
of natural philosophy, as well as medical science, then
existing among the students at Guy's Hospital. Such an
institution lay so naturally in the current of his investiga-
ting intellect, that he soon distinguished himself by the
discussions into which he entered, and the essays which
he prepared. One of these, " An Investigation of the
Theory of Earthquakes," is now on my table. It is a
closely written manuscript, on 44 quarto pages, full of in-
genuity and research, but employed in defending what
all philosophers now regard as an erroneous theory. I
, refer to it simply for the purpose of recording, at the same
time, that it yields unquestionable evidence of his having
consulted, previously to writing it, (atjirst-hatid, and not
through the invention of synopses or histories,) all that
fairly bore upon the inquiry, in the works of Pliny, Sene-
ca, Lucretius, Sim. Portias, Pontoppidan, Nollet, Amon-
tons, Bertram!, Beccaria, Stukcly, Mitchell, Franklin,
Priestley, Hamilton, Henley, Williams, &,c. The style
of this juvenile essay is good ; but it is not distinguished
(nor indeed would it be natural to expect it) by the ease,
freedom, and spirit which marked its author's latter pro-
ductions.
Having terminated his winter and spring course at the
hospitals, and spent the earlier part of the summer in col-
lecting such professional information as London then
supplied, he commenced his duties at Sudbury, in July
or August, 1784, that is, shortly after he had completed
DR. MASON GOOD. 25
his twentieth year.* At so early an age, many obstacles
to his gaining the confidence of the inhabitants would
naturally present themselves. But he had the advantage
of strong recommendations from his hospital friends, with
the most eminent of whom he laid a plan for regular
correspondence on professional topics; and he had the
farther advantage of great professional activity, cheerful
and engaging manners, and a soul ready to evince the
liveliest sympathy in cases where it was most needed.
Some striking proofs of his surgical skill, which occur-
red shortly after his establishment at Sudbury, gave, how-
ever, an extent and solidity to his reputation which could
not have been anticipated. The result was, that, in a
few months, Mr. Deeks, left the business entirely in his
hands. By the time he was twenty-one years of age,
his thoughts aspired to a partnership of a more endearing
kind. His frequent visits to Coggeshall had brought him
into habits of intimacy with the family of his friend Mr.
Godfrey, already mentioned, and had taught him that
there were emotions of a higher order, and a livelier
glow, than any which he had hitherto experienced. Miss
Godfrey, the sister of that friend, is described, by those
who still recollect her, as a young lady of accomplished
mind and fascinating manners. Before she had comple-
ted her nineteenth year she was married to Mr. Good, who
was then just twenty-one. Enjoying all the happiness
w.b.ich youth and virtue can taste at such a season, and
ardently predicting a long continuance of his bliss, he thus
expressed himself,
* About the same lime, or shortly afterwards, the Rev. Peler Good re-
moved from Havant to Bishop's Hull, near Charmouth. where lie continued
to discharge the pastoral duties over a respectable church and congrega-
tion, until death put a period to his useful labors in the year 1805 or 1806
He was doubtless a man of rich intellectual qualifications ; and from several
of his manuscript papers, which I have been permitted to read, it appears
that his religious sentiments were correct, and his spirit truly catholic and
liberal, such as in " the olden time" was evinced by Mr. Howe, and a few
others, who, as that great man expresses it, were animated " by agenerout
love, not to Christians of this or that party only, but to all in whom the true
essentials of Christianity are found ;" a spirit which, in proportion as it
prevails, will " make religion a more lively, powerful, awful, amiable thing,
more grateful to God, more sweet, influential, tranquillizing, and elevating
to men."
26
MEMOIRS OF
PARADISE.
When first in Eden's balmy bow'rs
Man pass'd his solitary hours
In bliss but half complete :
To heav'n he rais'd his anxious pray'r,
And sought some gentler form to share
The rich luxuriant seat.
That gentler form immediate rose ;
The sire of man with rapture glows,
He weds the lovely prize :
Ah ! doom'd to changes too perverse:
His very blessing proves a curse
His Eden instant flies.
Not thus for me this lot of woe,
Which Adam first sustain'd below ;
The partial fates decree
That bridal state those genial hours,
Which lost him Eden's balmy bow'rs,
Give Eden all to me.
But, alas ! " a worm was in the bud of this sweet
rose." In little more than six months after his marriage
his youthful bride died of consumption ; and he learned
from sad experience, how correct was the presentiment
that dictated these lines of a brother poet :
" Dearly bought, the hidden treasure,
Finer feelings can bestow ;
Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure
Thrill the deepest notes of woe.'' Burns.
Nearly four years from this event Mr. Good remained
a widower. His professional occupations, however, which
now began to extend themselves into the surrounding
villages together with the soothing influence of time and
of cheerful society, in a few months restored to his spirits
their native buoyancy. At this period of his life I have
reason to believe that he did not bend his mind to any
regular course of study : he perused with the utmost
eagerness everything that was new to him, and he continu-
ed his early acquired habit of recording all that he thought
striking, or useful, or essentially original, in one or other
of his common-place books ; but his reading was desulto-
ry, and without any fixed object.
DR. MASON GOOD. 27
Early in the year 1790, Mr. Good had the happiness to
become acquainted with a gentleman of the same profes-
sion, and in many respects of a kindred mind, Dr. Na-
than Drake,* well known to the public as the accom-
plished and amiable author of " Literary Hours," " The
Gleaner," and other esteemed works, devoted to the
illustration of tasteful and elegant literature. Their con-
geniality of sentiment, and similarity of pursuits, laid the
basis of a warm and permanent friendship ; which con-
tinued without interruption or remission, until it was
closed by death. Each stimulating the other to an ex-
tended activity of research, and each frequently announc-
ing to the other the success which attended his exertions,
or each as frequently exhibiting to the other some new
acquisition of knowledge, some fresh specimen of poetic
composition, either original or translated ; and all this
in the may-day of life, when with regard to both, the
buds and blossoms of thought, and the varied foliage of
imagination, were starting forth with a vigorous exuber-
ance, could not but be productive of the most beneficial
effects. Mr. Good greatly enlarged his acquaintance with
the writers of Greece and Rome, at the same time he
took a more extensive view of the poetry and literature of
France and Italy ; and, as though these were not enough
to engage all the powers of his mind, he commenced the
study of Hebrew, a language of which he soon acquired
a clear and critical knowledge.
In l?<^9, Mr. Good again rendered his home "cheer-
ful" by a second marriage. The object of his choice
was a daughter of Thomas Fenn, Esq. of Ballingdon
Hall, an opulent and highly respectable banker at Sud-
bury. The experience of thirty-eight years amply proved
with what success the refined friendship of domestic life
" redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in sunder." Here,
however, I must, though with reluctance, check my pen.
Of the six children who were the result of the marriage,
only two survive, botli daughters ; and I am conscious
that I cannot more fully accord with the wishes and feel-
ings of these my esteemed friends, (each of whom evinces
* Dr. Drake at the commencement of this intimacy, lived at Sudbury ;
but in little more than a year removed to HadJeigh, in Suffolk, where he has
ever since resided.
MEMOIRS OF
as great a solicitude to avoid praise as to deserve it) than
by mentioning their names as little as possible during the
progress of this narrative.
Some time in the year 1792, Mr. Good, either by be-
coming legally bound for some friends, or by lending
them a large sum of money, under the expectation that
it would be soon returned, but which they were unable
to repay, was brought into circumstances of considerable
pecuniary embarrassment. Mr. Fenn most cheerfully
stepped forward to remove his difficulties, and lent him
partial aid, an aid, indeed, which would have been ren-
dered completely effectual, had not Mr. Good resolved
that perplexities, springing from what he regarded as his
own want of caution, (though in no other respect open
to censure,) should be removed principally by his own
exertions. Thus it happened that a pecuniary loss, from
the pressure of which men with minds of an ordinary
cast would have gladly escaped as soon as assistance was
offered, became with him the permanent incentive to a
course of literary activity, which, though it was inter-
cepted repeatedly by the most extraordinary failures and
disappointments, issued at length in their complete re-
moval, and in the establishment of a high and richly
deserved reputation. And thus, by the sombrous vicissi-
tude of his providential dispensations, the heavenly
Prepar'd the soil ; and silver-tongued Hope
Promis'd another harvest."
Mr. Good's exertions, on this occasion, were most per-
severing and diversified. He wrote plays ; he made
translations from the French, Italian, &/c. ; he composed
poems ; he prepared a series of philosophical essays : but
all these efforts, though they soothed his mind and occu-
pied his leisure, were unproductive of the kind of benefit
which he sought. Having no acquaintance with the
managers of the London theatres, or with influential men
connected with them, he could not get any of his trage-
dies or comedies brought forward ; and being totally
unknown to the London booksellers, he could obtain no
purchasers for his literary works : so that the manuscript
copies of these productions, which in the course of two
DR. MASON GOOD. 29
or three years had become really numerous, remained
upon his hands. Yet nothing damped his ardor. He at
length opened a correspondence with the editor of a
London newspaper, and became a regular contributor to
one of the Reviews : and though these, together, brought
him no adequate remuneration, they served as incentives
to hope and perseverance.*
Mr. Good's newspaper connexion was with " THE
WORLD," the Morning Post of that day, conducted by
Captain Topham, a man whose character was too noto-
riously marked to need any delineation now. The com-
munications of our " Rural Bard," as he was usually
denominated in " The World," ornamented its poet's
corner : two of them alone are inserted here, as speci-
mens.
ODE TO HOPE.
O gentle HOPE ! whose lovely form
The plunging sea-boy, midst the storm,
Sees beckoning from the strand,
* Several of the manuscripts are still in existence, and I shall throw into
this note the titles of such of them as I have read :
" History of Alcidalis and Zelida," translated from a fragment of Voi-
ture.
" Ethelbert, a Tragedy ;" some portions of it written with great spirit.
"The Revolution, a Comedy;" composed in lively, easy dialogue ; but
not possessing enough of ludicrous incident to excite the ' broad grin,'
which seems essential to the success of modern comedy.
" The Female Mirror, a Didactic Poem ; to which are added, a Transla-
tion of two Odes of Horace, lately discovered in the Palatine Library at
Rome ; and an Elegy on Sensibility of Mind." Some passages in this
latter poem are truly elegant and expressive.
" A Poetical Epistle on the Slave-trade." This, I believe, received
some corrections from the hand of Dr. Drake ; but was never published.
" The Summer Recess, or a View of the World at a Distance." This
poem is in three books, and was evidently composed with Virgil's Georgics
in the author's eye. Several of its descriptions of rural scenery, ana of
rustic occupations and amusements are highly picturesque.
Ten Essays. 1. On the Being of a God. 2. On the Origin of Evil.
3. On Liberty and Necessity. 4. On Providence. 5. On a Future State.
6. On the Credibility of Revelation. 7. On the Homogeneity of Animal
Life. 8 and 9. On the Social Offices and Affections. 10. On Happiness.
Most of these Essays are well written ; but the Subjects are treated more
in the strain of philosophy than of theology, and several of them are tinged
with sentiments which their author, in maturer life, most cordially disap-
proved. One, however, which I think Mr. Good would have preserved,
will be inserted in the text.
*3
30 MEMOIRS OP
If yet thy smile can chace the sighs
From love and adverse fate which rise,
O view this lifted hand !
Thro' dire despair's tremendous shade,
Supported by thy secret aid,
The troubled spirit flies.
Thy sight sustains his drooping pow'rs,
Thy finger points to brighter hours,
And clears the distant skies.
Then haste thee, HOPE, and o'er my head,
While yet impervious tempests spread,
Obtrude thy magic form :
O give me, ere gay youth decline,
To view the fair ZELINDA mine,
And I'll despise the storm.
HYMN REHEARSED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE FUNERAL
OF GENERAL LA HOCHE.
Les Femmes.
Du haut de la voute Sternelle,
Jeune heros, recois nos pleurs.
Que notre doleur solemnelle
T'offre des hymnes et des fleurs.
Ah ! sur ton urne sepulcrale
Gravons ta gloire et nos i egrets ;
Et que la palme triumphale
S'eleve au sein de tes cypres.
Les Viellards.
Aspirez a ses destinees,
Guerriers, defenseurs de nos lois,
Tous ses jours furent annees ;
Tous ses faits furent des exploits.
La mort, qui frappa sa jeunesse,
Respectera son souvenir ;
S'il ii'atteignit point la vieillesse,
II sera vieux dans 1'avenir.
Les Guerriers.
Sur les rochers de 1'Armorique,
II terrassa la trahison ;
II vainquit 1'hydre fanatique,
Semant la flamme et le poison.
La guerre civille etouffee
Cede a son bras liberateur ;
Et ce'st-lji le plus beau trophee
D'un heros pacificateur.
DR. MASON GOOD.
Oui, tu seras notre module ;
Tu n'as point terni tes lauriers.
Ta voix librc, ta voix fidelle,
Est toujours pr sente aux guerriers
Aux champs d'honneur ou vit ta gloire,
Ton ombre, au milieu de nos rangs,
Saura captiver la victoire,
Et punir encor les tyrans.
TRANSLATION OF THE PRECEDING.
Women.
From heaven's high vault with stars o'erspread,
HERO ! accept the tears we shed :
And let the incense of our sighs
To thee like hymns and flowers arise,
Ah ! round thine urn our griefs be train'd,
Mixt with the glories thou hast gain'd !
And let full many a cypress tree
Spring round the laurel rear'd to thee !
Old Men.
Warriors ! the Laws' brave guardians ! aim
To rival his immortal fame.
His days were ages and each deed
Claim'd from the world a hero's meed.
The scythe of death that struck his prime,
Still spares his name to endless time ;
And though with ancients not enroll'd,
Posterity shall see him old.
Warriors.
O'er ARMORICA'S rocks he flew,
When TREASON rous'd the rebel crew :
There, spreading poison, spreading fire,
He triurnph'd o'er the hydra dire.
The strife subdued through all the land
He scatter'd blessings from his hand :
Then shone the godlike Hero most ;
For peace is chief the Hero's boast.
Yes we will draw our lives from thee !
Thy brow no tarnish 'd laurels bound ;
Thy faithful voice, thy voice most free,
Through ev'ry soldier's ear shall sound.
In thine own fields where glory led,
Thy shade, amidst our ranks of war,
Shall give us conquest as we tread,
And fell the tyrants we abhor.
31
32 MEMOIRS OP
Among the Essays composed by Mr. Good in the
midst of these varied exertions, that which is devoted to
the defence of a particular providence, is, in my judg-
ment, one of the best. He does not seem, however, to
have attended to the discussions relative to " the spring
of action in Deity," in which Balguy, Bayes, and Grove,
each defended a separate theory. Balguy, as many will
recollect, refers all the divine actions to rectitude, Bayes
to benevolence, and Grove to wisdom. Yet both Grove
and Balguy acknowledge that the communication of hap-
piness is so noble an end, that the Deity unquestionably
keeps it always in view ; while the wisdom adduced in
Grove's theory differs very little from the rectitude as-
sumed as the basis of Balguy's. Had Mr. Good been
acquainted with the different branches of this controversy,
the commencement of his own disquisition would proba-
bly have been somewhat modified : and if, instead of
starting from a doubtful position, he had simply reasoned
from a proposition in which all agree, viz. that God
always does that which is right and good, the general
strain of his reasoning would have been the same, while
the exposure of Hume's sophistry, would, I think, have
been complete.
ON PROVIDENCE.
"Whatever arguments may be adduced in proof of the
existence of a Deity, may likewise be adduced in proof
of the existence of a general and particular providence.
If it be true, and no one, I believe, will be disposed to
doubt it, that every power we meet with in the universe
ought originally to be attributed to the great First Cause
of all things, it follows inevitably that this great First
Cause must itself be all-active and all-powerful. And
if, again, it be true, as I have endeavored to demonstrate
on another occasion, that the principal, not to say the
only motive by which the Deity could be excited in the
creation of any order of beings, was their own individual
happiness, it follows, moreover, that the constant exertion
of this power and activity must be employed in the pro-
motion and continuance of that happiness. It follows
therefore, again, that the Creator must, of necessity, be
employed in a course of general and uninterrupted provi-
DR. MASON GOOD. 33
dence. But ' we cannot conceive, (as Dr. Price justly
observes,) any reasons that can influence the Deity to
exercise any providence over the world, which are not,
likewise, reasons for extending it to all that happens in
the world.'* A providence that neglects or forsakes indi-
viduals is incomplete, and inadmissible ; because incom-
petent to the conception of a perfect being. The provi-
dence, therefore, which is a general, must, at the same
time, be a particular one.
" Whether, indeed, the constant harmony and regu-
larity observable in nature, with all the various events
that occur around us, be the effect of original appoint-
ment at the first formation of the universe ; foreseen and
predetermined ; or the result of one continued energy
incessantly protracted is not, perhaps, fully to be de-
cided, and is, morever, totally irrelevant to our present
purpose. Every individual circumstance that has since
occurred, both in the moral and physical departments of
creation, must, even on the first hypothesis, have been
clearly represented to a Being of universal prescience :
and without obtaining his approbation could never have
taken effect. However, therefore, philosophers may dif-
fer in their ideas on this subject; and though the doctrine
of incessant interposition must, on many accounts, appear
the most plausible ; yet each may contend with nearly
equal propriety for the existence of a providence.
" Such considerations, however, have not been allowed
their due weight and importance by all philosophers.
Some have totally denied the existence of any providence
at all ; while others, acknowledging the existence of a
general providence, have denied that it is in any instance
particular, or exerts any influence over individuals.
" I know of but three objections that can be fairly
urged either by the one side or the other, in opposition to
the doctrine in dispute. The first is, that the Deity is
incapable of exercising such a power : the second, that
it would be derogatory to him : the third, that its exertion
must be inconsistent with the liberty of moral election.
" There is no author I am acquainted with who has
advanced the first objection with so much success and
* Dissertation on Providence.
34 MEMOIRS OF
authority as Mr. Hume :* and it will be to his writings,
therefore, I shall direct myself more particularly in my
reply. The position he so much labors to demonstrate
appears to be this : that even allowing a Deity, he does
not seem to have been, and we have no reason to suppose
he was possessed of more than just that determinate
quantity of power which was requisite to produce the
creation ; the exertion of which obliged him to sink into
rest through mere debility, and leave his scarcely finished
undertaking to itself and its own imperfect powers of
mutual dependence.
" In support of this extraordinary proposition, the ar-
guments he adduces are the following.
" ' Causes are, at all times, proportioned to their con-
sequent effects, and ought not to be supposed to possess
any qualities but what are exactly sufficient to produce
them. A body of ten ounces raised in any scale, may
serve as a proof that the counterbalancing weight exceeds
ten ounces ; but can never afford a reason that it exceeds
a hundred. The same rule holds true universally, whether
the cause assigned be brute unconscious matter, or a
rational intelligent being. No one, merely from a sight
of one of Zeuxis's pictures, could know that he was also
a statuary or architect, and was an artist no less skilful
in stone or marble than in colors. The talents and taste
displayed in the particular work before us, these, and
only these, we may safely conclude the workman to be
possessed of.
" ' The chief or sole argument, for a divine existence
is derived from the general order of nature ; which is an
argument drawn from effects to causes. Every argument,
therefore, deduced from causes to effects must be a gross
sophism, since it is impossible to know anything of the
cause but what has been antecedently, not only inferred,
but discovered to the full in the effect. On the same
account, we cannot, according to the rules of just reason-
ing, ascend from the effect to the cause, and thence re-
turn back from that cause with any new inference ; or,
making any addition to the effect as we find it, establish
any new principles of conduct and behavior.
* Vide Sect. 11. On a Particular Providence and a Future State.
DR. MASON GOOD. 35
" ' Though, from a knowledge of the actions and sen-
timents of the human species, we may, with propriety,
infer more than the simple appearance of objects present-
ed to us would otherwise give us a right to infer : as, for
instance, from a half finished edifice, and the materials
for building scattered around it, we might presume that
such an edifice would soon be completed, and receive all
the further improvements which art could bestow upon it;
yet we are not allowed the same liberty of ascending
from the effect to the cause, and thence descending from
the same cause to infer other effects, in any of our argu-
ments respecting the Deity ; since the Deity is only
known to us by his actual productions, and since we are
ignorant of the motives by which he is actuated, and the
sentiments by which he is governed.' *
" It is not strictly true, however, in the first place, that
the sole or even the chief argument in proof of the exis-
tence of a Divine Being is derived from the general order
of nature. The existence of man alone is sufficient to
prove the existence of a Deity, and to demonstrate his
perfections. And this simple fact, without any addition
whatsoever, has been successfully selected by Mr. Locke
for this very purpose j and been made the means of deduc-
ing a proof of such an existence, equal, as he himself ex-
presses it, ' to that of mathematical certainty.'! Wherever
a human being exists, if in the possession of his reason, he
must have an undoubted perception and certainty of his
existence ; he must moreover be certain that nothing
could possibly proceed from nothing, and he must be
therefore certain there must be something uncreated and
eternal. That which is uncreated and eternal must, again,
possess all the powers, and that in an infinite degree, as
being devoid of opposition or obstruction which can pos-
sibly be traced in the being that is finite and created. It
* " Since he is a Being, (as Mr. H. continues.) who discovers himself only
by some faint traces or outlines, beyond which we have no authority to
ascribe to him any attribute or perfection ; and a being respecting whom
what we imagine to be a superior perfection may really be a defect."
In the delineation of these arguments, I hough I have been under the neces-
sity of contracting and condensing them from the original,! am not con-
icious of having injured their strength ; and I have used Mr. Hume's own
expressions as often as I could possibly introduce them.
f Essay on Human Understanding, b. i. ch. 10.
36 MEMOIRS OF
must be, therefore, omnipotent, and all-intelligent. From
the possession of which intelligence it is easy to de-
duce every other attribute, whether moral or physical.
The argument a priori must, at all times, be at least equal
to that deduced from effects to causes.
" But, acceding to the position that all our arguments
for a divine existence are derived from the general order
of nature, and the display of objects around us ; and that
this general order and display of objects is the effect, and
the Deity himself the cause ; it is far from being a neces-
sary conclusion, and by no means invariable, that the
cause in this instance is adjusted precisely to the effect
exhibited, and possesses no power or property whatso-
ever but what is therein displayed.
" In brute conscious matter, it is true, the experienced
train of events shews us there is a constant proportion
observed between the cause and the effect, however varie-
gated : but it is an obvious error to contend that the same
law obtains among rational and intelligent beings ; and
it is an error proceeding from the belief of a doctrine we
have before animadverted upon the doctrine, I mean, that
maintains the same species of absolute necessity to sub-
sist among moral as among physical agents. Hercules
did not on all occasions, put forth the utmost quantity of
his strength ; nor Cicero nor Demosthenes exert the
whole of their eloquence. They found themselves at full
liberty, and not subjected to the same inflexible laws that
actuate mere incogitative atoms. It is acknowledged that
no one merely from the sight of a picture of Zeuxis in
ancient times, or of Salvator Rosa in more modern, could
determine that the former was also a statuary and an
architect, and the latter a poet and musician, whose sa-
tires arid harmonic compositions fell but little short of his
skill in the art of coloring. But what is the reason that
we are here incapable of determining ? Plainly this : that
there is no necessary connexion between these different
arts and sciences whatsoever. They may be conjoined
in the same subject ; but they may subsist by themselves :
and he who is the best musician may be the worst pain-
ter, and the best poet may be the worst statuary.
" The case is very different with respect to the per-
fections of intelligent beings, and especially the perfec-
DR. MASON GOOD. 37
lions of the Deity : through the whole of which there is
a natural link subsisting so obviously, that, from the
demonstration of one or two, the rest seem to follow ef
inevitable necessity. The Being, who is eternal and
all-powerful, must be all-intelligent : he who is all-pow-
erful and all-intelligent, must be infinitely happy : he
who is infinitely happy in himself, can only be actuated
in what he does by motives of benevolence.
" Yet how are we capable of determining at all on the
Deity which is the cause, if we can only reason respect-
ing him from a full knowledge of the creation, which is
the effect? This creation is extended around us on every
side : let us confine ourselves alone to the proofs of pow-
er it exhibits. Are we acquainted with its unfathomable
dimensions ? Have we penetrated into the whole system
of laws by which it is regulated ? Can we develope the
causes of gravitation, magnetism, or muscular motion ?
Is nothing obscure, nothing mysterious, concealed from
our view ? If to inquiries like these we can return a
satisfactory reply then, but not till then, let us think of
determining our idea of the great original Cause by the
effect alone which he has thus exhibited. But if this we
cannot do if, here we are obliged to acknowledge our
ignorance and incapacity, does it not evince the grossest
presumption to set bounds to the power of a Being who
has thus magnificently manifested himself? a power that
defies the calculations of science, and overwhelms the
conceptions of the most daring I
" Yet if we are not adequate to the comprehension of
his power, why should we attempt to fix bounds to any
other attribute or perfection of which the Deity may be
possessed ? That the exertion of power in the works of
creation surpasses the limits of human conjecture, is
what the most hesitating sceptic must allow. As far,
however, as we have been able to discover, an order and
disposition, uniform and similar, prevail throughout the
whole. But order and disposition must be the result of
intelligence. Is the display of power then illimited and
incomprehensible? so is that of wisdom and intelligence.
Is the same all-powerful and intelligent Being, who is the
former of this portion of the universe on which we reside,
the Creator of the universe at large ? the same motives
4
38 MEMOIRS OP
must actuate him, and a conduct not inconsistent be ex-
hibited. That he may possess qualities and energies
with which we are totally unacquainted, will readily be
granted ; yet this must forever remain mere hypothesis,
since \ve have no data on which to found our judgment of
them. Yet, be they what they may, they cannot be in-
congruous with those which are developed to our notice in
the present world : much less can any of them which he
has exhibited, and which reason has taught one_class of
intelligent beings to deem perfections, be ever regarded
by another as defects.
" To confine therefore our ideas of the Deity by the
general appearance of objects and events in the present
world, or any part of that section of the universe, the mere
threshold of creation, with which we are acquainted ; or
to bound those attributes we cannot but allow him by
deductions drawn from so limited a scene is both incon-
sistent and unphilosophical : inconsistent, because we
have no reason to conceive that an active intelligent
Being should at all times exert himself to the utmost of
his power ; unphilosophical, because we have the clearest
reasons for believing that a scene so limited bears not the
proportion to the general system of the universe that a
grain of sand does to the Pyrenees, or a drop of water to
the ocean. And we may, therefore, with the strictest
propriety suppose the Divine Being possessed of a greater
degree of perfection in all his various attributes than the
present situation of things will immediately demonstrate
to the view : and this without advancing from the effect
to the cause, and thence descending to infer other effects
which are totally unconnected with their original. The
reason being that the limited capacities of the human
species are not adequate to a comprehension of the effect
themselves ; and if they cannot fully comprehend the
effect, how is it possible they should be able fully to com-
prehend the cause ?
" I cannot, however, forbear to notice in this place,
that the ascending from an effect to a cause, and thence
descending from the same cause to infer other effects
which we were ignorant of before, is a liberty which is
often taken by philosophers. And that not only in re-
searches which refer to man, or any other animal with
which they are intimately acquainted, but which re-
DR. MASON GOOD. 39
fer to the works of Deity himself. And it is a liberty in-
deed, without which science could no longer exist. The
general laws of nature with which we are acquainted will
most of them afford us a proof of the truth of this assertion.
A close attention to a few particular facts has commonly
been the mode in which they have been deduced : and
when thus deduced as causes of those facts, they have
been afterwards applied to the explanation of other oc-
currences, which before appeared perfectly unaccounta-
ble. The laws of gravitation, which have since been so
successfully applied to every point of the heavens, were,
as is known to every one, at first determined from the
most trifling event possible. And thus, in optics, from a
few observations on some of the phenomena of light are
inferred the general laws of refraction and reflexion :
which when in this manner once obtained, are applied to
the solution of a variety of other phenomena, which
would, otherwise, remain inexplicable paradoxes.
" But suppose we make a farther concession still ; and
allow what, indeed, we find every hour in every day
continually contradicting that the same proportion and
adjustment between cause and effect obtains among ra-
tional and intelligent beings, as among brute, unconscious
matter ; and that the power or capacity of exertion, which
is the cause, is never superior to the operation, which is
the effect: even by this concession, the argument urged
against us, so far from obtaining the least additional force,
would, on the very principles of Mr. Hume himself,
prove the means of its own refutation.
" All our knowledge, even according to his own sys-
tem, with respect to matters of fact and existence, we
derive from experience : and every event, that takes place
in opposition to this grand criterion of our judgment,
must bring with it proofs that will more than counterbal-
ance the observations of every day, before a philosopher
can assent to its truth. It is this constant and unremit-
ted experience which shews us the continual coherence
between cause and effect. Not that the first bears any
analogy to the second, or exerts any sensible influence
over it ; but only, by long habitude, we have accustomed
ourselves to expect the second as the necessary result of
the first. For had causes any analogy to their effects, or
40 MEMOIRS OF
exerted any known energy over them ; immediately on
the appearance of a cause, however singular, and how-
ever impossible to be classed under any determined
species, we should be able, very nearly, to decide at once
what effect it might produce, or to invert the whole : were
an effect equally singular and unparalleled, to be present-
ed to our view, we should, with the same facility, be ena-
bled to interpret its cause. Yet in all such cases, on the
present constitution of things, we should certainly find
ourselves at a loss for an answer.
" It is owing, therefore, entirely to the constant con-
junction of occurrences, as established by the laws of na-
ture, that we are capable of inferring one object from
another, or of predicting one event from a preceding. If
we examine the universe at large, we find it an effect ab-
solutely unparalleled ; and which cannot be comprehend-
ed under any species with which we are acquainted.
And as we cannot, prima facie, infer any effect from a pre-
sented cause, or any cause from a given effect, we find
ourselves obliged to hesitate about what the cause of such
an extraordinary effect may be ; or whether, in reality,
we are capable of conceiving any cause at all. Yet,
taken collectively, the arguments for the existence of a
cause are so potent and convincing, that even in the pre-
sent age of speculation and refinement, and amongst
those who have indulged themselves in the largest lati-
tude of conjecture, there is no philosopher whatever who
has been bold enough to controvert them : or rather who
has not stood forward as the champion and espouser of a
truth so obvious and incontestable : a truth to which Mr.
Hume himself submits with the most cordial acquies-
cence,* which is completely assented to by Lord Bol-
ingbroke,t and imagined to be self-evident by the late
* " The whole frame of nature bespeaks an intelligent author ; and no
rational inquirer can, after serious reflection, suspend his belief a moment
with regard to the primary principles of genuine Theism and Religion."
Hume on the Natural History of Religion.
t " I know, for I can demonstrate, by connecting the clearest and most
distinct of my real ideas, that there is a God ; a first, intelligent cause of
all things, whose infinite wisdom and power appears evidently in all his
works, and to whom therefore I ascribe, most rationally, every other perfec-
tion, whether conceivable or not conceivable by me."
Bolingbroke's Works, vol. m.
DR. MASON GOOD. 41
royal philosopher of Sans Souci.* This mode of argu-
ing, therefore, is obviously fallacious ; is destructive of
principles acknowledged to be incontrovertible ; and if
pursued, would lead us into endless mazes of error and
perplexity. Hume himself was sensible of the conse-
quences which must necessarily result from the continua-
tion of such an argument, and drops it, therefore, abrupt-
ly, without pressing it forward to its extreme; 'lest it
should lead us, as he observes, into reasonings of too nice
and delicate a nature.'
" But the Deity being allowed to possess a capability
of exerting a providential care over his creatures, it has
at times been contended that such an exertion would be
derogatory to his infinite greatness and majesty. A mean
and contracted idea ! and unworthy of a philosopher to
entertain for a moment. However it may be respecting
ourselves, in the view of the Deity nothing can, properly
speaking, be either great or small ; and nothing unwor-
thy the notice of him who created it. If the Deity did
not degrade himself by the formation of his creatures,
much less can he do so by superintending them after they
are formed : for an existing being must at all times be
superior to non-existence ; and though they may have
claims upon his bounty and his protection at present, it is
certain they could have no claim at all anterior to their
actual creation.
" I have, moreover, observed already, that the Creator
is a being of infinite benevolence ; and that the principal
motive he could possibly be actuated by in the formation
of any order of beings, must be their own essential felici-
ty. If it did not degrade him, then, to exert himself in
providing for this felicity at first, it cannot degrade him
in the superintendence and direction of it afterwards ;
and as a being all-active, and all-powerful, he cannot pos-
sibly resist such a conduct.
" In effect, such a superintendence and unremitted ex-
* Le monde entier prouvc cette intelligence. II ne faut qu' ouvrir les
yeux pour s'en convaincre. Les fins que la nature 1'est proposees dans ses
ouvrages, se manifestent si evidemment, qu' on est force de reconnaitre une
cause souveraigne et superieuremeiit inlelligente qui y preside necessaire-
ment. Pour peu qu' on soil de bonne foi, il est impossible de se refuser a
cette vcrile.
Reflexions du Roi de la Prusse sur la Religion.
*4
42 MEMOIRS OP
ertion seems fully proved both from the continued opera-
tion of the laws of nature ; the powers entrusted to man-
kind ; and the various and unexpected events which often
arise to confound the policy of the most artful, and baffle
the strength of the mighty. Were it not so, material
bodies must be possessed of an innate and essential
power of mutual gravitation : a doctrine, as Sir Isaac
Newton observes, too absurd to be credited by any man
in his senses ;* and few events in nature would take
place contrary to our expectation, or at any time excite
our surprise.
" It appears singular and unaccountable, that after ac-
knowledging his belief in the existence of such a general
providence, and indeed contending for its truth, Lord Bol-
ingbroke should, nevertheless, deny the extension of this
providence to individuals. That the same volume which
declares that ' when the immortality of individuals be-
comes that of a w r hole society, then the judgments of
God follow, and men are punished collectively in the
course of a general providence,'! that this same volume
should almost in the same page inform us that ' it is plain
from the whole course of this providence, God regards his
human creatures collectively, and not individually ; how
worthy soever every one of them may deem himself to be
a particular object of the divine care ; and that there is no
foundation in nature for the belief of such a scheme as a
providence thus particular. 't Is not then every collec-
tion and society of beings composed of individuals ? or is
it possible for such a society or collection to be interested
in providential interpositions, and yet for the individuals
that compose it to remain uninterested and unaffected
thereby ? Is it from a view of the derogation we have
before remarked upon, or of fatigue, or of incapacity, that
the Deity should thus restrain himself? or what precise
number of individuals can constitute a society capable of
demanding the full attention of Providence, the abstrac-
tion of a single member from which would immediately
render it unworthy of any further notice or regard ?
" Miserable indeed must have been the situation of
Cadmus or Idomeneus, wandering, as they were, from
* Letters to Dr. Bentley. t Vol. T. Quarto edit.
DR. MASON GOOD. 43
climate to climate, in pursuit of an unknown region ; and
attended, perhaps, by too few associates to induce the in-
terference and benediction of Providence upon their at-
tempts. And still more miserable the fate of a Philoc-
tetes, or a Robinson Crusoe, cut off, by the most de-
sert solitude, from the pleasures of social communication,
and, by the same solitude, deprived of the assistance of
the Deity. And Sophocles had more reason than has
generally been imagined, when he makes the former ex-
claim,
" In fact, every order of created beings whatsoever,
and every station in every various order, must be equally
the object of the attention and care of the Supreme Be-
ing. While Solomon was noticed by him, in all his
glory, he did not forget the ' lily of the field/ in its hum-
bler and more modest array. And whatever difference
there might have appeared to the dazzled eyes of mortals,
between the situation of David or Cincinnatus, when
engaged in the lowlier employments of agriculture and
rural economy, and when advanced to the first dignities
of their different nations, and leading forward their ex-
ulting armies to victory and renown in the grand survey
of the great Creator of all things, such differences and
distinctions must shrink into nothing, and every grada-
tion of life alike enjoy his common protection.
" If the race of man did actually proceed, according to
either the Mosaic history or the fabulous accounts of the
Greeks, from one single pair, or family it is plain, ac-
cording to this doctrine, that Providence could have little
to do with the world, either at its first creation, or imme-
diately after the deluge : and it would form a curious in-
quiry, and one, I fear, not easily resolved, at what period,
from either of these grand epochs, were mankind, so
multiplied as to become proper objects of providential no-
tice ?
" Pope, who is often the mere echo of Bolingbroke,
who was ' formed by his converse,' as he expresses it
* O Death, where art them, Death ? so often called,
Wilt thou not listen ? wilt thou never come 7 Francktia.
44 MEMOIRS OP
himself, and had, ' in his little bark, attended his triumph
and partaken the gale' so far, that he was often ignorant
of his own latitude has, nevertheless, dared to differ
from his noble patron on this subject, and discovers a
manly independence in thinking for himself. The pro-
vidence of God, according to him, extends alike to every
being, the most lowly as well as the most exalted, the
peasant as well as the prince.
' And sees, with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall :
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.'*
A noble and philosophic sentiment, whose beauty is only
proportioned to its truth.
" But it has, farther, been alleged, and in that part of
the allegation which regards individuals, Lord Boling-
broke unites in opinion, that no providence or divine
interposition, either general or particular, can ever exist
without infringing on the liberty of moral election.
" Now it is possible, and indeed nothing is more com-
mon, than for influences and interpositions to subsist be-
tween man and man, and yet for the liberty of the person
who is acting to remain as free and inviolate as ever.
Such are often the result of the remonstrances of friend-
ship, such, of the counsels of wisdom and experience.
We consent to desist from one particular mode of con-
duct, and to pursue its opposite, whenever the first is de-
monstrated to us to be unjust or deleterious ; and the se-
cond to be advantageous, or consistent with rectitude.
We act under the influence of the representations of our
friends, but we perceive not, in thus acting, and in reali-
ty, do not submit to, any infringement on our liberty of
choice.
" Shall we, then, allow the existence of such an imper-
ceptible power in man, and yet maintain that it cannot
possibly exist in the Supreme Being? If the man of ad-
dress, from a superficial knowledge of our character and
opinions, is so far capable of insinuating himself into our
favor, as often to influence and direct our ideas and our
* Essay on Man.
DR. MAS OX GOOD. 45
actions to the very point he has in view must not a Be-
ing who is all-powerful, and all-active, who is acquainted
with the deepest recesses of the soul, who views every
thought as it arises, and knows by what motives it may
most assuredly be influenced, must not such a Being be
capable of directing, with infinitely more ease, the train
of its ideas ; and, at pleasure, either subtract from, or make
addition to, the force of the motives that govern it ? How-
ever impossible this may be on the doctrine of moral ne-
cessity, and supposing the same severity of fate to subsist
throughout the ideas and actions of intelligent beings,
that is ever to be met with in the physical depart-
ment of creation far from any such impossibility of con-
duct resulting from the opposite doctrine, it is a conduct
that appears perfectly natural to the Almighty Creator,
and which, in fact, he must unavoidably pursue.
" The poetry of Tasso, therefore, is not more sublime
than his philosophy is just, when, in his description of the
glories of heaven, and the magnificence of the eternal
throne, he adjoins
' Sedea cola, dond' egli, e buono e giusto,
Da legge al tutto : e '1 tutto orna, e perduce ;
Souvra i bassi confin del mondo angusto,
Ove senso, o ragion non si conduce.'*
" I grant that the belief of a providence thus particular
has been the source of a thousand errors and extravagant
conceits in the minds of the enthusiastic and superstitious.
But, not to urge that right reason can never admit the
doctrine of a general providence, without, at the same
time, including that of a particular, it does not follow
that a proposition must be false because some visionary
adherents to it pretend to deduce consequences which
are not necessarily involved in it, and with which, in re-
ality, they are by no means connected. I am not con-
tending for the inspiration of De Serres,t or the wander-
* Gerusalemme Liberata, cant. 9. sta. 56.
! Tis there he sits, the just the good Supreme;
Propounds his laws, and harmonizes all :
And leads the tribes of this diminish'd orb
Thro' scenes where sense and doubting reason fails,
t II j" ayoit deja lon<r tente que dans les montagnes des Cevennes et da
Vivares il 1' elevait des inspires et des prophetes. Un vieil huguenot,
40 MEMOIRS OP
ing tribe of prophets who united themselves to him on the
mountains of the Cevennes, at the period of the revoca-
tion of the edict of Nantz ; nor for the invisible interpo-
sition to which the excellent but too credulous Baxter
attributed it, that ' his small linen, when hung out to dry,
was caught up in an eddy, and carried out of sight, over
the church steeple :'* but there are, nevertheless, a thou-
sand events occur, as well in the lives of individuals, as
in what relates to society at large, v/hich though they
cannot be said to violate the established laws of nature
we are by no means led to expect ; and, indeed, the very
reverse of which we have been secretly predicting.
"That Charles the Eighth, or Francis the = First of
France, men who had devoted the earliest and most vigo-
rous hours of their lives to illicit amors and continual
debaucheries of every kind, should complain, towards the
advance of age, of pains and debilities, and a constitution
totally broken arid worn out ; and, at length, fall victims
to their own irregularities and misconduct : or that Louis
the Eleventh, or others, men who never hesitated to em-
ploy either artifice or murder for the accomplishment of
their purposes, should, at length, become fearful of their
own personal safety, be perpetually haunted by the hor-
rors of their own imaginations, and the lawless deeds they
had committed ; and at last sink into an early grave
through mere distrust and disquietude of spirit ; that
men thus abandoned or dishonest should in this manner,
in due time, meet with the very punishments they so rich-
ly deserved, may not particularly excite our surprise, as
being merely the obvious consequences of causes equally
obvious and natural. But when we behold the Dauphin,
who was afterwards Charles the Seventh of France, pur-
nomme de Sevres, avail tenu ecole de prophetic. II montrait aux enfans les
paroles de 1' ecriture qui disent " quand trois ou quatre sont assembles en
tnon nom, mon esprit est parmi eux ; et avcc un grain de foi un transporters
des montagnes." Ensuite il recevait 1' esprit : if etait hors de lui-meme : il
avail des convulsions : il changeait de voix : il restait immobile, egare, les
cheveux herisses, selon 1' ancien usage de toutes les nations, et selon ces
regies de demence transmises de siecle en siecle. Les enfans recevoient
ainsi le don de prophetic : et s'ils ne transportaient pas des montagnes,
c'est qu'ils avaienl assez de foi pour recevoir I'esprit, et pas assez pour faire
des miracles : ainsi ils redoublaient de ferveur pour obtenir ce dernier don.
Siecle de Louis 14. par. M. de Francheville, torn. 2.
World of Spirils.
DR. MASON GOOD. 47
sued with resistless impetuosity by the victorious Henry
the Fifth of England a wretched fugitive in a country
he was afterwards destined to sway with so much eclat
incapable of providing himself and his family with the
common necessaries of life ; his father, the reigning mo-
narch, disordered in his intellects ; his mother, the flagi-
tious and unnatural Isabelle, consulting to save herself
by marrying her daughter to the young conqueror, in ex-
clusion of the dauphin, apparently for ever ; when we
survey the nation vanquished in every part, and the vic-
tor, exulting iu the mighty deeds he had achieved, ad-
vancing towards Paris with all the pomp of royalty and
success; there to be crowned, unanimously, sovereign of
the conquered country : when we survey these things,
and learn that at this eventful moment the successful
Henry expires abruptly in the bloom of youth and vigor,
and leaves his victorious armies to save themselves, in
their turn, by a disgraceful retreat ; or when, in later
time?, we read the history of the memorable armada of
Spain, destined for the conquest of this country, which
Philip the Second had almost ruined himself and his peo-
ple to complete, and which Sixtus the Fifth, the reigning
Pope, had consecrated, and bestowed his benediction up-
on ; when we survey this mighty armament pressing on
the very shores of Great Britain with all the insolence of
conscious triumph, and mark it defeated by a force far in-
ferior to itself, and wrecked, by the most opportune tem-
pests, on the very coasts it had a few moments before so
insolently menaced : when reverses of fortune like these
are occurring around us, so abrupt and decisive the vul-
gar may stare and keep silence, the man of science may
pretend to account for them, and resolve the whole into
different, though capricious, combinations of natural
causes and effects : but the true philosopher, the man of
real reflection, even while he acknowledges the presence
and energy of natural causation, and contends not for any
miraculous interposition, traces, nevertheless, throughout
the whole, the secret direction of an invisible and supe-
rior power : a power to whom every element submits,
and who superintends, at pleasure, the complicated con-
cerns of mankind : a power, who alike amidst all the
fluctuating fortunes of individuals or of kingdoms, stil!
' Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.'
48 MEMOIRS OF
Such has been the situation of things in all ages ; such
the recurrence of the peripetia in the grand drama of hu-
man life : and such the sentiments by which every nation
has, at all times, been actuated. Hence altars have been
erected, temples dedicated, and vows profused, without
number ; hence the wrath of the presiding deity has been
deprecated, or his benediction coveted and besought.
Can we, then, influenced by considerations like these
by rational arguments and the sanction and testimony of
every nation and climate under heaven can we do oth-
erwise than conclude, in the words of the Roman orator,
' Deos esse, et eorum providentia mundum adminis-
trari ; eosdemque consulere rebus humanis ; nee solum
universis, verum etiam singulis ?' "*
About the same time that the Essay on Providence was
written, Mr. Good prepared for a Review (I believe, the
Analytical,} a critique of a work on Miracles, in which
several of the sophisms of Rousseau were refuted. The
work itself, however satisfactory in point of reasoning,
did not advance anything that was essentially new. But
the reviewer makes one observation, which, if it has not
the air of perfect novelty, is so important, and has, not-
withstanding, been so little regarded, that I make no
apology for transcribing it into these pages.
" The miracles recorded in the Gospel are not of the
momentary kind, or miracles of even short duration ;
but they were such as were attended with permanent
effects. The flitting appearance of a spectre, the hear-
ing of a supernatural sound, may each be regarded as a
momentary miracle : the sensible proof is gone, when
the apparition disappears, or the sound ceases. But it is
not so, if a person born blind be restored to sight, or a
notorious cripple to the use of his limbs, or a dead man
to life ; for in each of these cases a permanent effect is
produced by supernatural means. The change, indeed,
was instantaneous, but the proof continues. The subject
of the miracle remains : the man cured is there : his
former condition was known, and his present condition
may be examined and compared with it. Such cases
* Cicer. 1 Di\ in. n. 117.
DR. MASON GOOD. 49
can, by no possibility, be resolved into false perception,
or trick ; and of this kind are by far the greater portion of
the miracles recorded in the New Testament/'
Early in the year 1793, Mr. Good was cheered with
the prospect of surmounting his difficulties, by removing
to London. He received a proposal to go into partner-
ship with Mr. W.,* a surgeon and apothecary of exten-
sive practice in the metropolis; and having also an official
connexion, as surgeon, with one of the prisons. Circum-
stances seemed auspicious ; though it appears from a
letter of Mr. Good's to his friend Dr. Drake, bearing
date January 17th, 1793, that his intended partner was
not ignorant of the art of driving a hard bargain. " I
have at length (says he) settled the matter between Mr.
W. and myself, after having conceded to his own terms ;
which, though more severe than I expected, will, I hope,
answer in the end. I have agreed to connect myself with
him at Ladyday ; so that then, or soon afterwards, we
must leave the country."
Another passage in the same letter, serves to acquaint
us with the manner which he usually pursued in the com-
position of his smaller pieces. " Some (says Johnsont)
employ, at once, memory and invention, and, with little
intermediate use of the pen, form and polish large masses
by continued meditation, and write their productions, only
when, in their own opinion, they have completed them."
Such was, in great measure, the process adopted by Mr.
Good ; with this additional peculiarity, that, by meditat-
ing about himself, or the circumstances in which he was
placed, he often seemed to forget himself; or, instead of
thinking of himself as the being over whose perplexities
he was cogitating in sober sadness, he transformed him-
self into the subject of a poem, either grave or lively, as
the presiding muse dictated : thus causing reverie to
triumph over reality. Whether walking or riding, taking
a larger or a shorter journey, travelling by day or by
night, in fair or in tempestuous weather, in pursuit of
pleasure, or aiming to free himself from pain ; his elastic
intellect was uncoiling itself, and, by an appropriate effort
accomplishing its assigned task. In every variety of cir-
* I suppress all but the initial, designedly. fLife of Pope.
5
50 MEMOIRS OP
cumstances he exercised the power of composition ; and
often, as will be seen, with great success.
Speaking of his journey to London, in the Letter
already quoted, he says
11 The sun shone a little at fftst, but soon disappeared.
I was too early for the moon, and began to contemplate
nothing but a gloom of solid darkness, only interrupted
by the aurora borealis; when fortunately for me, and for
my feelings, the evening star broke through the clouds,
and continued to emit a brilliant though slender light
during the rest of my journey. I was so much amused
by its society, that on my road, as I travelled, I could not
avoid composing the elegy beneath."
TO THE EVENING STAR.
Composed during a Journey.
Bright star of Love ! that pour'st thy steady light,
While all around is darkness and dismay ;
Companion mid the solitude of night,
Right art thou nam'd, and blessed be thy ray.
Sunk is the sun, the moon is far estrang'd,
Clouds rise, and many a treacherous meteor sweeps;
But thy true lamp, unchanging and unchang'd,
Still o'er the gloom its heavenly guidance keeps.
Emblem of friendship seldom found on earth,
Where change alike, and treachery, are bred ;
And many a wretch, all reckless of their birth,
Sees them and feels them bursting o'er his head.
Yes, many a wretch, who, first, his blithe career,
Like me, in smiles and cloudless skies begun ;
High flush'd with hope, with carol and good cheer,
Who hail'd his lot, and loitered in the sun :
Like me, deceiv'd ; and doom'd too soon to try,
A different scene that all his soul appals :
Friends, flatterers fail, rude whirlwinds ride the sky,
And a long night of woe before him falls.
Taught by thyself, should fortune's cruel spite
A wretch thus hopeless, e'er to me disclose,
Then will I, too, uplift my little light,
To soothe the traveller amidst his woes.
DR. MASON GOOD. 51
Small are my means, and humble is my birth ;
But thou hast prov'd, thus glimmering o'er the road,
'Tis not the extent of aid that stamps its worth,
But the nice hour in which that aid's bcstow'd.
The subjoined jcu d'esprit, composed at the time of
his quitting Sudbury, serves also to illustrate the pecu-
liarity of mind to which I have adverted.
VERSES TO A BATH STOVE,
On leaving it Ichint 1 , in a House from which I removed.
Here rest, O Stove ! the fondest friends must part,
Whate'cr the sorrow that subdues the heart ;
Here rest, a monument to all behind,
Of the chief virtues that enrich the mind.
For thrice three years I've known thee, and have found
Thy service clean, thy constitution sound.
Amidst a world of changes, thou hast stood
Fixt to thy post, illustriously good ;
Unwarp'd, inflexible, and true, whate'er
Thy fiery toils, and thou hast had thy share ;
For never Stoic of the porch has felt
A frame more firm, or less disposed to melt ;
And sooner than o'er thine, mankind might seek
For iron tears o'er Pluto's marble cheek.
Yet hast thou shewn, in fulness and in want,
Virtues that ne'er in rugged bosoms haunt ;
Gr-ate-fuJl when loaded, and when empty seen
With a still fairer and 'more beauteous mien :
For polished is thy make, and form'd to impart
Light to the mind, and solace to the heart.
When nunib'd by vapors, or a frowning sky,
When deadly gloom has weigh'd down every eye,
When dark my views, or doubtful my career,
I've sought thy radiance, all has soon been clear ;
Nature her face has hasten'd to resume,
. Each doubt decamp 'd, and glee succeeded gloom.
But chief at friendship's call, thy generous make
Has prov'd its powers, and rous'd for friendship's sake,
Warm in her sacred cause, and ever found
Warmest when all is cold and languid round :
Then most provok'd, while every bitter blow
But stirs thy bowels to a keener glow.
Howe'er aspers'd or injur'd in his pride,
Let but the sufferer reach thy shelt'ring side,
Quick he forgets the numerous ills that swarm,
Nor heeds i( the pelting of the pitiless storm."
52 MEMOIRS OF
Farewell ! and may the virtues that are thine,
Shine through the land, in thy own lustre shine.
I go ior such my lot, and I am free,
But thou art fixt. and canst not follow me,
Fixt to thy station, and forbid to rove ;
So fare thee well, thou pure and polish'd Stove.
In April 1793, at the age of 29, Mr. Good, pursuant
to his agreement with Mr. W., removed to London. He
was then full of health and spirits, ardently devoted to
his profession, and anxious to distinguish himself in the
new sphere of action in which he was placed. His cha-
racter soon began to be duly apprecnted amongst medical
men ; and on the 7th of November the same year, he
was admitted a Member of the College of Surgeons.
But a change of scene only carried with it a change of
perplexities. His partner in a short time became jealous
of his talents, and of his rising popularity ; and had re-
course to the basest means of injuring his reputation. If
Mr. Good prescribed one course of treatment of a private
patient, Mr. W. would in the next visit prescribe one that
was diametrically opposite. If Mr. Good made an entry
in the prison books, Mr. W. in the succeeding entry would
contradict it. If Mr. Good rose obviously in the estima-
tion of a private patient, or his relatives, Mr. W. would
set himself, by paltry insinuations, to excite doubts of his
judgment or skill. And so on from day to day. The
result may at once be anticipated. The business failed ;
the partnership was dissolved ; Mr. W. died in the Fleet
prison ; and Mr. Good was again generously assisted by
his affectionate relative at Ballingdon Hall. Mr. Good,
however, as before, shrunk from the full reception of the
aid offered him by Mr. Fenn, though he gratefully re-
ceived essential help. He disguised the entire magnitude
of his embarrassments from Mrs. Good and her family,
and resolved to surmount them principally by his own
exertions. I do not mention this determination for the
sake of commending it, but for the sake of again mark-
ing its result upon his general character. An increasing
family, project after project defeated, the frequent occur-
rence of unforeseen vexations, served but as new incen-
tives to his professional activity, and to the most extended
literary research. Thus circumstanced, for three or four
DR. MASON GOOD. 53
years, he concealed his anxieties from those he most loved,
maintained a cheerful demeanor among his friends, pur-
sued his theoretical and practical inquiries into every
accessible channel ; and, at length, by God's blessing
upon his exertions, surmounted every difficulty, and ob-
tained professional reputation and employment, sufficient
to satisfy his thirst for fame, and to place him in what
are usually regarded as reputable and easy circumstances.
Eager to obtain distinction amongst medical men, he
as eagerly availed himself of every opportunity to accom-
plish that object. In March 1794, Dr. Lettsom, an ac-
tive and benevolent member of the " Medical Society,"
(meeting in Bolt Court, Fleet Street,) offered, through
the medium of that useful and truly respectable institu-
tion, a premium of twenty guineas for the best disserta-
tion on the question " What are the diseases most fre-
quent in workhouses, poorhouses, and similar institutions,
and what are the best means of cure and of prevention ?"
The prize was to be awarded in February 1795. Mr.
Good was one of the competitors, and had the satisfaction,
when the time of announcing the result arrived, to learn
that his dissertation was successful, and to receive the
request of the counsel, that he " would publish the said
dissertation as soon as possible." With a request so
gratifying to his best feelings, he immediately complied.*
From this time Mr. Good continued, as a member of
the Medical Society, often as a member of its council, and
for two or three years as one of its secretaries, to promote
its interests. He also became an active member of a so-
ciety, constituted in the year 1794, under the title of
' The General Pharmaccutic Association ;" whose main
design was to preserve the distinction between the apothe-
cary and the druggist, which had for so many ages pre-
vailed, and which, from recent circumstances, it was ap-
prehended would be merged and lost, unless some special
efforts were made to prevent it. Not only in London,
* The " Dissertation' r was published in the course of the year 1795, wilk
a supplementary description of" a singular case of preternatural fetation,"
which had occurred in his practice at Sudbury.
*5
54 MEMOIRS OF
but in almost every town in Great Britain, men of the
most illiterate character and habits, ignorant of the sci-
ence of medicine, of the formulae of prescription, of the
theory and practice of chemistry, ignorant, often, even of
the English language, obtained extensive business as
druggists, and not unfrequently connected with that the
occupations of bleeding, tooth-drawing, and bone-setting.
In various instances, country grocers had practised ac-
tively in these kindred departments ; and the mischief,
as may easily be conjectured, was immense. A man
practised surgery and pharmacy, no farther from London
than the village of Beckenham, whose whole medical
education consisted in having been " stable-boy, for two
years, to a surgeon in that neighborhood." At Uckfield
there were three " grocer-druggists" who prescribed, and
in cases of difficulty applied to their London drug-mer-
chant for help. Some " drug-dealing grocers, at Mar-
low," substituted (for want of better knowledge) arsenic
for cream of tartar, tinctures of opium and jalap for those
of senna and rhubarb, and nitre for glauber's salts; thus
ruining instead of restoring the healths of those who were
unfortunate enough to consult them. A druggist at
Croydon, after laboring hard to ascertain the precise
meaning of the words " cucurbita cruentia," discovered,
at length, with the kind aid of an equally learned disciple
of JSsculapius, that they denoted "an electric shock."
A medical gentleman at Worcester prescribed for his pa-
tient as follows : " Decoct. Cascarillae ^ vij. Tinct. ejus-
dem f j." This prescription was sent to a druggist in
that city to be made up. The shopman who had the
principal care of the business, having sought in vain for a
phial labelled Tinct. ejusdem, sent to the shops of other
druggists to procure it : but the search was fruitless,
there was no Tinct. ejusdcm to be procured in the city of
Worcester, and the prescription was actually returned to
the physician with an earnest request that he would sub-
stitute some other ingredient for this scarce tincture !
Another blunder, but, unfortunately of serious conse-
quence, occurred in the year 1795 in the same city. A
physician being requested to prescribe for a boy of 10
years old, the son of a poor woman, laboring under a
DR. MASON GOOD. 55
dyspnoea, directed this draught to be given him at bed-
time : " fi. Syr. Papav. Alb. 3 j- Tinct. Opii Camph.
3 ij. Aq. Distill. 3 vm." It was prepared by a druggist's
shopman, who had not heard of the new name for Pare-
goric Elixir, and therefore made it with 3 ij- of Tinct.
Opii : he advised the mother to give the child only half
of the draught, but that proved sufficiently strong to de-
prive him of life in about twenty-four hours.
These are only a few of the numerous instances, some
ludicrous, others horrible, of the ignorance of druggists
in town and country, which were then notorious, and uni-
versally spoken of. The objects of the Pharmaceutic
Association were, to expose and remove these evils, to get
the business of druggist placed under certain restrictions,
and the practice of medicine freed from the odium which
ignorance thus notorious was calculated to produce. At
the request of some of his colleagues in the Association,
Mr. Good drew up "- A History of Medicine, so far as it
relates to the profession of the Apothecary, from the ear-
liest accounts to the present period." The work was
published in 1795, and served, in conjunction with the
labors of the Association, to call the general attention of
medical men, and of the intelligent portion of society, to
the ignorance above adverted to, and its baneful effects.
The institution was not able to accomplish all that it pro-
jected, but it occasioned the first step in a desirable re-
formation ; so that druggists are now, in general, men of
liberal education, who run little or no risk of blundering
in the disgraceful manner of their predecessors.
Engaging very warmly in the objects of this Associa-
tion, and in others connected with the science and prac-
tice of medicine, still Mr. Good continued to pursue his
literary inquiries ; and, as heretofore, to soothe his mind
by the delights of poetry. The poets of France and Italy
seemed now most to employ him ; and several of his
translations, in the years 1793, 1794, and 1795, are natu-
rally marked with a thoughtful tinge. Such, for example,
are the following elegantly pensive lines.
56 MEMOIRS OF
TRANSLATION.
From Clement e Bondi of Parma.
(In Parnasso degl' Iinliani Viventi.)
Oft have I said that death should close
This life of darkness and despair ;
But HOPE as oft would interpose,
And say " To-morrow 'twill be fair."
To-morrow came, alike unkind,
Yet HOPE alike refus'd to fly ;
Still, still I see her nor can find
A heart to suffer or to die.
SONNET TO PEACE.
Translated from the same.
Peace, born of heav'n ! O tell me where to attain,
Mid wretched mortals, thine unsullied rest.
Thee the proud tyrant, and his golden crest,
Thee, mid his flock, the shepherd seeks in vain.
Gold cannot buy thee, nor plunvd honors gain,
Too vile a price for so rever'd a guest :
Gay sports thou fliest, and every joy possess'd
Palls without thee, or changes into pain.
In crowded cities, or the hermit shade,
Rove we abroad, or rest at home secure,
Nor art nor skill can give thee to our aid :
Where may I find thee, then ? ah ! well I know
Jn heav'n alone thou dwell'st, serene and pure :
Fool that I was ! to seek thee here below.
By this time, however, the rich diversity and extent of
Mr. Good's talents and acquirements began to be known,
and literary men evinced as great an eagerness to culti-
vate his acquaintance, as he did to avail himself of theirs.
Fond of society, and peculiarly fitted to shine in it, he
had no difficulty in receiving and imparting the appropri-
ate gratification. Besides several of the leading men in
the medical profession, he numbered among his frequent
associates at this period, Drs. Disney, Rees, Hunter, Ged-
DR. MASON GOOD.
57
dea, Messrs. Maurice, Fuzeli, Charles Butler, Gilbert
Wakefield, and others whose names do not now occur to
me; most of them individuals of splendid talents and re-
condite attainments, but belonging to a school of theolo-
gy, which though he approved, he afterwards found it
conscientiously necessary to abandon.*
In the year 1797, as appears from a letter to Dr. Drake,
Mr. Good commenced his translation of Lucretius. He
says, " I have been much urged to persevere by many of
my most respectable friends of real taste ; and especially
by Gilbert Wdkejtekf, who, by the bye, is no\v collating a
most superb Latin edition of Lucretius." Of this labor,
which employed much of our author's time and thoughts
for many years, I shall speak more fully in another place.
The undertaking stimulated Mr. Good to the study of
various other languages, at first, in order to the successful
search of parallel passages, but ere long with much more
enlarged views. In another letter to Dr. Drake, dated
October, 1799, he says, " I have just begun the German
language, having gone with tolerable ease through the
French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese." In a few
months afterwards he sent specimens of his translations,
especially of pieces of elegant poetry, to the Doctor and
other friends. In December, 1800, he informs him that
he had been sedulously studying the Arabic and Persian ;
and in a short time he gave proofs of his acquisition of
those languages, both by private communications to his
friends, and by articles in some of the Reviews.t
Whenever a man distinguishes himself by acquiring a
correct knowledge of several languages, we cannot but
feel desirous to ascertain at least the outlines of the plan
which he pursued. Elementary instruction in languages
has hitherto been made almost entirely to depend upon
the faculty of memory, without an adequate regard to the
reflective and the associating principles of the mind ; and
yet nothing can be more obvious than the essential differ-
ence between a series of positive unconnected efforts of
memory, and another series which shall be connected by
some law of association. If, for example, a student of
natural philosophy be informed that the hydrostatic pres-
Unitarian.
f The Russian, Sanscrit, Chinese, and other languages, engaged his at-
tention at no very remote period.
58 MEMOIRS OF
sure of raiu or river water upon a square inch at the depth
of 5 feet is equal to 2 pounds and 3-5ths avoirdupois, the
truth, however important, can only be fixed in the mind
by a frequent repetition of both numbers ; and, even then,
there is risk of their sliding from the thoughts after a
short time, from the want of an obvious connexion be-
tween the numbers 5 and 2 o-5. But if the student be
informed that at the depth of thirty feet the pressure upon
a square inch is equivalent to thirteen pounds, and it be,
at the same time, impressed upon his mind that the first
syllable of the words thirty and thirteen is the same, the
law of association tends to render the impression perma-
nent ; and the scientific truth will recur to his thoughts
whenever it is needed. So again, the numbers 1 and
3*141593, which express the relation of the diameter to
the circumference of a circle, having no natural con-
nexion, can only be remembered positively after frequent
repetition ; and this would also be the case with the num-
bers 113 and 355, which express the same relation, un-
less it should be explained to the student that these
numbers are together constituted of repetitions in pairs
of the first three odd numbers, 1,1; 3, 3 ; 5, 5 ; when
it will really become as difficult to forget the ratio
of 1 13 to 355, as, without a marked reference to this pe-
culiarity in the sequence of the figures, it would be found
to remember it. Now, if this universal attribute of intel-
lect had been understood by our standard grammarians^
would they compel the youths who study their works to
get by rote five very bad hexameter verses, in an un-
known language, in order that they might learn, what all
but the veriest dunces knew before, that the names of
gods and men are masculine, while those of goddesses
and women are of the feminine gender ? Or, would
they, for the purpose of teaching that the nouns ftnius
and spon ^alia are seldom used in the singular number,
compel them to learn " Ftinusju&ta petit, petit ct spi'tita-
lia virgo," to learn, that is, in plain English, that " a fu-
neral requires solemnities, and a virgin requires espou-
sals." to learn seven Latin words in order that they may
recollect two ? Certainly, no man who understands many
languages ever acquired them thus.
When that extraordinary youth, Barretter, learned the
DR. MASON GOOD. 59
French. Gorman, and Latin, at a very early age, he was
not, says Dr. Johnson, " taught in the common way by a
multitude of definitions, rules, and exceptions, which fa-
tigue the attention, and burden the memory, without any
use proportionate to the time which they require, and the
disgust which they create," but he learned them all in
the same manner, and almost at the same time, by con-
versing in them indifferently with his father. " The oth-
er languages of which he was master, he learned by a
method yet more uncommon. The only book which he
made use of was the Bible, which his lather laid before
him in the language that he then proposed to learn, ac-
companied with a translation, being taught by degrees
the inflections of nouns and verbs." This latter method,
although open to objection, has the advantage of being
founded upon the principle of association.
Mr. Good seems early to have caught, and steadily to
have pursued and applied, the same principle. Before
he was twenty-four years of age, I have every reason to
believe that he had attentively studied, and reduced to an
intellectual classification, the results collected by Cham-
berlayne in his "Oratio Dominica in omnium fore gentium
lingua* versa." From the perusal of the first volumes of
" Asiatic Researches," he derived a confirmation of his
own conjecture, that all languages have a common origin.
It was but natural to a spirit so fond of generalizing, of
tracing analogies and resemblances, as his, to work out
this idea. He sought, and thought that he found, a gen-
eral unity of principle ; that the common divisions and
rules of one language are the common divisions and rules
of the whole ; that, hence, every national grammar is, in
a certain sense, a universal grammar ; and that there is
often a uniform employment of the very same terms, in
a great variety of languages, to express the very same
ideas. This being completely established in his mind,
the principle of association was brought into full exercise,
and his classified store, which was augmenting almost
daily, served greatly to diminish the labor of studying a
new language; and indeed, as may naturally be expected,
rendered the attainment of every fresh language easier
than that of the preceding. He believed that certain
terms which served to mark the relation of man with
60
MEMOIRS OF
things about him, or of man with man, as those indica-
tive of earth, sky, death, Deity, father, brother, man, &/c.
would be nearly the same under every change of time, or
variety of climate ; and he found it so. .He was hence
led to classify the words which express the numerals, the
ordinals, common nouns, the declension of nouns, of
adjectives, the conjugations of verbs, &c., and detected
affinities and relations which would not fail to surprise
those who have not engaged in such pursuits ; but many
of which, however, are now rendered familiar to men of
reading, by the works of Colebrook, Townsend, Ad clung,
&/c. Fearful of rendering an inquiry dry, which I have
not the power to make instructive, I shall only present a
few of the examples selected by Mr. Good himself assu-
ming the Sanscrit as the common parent.
The following is the present tense of the verb substan-
tive :
Sanscrit . Asmi . asi . asti smah . st'ha . santi.
Greek
Russian
Latin
Persian
Welsh
Eno-lish
. 17-fJll
, esm
, sum
. am
.wyv
am
wyt
.art
est esmui . esti . sot.
est sumus . estis . sunt.
ast aim . ai'd' . and.
oes ym . ych . ynt.
. is are . are . are.
This verb is defective in many languages. In Latin
and in Welsh several tenses are formed from an old verb,
which only survives in the Sanscrit in a tolerably perfect
form. This is Bhavanii, bhavasi, bhavati, &c. answering
to the German ich bin, du bist, foe. The preter tense
of this verb in Latin, Fui, fuisti, fuit, coincides with the
Welsh Bum, buost, bii ; and the Latin fuissem, fuisses,
fuisset, &c. with the Welsh Buaswn, buasit, buasai, bua-
sem, buasech, buasent. The future in the Russian agrees
with the Welsh, as Budu, budesh, budet budem, &,c.,
which, in Welsh, is Byddav (pronounced budhav,) byddi,
bydd byddwn, byddwch, byddant.
The verb to eat coincides almost as closely :
Sanscrit. Adrni . atsi . atti admas . att'lia adanti.
Latin.
Edo
. edis,
. edit,
edimus
. editis edunt.
es
. est
estis
Greek.
tfai
. lift!!
i<f
c^o//W
. WW< iiTbvri
Russian.
iem
. iesh
. ieat
iedim
. iedite iedyat.
German.
esse
. issest
. isst
essen
. esset essen.
(JJol.)
DR. MASON GOOD. 61
Some Sanscrit verbs coincide most with the Greek,
others the Latin,
as Jivami jivasi jivati jivamah jivathah jivanti,
with Vivo vivis vivit vivimus vivitis vivunt.
Dadami, dadasi, dadate. with ftJ~(*i, <fte, ttZ.<rt, &c.
Possessing such means of exfoliating the affinities of
language, and growing collections of classified facts, Mr.
Good turned to the study of a new language with delight.
A dictionary, a standard grammar, his own tables, and
an excellent memory, enabled him to set to work upon
one or two of the best authors in the language selected.
Perhaps he made but little progress at first ; but so soon
as he had unveiled enough of the structure and genius of
the language to apply to it his principles of generaliza-
tion and association, the remaining task was compara-
tively easy, and he soon accomplished his wishes. This
process, it is true,^did not make him critically master of
every language to which he directed his attention ; but
it gave him the capacity of detecting and relishing the
beauties of the best authors in those which he was most
anxious to explore ; and it supplied him with views of
the general analogies of language, as well as of the diver-
sities and peculiarities which prevented those general
analogies from becoming universal, more comprehensive,
and more practical than any other person, (except he
were a linguist merely) whom I have had the happiness
to kno\v.
But it is time I should pursue my narrative. From the
year 1797 to 1803 or 1804, Mr. Good contributed largely
to some of the Reviews and other periodical publications.
The Analytical and Critical Reviews were those in which
his productions usually appeared : though there are a few
very interesting specimens of his taste and erudition in
the British and the Monthly Magazines. Thus, in the
latter magazine for August, 1800, there is a paper on
German Literature, with two translations from Klopstock's
Messias. And in the number for January, 1801, there
is an elegant communication on the resemblance of Per-
sian and Arabic poetry to the Greek and Roman, with
several spirited versions. But, during greater part of
this, and even a longer period, his principal commuuica-
6
O* MEMOIRS OP
tions were to the Critical Review ; of which, indeed, he
was for some time the editor, and the labor of preparing
the most elaborate articles often devolved upon him. It
has not been in my power to obtain a list of these ; so
that I am only able to specify the critiques upon Hindley's
Persian Lyrics, Allwood's Literary Antiquities of Greece,
and of some poems by Sir B. Burgess and Mrs. Cowley.
In the beginning of 1803, his labors were still more
multifarious. He was finishing his translation of Solo-
mon's "Song of Songs," carrying on his life of Dr. Ged-
des, walking from twelve to fourteen miles a day, that he
might see his numerous patients : nor was this all. In a
letter to Dr. Drake, (dated Jan. 29, 1803,) after speaking
of these engagements, and adverting with thankfulness
to the state of his business as a surgeon, (which then
produced more than ='1400 per annum, he proceeds thus:
" I have edited the Critical Review, besides writing
several of its most elaborate articles I have every week
supplied a column of matter for the Sunday Review and
have for some days had the great weight of the British
Press upon my hands ; the Committee for conducting
which having applied to me lately, in the utmost consterna-
tion, in consequence of a trick put upon them by the pro-
prietors of other newspapers, and which stopped abruptly
the exertions of their editor and several of their most
valuable hands."
So great a variety of occupations would have thrown
most men into confusion : but such was the energy of
Mr. Good's mind, such his habits of activity and order,
that he carried them all forward simultaneously, suffer-
ing none to be neglected, left in arrear, or inadequately
executed.
Towards the end of this busy year, Mr. and Mrs.
Good were called to sustain a heavy trial, in the death of
their only son ; a child who evinced a most cheerful and
amiable disposition, manners that were remarkably fas-
cinating, with precocious, yet constantly aspiring intel-
lectual powers. Mr. Good, for a season sunk under the
pressure of his affliction, in a way that greatly alarmed
his friends. He felt all the agony that such a stroke
was likely to inflict on an affectionate heart ; a stroke
whose magnitude can only be duly estimated by those
DR. MASON GOOD. 63
who have sustained it ; but neither in his own judgment,
nor in that of his family, did he derive from it the salutar
ry lesson, even as to the precarious tenure of earthly bles-
sings, which it was calculated to impart ; and long indeed
was it before he could acquiesce in the Divine dispensa-
tion, and adopt the language, " It is well." Nearly
eight years afterwards, it pleased the Supreme Disposer
of events to visit the writer of these pages with a similar
affliction : and among the letters of condolence and sym-
pathy which he received on that mournful occasion, was
the following from his valued friend Mr. Good, which
presents the most striking evidence of the state of deep
feeling with which he, even then, contemplated his own
loss.
Caroline Place, May 7th, 1811.
"My very dear Friend,
" With no common feeling do I sympathize with
you. Your letter has touched upon a string which
vibrates with so much agony through my heart and brain,
and I fear will ever continue to do so, that I fly from it
upon all occasions like the stricken deer from the hunter.
You have indeed conjectured right, and the similarity of
our trials is peculiarly remarkable. I, like you, had every
thing I could wish for in one one only. I enjoyed the
present, I feasted on the future ; at the age of twelve,
the same fatal disease made its attack the result was the
same and my arms, like yours, formed a pillow during
the last gasp : there was the same sense of piety while
living, and the same prominent shoot of genius. The
master of the Charter House, in a letter to me on the
occasion, bewailed the loss of one of their most promising
blossoms ; and a variety of little effusions both in prose
and verse found in the well-known hand afterwards, but
never shewn to any one, and written for personal amuse-
ment alone, seemed sufficiently to justify the opinion so
generally entertained.
" But here, my dear friend, I am afraid I must drop
the parallel : for in the weakness of my heart I freely
confess I have not yet acquired that strength of duty
which you are already enabled to manifest.
64 MEMOIRS OP
" I dare not examine myself as to what I should wish
for, if it were in my power all I have hitherto been
able to say is, ' Thy will be done !'
" Mr. L was with us when your letter arrived :
we were listening to a new and most sweetly impressive
anthem, ' My song shall be of judgment and of mercy ! To
thee, O Lord, will 1 sing.' What could be more appro-
priate, even if we had been aware of the melancholy fact,
and could have foreseen your distressing communication ?
It struck us forcibly, and we dwelt on the coincidence.
The judgment is unquestionable ; but is not the mercy,
my excellent friend, equally visible? Your own pious
reflections will suggest a thousand proofs that it is : I will
only repeat the remark that was most obvious to our-
selves ; that had this affliction happened about a year
and a half ago, when you were living alone, and had no
such affectionate nurse to have co-operated with you,
no such bosom comforter to have supported you. severe
as it is, it must be of a character far severer still.
There are a few gracious drops intermixed with every
cup of bitterness or how could man at times endure the
draught ? You have them from this source : you have
them from the recollection of having sown the good seed
at an early hour, in the best of seasons, and in a propi-
tious soil: but, most of all, you have them in the harvest
that has already been produced, in the safe deposit of
the grain in its imperishable garner. It is accomplished :
the great task intrusted to you is executed the object
of life is rendered secure the gulf is forded: the haven
of happiness has hold on the anchor.
" We will certainly see you in a short time : Mrs. Good
intends herself to write to-morrow, or next day. In the
mean while, give our affectionate regards to Mrs. Gregory,
for whose health we are very anxious, accept our best
wishes and prayers, and believe me, as ever, yours,
"J. M. GOOD."
I have already mentioned that Mr. Good commenced
his translation of Lucretius in the year 1797. This
work he undertook partly at the entreaty of his literary
friends ; but principally, as I have more than once heard
DR. MASON GOOD. 65
him state, that he might bring himself under something
like the urgency of a moral necessity to become thorough-
ly acquainted with the utmost possible variety of subjects,
upon which men of literature, science, and investigation,
had been able to throw any light. For this purpose he
could not, probably, have made a happier selection than
that of Lucretius " on the Nature of Things," in which
the topics are as greatly diversified as the general title of
the poem seems to indicate. The translation itself was
finished in October 1799, having been carried through
in a way very unusual with works of such magnitude :
it was composed in t/ic struts of London during the trans-
lator's extensive walks, to visit his numerous patients.
His practice was to take in his pocket two or three leaves
of an octavo edition of the original (I believe, that of
Marchetti's,) the text being corrected by collation with
Wakefield's ; to read over a passage two or three times
as he walked along, until he had engraven it upon his
ready memory ; then to translate the passage, meditate
upon his translation, correct and elaborate it, until he
had satisfied himself. Having accomplished this, the
bare sight of the original brought to mind his own trans-
lation, with all its peculiarities. In the same manner
would he proceed with a second, third, and fourth pas-
sage ; and after he had returned home, and disposed of
all his professional business, he would go to his standing
desk, and enter upon his manuscript so much of the trans-
lation as he had been able to prepare satisfactorily.
While he was carrying on the translation, he was also
levying his contributions towards the notes ; a part of the
work, however, which called for much more labor, and
occupied far more of his time. The translation was not
published until 1805, and scarcely a day passed in the six
previous years, in which he did not either add to the notes,
or in his own estimation give greater accuracy .and elegance
to some parts of his version. He obtained access to the
British Museum, and other public libraries in the metrop-
olis, and by fully availing himself of these advantages,
considerably enriched the running commentary upon his
favorite author. The avidity with which he embraced
every opportunity to render his translation correct, will
*6
66 MEMOIRS OF
appear in the subjoined extract from a letter to his literary
friend at Hadleigh, bearing date September, 1798.
" I do not know whether among the extracts you have
done me the honor to select from my version,* you have
made choice of that which I have given as a specimen
in my Prospectus I mean the little episode on the sac-
rifice of Iphigenia. There is an error which has crept
into the last line but one of my translation, owing to my
having forgotten the actual state of the Grecian fleet at
the time the sacrifice was demanded, and to my not hav-
ing had an opportunity of consulting the Iphigenia of
Euripides upon the subject. Having, however, obtained
of late a perpetual admission into the reading-rooms of
the British Museum, among other books,! have been again
reading this part of the dramas of the Greek poet and I
find that on the demand of Chalchas the fleet was not in a
storm, which such a sacrifice was necessary to extricate
it from, but absolutely lying without wind in the harbor at
Aulis, and so totally becalmed that it could not possibly
proceed to sea. It was to obtain a breeze, therefore, and
to get liberated from this imprisonment, that Chalchas
insisted upon the death of Iphigenia ; and the verse to
which I refer, instead of being,
" Of Grecian navies rescued thus from storms,"
should be corrected,
" Of Grecian navies favor'd thus with gales."
The Latin of Lucretius will apply equally to both,
whether a happy escape from port, or from tempests :
" Exitus ut class! felix faustusque daretur."
It is interesting, however, to remark, since it serves to
shew how completely Dr. Good's translation was his own,
and how little he was beholden to his precursors in the
same region of labor, that in the free translation given in
what is usually called Guernier's edition (published in
1743,) the verse in question is rendered,
" Only to beg a kind propitious gale for Grecian ships,"
agreeing in spirit with Mr. Good's amended line.
* That is, for the purpose of insertion in " The Literary Hours."
DR. MASON GOOD. 67
Mr. Good continued thus for several years to devote a
portion of almost every day to this great undertaking :
nor was the incessant assiduity with which he pursued
it, together with the extensive range of his professional
exertions, sufficient to stifle his ardor, or to weigh down
and oppress his then inexhaustible activity. Other re-
gions of inquiry invited his curiosity, and corresponding
occupations demanded their share of his time and
powers.* I shall here present a mere catalogue of the
publications which engaged his attention for a few years,
reserving my analysis of the principal of them, as indeed
of all his works, to the second section of these Memoirs.
Second Address to the Members of the Corporation of
Surgeons of London, 1800.
Song of Songs, or Sacred Idyls, 1803.
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Geddes, 1803.
Dissertation on the best means of Employing the Poor
in Parish Workhouses, 1805.
Translation of Lucretius De Rerum Natura, 1805.
Anniversary Oration delivered before the Medical So-
ciety of London, 1808.
Essay on Medical Technology, 1810.
Translation of the Book of Job, 1812.
New Edition of Mr. Mason's Treatise on Self-know-
ledge, with Memoirs of the Author, and Translations of
those portions of the notes which are in Greek, Latin, and
other foreign languages.
Pantologia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences,
and Words : in conjuncton with Mr. Newton Bosworth,
(then of Cambridge) and myself. This work, which was
published in twelve thick and closely printed volumes,
royal 8vo., occupied much of Mr. Good's time from the
end of 1804, to the end of 1812.t
* Indeed, his practical maxim was akin to that of another eminent indi-
vidual of indefatigable application, the late Dr. E. D. Clarke, who said, "I
have lived to know that the great secret of human happiness is this : Never
suffer your energies to stagnate. The old adage r>( ' Too many irons in
the fire,' conveys an abominable lie. You cannot have too many ; poker,
tongs, and all keep them all going."
t In the year 1800, there appeared an anonymous satirical poem in three
cantos, entitled the Millennium, which has been generally ascribed to our
author. For some years he contributed largely to Dodslcy's Annual Reg-
ister; taking, 1 believe, the entire departments of Natural History and
Philosophy, of general literature, and of Poetry, and Belles-lettres. He alo
68 MEMOIRS OF
The Pantologia was commenced by Mr. Bosworth and
myself in 1802. On my removal to Woolwich in January
1803, another gentleman was associated with us, who,
however, in consequence of an unexpected accession of
property, retired from the labor in about twelve months.
Shortly afterwards a speculating bookseller, who had
ascertained that this Universal Dictionary was in pre-
paration, with a view to anticipate us both in object and
name, commenced the publication of a new Cyclopedia,
of which Dr. George Gregory was announced as the
editor, while, in fact, the late Mr. Jeremiah Joyce w;is
the principal, if not the only, person engaged upon the
work. This rnanoauvre suggested the expediency of new
arrangements, as well as of a new title for our Encyclo-
pedia; and Mr. Good having recently published his " Song
of Songs" at Mr. Kearsley's the bookseller, who was the
chief proprietor of the new undertaking, his high reputa-
tion for erudition, and for punctuality in the execution
of his engagements, induced us to look to him as an
admirably qualified individual to co-operate with us in
our important enterprise. Some time elapsed before we
could overcome his objections to the placing his name
Jirst on the title-page of a work, of which he was not to
take the general superintendence : but at length the scru-
ple was removed ; and from 1805, when our joint prepara-
tions commenced, to the spring of 1813, when the task was
completed, when he continued with the utmost prompt-
ness, regularity and versatility of talent, to supply the
various articles and treatises that were comprehended in
the extensive portion of the Dictionary which he under-
took to compose.
From the very date of this arrangement I felt desirous
to cultivate a wanner intimacy with my new associate
than was absolutely necessary to promote the objects of
our literary coalition. I soon found that he was as esti-
mable in domestic and social life, as he was eminent in
the walks of literature ; that as a husband and father he
was uniformly affectionate and attentive, as a friend
assisted Mr. Wootlfall in the arrangement of the materials in his edition of
Junius's Letters, published in 1812, and in investigating and balancing- the
claims of diflerent individuaJs to the authorship of those extraordinary pro-
ductions.
'DR. MASON GOOD. 69
cordial and sincere, as a companion remarkably enter-
taining and instructive, equally enjoying and promoting
"the least of reason and the flow of soul." His ordinary
deportment was marked by a suavity and hilarity that
were peculiarly engaging. His buoyancy of spirits led
him to join with vivacity in conversation, which he
greatly enriched from his copious intellectual stores. He
would sometimes take a part in animated discussions ;
yet the usual position of his mind was at the utmost pos-
sible remove from a spirit of disputation, and he very
rarely (so far as I recollect) adverted to theological or
political topics of dispute. Although in conversation he
usually contributed his full share, yet he evinced no
desire to lead, but was as ready to listen as to speak. He
made no effort to shine ; and was seldom tempted to
ornament his discourse with scraps and patches from the
learned languages ; regarding that art as very poor, in
which any person may become an adept by devoting a
week to the study of the " Dictionary of Quotations."
What was far better, when the conversation took a lite-
rary or scientific turn, he would, with almost unfailing
promptness enliven and adorn it by those appropriate
facts and illustrations which his comprehensive acquain-
tance with the general range of human knowledge ena-
bled him at once to supply. It was only in the compari-
son of parallel passages from writers of different ages
and countries, that he was wont to indulge in quotations ;
and then he often produced them with a felicitous exu-
berance which they who have read the notes to his
" Lucretius," " Song of Songs," and " Book of Job,"
may easily conceive. Cheerfulness, activity, frankness,
acutcness of intellect, and kindness of heart, were so
obviously the main ingredients in his character, that
before I had known him a month, I could not but say of
him, as Mr. Burke of one of his friends' " Certainly he
is a man formed to be admired and loved."
An individual of ordinary character, with such a varie-
ty of pursuits as occupied the attention of Mr. Good from
1800 to 1812, would inevitably have neglected some of
them. But with him this was never allowed to happen.
He was then blessed with the full maturity of all his
powers bodily and mental, and delighted in nothing so
TO MEMOIRS OP
much as constant employment. He has frequently re-
marked to me, that when he began to be a little weary of
one pursuit, the mere transition to another would annihi-
late the sense of fatigue ; and thus he could pass to five
or six distinct topics of interesting research within the
compass of twelve hours, and enter upon each with as
much freshness and vigor as though he had just arisen
from a good night's sleep. Thus, with him every new
undertaking was, by a constant progress, advancing to its
maturity without any apparent interruption ; and no
sooner was one brought to a successful termination, than
another took its place ; the mental mechanism moving
onward with a constancy and uniformity analogous to that
which we sometimes witness in complex machinery urged
by material agents.
In the autumn of 1810 Mr. Good was invited to
deliver a series of Lectures at the Surrey Institution,
" on any subject, literary or scientific, which would be
agreeable to himself." He acceded to the request of the
"Directors, and delivered his first course in the ensuing
winter, to a crowded audience, who were so highly grati-
fied and instructed, that he was entreated to persevere.
This led to the delivery of a second and a third series,
in the two succeeding winters. The First Series, in
fifteen lectures, treated of the " Nature of the Material
World ; and the scale of unorganized and organic tribes
that issue from it :" The Second Series, in thirteen
lectures, developed the "Nature of the Animate World;
its peculiar powers and external relations ; the means of
communicating ideas ; the formation of society ;" and
the Third, in fifteen lectures, was devoted to the " Nature
of the Mind; its general faculties and furniture."
The plan is sufficiently extensive, but would have been
rendered still more so in subsequent years, had not an
augmented sphere of professional duties compelled Mr.
Good, notwithstanding the most urgent persuasions to
the contrary, to relinquish the occupation of a lecturer.
In this mode of imparting instruction, however, he was
equally qualified to command attention, and to ensure suc-
cess. His delivery was good ; he had the most entire
eelf-possession, and was always master, not only of his
subject, but of his lecture. Although his manuscript notes
DR. MASON GOOD. 71
lay before him, he seldom referred to them more than by
a glance ; so that, instead of merely reading, a practice
which is as much calculated to neutralize the efforts of
the lecturer (and indeed of every public teacher) as it
would be to destroy those of the legal advocate at the
bar, he gave to his lectures all the correct expression
of well-studied addresses delivered from memory, but
enriched with those extemporaneous additions which
spontaneously occur to a speaker of sentiment and feel-
ing, when surrounded by a numerous and attentive audi-
tory.* Instead of poring with monotonous dulness over
his papers, his eyes passed incessantly over the entire
assembly ; and thus when the countenance of an auditor
indicated a want of comprehension of the subject, the
lecturer, either by amplification, or repetition with slight
variety, removed the defect. His language and manner,
always good, at times assumed a tone of impassioned elo-
quence which was deeply impressive.
With these qualifications, and with the rich variety
of topics he introduced, it was natural that his lectures
should be popular. His success was highly gratifying to
himself, and on the conclusion of the first course, he thus
speaks in a confidential letter to a literary friend :
" Upon the whole, I may say that I have had crowded
audiences throughout, though the lecture-room held 500
persons the usual English greeting on entering and
* After the experience of many ye rs, I need not hesitate to say, that my
yiews, as to this point, accord most fully with ilvse of Professor Jardtne, as
exhibited in his " Outlines of Philosophical Education," pp. 2G1 2oi'. I
will not quote any portion of his judicious observation ; but most earnestly
recommend the whole work to the attentive perusal of all who have the
charge of instructing youth.
~ A letter from the celebrated Baron Cuvier. which I have recently perused,
communicates similar opinious in a brief, but instructive passage, which I
shall here subjoin.
" Je crois que la plupart <les professeurs de Londres lisent leurs legons.
Rien n'est plus froid ; ricn n'cst moins incourageant, nioins excitant pour la
Jeunesse. Quils ayent un abrege imprime des principes de leurs sciences,
abrege que chaquc eleve aura en main ; mais quils le developpent d' abon-
dance ; quils improvisenl les explications les examples; quils sachenten un
mot animer l<-urs elevesdu me me feu qui lei penetre. C'est une condition
cssentielle d'une bonnJ Universite. A 1'a: i*, un Professcur qui lit n'a pa*
vingt cloves ; celui qui im| revise, pourpcu quil ail de facilite, en voit ac-
eourir des centaines. L'amour do l.i science, cette passion sans la quelle
on reste toujours mediocre, veut etre inculque comme lous les autres senti-
mens. L'imaguialion doit souteuir la raUon lui prctersa vie et son mouve-
inem.''
72 MEMOIRS OP
retiring, and complimentary annotations interspersed.
What is of more consequence, we have thus proved that
scientific lecturing may be made sufficiently attractive to
excite general attention and command personal attend-
ance, without the exhibition of any pretty pictures, or
even without the aid of illustrative machinery ; though I
would by no means disparage the introduction of either
on suitable occasions."
Notwithstanding the importance and multiplicity of
Mr. Good's occupations, professional and literary, he
continued to indulge through life, his early formed habit
of expressing his feelings in short poetical effusions. The
commencement of a new pursuit, the recurrence of a
birth-day, the departure of a friend who had been visiting
his family, a hasty visit of his own to a friend in the
country, the perusal of a book, a striking political event,
everything, in short, which, while it produced a new train
of thought, tended to excite his feelings, was calculated
to give birth to a metrical essay. Sometimes the effort
would be sprightly, sometimes burlesque and humorous,
and, as he advanced in life, usually pious and devotional.
The reader is here presented with a very few of these
little pieces, which I select, not because of their poetical
excellency, but because they assist in unfolding the
entire character of the author's mind, and evince the
facility with which he could express his sentiments in
pleasing verse. These poetical compositions which tend
principally to mark the developement of his religious
character, are intentionally reserved for the third section
of these Memoirs.
Written on the back of a Title-page of a collection of
Poems published by the Rev. Charles Stuart, under the
title of " Trifles in Verse."
ANOTHER TRIFLE.
If, thinking wit or worth to view,
This book throughout you rifle ;
You'll only find the title true,
Which says 'tis all a Trifle.
DR. MASON GOOD. 73
But though a truth, this title-page
'Twere better, sure, to stifle,
Than boast at forty years of age,
I've only lived to trifle.
THE WISH.
To Miss Lindoc, on her Journey into Devonshire.
Amidst the Wishes wished by all
And trulv wisli'd, no doubt,
I too some favorite Wish would call,
T' attend thee through thy route.
But since, so numerous are thy friends,
So large the love of each,
There's scarce a gift th' Almighty sends,
Now left me to beseech,
I wish thee, Margaret, from my heart,
Throughout thine envied course,
Each richest Wish thy friends can start
Confirm'd in all its force.
BIRPBROOK PARSONAGE, IN ESSEX,*
AUGUST 15-TH, 1805.
Form'd by himself, this house, these shades,
May Walton long adorn ;
And gather, in their peaceful glades,
The " rose without a thorn."
May heav'n his sacred toils approve ;
His flock their priest revere ;
And Judith, with perpetual love,
Each blameless hour endear.
GESTINGTHORPE, ESSEX,
1886.
Sweet shades ! where peace and virtue dwell,
And heav'n an altar finds,
* Dr. Walton, rector of Birdbrook, was a highly esteemed relative of Dr.
Good, Mrs. Walton and Mrs. Good being sisters. Whenever Dr. Good
could snatch a few days of leisure from his multifarious engagements, it
was with great delight to visit Binlbrook Parsonage, and his valued friends
Mr. and Mrs. Walker of Gestiugthorpe Hall, the subject of the next little
effusion. The sentiments excited in these hasty visits, were often expressed
in a verse or two, written currmte calamo, and left on his dressing table.
7
74 MEMOIRS OP
And science scoops his hermit cell,
And taste his wild walk winds :
Sweet, lovely scenes ! as Eden fair,
As Eden free from taint ;
Whose flowers perfume th' ambrosial air,
Th' enamell'd landscape paint :
Mansion ! where ready Friendship turns
His hospitable hinge ;
Welcomes the London guest, but spurns
The London bow and cringe :
Sick of the world's fantastic sway,
Its nonsense and its noise,
O ! for one solitary day,
Be mine your gentler joys ;
Here let me cool my maddening brain,
Here purify my heart ;
Though short my stay in dreams again
1'fl meet you when we part.
TO MY DEAR SUSANNA, ON HER BIRTH-DAY,
MARCH SO, 1808.
Just nineteen years ago I first survey 'd
Thy baby form, and felt myself a sire ;
Faintly thy mother own'd her pangs o'erpaid,
Clasp'd thy fresh limbs, nor ask'd a transport higher.
Though fill'dwith present pleasure, fancy wild,
Oft as my busy knee to hush tliee strove,
Would still unlock the future of my child,
And, from the baby to the woman, rove :
And, warm with hope, would from the rainbow steal
Each precious tint to deck thy growing hours ;
A gentle form, beloved by all, reveal
A heart well-tun'd, a mind of active powers.
Fancy and Hope ! delusive, dangerous pair !
To sapient age delusive, as to youth
Accept my thanks for. flatterers as ye are,
Through nineteen years ye then foretold me truth.
I
DR. MASON GOOD. 75
LONDON INSTITUTION.*
On its being first opened in Kin IT'S J ;?.- Yard, Coleman St., under
a Committee chiefly composed of Bankers and Bank Directors.
When the 'Change and the Bank eeiz'd the seat of Apollo,
The world stood on tiptoe to see what would follow ;
Away flew their cash and they threaten'd to store
Ev'ry wharf on the Thames with a cargo of lore ;
While Cam and old Isis, thus robb'd of their right,
Cried the one to the other Sweet Cousin, good night !
For their glades and their cloisters these traders in truth
Chose a deep recluse warehouse the scene of their youth,
Where the wings of the breezes that wafted them knowledge,
Flow'd one half from Bedlam, one half Gresham college.
All the books, and all instruments under the sun,
Prints, charts, men and maids were laid in by the ton ;
Gallante shows, telescopes, pumps, weavers' looms,
Urns, fish-kettles, warming-pans, pots, mops and brooms ;
All these, as professors were soon to be made,
Were provided as wares to illustrate their trade :
And at top was design'd, could the cash but hold out,
A glass dome, where its founders might look round about,
Learn how their example had rous'd other earths,
Mark weathercocks, comets, and calculate births ;
And an order was given, as no spy-glass they found
Could pierce the gross fumes that a city surround,
For a set of experiments boldly to try
To drive off the vapors, and clear up the sky.
But Apollo who saw what sad work they were making,
Descended from heav'n in a terrible taking,
And drove them all home with a taste of his whip,
From Newton to Crocker, from Science to Scrip.
MARGARETTA TO REBECCA.
JANUARY 1st, 1817.
The year is gone ! another year,
With all its changeful hours :
But through each change, we still are here,
And every wish is ours.
The year is come ! another year
As changeful as the last ;
* This little satire was composed after a conversation, in which the
author had remarked that it was easy to turn into burlesque the best de-
signed projects ; as he would prove. Far from being disposed to ridicule
this useful institution, he was for some years an active member of its com-
mittee, and on more than one occasion composed odes, &c. for recitation
at its anniversaries.
76 MEMOIRS OP
! may the hand still guide us here
Which led us through the past.
Change through all being there must be ;
For such is nature's law :
But nature's self must change, should we
Our early love withdraw.
ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES.
NOVEMBER, 1817.
There was a star whose opening eye
Mid vapors rose o'er Britain's sky :
Yet clear'd the vapors as it pass'd,
And soon a peerless lustre cast.
It was a star whose influence shed
The balm of hope o'er every head :
The nation ey'd it from afar,
And bless'd that young and rising star.
Amid the train of yesternight
1 saw that gem of purest light :
To-night I sought its lucid car
I sought, but there was no such star.
It is not fallen : O rather say,
Onward it shoots its shining way :
It is not fallen 'tis only given
To radiate in a brighter heaven.
TO MY LITTLE GRANDSON,
On hisjirst noticing and being riveted by the appearance
of the Moon, llth December, 1818.
Infant sage ! still gaze above ;
They are realms of peace and love :
Let the Moon's aerial dance
All thy little powers entrance ;
And while young wonder fills thine eyes,
I will, too, philosophize.
Thou, like her, art new to earth,
Still rejoicing in thy birth:
With silver front and eye of glee,
Fair, and fresh, and pure as she ;
Sent a little space to cheer
With thy light our humble sphere.
DR. MASON GOOD. 77
Long, O ! long, sweet babe, as now,
May no gloom o'ercast thy brow :
No star malignant, from above,
Eclipse that purple light of love ;
Nor earth's low clouds, or storms, defile
The lustre of that heavenly smile.
And when thy course beneath the sun
(For thou must wax and wane) is run,
Soft mayst thou sink to rest, and rise
Still lovelier shap'd in fairer skies,
Where God's own beams the noontide pour,
And suns and moons are known no more.
LINES
Written and left behind at Buzton, on passing through it,
September 9th, 1823.
Where is the Spirit that bestows
This healing in the spring . J
Gives back the faded cheek its rose,
And makes the cripple sing ?
Where is the Power that piles the hills,
Or splits their marble sides ?
With secret fires their caverns fills,
And leads their sparry tides ?
O ye, who in propitious hour
Your course have hither bent
He is that Spirit his the Power
Your tottering steps that sent.
Behold his mercy and his might ;
Pause, tremble, and adore :
And let his love your praise excite,
And tempt his wrath no more !
Many of those who have watched the progress of our
periodical literature during the present century, will have
traced the history, and regretted the extinction of " THE
BRITISH REVIEW ;" which, from the beginning of 1811,
to nearly the end of 1822, was published quarterly, under
the able superintendence of Mr. Roberts, the author of
the " Looker On." To this Review Mr. Good, who had
long cherished habits of the closest intimacy with Mr.
Roberts, contributed several articles ; of which, however,
*7
78 MEMOIRS OP
I have not been able to obtain a complete list. I need
not hesitate to assign to him a Review of the Physiogno-
mical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, in No. 11.
An Account of Townsend's Character of Moses ; and
of Professor Adelung's Mithridates, or History of Lan-
guages, in No. 12. A Review of Dr. Marshman's Chinese
Grammar ; and another of Sismondi on Spanish Litera-
ture, in No. 13. Several other articles were jointly con-
tributed by these literary friends ; but I am not able
precisely to specify them, and feel no temptation to deal
in conjecture.
In the year 1820, Mr. Good, pursuant to the advice
of several medical friends, and the earnest entreaty of
others, entered upon a more elevated department of pro-
fessional duty, that of a physician. His diploma of M. D.,
which was from Marischal College, Aberdeen, is dated
July 10th in that year, and is expressed in terms of pecu-
liar honor, differing from the usual language of that class
of formularies. He was also elected an honorary member
of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Aberdeen,
November 2d, 1820. The news of this election was
communicated to him from Aberdeen, by his friend Sir
James M'Grigor, Inspector General of the Army Medical
Board, who characterizes this Society " as the principal
medical institution in the north of Scotland, including
among its members the most able professional men in
that part of the empire ; a society of which he had been
a member for 30 years.*"
Dr. Good announced to his friend Dr. Drake, about
this time, that he might be regarded as " having begun
the world afresh ; but he hoped with good omens and a
fair breeze." In February 1821, after speaking of vari-
* Dr. Good was a member of several other learned and scientific bodies,
at home and abroad. The dates of admission, so far as I have been able
to ascertain them, I shall specify in this note.
Member of the College of Surgeons (as before mentioned) Nov. 7th,
1793 : Ceased to be such, October llth, 1824.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1805 or 1806.
Linnaean Society of Philadelphia, April, 1810.
New York Historical Society, Oct. 26th, 1813.
Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, May 9th, 1816.
Permissio Medicorum Collegii Rcgalis, Lond. Jun. 25", 1822.
Fellow of the Roval Society of Literature. April, 1824.
New York Horticultural Society, Sept. 7lh, 1824.
DR. MASON GOOD. 79
ous professional topics, in another letter to the same gen-
tleman he adds, in the frank confidence of friendship
" I have now tried my new fortune for nearly six
months, and only wish I had felt it prudent to have com-
menced earlier, for it has succeeded beyond my best ex-
pectations. All my old circle of patients are in turn
patients still, without a single exception, so far as I know ;
and I have added very considerably to the number, as
well as have to reply to a tolerably extensive range of ad-
vice from the country ; so that my hands are pretty full
still. I have also the satisfaction of finding that my late
partner is gratified with his prospects. . . . You will
be surprised to learn that almost the first patient I had,
on entering on my new department, was Sir Gilbert
JBlane, who paid me this compliment, as I feel it to be,
from mere friendship."
Indeed, the new direction of Dr. Good's medical occu-
pations scarcely for a single week produced any diminu-
tion of his labor ; and after a very short interval his judg-
ment was more sought, and his professional engagements
more numerous, than at any preceding period.
From the period of Dr. Good's assuming the practice
of a physician, he did not cease* to study, but gave to his
leading literary occupations an appropriate direction.
Probably indeed, looking forward to this, he laid down
the general plan of a system of Nosology so early as the
year 1808. The work, however, impeded as it of neces-
sity was by the author's other pursuits, and receiving oc-
casional modifications in minutiae as he advanced, was
not published until the end of the year 1820, when it
made its appearance in a thick octavo volume, under the
title of " A Physiological System of Nosology, with a cor-
rected and simplified Nomenclature."
No sooner was this work issued from the press, than
its indefatigable author commenced a still more extensive,
* In this respect his judgment and his habits accorded fully with what has
been recently expressed by a scientific medical writer, (I believe Dr. A. T.
Thomson,) in "Thoughts on Medical Education," addressed to the Council
of tl;e University of London. " 1 am of opinion (says he) that the moment
a practitioner ceases to be a student, he is no longer worthy of the confidence
of the public; and that the life of a physician can only be truly useful and
honorable, when it is unremiuingly employed in study, in determining the
truth of theoretical opinions by observation, and in proving the value of prac-
tical suggestions by the test of experience."
80 MEMOIRS OP
elaborate, and valuable performance, which was given to
the world in 1822, in lour large volumes octavo, entitled
" The Study of Medicine." The object of the author in
this great work was to unite the different branches of
medical science, which had usually been treated separate-
ly, into a general system. His success was as remarka-
ble as the attempt was bold. He received the most lively
and gratifying penegyrics from Sir Henry Halford, Sir
James M'Grigor, Sir John Webb, Sir Gilbert Blane, Drs.
Perceval (of Dublin,) Baillie, James Johnson, Duncan,
(of Edinburgh,) and others among most eminent physi-
cians in Great Britain : from Drs. Hosack and Francis, of
New York, and several men of considerable eminence on
the continent of Europe. The sale of the volumes was
very rapid ; a circumstance which stimulated the author
to prepare an enlarged and improved edition, which is-
sued from the press in 1825, in five volumes octavo. His
own copy of this edition contains several notes and im-
provements, condensed, however, into the smallest possi-
ble space, with a view to a third edition.
In the spring of 1826, Dr. Good found time to publish
the lectures which he delivered at the Surrey Institution.
They are contained in three volumes, entitled " The
Book of Nature;" of the contents of which, as well as of
their author's other publications, I shall present accounts
in a chronological succession. Other literary pursuits,
which still more engaged his heart and affections, he car-
ried on simultaneously ; but the results of these he did
not live to lay before the world.
During the greater part of his life his health had been
remarkably good ; the cheerfulness of his disposition and
the activity of his habits, having I think contributed to
the preservation of a tone of constitution naturally robust.
But, if I do not mistake, (on a point indeed where it may
be presumptuous in me to offer an opinion,) the change
of his habits, when he ceased to visit his patients on foot,
was too sudden to be otherwise than injurious. At the
same time, his incessant application to the two great
works of which I have just been speaking, augmented the
evil ; and his friends soon saw with concern, what I am
persuaded he nearly as soon felt, that the corporeal vig-
or which had carried him, almost unconscious of fatigue,
DR. MASON GOOD. 81
through so much labor, was now beginning to give way.
He had for some time learnt, however, that the correct
manner of estimating the duration of human existence
was, "not to compute by the course of the sun, but by
the zodiac and circle of mail's occupations and his vir-
tues." By the grace of God he had rendered scientific
and literary knowledge subservient to a knowledge of a
higher order ; he had sought for intelligence at the Great
Fountain of Intellect, and had found Him " whom to know
is life eternal :" so that, though he contemplated the dis-
solution of nature and an exchange of worlds with deep
solemnity, it was, happily, upon the best of principles,
unmingled with dread. He did not, like one of the most
celebrated of the ancient philosophers, speak of death ag
of all frightful things the most frightful,* but as that
which cures not only infirmity but mortality itself; firmly
believing that, through the strength of Him who " giveth
them the victory," the saints conquer death by suffer-
ing it.
A few extracts from letters written to his valued rela-
tive Dr. Walton, and his early friend Dr. Drake, between
the year 1821 and the time of his death, will shew with
what steadiness and permanency he anticipated the ap-
proach of that great change, and with what Christian cor-
rectness of sentiment he prepared for it.
Thus, in a letter to Dr. Walton, bearing date April
loth, 1322, he says " I have indeed been very poorly
for several weeks, and during a part of that time some-
what seriously ill. Too much mental excitement in a
work I have long been engaged upon, and which I can-
not now finish till June, if I should be able even then,
though I have labored to do so with all my might, has
thrown me off the balance of firm health with which I
have hitherto been so highly favored, and given me a se-
vere fit of gout, accompanied with a considerable degree
-of fever. There is, however, a better and far more in-
structive way of viewing all such evils, and which I am
* The language of Aristotle, nxvrw'riev q>i@sfwr &@iii<rr*TS\/, has
always seemed lo me to furnish one of the most affecting commentaries
upon St. Paul's description, Eph. ii. 1J. u /////; j- NO HOPE, and without
God in the icorld," th;it has ever been ponne<l : for what hope can any
thinking; man cherish through life, who looks upon its close as thus terrible,
either in itself or in its consequences ?
Oii MEMOIRS OF
very desirous to adopt on the present occasion ; and that
is, a providential chastisement for much that has been
wrong, and a providential learning as to the future. In
both respects I hope I have contemplated it ; and though
not with all the good it ought to produce, yet I humbly
trust it has not been sent altogether in vain. The great
error is, that as we get better, and the discipline becomes
lighter, the impression is too apt to wear off. I trust it
will not, now, do so altogether ; but I know and feel the
danger ; and would infinitely rather suffer again, than that
I should lose the important lesson."
In the same letter, having mentioned Dr. Drake's pub-
lications, " Winter Evenings," and " Evenings in Au-
tumn," he remarks " Two more seasons remain for
him. The grand point is, to have the life close well at
last ! But the last may be nearer than we expect : and
hence he only can hope, and hope humbly too, who en-
deavors to improve every season and every hour.
' Carpe diem quam minime credula postero/
is a noble motto at all times ; but how truly ennobled
when raised from the dust of paganism into the sublimer
atmosphere of revealed religion."
Writing to Dr. Drake, to thank him for the same
books, May 5th, 1822, after speaking with much pleasure
of the moral and devotional spirit which pervades some
of the papers, he proceeds " These latter feelings and
subjects are as they should be : and I am exceedingly re-
joiced to behold your views so consonant with my own.
The great objects for which we were sent into the world,
and the great duties we have to perform here, are too apt
to be forgotten in the hey-day, and amidst the distrac-
tions, of youth; though there is no period in which the
' heart' requires to be ' kept with so much diligence :' but
happy is he who is led to take a correct view of himself
in time, and who grows sober in the sober ' Evenings of
Autumn,' rightly estimating the world, duly prizing the
means of grace which the bible unfolds to him, and prepar-
ing himself for another and a better state of being. I lament
greatly the spirit of atheism which is abroad, and espe-
cially among the professors and practitioners of medi-
DR. MASON GOOD. 83
cine ; and I am glad to see you taking a stand against
the unholy tribe of scoffers."
In another letter to the same, dated August 21st, 1822,
after speaking of "gout, and dyspepsy, and head-ache,
and feverish nights," which he imputes to the labor and
confinement occasioned by his " Study of Medicine," he
says " On Friday I purpose to set off for Matlock, with
my dear wife and daughter, for about ten days, for the
purpose of recreation. You, I apprehend, are still as
busy as ever, and will no doubt travel farther in your easy
chair, and probably over still more picturesque and ro-
mantic landscapes, than we shall do in our chariot. May
you never travel over any but may administer to you solid
delight and satisfaction, tranquillizing or elevating the
animal spirits, and reading a useful lesson to the mind !
In one sense, and that the most important, we are all
travellers and pilgrims, journeying to an unknown coun-
try, and at a rate we cannot check, though we may pre-
cipitate it. May we, my dear friend, be enabled to finish
our course with joy, and to enter into the rest that re-
maineth, and ' rcnutineth' ALONE ' for the people of God." '
January 31st, 1823 : on recovering from a " very severe
attack of gout in both hands and feet," he writes to Dr.
Walton thus : " By the goodness of God I am now much
better, and I hope, by care, and a greater degree of atten-
tion to myself than 1 have hitherto given, to attain short-
ly to a firmer degree of health than I have enjoyed for
many months. The important point is, to regard all these
reverses as corrective visitations, which most of us (and I
am sure I can speak for myself) stand repeatedly in need
of, to wean us from this world, and quicken us in our
preparation for another : to empty us of ourselves, and to
fill us, by the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, with
an humble trust in the merits of Him who is the sacrifice
and propitiation for the sins of the whole world : and
should it accomplish this then indeed will the cloud we
are made to pass through descend upon us in a fruitful and
refreshing rain, and amply answer its purpose."
Again, in a letter to Dr. Drake, December llth, 1824,
after expressing his gratification that the Doctor should
have thought so highly of his recent work, and exerted
himself to make its value known to others, he adds " But
84 MEMOIRS OP
I know the danger of even honorable reputation, and I
fear the Circean cup. The richest pearl in the Chris-
tian's crown of graces is humility ; and when I look back
upon myself, and examine my own heart, and see how
little progress I have made in that which it most imports
us to study, I am sure there is no man breathing who has
more cause, not only for humility, but for abasement,
than myself: for how often have I neglected the cistern
for the stream, and have been pursuing a bubble, instead
of giving up all my feeble powers and possessions in pur-
chase of ' the pearl of great price.' What a mercy not
to have been allowed to persevere in that neglect !"
On Sept. 19th, 1825, he writes thus to Dr. Walton :
" I have reason to be greatly thankful that I am much
better; and if the complaint should not shift into any
other quarter (and I trust it will not do so) I may hope
to be well in a day or two: and if so (still an if!)
and who would wish it to be otherwise ; who, that
knows anything of things as they are would wish to be
the arbiter of his own life ?"
In August, 1826, his health having been greatly
shaken, and that of Mrs. Good being very indifferent, it
was thought expedient that they should go to Leaming-
ton. On this occasion he again addresses his esteemed
relative at Birdbrook. " August 25th, 1826. The die
is cast, and we are going to Leamington. May a gra-
cious Providence render its breezes balmy and its waters
healthful ! And, above all, direct me how best to devote
whatever time may be yet allotted me, to the glory of
God and the good of myself and others. I have trifled
with time too much already ; it is high time to awake and
be sober, and to prepare to leave it for eternity ! Every
moment ought to be precious."
On his return from Leamington he wrote to me in a
similar strain, earnestly intreating an early meeting of our
respective families, reminding me of the lapse of time
with regard to both of us, and pathetically expressing his
own persuasion that our remaining interviews would be
few. In October we met ; but it was in a large party, on
a public occasion. We contrived, however, to sit togeth-
er; and his conversation was, as usual, vivacious and full
of information. When we parted, there was in his man-
DR. MASON GOOD. 85
ner an unusual mixture of cheerfulness and solemnity.
He again urged me to see him again soon; but we sepa-
rated to meet no more on earth.
During the last three months of his life, his strength
declined rapidly, exciting much solicitude in the minds
of Mrs. Good and his family, but no alarm of immediate
danger. On the arrival of the Christmas holidays, Dr.
Good, by whose short but affectionate visits to his beloved
daughter Mrs. Neale,* and her children, he received and
imparted delight, expressed a more than usual anxiety to
go thither again ; although he was so much indisposed
before he commenced his journey, as to occasion serious
apprehensions of his inability to go through it. He
reached his daughter's house in a state of great exhaus-
tion ; but, after a short time, rallied sufficiently to distri-
bute amongst his grandchildren, who, as usual, gathered
around him, the books and other appropriate presents,
which his affection, watchful and active to the end, had
assigned to each. He then retired to his chamber, not
for repose and recovery, but to experience the solemnities
of the last awful scene, and the transition from his grow-
ing infirmities to the regions where there is " no more
pain," the world of pure and happy spirits. The touch-
ing but instructive circumstances attending the death-bed
of my friend, consistently with the arrangement which I
prescribed to myself, I shall connect with the develope-
ment of his religious character in the third section of
these memoirs. Let it suffice to say, now, that his last
illness, an inflammation of the bladder, was short, but ex-
ceedingly severe, and that it terminated his valuable life,
on Tuesday, the 2d of January, 1^~7, in the 63d year
of his age.
Only three days previously to his death, a young lady
who was alarmingly ill, but then capable of being moved
from one place to another, was desirous to have the bene-
fit of his medical advice. Dr. Good's mind had evinced
some aberrations on account of the fever and the intense
pain which he suffered : but at the time this request was
made known to him, he experienced less pain, and was
Residing at the village of Sheppertou in Middlesex, about 18 miles from
London.
86 MEMOIRS OP
tolerably composed. He therefore agreed to see her,
with Mr. Cooper, one of his own medical attendants.
The young lady was accordingly conducted to his bed-
side, and after he had made the usual inquiries, with his
wonted acumen, consideration, and kindness, he confer-
red with Mr. C. on her case. He proposed a complete, and
as the event proved, for a season, a very beneficial change
in the treatment : he wrote a prescription, which bears
the usual character of his hand-writing, and I am assur-
ed is marked by the peculiar elegance which always dis-
tinguished his pharmaceutic formulae.
Those habits of order, the formation of which consti-
tuted a part of his education, and the consolidation of
which was so greatly aided by the circumstances of his
apprenticeship, were evinced through life. The arrange-
ments of his wardrobe, his books, his accounts, his papers,
his manuscripts, his time, all bore the stamp of this pecu-
liarity. Giving, as he did, from principle, to his medical
engagements his first thoughts and chief care in the ar-
rangements of each day, and finding, from the very nature
of the profession, that it presented hourly interruptions
to his best formed schemes; still he had the power of
smoothing down the irregularities thus incessantly occur-
ring, and of carrying on his various pursuits with the
order to which I have more than once adverted. After
his decease, the effects of this love of method and orderly
arrangement were more than ever evinced. For though
his professional and other occupations continued to em-
ploy him daily until the very eve of his journey to Shep-
perton ; yet, when his papers came to be examined, they
were found with labels and endorsements, describing the
nature of each packet, which was of little, which of
much, which of immediate, which of remote consequence,
which related to his profession, which to his banker, which
to the concerns of his daughter Mrs. Neale, which to any
of his friends, which to proposed new editions of some of
his works, which to a work just ready for the press as
completely assorted, described, arid specified, as if for the
last six months of his existence he had neglected every-
thing else, and acted with unremitting reference to the
injunction " Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die,
and not live."
DR. MASON GOOD.
87
The happy effects of his love of order, and delight in
occupation, and of his cheerful flow of spirits, were indeed
uniformly and almost constantly manifest, and especially
in his deportment in domestic life. Many men of great
research cannot experience interruption of any kind with-
out obvious discomposure and irritation ; but this was
never the case with Dr. Good. For though occupation
was his element, and he was always remarkable for the
diligent employment of every minute which he could
devote to literature or to the study and practice of medi-
cine ; yet from these he always passed to social enjoy-
ments, whether with his friends or the members of his
family, with the utmost facility, and a corresponding
relish. With this ability to free himself from incessant
absorption of thought, his society was usually productive
of pleasure to those who enjoyed his acquaintance ; but
most of all to Mrs. Good and his daughters, with whom
he delighted to engage in instructive cheerful conversa-
tion, and to whom he would often (much more often,
indeed, than they who knew the variety and the pressure
of his engagements would think possible) read any new
and interesting work which they were anxious to know,
expatiating upon its beauties or defects as he proceeded.
But, without trusting myself to enter into minutiae,
I shall assist the reader in forming his estimate of the
private character of my deceased friend, by inserting a
few passages from a letter which I have received from
his eldest daughter, Mrs. Neale.
" You will doubtless have learnt much from my mother
and sister, of my dear father's affectionate deportment in
his family, and especially of his parental kindness ; yet I
cannot avoid mentioning one way in which, during my
childhood, this was frequently manifested towards myself.
My dear father, after a hurried meal at dinner, occupying
but a very few minutes, would often spend a considerable
portion of what should have been his resting time, in
teaching me to play at battledoor, or some active game,
thinking the exercise conducive to my health.
" I never saw in any individual so rare a union as he
possessed, of thorough enjoyment of what are usually
termed the good things of this life, with the most perfect
indifference respecting them, when they were not within
MEMOIRS OF
his reach. In the articles of food and drink, he always
took, with relish and cheerfulness, such delicacies as the
kindness of a friend, or accident, might throw in his way;
but he was quite as well satisfied with the plainest provi-
sions that could be set before him; often, indeed, seeming
unconscious of the difference. His love of society made
him most to enjoy his meals with his family, or among
friends ; yet as his employments of necessity produced
uncertainty in the time of his return home, his constant
request was to have something set apart for him, but on
no account to wait for his arrival.
" I perhaps am best qualified to speak of his extreme
kindness to all his grandchildren. One example will
serve to shew that it was self-denying and active. My
fourth little one, when an infant of two months old, was
dangerously ill with the hooping cough. My father was
informed of this. It was in the beginning of a cold win-
ter, and we were living sixty miles from town, in a retired
village in Essex. Immediately on receiving the news of
our affliction, my father quitted home; and what was our
surprise, at eleven o'clock on a very dark night, to hear
a chaise drive fast up to the door, and to see our affec-
tionate parent step out of it. He had been detained, and
narrowly escaped an overthrow, by the driver having
mistaken his way, and attempting to drive through rough
ploughed fields. We greatly feared that he would suffer
severely from an attack of the gout, to which he had
then become seriously subject, and which was generally
brought on by exposure to cold and damp, such as he
had experienced ; and we urged in consequence, the due
precautions ; but his first care was to go at once to the
nursery, ascertain the real state of the disease, and pre-
scribe for the infant.
"Strangers have often remarked to me, that they were
struck with the affectionate kindness with which he en-
couraged all my dear children to ask him questions upon
any subject, and the delight which he exhibited when
they manifested a desire to gain knowledge. Indeed I
do not once remember to have heard them silenced in
their questions, however apparently unseasonable the
time, in a hasty manner, or without some kind notice in
answer. He never seemed annoyed by any interruption
DR. MASON GOOD. 89
which they occasioned, whether during his studies, or
while he was engaged in that conversation which he so
much enjoyed. Whenever he silenced their questions by
the promise of a future answer, he regarded his promise
as inviolable, and uniformly satisfied their inquiries on
the first moment of leisure, without waiting to be remind-
ed by themselves or others, of the expectations which he
had thus excited. These are simple domestic facts ; not
perhaps suited to every taste ; but as they serve to illus-
trate character, I transmit them, to be employed or not,
as you may think best."
Having presented these outline sketches from the hand
of a daughter, I cannot better terminate this portion of
my labor than by introducing another from the hand of a
friend.*
" I had long the happiness and honor of being ranked
among Dr. Good's intimate friends ; but our intercourse
was distinguished by no occurrences of importance enough
to be recorded. During our intimacy he was always
busily engaged in some intellectual or active employ-
ments for the benefit of humanity, without neglecting any
of the hourly calls upon his friendship, his feeling, and
his courtesy. ] hardly believe there has existed the per-
son who, in the midst of studies so severe, has maintained
so kind a temper, and so constant a good nature. I have
visited him when laboriously occupied in mind, and when
suffering in body; I have been with him at moments
when his temper has been exercised by ill treatment ; but
I have never witnessed in him any other frame of mind
than that of benevolent cheerfulness and Christian com-
posure. I shall carry the remembrance of him to my
grave, as of one in whose society some of my happiest
hours have passed, and whose example and conversation
have afforded me many lessons of wisdom and virtue."
Mr. Roberts, Editor of the British Review, &c.
8
90 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
SECTION II.
REVIEW OP THE PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS OP DR. GOOD,
WITH ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS j ALSO AN ACCOUNT
OF TWO IMPORTANT WORKS WHICH HE HAD PREPARED
FOR THE PRESS.
THE circumstances and incidents which make a man
an author, are often widely different from those which
make him a successful author. Necessity, vanity, love
of money, love of fame, and various other operative prin-
ciples, may induce an individual to solicit the public
attention to his literary labors ; but unless he possess in a
greater or less degree the power to instruct or to amuse,
it is only by an extraordinary coincidence of counter
probabilities that he can obtain even a moderate degree
of the attention which he solicits. Talent, knowledge,
perseverance, and skill, must be sedulously and success-
fully combined, in order to the attainment and the pre-
servation of literary or scientific distinction.
" Qui cupit optatem cursu contingere metam,
Multa tulit fecitque puer." Hor.
It has frequently been remarked, since the time of
Lord Bacon,* that to read, write, and converse, in due
proportion, constitutes the great art of success in a man
of letters. The learning of a recluse too often fails him,
because, for want of converse with men, he knows not
how to allow for the difficulties of ignorance. Thus,
Boerhaave remarked that most of the writers on chemistry
before his time, were unintelligible to the bulk of stu-
dents, because they presupposed their readers to possess
degrees of knowledge which they had not acquired. It
often happens, too, with such, that having thought too
much in one train, they are like persons acquainted with
only one road, who soon become bewildered when taken
* " Reading makes a full man, conversation a ready man, and writing
an exact man." Bacon's Essays.
DR. MASON GOOD. 91
into a new path. On the other hand, he whose delight
is chiefly in society, and whose great aim is to cultivate
the arts of conversation or of debate, soon acquires a
distaste for the employments of the study, and probably
seeking rather to shine than to convince or to instruct,
he becomes loose as a reasoner, or satisfies himself with
that which may perhaps have silenced others. Thus the
Copiousness and facility resulting from mere conversation,
or from oral dispute, may too naturally be often found at
the utmost distance from accuracy and truth.
An accomplished author, then, will be anxious, not
only to possess correct sentiments on the subjects which
he proposes to treat, but the power of expressing them
with efficiency at least, if not with elegance ; that he may
most agreeably impart and widely diffuse the knowledge
which he has acquired. In order to this, while he will
have sought to profit by frequent intercourse with men of
varied talents and degrees of information, he will not
have failed to attend to the art of composition : and if,
as was the case with our author at the commencement of
his course, he shall have written many pages and many
essays apparently in vain, he will have the satisfaction to
know, in after life, that while others have entirely failed,
in consequence of being either " full without readiness,
or ready without exactness," his own productions have
been appreciated by the public at their due value, and
have served to improve the taste, extend the knowledge,
or confirm the nobler principles, of those who have atten-
tively perused them.
Dr. Good's earlier productions which met the public
eye, except some pieces of lighter poetry noticed in the
former part of this work, were political. Of these I
have not been able to obtain copies : but I understand
that they were written to serve a temporary purpose, and
would excite little, if any interest among readers of the
present day.
DISEASES OP PRISONS, &>C.
In the year 1795, he published two medical essays,
which were exceedingly well received by the profession,
and served, as I have before remarked, to make him
known as a man of talent and research.
92 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
The first of these, "A Dissertation on the Diseases of
Prison* and Poor Houses," was published at the request
of the Medical Society of London, having obtained their
prize. It is printed in duodecimo, and divided into three
sections, which contain, 1st. Preliminary Observations,
and a short sketch of the history of prisons and poor
houses, and of the chief defects in their structure, econo-
my, and discipline. 2dly, A history of the diseases most
frequently observed to occur in such places, with their
remedies and general mode of treatment. 3dly, An ac-
count of the best plans to be adopted for presenting the
recurrence of such diseases in future. Many of the de-
tails in this little volume are very instructive, and well
deserved the attention both of magistrates, and of the
medical visitors of gaols and workhouses, at that time.
But the benevolent exertions of the great Howard, and of
others who have happily caught something of the same
spirit, have led to such considerable improv ements during
the last thirty years, (to which, indeed, the hints of our
author not a little contributed,) that there is now no
necessity to dwell upon the facts which he enumerates.
The following quotation, however, will be read with
interest by all who look beyond the mere point of health,
important as it is, and especially by those whose admira-
tion has been excited by the pious exertions of Mrs. Fry,
and other benevolent ladies, the advantages of which are
here not incorrectly depicted by a long anticipation.
" I cannot, in this place, avoid mentioning, though it
is not altogether connected with a medical treatise, the
propriety there is in the appointment of an officiating
clergyman, in all prisons at least. To a mind simply
humane, there is something extremely indecorous in per-
mitting a criminal to live and die without either religious
reproof or consolation. But there is something more than
indecorous in the case of penitentiary houses, there is
something radically wrong and impolitic. If the criminal
be sentenced to a confinement here for four or five years,
and that with daily and regular returns of labor, and if
these returns of labor be supposed insufficient to reclaim
him, and introduce into his future life a habit of industry
and honest exertion, how much more probable is it that
he will be reclaimed, when the additional and more ener-
DR. MASON GOOD. 93
getic power of principle is added to that of habit? when,
for the same period of time, the effect of religion has been
regularly and duly tried, and super added to the effect of
regular and constant employment ?
"Above all, more especially in the cases of poor-houses
and charity-schools, I could wish the ladies in the coun-
try would more warmly and frequently interest themselves.
The claim of benevolence, and every soft affection of the
heart, is peculiarly their own : and wherever they have
thus acted, considerable benefit has, in every instance,
accrued. It has done so at Frankfort ; it has done so at
Dunbar ; and, above all, at the village of Cardington, in
Bedfordshire, to which I have already adverted with much
satisfaction : and, in fine, it has done so, and will do so,
wherever their friendly interposition is exercised ; the in-
stitution will flourish, the concerns of morality and reli-
gion will prevail, the grand object of this dissertation will
be attained, and the poor will be cheerful and happy."
An appendix to this volume contains a " Case of Pre-
ternatural Foetation, with some observations on the phae-
nomena." This case occurred at Sudbury ; but the
technical description of it I omit, as it would be princi-
pally interesting to medical men ; for whom the author
himself has given an abridged account in his "Study of
Medicine," vol. v. p. 31. 2d edition.
HISTORV OF MEDICINE.
I have already (p. 53, &/c.) detailed the principal cir-
cumstances which occasioned the formation of the " Phar-
maccutic Association," and of Dr. Good's " History of
Medicine, so far as it relates to the profession of the
apothecary." This work is in duodecimo, and is com-
prised in 255 pages. It is divided into four sections.
In Section I. the author treats of the state of medicine,
in reference to the apothecary, among the Greeks, Ro-
mans, Arabians, the earlier ages of France, Italy, and
Germany. The immediate occupation of the apothecary
in those several countries at the respective periods spoken
of, and the rank which he obtained among the different
branches of the medical profession. The existence of
any such occupation as that of the modern druggist, is
investigated and denied, and the quarter is traced from
94 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OP
whence the apothecary was supplied with the drugs of
which he stood in need.
Section II. is devoted to the origin of medicine, and
especially of the profession of the apothecary in Great
Britain. The different charters and acts of parliament
which have successively been obtained relative to medi-
cine, are traced ; and the knavery and ignorance exposed,
of multitudes of medical practitioners, from the universal
incompetency of those public edicts, &c. to prevent
abuses. The origin of the occupation of the druggist is
investigated, as well as the source from whence apotheca-
ries previously derived their drugs.
In Section III. the author explains the necessity of the
profession of the apothecary to the nation at large, and
the evils to which the profession and the public were then
exposed. The origin of the General Pharmaceutic As-
sociation is traced, and an entertaining account is given
of its correspondence with medical men in all parts of the
kingdom, and of several of the monstrous evils thus
brought to light.
Section IV. contains observations on the principles of
action adopted by the Pharmaceutic Association, and a
vindication of them, as consistent with general justice and
policy, and essentially calculated to promote the welfare
of the nation generally, by preventing the profession of
medicine from sinking into contempt, and giving to that
department of it which depends upon the genuineness and
purity of its drugs, greater efficacy and certainty.
The work, though comparatively small, exhibits strong
evidences of the author's activity and powers of research.
Though it was obviously drawn together in haste, to meet
the exigencies of a particular occasion, it contains many
proofs of extensive reading, even in that early period of
Dr. Good's progress. Much of the information comprised
within its pages was then known but to few even of the
most active of medical men ; but the substance of it has
since been frequently introduced into our Cyclopaedias,
and other repositories of general knowledge, and now
constitutes a part of that rich stock of theoretical and
practical truth, which is possessed by the very numerous
liberally educated men, who, in this age of intellectual
impulse, adorn the medical profession.
DR. MASON GOOD. 95
TRANSLATION OF THE SONG OP SONGS.
Solomon's " Song of Songs," of Dr. Good's translation
of which I must now speak, has, from the earliest ages of
its existence been regarded as genuine and authentic ;
yet it would be wrong to deny that great differences of
opinion have existed amongst the wisest and best exposi-
tors of Scripture, as to its inspiration. It was a part of
those Scriptures which the Saviour and the Apostles often
refer to as the word of God. The authority of this book
was expressly allowed by Melito, in the second century ;
and several of the Christian fathers, as Origen, Gregory
of Nyssa, Cyprian, Augustine, and Jerome, wrote com-
mentaries upon it, or upon select portions of it. The
father of English literature, Venerable Bede, wrote six
books upon this Song : and in later ages, Alsted, Mercer,
Bossuet, and Gill, have done much to elucidate its nature
and object. There have been published several transla-
tions into the English language, of which the best known
are those of Dr. Percy, in 1764 ; of Miss Francis, in
1781 ; of Mr. Green, in the same year; of Mr. Hodgson,
in 1785; of Doderlein, in 1795; and of Williams, in
1801. It would not seem that Dr. Good had an opportu-
nity of examining all these : to those of Green, Percy, and
Hodgson, he acknowledges himself indebted ; as well as
to the Spanish version of Luis de Leon, and the Italian
of Melesigenio. He frequently also expresses his obliga-
tions to Lowth, whose sentiments, in reference to the
character of the book, he adopts ; and whose circumspec-
tion, with regard to minutiae of interpretation, he seems
closely to have followed.*
The opinions of learned men have differed greatly
* " Concerning the explanation of this allegory, (says the bishop, Lett.
xxxi.) I will only add, that in the first place we ought to be cautious of car-
rying the figurative application too far, and of entering into a piToise expli-
cation of every particular. Again, I would advise that this production be
treated according to the established rules of allegory in the sacred writings,
and that the author be permitted to be his own interpreter. In this respect
the errors of critics and divines have been as numerous as they have
been pernicious. Not to mention other absurdities, tbey have taken th
allegory, not as denoting the universal state of the church, but th spiritual
ttate of individuals; than which nothing can be more inconsistent with the
very nature and groundwork of the allegory itself, as well as with the geu-
eral practice of the Hebrew poets on these occasions."
96 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
as to the precise nature of the "Song of Songs," consid-
ered as an artificial composition, and of course as to the
subdivisions to be traced in its structure. Bossuet re-
garded it as a regular drama, divided into seven portions,
corresponding with the seven days of the Jewish marriage
festivals; and Lowth, Percy, and Mr. Williams adopted
this sentiment ; but Jahn, Sir W. Jones, and our author,
with some others, regard it as a series of sacred Idyls, the
number of which Jahn supposes to be eight, while Dr.
Good traces twelve.
With regard to the language, Dr. Good remarks, that
in no translation which he has seen, is the rendering
presented with all the delicacy of diction to which the
original is fairly entitled : this main defect, in his opinion,
has resulted from close verbal renderings of Hebrew
terms being given, when they ought to have been trans-
lated equivalently ; and in the plan pursued by himself,
we therefore find our cool northerly taste less frequently
offended. He exhibits two translations in opposite pages,
one of them resembling, as closely as the idioms of the
respective languages will allow, the rhythmical structure
of the original, the other in heroic verse.
In the preface, he sketches his own views of the na-
ture of Solomon's (or, as he assigns reasons for spelling
it, iSbftmtan'J) Song : from this preface, therefore, I shall
select a passage, and then present a short specimen of
each of his versions.
" It has been a question in all ages, whether the literal
and obvious meaning of these sacred amorets be the
whole that was ever intended by the royal bard ? or,
whether they afford not at the same time, the veil of a
sublime and mystical allegory, delineating the bridal
union subsisting between Jehovah and his pure and uncor-
rupted church? Upon this subject we have no sufficient
data to build a decisive opinion. To those who disbe-
lieve the existence of such an allegory, they still afford a
happy example of the pleasures of holy and virtuous love;
they inculcate, beyond the power of didactic poetry, the
tenderness which the husband should manifest for his
wife, and the deference, modesty, and fidelity with which
his affections should be returned ; and, considered even
DR. MASON GOOD. 97
in this sense alone, they are fully entitled to the honor
of constituting a part of the sacred Scriptures.
" To myself, nevertheless, I unite in the opinion of the
illustrious Lowth, and believe such a sublime and mystic
allegory to have been fully intended by the sacred bard.
Regarded in this view, they afford an admirable picture
of the Jewish and Christian churches ; of Jehovah's se-
lection of Israel, as a peculiar people, from the less fair
and virtuous nations around them ; of his fervent and
permanent love for his elder church, so frequently com-
pared by the Hebrew prophets to that of a bridegroom for
his bride; of the beauty, fidelity, and submission of the
church in return ; and of the call of the Gentiles into the
pale of his favor, upon the introduction of Christianity,
so exquisitely typified under the character of a younger
sister, destitute, in consequence of the greater simplicity
of its worship, of those external and captivating attrac-
tions which made so prominent a part of the Jewish
religion."
ROYAL BRIDE, ATTENDANT VIRGINS.
Royal Bride.
Ch. I. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth ;
For thy love is delicious above wine.
3. Like the fragrance of thy own sweet perfumes
Is thy name a perfume poured forth ;
For this reason do the virgins love thee.
4. ' Still thus" attract me we would follow ' thy perfumes.'
The king hath led me into his apartments.
/ '/'/ -yinf.
We will exult in thec and rejoice :
Thy love will we celebrate above wine ;
Thou art every way lovely.
Royal Bride.
5. Brown am I, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem !
As the tents of Kedar, as tho tapestries of Soloman.
6. ' Yet' despise me not because I am brown,
For the sun hatli discolored me.
My mother's children were severe with me ;
9
98
ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
They made me keeper of the vineyards.
My own vineyard have I not kept.
7. Tell me, O thou ! whom my soul loveth,
Where thou feedest ' thy flock,'
Where thou leadest it to rest at noon.
For why should I be as a wanderer
Among the flocks of thy companions ?
Virgins.
8. If thou know not, O thou fairest among women !
Go forth in the footsteps of the flock ;
And leave thy kids to feed
Beside the tents of the shepherds.
IDYL I.
ROYAL BRIDE, ATTENDANT VIRGINS.
Royal Bride.
O LET him kiss me with those lips of bliss !
P\>r more than nectar dwells in every kiss.
Rich thy perfumes ; but richer far than they
The countless charms that round thy person play:
Thv name alone, more fragrant than the rose,
Glads every maid where'er its fragrance flows.
Still let it draw me ! with attraction sweet
Still sway our hearts and guide our willing feet!
Daughters of Salem ! tell through every grove,
The partial monarch crowns me with his love.
Virgins.
We share thy bliss and with triumphant voice,
More than o'er wine, o'er costliest wine, rejoice.
Fair is thy form, well worthy of its lot,
matchless excellence ! and void of spot !
Royal Bride.
Not such, ye maids of Salem, my renown ;
My form is comely, but my face is brown :
Comely as tapestry where the king frequents.
But brown as Kedar's tawny-tinctur'd tents.
Yet scorn me not though thus of humbler hue,
'Twas from the sun the sultry tint I drew.
My mother's children, with unkind commands,
In servile toils employ'd my infant hands :
1 kept their vineyards through the blazing day,
And hence my own unprun'd and desert lay.
DR. MASON GOOD.
99
Tell me, O thou ! for whom my spirit pines,
Where now beneath the noon thy flock reclines ?
There let me seek thee : for, devoid of home,
Why 'mid the flocks of strangers should I roam ?
Virgins.
If, O thou fairest of the female race !
His devious flock thou know not where to trace,
Go mark their footsteps follow where they guide,
And leave thy kids the shepherds' tents beside.
In the preface, our author delivers his opinion as to
the probable age of Solomon when he composed these
" Idyls," and endeavors to collect what he candidly de-
nominates " a few detached and unsatisfactory anecdotes"
relative to " the beautiful and interesting personage" on
whose marriage with the Israelitish king they were
written.
The notes, which occupy about 150 pages, are ex-
ceedingly elegant and amusing. Those, however, who
turn to them for theological information, will be disap-
pointed. They are intended to elucidate, not so much
the language of religion as that of love, and to present
examples in which the phraseology, imagery, and gene-
ral sentiment of Solomon, in " these sacred amorets,"
have been accidentally or intentionally imitated. The
parallel passages are drawn together from a great variety
of authors, Persian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish,
Italian, and are, most of them, very tasteful and pleasing.
Altogether, indeed, they may be regarded as constituting
a beautiful anacreontic garland of flowers, gathered
from every clime ; but of which a few are too strongly
scented to be fully relished here, being the produce of
such exotics as have never yet flourished in an " English
garden." To most of the passages thus quoted, transla-
tions are appended, of which several are by Dr. Good
himself, and given with great spirit and vivacity.
MEMOIRS OF DR. GEDDES.
Dr. Good's " Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr.
Alexander Geddes," were published in 1803, in an 8vo.
volume of nearly 600 pages. This extraordinary individual
100 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
was born in Banffshire, in September 1737, and died in
London, February 26th, 1802. He was an indefatigable
writer, being the avowed author of 35 publications on dif-
ferent subjects connected with politics, and with sacred and
profane literature ; besides a great number of pamphlets
published anonymously. His principal work was a trans-
lation of the Bible, of which, however, he only published
a few of the earlier books ; the boldness of his specula-
tions, and the rashness of many of his proposed emenda-
tions, having excited such an opposition to his undertak-
ing that he could not possibly proceed with it. He was
a man of profound and extensive erudition, of deep re-
search, and of unwearied application ; an enthusiastic
propagator of his particular opinions respecting the Scrip-
ture historians : but as these are justly reckoned not only
erroneous, but even dangerous by the majority of Chris-
tians, it is no wonder that his publications on such sub-
jects diminished that respect which all men of learning
would otherwise have entertained for him.
The memoirs are written in a lively, pleasing style,
and convey much amusing information, not only relative
to Dr. Geddes, but to many of his associates in the literary
world ; men who took an active part in the literature and
the politics of that stormy period, from the commence-
ment of the French Revolution until about 1800, when
political and theological rancor were at their height, and
when nothing was more difficult than for an individual to
steer his course quietly through the world without becom-
ing a partizan. The biographer says, " I have freely
commended, and I have freely blamed I have deviated
from Dr. Geddes's opinions where I have seen reason for
dissent, and I have vindicated him in instances where I
have conceived the motives of his conduct to have been
misrepresented or misunderstood." The truth, however,
need not be concealed, that at that time the opinions of
the biographer and of his hero accorded pretty nearly on
most points ; although but a few years passed away before
Dr. Good found himself conscientiously impelled to
abandon, as dangerous, many notions which he had before
thought, if not perfectly true, at least altogether harmless.
Among the singular and dangerous opinions held by
Dr. Geddes, one of the most revolting was that which
DR. MASON GOOD. 101
related to the character of Moses. He believed that the
great Jewish legislator was not inspired, but assumed a
pretended inspiration. " Indeed, (says he,) I cannot
conceive how Moses could have governed so rude, so
stubborn, so turbulent a nation and made them submit
to such a code of laws as he devised for them without
feigning an immediate intercourse with the Deity, and
ascribing to him every injunction laid upon them. But
although his communications with God were frequent,
and almost on every emergency, he was particularly care-
ful to keep the pQople at a distance from the intercourse ;
no one must approach the mount while he is receiving
the Decalogue, under pain of death : no one must hear
the responses given from the oracle, but through him ;
no one but he sees God " face to face ;" no one must
reason against any of his ordinances ; no one object to
any of his decisions : because his ordinations and decis-
ions are all from the mouth of God."
Now, in opposition to these preposterous sentiments
Dr. Good remarks,
" It is an insuperable objection to this part of our
author's creed, that it is contradictory to itself. Dr.
Geddes admits his most ample belief in the divine author-
ity of Jesus Christ, " whose Gospel is his religious code,
whose doctrines are his dearest delight :" but Jesus
Christ uniformly avowed the inspiration of Moses, by
expressly adverting to such inspiration in the delivery of
one prediction fulfilled in his own person. It is in every
respect inconsistent and illogical, therefore, to accredit the
divine mission of the author of the Christian faith, and
yet to deny the same authority to the Hebrew legislator.
One principal reason that operated upon our author in
support of this denial was, the many acts of cruelty which
were perpetrated at the instigation of Moses, and from
which he was anxious to exculpate the Deity ; arid par-
ticularly the total destruction and extermination of the
seven Canaanite nations, and the transfer of their land
and possessions to the Israelites. ' I cannot possibly
believe, (says he,) that ever a just, benevolent being, such
as I conceive my God to be, gave such a sanguinary
order to Moses and the Israelites as in the book of Deu-
teronomy is said to have been given.' The explanation
*9
102 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
of this transaction, advanced by the very liberal and learn-
ed Bishop of Llandaff, in his Apology for the Bible, is
known to every one, and is satisfactory to most. But our
author, not only acknowledges himself not satisfied with
it, but labors in a long and argumentative note, to prove
its impotence and irrelevancy. He will not allow any
simile drawn from the phenomena of nature ; such as
the ravages of earthquakes, pestilences, or inundations, to
be coincident with this event, as recorded in the Bible.
' When the earthquake (says he) swallows up, the sea
overwhelms, the fire consumes, the famine starves, or the
plague destroys ; we are totally ignorant by what laws of
nature or concatenation of causes, the desolating events
happen ; we see only the dismal effects : and no conse-
quence can rationally be deduced from them, against the
principle of moral equity. From such events no one
would derive an argument for the lawfulness of disposses-
sing his neighbor, either in his property or person ; no
argument for the lawfulness of burying alive idolaters,
drowning heretics, starving atheists, &,c.'
" I freely confess (proceeds Dr. Good,) I cannot see
the difference here contended for : and even Dr. Geddes
himself must have admitted the possibility of God's pre-
determining and prognosticating, as well as immediately
operating the total extermination of a whole people, or-
must have disbelieved the tremendous history of the de-
struction of Jerusalem, and the propagation of his predict-
ed curse upon the Hebrew race to the present moment.
Here I think the simile is at least admissible ; and I am
surprised that our modern polemics have not occasionally
adverted to it. If it be consistent with the justice and
benevolence of the Supreme Being, that the Jewish
nation, his own peculiar people, should, on account of
the enormity of their sins, be in their turn attacked in
their inheritance ; be subjugated to a foreign power ;
become the prey and plunder of a long succession of
capricious, cruel, and avaricious tyrants ; have their city
and temple at length assaulted ; be loaded with every
possible calamity which pestilence, famine, and torture,
their own mutual treacheries and animosities, and the
implacable enmity and ingenuity of their adversaries,
could invent during the continuance of this tremendous
DR. MASON GOOD, 103
siege if it be consistent with the same adorable attri-
butes, that upwards of a million of them should fall vic-
tims to so complicated a scourge, and that the wretched
remnant who escaped should be suffered to wander about
as outcasts and vagabonds over the face of the whole
earth, equally despised and derided by every nation among
whom they might acquire a temporary abode if it be
consistent with these attributes that this terrible visita-
tion should be persevered in for a period of at least eigh-
teen centuries, thus punishing from age to age, the children
for the >///.- of thi'ir fathers if the case before us, which
we cannot but believe, be consistent with the justice and
benevolence of the Deity surely the case recorded (a
case of far inferior vengeance) demands no great credu-
lity to obtain our assent, nor strength of reasoning to
reconcile it with the moral perfections of the Supreme
Being."
TRANSLATION OF LUCRETIUS.
Of the preceding works of our author I have, design-
edly, said but little, that I might speak more fully of the
great work, which, as my readers will already have seen,
(pp. 64 67) occupied so large a share of several of the
most active years of his life ; the " Translation of Lucre-
tius," which, having long devoted to it his head, his hand
and his heart, he published in 1805, in two volumes quarto.
It is still a question with many, whether or not this
philosophical poet is worthy of all the pains which have
been bestowed upon him ; and, probably, like Epicurus,
the great master of his system, he has received a larger
share of both praise and blame than are fairly his due.
It has been said, for example, that as a philosophical
poet, Lucretius is inferior to Homer. That he is deci-
dedly inferior as a poet, no one will question ; but they
must view the character of Homer through a very extra-
ordinary medium, who regard him as the poet of philoso-
phy. There would be no difficulty in shewing, from
many of his beautiful similes, that he was an accurate
observer of natural phenomena ; and it might be shewn
in like manner from his exquisite delineation of charac-
ters, that he was most intimately acquainted with human
104 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OP
nature ; yet, as he is not on the latter account, classed
with moralists, so neither can he, on the former, be rank-
ed with philosophers.
The Roman poets, indeed, tinctured their sentiments
and language very deeply with the philosophy of the
Greeks. Thus Virgil adopts sometimes the notions of
the Stoics, sometimes those of the Platonists, at others
those of the Pythagorean and the Epicurean systems.
Horace breathes the Epicurean spirit. Ovid evinces his
acquaintance with the Greek theogonies: and Persius
warmly advocates the morals of the Stoics. Yet, by these
and others, the doctrines they adopted were introduced
occasionally, and not made the basis of their structure.
Not so Lucretius. In his poem, De Rerum Natura, he
has with accuracy of method, and clearness of concep-
tion, and usually with great elegance of diction, entirely
unfolded the system of Epicurus : and the remarkable
fact ought not to be suppressed, that the inductive meth-
od of Bacon, portions of the physics of the Newtonian
school, and of the chemical discoveries of the last forty
years, have been anticipated, both as to their principles and
results, in this elaborate production. Although I am by
no means inclined to admit so much in reference to
these points as Mr. Dutens, in his " Inquiry into the
Origin of the discoveries attributed to the Moderns," or
even as Dr. Good has done in his preface, and several of
his notes ; yet I am not reluctant to allow, that with
respect to nature, active and animated, to the corpuscu-
lar philosophy the constitution of the milky way, the
moon, the tides, the circulation of the blood, the exis-
tence of the Fallopian tubes, the sexual system of plants,
the principles of sculpture, painting, and music, and
some of our metaphysical theories, the ancients have pre-
ceded us by more than a mere adumbration ; and that
the perspicuous developement of various trains of inquiry,
thought to have been peculiar to the last century, in this
great work of Lucretius, give to it an interest possessed
by no other production of Roman genius, independently
of that which is excited by its poetical merit.
That it has poetical merit, however, and that of the
highest order, was declared by Cicero, Virgil, Horace,
Ovid, Gellius, and Cornelius Nepos, among the ancients ;
DR. MASON GOOD.
105
as well as by moderns of deserved reputation. Dr.
Warton, especially, in his Dissertation on the Life and
Writings of Pope, says, " The Persians distinguish the
different degrees of the strength of fancy in different poets,
by calling them painters or sculptors. Lucretius, from
the force of his images, should be ranked among the
latter. He is, in truth, a sculptor-poet. His writings
have bold relief." And again, in another dissertation,
when devoting himself to a more complete exfoliation of
the character and great production of this sculptor-poet,
he says, " I am next to speak of Lucretius, whose merit
has never yet been sufficiently displayed, and who seems
to have had more fire, spirit, and energy, more of the
vivifla, r/.s animi, than any of the Roman poets, not ex-
cepting Virgil himself. Whoever imagines, with Tully,
that Lucretius had not a great genius, is desired to cast
his eye on two pictures he has given us at the beginning
of his poem : the first of Venus, with her lover Mars,
beautiful to the last degree, and more glowing than any
picture painted by Titian ; the second, of that terrible
and gigantic figure, the demon of superstition, worthy
the energetic pencil of Michael Angelo. Neither do I
think that the description that immediately follows, of the
sacrifice of Iphigenia, was excelled by the famous picture
of Timanthes on the same subject, of which Pliny speaks
so highly in the 35th book of his Natural History : espe-
cially the minute and moving circumstances of her per-
ceiving the grief of her father Agamemnon, and of the
priest's concealing his sacrificing knife, and of the spec-
tators bursting into tears, and her falling on her knees.
Few passages even in Virgil himself, are so highly finish-
ed, contain such lively descriptions, or are so harmonious
in their versification, as where our poet speaks of the
fruitfulness occasioned throughout all nature by vernal
showers, of the ravages committed by tempestuous
winds," &,c. The Doctor then proceeds briefly, but
with commendation, to describe and select from the six
books, into which the poem is divided.*
* The sentiments of Dionysius Lambinus, the eclilor of the Paris edition
of 156370, (whom Eichstadt characterises as " vir exquisiiissimae doc-
trinae copijs, et singular! acumine praeditus,") being less known to the E-
106 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
With an admiration of his author not inferior to that
of Lambinus, and with a mind copiously imbued both
with classical knowledge, and with the results of the arts
and sciences of every polished nation, Dr. Good devoted
himself to the translation and commentary of which I am
now to speak.
A spirited preface, and a life of Lucretius, occupy
about 130 pages of the first volume. In these he briefly
adverts to preceding translations, and deduces from their
imperfections the necessity of his own. He also enters
into an elaborate defence of the system of Epicurus, and
glish reader than those of Warton, may without impropriety be inserted In
this note.
" The poem of Lucretius, although he advances in it some opinions that
are repugnant to our religion, is, nevertheless, a most beautiful poem, dis-
tinguished, illustrated, and adorned, with all the bril!'.ancy of wit and fancy.
What, though Epicurus and Lucretius were impious in our views, are we
who read them therefore impious ?"...." Since we daily read many
things that are fabulous, incredible, and false, either to yield some respite to
our minds, or to make us the more constantly to adhere to such as are
true, what reason is there that we should despise Lucretius, a most elegant
and beautiful poet, the most polite and the most ancient of all the Latin
writers, from whom Virgil and Horace have, in many places, borrowed not
half, but whole verses ? When he descants upon the invisible corpuscles or
first principles of things, on their motion, their various configuration, on the
void, the images or tenuous membranes that fly off from the surface of all
bodies, the nature of the mind and soul, the rising and setting of the
planets, the nature of lightning, of the rainbow, the causes of diseases, and
of many other things, he is learned, wise, judicious, and elegant. In the
introductions to his books, in his similes, his examples, his disputations
against the fear of death, concerning the inconveniences and the harms of
love, in his account of sleep, and of dreams, he is copious, discreet,
eloquent, and often sublime. We not only read Homer, but even commit
his verses to memory, because, under the veil of fables, partly obscene,
partly absurd, he has in a manner included the knowledge of all natural
and human things. Why, then, shall we not hear Lucretius, who, without
the disguise of fables and such trifles, not always indeed truly, nor piously,
but plainly and openly, and in a style the most correct and pure, treats of
the principles and causes of things, of the universe, of its parts, of a happy
life, and of things celestial and ter.cstrial ?". ..." How admirably does he
discourse upon the restraining of pleasures, the curbing of the passions, and
the attainment of tranquillity of mind ! How wisely does he rebuke and
confute those who affirm that nothing can be perceived, and nothing
known ! How beautiful are his descriptions ! How graceful, as the Greeks
call them, are his episodes ! How fine are his descriptions of colors, of
mirrors, of the loadstone, and of the Averni ! How serious and impressive
are his exhortations to live continently. justly, temperately, innocently!
What shall we say of his diction, than which nothing can be imagined more
pure, correct, perspicuous, or elegant. I scruple not to affirm, that in all
the Latin language, no author writes Latin better than Lucretius, and that
the diction, neither of Cicero nor of Csesar, is more pure." Epistle Dedi-
catory to diaries IX.
DR. MASOX GOOD. 107
skilfully, though not with entire success, defends him
from the charge of atheism and irreligion. From this
portion of the \vork I shall select a few passages, as in-
dicative both of Dr. Good's manner and of his tone of
thought, at the period in which they were written.
" In attentively perusing the poem before us, it is im-
possible to avoid noticing the striking resemblance which
exists between many of its most beautiful passages,
and various parts of the poetic books of the Scrip-
tures: and the Abbe de St. Pierre, as well as several
other continental writers, have hence considered Lucre-
tius to have been acquainted with them. The idea, it
must be confessed, is but little more than a conjecture/
but it is a conjecture which may easily be defended. Vir-
gil, who, though considerably younger than Lucretius,
was contemporary with him, and attained his majority on
the very day of our poet's decease, was indisputably ac-
quainted with the prophecies of Isaiah ; and Longinus,
who flourished during the reign of Aurelian, quotes from
the Mosaic writings by name. It is not difficult to ac-
count for such an acquaintance : for different books of the
Bible, and especially those of the Pentateuch, appear to
have been translated into Greek by the Jews themselves,
at least three centuries anterior to the Christian aera, for
the use of their brethren, who at that time were settled in
Egypt, and other Grecian dependencies, and, residing
among the Greeks, had adopted the Greek language.
The Septuagint itself, moreover, was composed and pub-
lished about the same period, by the express desire, and
under the express patronage, of Ptolemy Philadelphus ;
who, convinced of the importance and excellence of the
Hebrew Scriptures, was desirous of diffusing a knowledge
of them among the various classes of men of letters, who,
at his own invitation, had now thronged to Alexandria
from every quarter. Theocritus was at this time among
the number, and largely partook of the liberality of the
Egyptian monarch ; and Sanctius seems fairly to have
established it, that the labors of the Grecian idyllist are
deeply imbued with the spirit, and evince manifest imita-
tions of the language, of the Song of Songs. Dr. Hodg-
son has, indeed, ascended very considerably higher, and
even challenges Anacreon with having copied, in a varie-
108 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
ty of instances, from this inimitable relic of the sacred
poetry of Solomon. This accusation may, perhaps, be
doubtful ; but it would be easy to prove, if the discussion
were necessary in the present place, that, during the
dynasty of the Ptolemies, not only the muses of Aonia
were indebted to the muse of Sion, but that the eclectic
philosophy, which first raised its monster head within the
same period, incorporated many of the wildest traditions
of the Jewish rabbis into its chaotic hypothesis. The
literary connexion which subsisted between Rome and
Alexandria is well known ; and it is not to be supposed
that writings, which appear to have been so highly prized
in the one city, would be received with total indifference
in the other.
" Be this, however, as it may ; be the parallelisms I
advert to, designed or accidental ; I trust I shall rather
be applauded than condemned, for thus giving a loose to
the habitual inclination of my heart. Grotius, Schultens,
Lowth, and Sir William Jones, have set me the example,
and, while treading in the steps of such illustrious schol-
ars, I need not be afraid of public censure. Like them,
I wish to prove that the sacred pages are as alluring by their
language, as they are important in their doctrines ; and
that, whatever be the boast of Greece and Rome with
respect to poetic attainments, they are often equalled, and
occasionally surpassed, by the former. The man who,
professing the Christian religion, is acquainted with the
ancient classics, ought, at the same time, to be acquaint-
ed with biblical criticism ; he has, otherwise, neglected
his truest interest, and lived but for little purpose in the
world. I delight in profane literature, but still more do I
delight in my Bible : they are lamps, that afford a mutual
assistance to each other. In point of importance, how-
ever, I pretend not that they admit of comparison ; and
could it once be demonstrated that the pursuits are in-
consistent with each other, I would shut up Lucretius for
ever, and rejoice in the conflagration of the Alexandrian
library."
The following able sketch of the system of Epicurus
will be read with interest and advantage by the young stu-
dent of the philosophy of the ancients.
" In its mere PHYSICAL contemplation, the theory of
DR. MASON GOOD.
109
Epicurus allows of nothing but matter and space, which
are equally infinite and unbounded, which have equally
existed from all eternity, and from different combinations
of which every individual being is created. These exist-
ences have no property in common with each other ; for,
whatever matter is, that space is the reverse of; and what-
ever space is, matter is the contrary to. The actually
solid parts of all bodies, therefore, are matter ; their
actual pores, space ; and the parts which are not altogeth-
er solid, but an intermixture of solidity and pore, are
space and matter combined. Anterior to the formation
of the universe, space and matter existed uncombined, or
in their pure and elementary state. Space, in its elemen-
tary state, is positive and unsolid void : matter, in its
elementary state, consists of inconceivably minute seeds
or atoms so small, that the corpuscles of vapor, light,
and heat, are compounds of them ; and so solid, that they
cannot possibly be broken, or made smaller, by any con-
cussion or violence whatever. The express figure of
these primary atoms is various : there are round, square,
pointed, jagged, as well as many other shapes. These
shapes, however, are not diversified to infinity ; but the
atoms themselves, of each existent shape, are infinite or
innumerable. Every atom is possessed of certain intrin-
sic powers of motion. Under the old school of Democri-
tus, the perpetual motions exhibited were of two kinds,
a descending motion, from its own gravity ; and a re-
bounding motion, from mutual concussion. Besides
these two motions, and to explain certain phenomena
which the following poem developes, and which were not
accounted for under the old system, Epicurus supposed
that some atoms were occasionally possessed of a third,
by which, in some very small degree, they descended in
an oblique or curvilinear direction, deviating from the
common and right line anomalously ; and hence, in this
respect, resembling the oscillations of the magnetic
needle.
" These infinitudes of atoms, flying immemorially in
such different directions, through all the immensity of
space, have interchangeably tried and exhibited every
possible mode of action, sometimes repelled from each
other by concussion, and sometimes adhering to each
10
110 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
other from their own jagged or pointed construction, or
from the casual interstices which two or more connected
atoms must produce, and which may just be adapted to
those of other configurations, as globular, oval, or square.
Hence the origin of compound bodies ; hence the origin
of immense masses of matter ; hence, eventually, the ori-
gin of the world itself. When these primary atoms are
closely compacted together, and but little vacuity or space
intervenes, they produce those kinds of substances which
we denominate solid, as stones and metals : when they
are loose and disjoined, and a large quantity of space or
vacuity occurs between them, they produce the phenome-
na of wool, water, vapor. In one mode of combination,
they form earth ; in another, air ; and in another, fire.
Arranged in one way, they produce vegetation and irrita-
bility ; in another way, animal life and perception. Man
hence arises families are formed society multiplies, and
governments are instituted.
" The world, thus generated, is perpetually sustained
by the application of fresh elementary atoms, flying with
inconceivable rapidity through all the infinitude of space,
invisible from their minuteness, and occupying the posts
of all those that are perpetually flying off. Yet, nothing
is eternal and immutable but these elementary seeds or
atoms themselves ; the compound forms of matter are con-
tinually decompounding, and dissolving into their original
corpuscles : to this there is no exception minerals,
vegetables, and animals, in this respect all alike, when
they lose their present configuration, perishing from ex-
istence for ever, and new combinations proceeding from
the matter into which they dissolve. But the world itself
is a compound, though not an organized being ; sustained
and nourished like organized beings, from the material
pabulum that floats through the void of infinity. The
world itself therefore, must, in the same manner, perish :
it had a beginning, and it will eventually have an end.
Its present crasis will be decompounded ; it will return
to its original, its elementary atoms ; and new worlds will
arise from its destruction.
" Space is infinite, material atoms are infinite, but the
world is not infinite. This, then, is not the oniy world,
or the only material system, that exists. Th& cause
DR. MASON GOOD. Ill
whence this visible system originated is competent to pro-
duce others ; it has been acting perpetually from all eter-
nity ; and there are other worlds and other systems of
worlds existing around us. In the vast immensity of
space, there are also other beings than man, possessed of
powers of intellect and enjoyment far superior to our
own ; beings who existed before the formation of the world,
and will exist when the world shall perish forever ; whose
happiness flows unlimited and unalloyed, and whom the
tumults and passions of gross matter can never agitate.
These, the founder of the system denominated gods ;
not that they created the universe, or are possessed with a
power of upholding it ; for they are finite and created
beings themselves, and endowed alone with finite capaci-
ties and powers ; but from the uninterrupted beatitude
and tranquillity they enjoy, their everlasting freedom from
all anxiety and care." p. cxi.
" Epicurus, in the opening of a letter addressed to a
favorite disciple, says, ' Believe, before all things, that
God is an immortal and blessed Being ; as, indeed, com-
mon sense should teach us concerning God. Conceive
nothing of him that is repugnant to blessedness and im-
mortality, and admit everything that is consistent with
these perfections.
" He admitted, moreover, the existence of orders of
intelligences, possessed of superior powers to the human
race, whom, like the angels and archangels of the Chris-
tian system, he conceived to be immortal from their na-
ture ; to have been created anterior to the formation of
the world, to be endowed with far ampler faculties of en-
joyment than mankind, to be formed of far purer mate-
rials, and to exist in far happier abodes. The chief dif-
ference which I have been able to discern between the
immortal spirits of the Epicurean system, and the Chris-
tian theologist, is, that while the latter are supposed to
take an active part in the divine government of the world,
the former are represented as having no kind of con-
nexion with it: since it was conceived by Epicurus that
euch an interference is absolutely beyond their power,
and would be totally subversive of their beatitude."
p. Ixvi.
Gassendi, in his tractate " de Vita et Moribus Epi-
112 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
curi," has a similar observation. Yet the difference to
which both he and Dr. Good advert, is not secondary and
trifling, but primary, essential, and of the utmost moment.
If, as Epicurus taught, it was inconsistent with the na-
ture and being, not merely of these minor divinities but
of the Supreme Deity, to give himself either diversion or
disturbance by making the world ; if he encumber not
himself with the care and government of it ; if he dwell
for ever in the extramundane spaces, exercising no in-
spection over mankind, nor concerning himself about
their actions and affairs ; if in him neither anger nor
favor, complacency nor displacency, have place ; where
can scope be found, in such a system, for the exercise of
piety towards God, of submission to his authority, resig-
nation to his will, or a regard to his favor and protection ?
Interpreted correctly, therefore, this is a cold and com-
fortless theory, equally robbing God of his richest attri-
butes, and man of his most delectable privileges. It
takes away all intercourse, all communion, between
mankind and the Great Supreme: God cannot "dwell
with man upon earth," man cannot dwell with God in
heaven ; and Deity becomes a mere speculation ; at the
utmost an object of veneration, but never the object of
love.
If virtue spring from such a source, (and it is right to
admit that Epicurus was, in many respects, a virtuous
man, gentle, kind, temperate, continent,) the scheme of
morality must be wrong at its very foundation. The vir-
tue which it prescribes is resolved into a man's private
convenience and advantage, independently of reference
to any Divine law, (for Divine law, in truth, there could
not be on such a system :) if Epicurus declaim against
vice, it is because it would expose the culprit to the pen-
alties of human laws ; but he declaims much more ear-
nestly against the fear of the gods, and the fear of death ;
the former because the gods regard not us, the latter
because " whilst we live, death is not ; and when death is,
we are not." Against injustice, ambition, envy, revenge,
he levels several excellent observations ; and many of
them are wrought out, with much beauty, by Lucretius ;
yet, as a system for the regulation of human conduct, and
DR. MASON GOOD. 113
the real augmentation of human happiness, experience,
wherever it was tried, evinced its total inefficacy.
The same, however, may be affirmed of every human
system, ancient or modern. And it is solely to put the
young and ardent admirer of classical literature upon his
guard, that he may be watchful as to the defects of every
system but one, and set his eyes fully upon the glories of
that one, the system revealed to us by God himself, that I
have thought it right to present these remarks. Had a
now edition been called for during the lifetime of my de-
ceased friend, he would, I am persuaded, most scrupu-
lously have precluded the possibility of mistake on this
important subject.
But it is time we should proceed to the work itself; on
corresponding and opposite pages of which Dr. Good has
placed the original, (closely, but not slavishly, following
Mr. Wakefield's edition,) and his own translation. In
adopting blank verse as his vehicle, he seems to have set
at defiance the frequently quoted aphorism of Johnson ,*
but the truth is, that in thus deciding he was much more
likely to succeed in the happy transfusion of the sentiments
of Lucretius, than if he had " condescended to rhyme."
Freed from the restraints of similar termination, the
translator of a didactic and philosophic poem has a far
better chance of rendering his author faithfully, without
waste of words, than those who confine themselves to the
rhyming couplet. Thus, in the translations of Creech,
of Dryden, and of Dr. Busby, we meet with frequent and
sometimes ridiculous redundancies ; and those who have
compared the translations, of the Iliad by Pope and Cow-
per, will have noticed the advantage, in point of terseness
and general accuracy, possessed by the latter translator.
Blank verse, in the hands of one who has a tolerable
command of diction, admits of a dignity and variety in
translation, which is seldom attained by him who rhymes.
The adoption of blank verse, therefore, in the translation
of Lucretius has, I believe, been generally approved.
The characteristic of Dr. Good's poetry is elegant variety.
His versification is easy, his style flowing, and usually
harmonious ; and, in the philosophical portions especially
* " He that thinks himself capable of astonishing' may write blank verse ;
but those that hope only to please, must condescend to rhvme."
*10
114 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
the copious diction of modern science has often been
felicitously introduced. In the pathetic and the awful,
he has, I think, sometimes failed : but in these depart-
ments of his art, the Roman poet exhibits a simple
majesty, which, I am aware, it is far more easy to ad-
mire than to imitate.
The reader, however, will form a more correct estimate
from a few specimens, than from any criticisms which I
can offer.
Let me first, then, present Dr. Good's version of the
far famed exordium of the second book :
Suave, mari magno turbantibus tequora ventis,
E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem : &c.
in which the beauty and elegance of the language and
imagery have excited universal admiration, and produced
a host of imitators.
How sweet to stand, when tempests tear the main,
On the firm cliff, and mark the seaman's toil !
Not that another's danger soothes the soul,
But from such toil how sweet to feel secure !
How sweet, at distance from the strife, to view
Contending hosts, and hear the clash of war !
But sweeter far on Wisdom's height serene,
Upheld by Truth, to fix our firm abode ;
To watch the giddy crowd that, deep below,
Foi ever wander in pursuit of bliss :
To mark the strife for honors and renown,
For wit and wealth, insatiate, ceaseless urg'd
Day after day, with labor unrestrain'd.
O wretched mortals ! race perverse and blind !
Through what dread dark, what perilous pursuits,
Pass ye this round of being ! know ye not
Of all ye toil for, nature nothing asks
But for the body freedom from disease,
And sweet, unanxious quiet, for the mind ?
And little claims the body to be sound:
But little serves to strew the paths we tread
With joys beyond e'en Nature's utmost wish.
What, though the dome be wanting, whose proud walls
A thousand lamps irradiate, propt sublime
By frolic forms of youths in massy gold,
Flinging their splendors o'er the midnight feast :
Though gold and silver blaze not o'er the board,
Nor music echo round the gaudy roof?
Yet listless laid the velvet grass along
Near gliding streams, by shadowy trees o'er-arch'd,
Such pomps we need not ; such still less when spring
Leads forth her laughing train, and the warm year
DR. MASON GOOD. 115
Paints the green meads with roseat flowers profuse.
On down reclin'd, or wrapp'd in purple robe,
The thirsty fever burns with heat as fierce
As when its victim on a pallet pants.
Since, then, nor wealth, nor splendor, nor the boast
Of birth illustrious, nor e'en regal state
Avails the body, so the free-born mind
Their aid as little asks. Unless, perchance,
The warlike host, thou deem, for thee array'd
In martial pomp, and o'er the fiery field
Panting for glory ; and the gorgeous fleet,
For thee unmoor'd, and ardent, can dispel
Each superstitious terror ; from the breast
Root out the dread of death, and lull to peace
The cares, the tumults, that distract thy soul.
But if all this be idle, if the CARES,
The TERRORS still that haunt, and harass man,
Dread not the din of arms, o'er kings and chiefs
Press unabash'd, unaw'd by glittering pomp,
The purple robe unheeding canst thou doubt
Man pants for these from poverty of mind,
Wand'ring in darkness, and through life misled ?
For as the boy, when midnight veils the sKies,
Trembles, and starts at all things, so, full oft,
E'en in the noon men start at forms as void
Of real danger as the phantoms false
By darkness conjur'd, and the school-boy's dread.
A terror this the radiant darts of day
Can ne'er disperse : to truth's pure light alone,
And wisdom yielding intellectual suns. I. C2.
The beautiful passage in the fifth book, in which the
poet manifests his superiority to some of the vulgar super-
stitions beginning with,
Nee pietas ulla est velatum Sfepe videri
Vorticr ad lapidem, atque omneis adcedere ad aras;
has received this spirited, though rather free rendering.
No it can ne'er be piety to turn
To stocks and stones with deep-veil'd visr:o\ ; light
O'er every altar incense ; o'er the dust
Fall prostrate, and, with outstretched arms, invoke
Through every temple, every god that reigns,
Soothe them with blood, and lavish vows on vows.
This, rather thou term piety, to mark
With cairn untrembling soul each scene ordain'd.
For when we, doubtful, heaven's high arch survey,
The firm fixt ether, sta--emboss'd,\and pause
O'er the sun's path, and pale meand'ring moon,
116 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
Then superstitious cares, erevvhile represt
By cares more potent, lift their hydra-head.
" What ! from the gods, then, flows this power immense
That sways, thus various, the bright host of stars ?
(For dubious reason still the mind perturbs)
This wondrous world how form'd they ? to what end
Doom'd ? through that period can its lab'ring walls
Bear the vast toil, the motions now sustain'd ?
Or have th' immortals fram'd it free from death,
In firm, undevious course empovver'd to glide
O'er the broad ravage of eternal time ?" V. 1243.
That portion of the fifth book, in which Lucretius pre-
sents a description of primaeval life and manners, and
traces from thence the growth of civilization and refine-
ment, and the corresponding modifications in the habits
and pleasures of man, has been regarded as most happily
characteristic of his best manner. I shall quote another
passage from this part of the poem, as one in which the
translator has caught much of the spirit of his author.
But nature's self th' untutor'd race first taught
To sow, to graft ; for acorns ripe they saw,
And purple berries, shatter'd from the trees,
Soon yield a lineage like the trees themselves.
Whence learn'd they, curious, through the stem mature
To thrust the tender slip, and o'er the soil
Plant the fresh shoots that first disordered sprang.
Then, too, new cultures tried they, and, with joy,
Mark'd the boon earth, by ceaseless care caress'd,
Each barbarous fruitage sweeten and subdue.
So loftier still and loftier up the hills
Drove they the woodlands daily, broad'ning thus
The cultur'd foreground, that the sight might trace
Meads, corn-fields, rivers, lakes, and vineyards gay,
O'er hills and mountains thrown ; while thro' the dales,
The downs, the slopes, ran lavish and distinct
The purple realm of olives ; as with hues
Distinct, though various still the landscape swells,
Where blooms the dulcet apple, mid the tufts
Of trees diverse that blend their joyous shades.
And from the liquid warblings of the birds
Learn'd they their first rude notes, ere music yet
To the rapt ear had tun'd the measurd verse ;
And Zephyr, whisp'ring through the hollow reeds,
Taught the first swains the hollow reed to sound :
Whence woke they soon those tender trembling tones
Which the sweet pipe when by the fingers prest,
Pours o'er the hills, the vales, and woodlands wild,
Haunts of lone shepherds, and the rural gods.
DR. MASON GOOD. 117
So growing time points, ceaseless, something new,
And human skill evolves it into day.
Thus sooth'd they ev'ry care, with music, thus
Clos'd ev'ry rneal, for rests the bosom then.
And oft they threw them on the velvet grass,
Near gliding streams, by shadowy trees o'er-arch'd,
And void of costly wealth, found still the means
To gladden life. But chief when genial spring
Led forth her laughing train, and the young year
Painted the meads with roseat flow'rs profuse
Then mirth, and wit, and wiles, and frolic, chief,
Flow'd from the heart ; for then the rustic muse
Warmest inspir'd them : then lascivious* sport
Taught round their heads, their shoulders, taught to twine
Foliage, and flowers, and garlands richly dight ;
To loose, innum'rous (unmeasur'd) time their limbs to move,
And beat, with sturdy foot, maternal earth ;
While many a smile, and many a laughter loud,
Told all was new, and wondrous much esteem'd.
Thus wakeful liv'd they, cheating of its rest
The drowsy midnight ; with the jocund dance
Mixing gay converse, madrigals, and strains
Run o'er the reeds with broad recumbent lip :
As, wakeful still, our revellers through night
Lead on their defter dance to time precise ;
Yet will not costlier sweets, with all their art,
Than the rude offspring earth in woodlands bore. V. 1451.
But whatever may be the estimate of this work, con-
sidered as a translation, it may justly claim a considera-
bly augmented value on account of the voluminous and
extremely diversified collection of annotations, which
form a kind of running commentary to the entire poem.
These notes are printed in double columns, with a type
much smaller than the original and translation ; and
occupying, as they do on the average, more than half of
each page, comprise altogether a rich body of entertain-
ment and instruction. They consist of comments on the
doctrines of the poem, and of the sect of philosophers
whose tenets Lucretius espoused ; observations on the
peculiarities of other schools of philosophy, Indian, Gre-
cian, Roman, &,c. ; correct sketches of the discoveries
and theories of the moderns, whether devoted to chemis-
try or physics ; developements of striking facts in natural
" The term lascivia is often and elegantly made use of in poetry, and
particularly by Lucretius, without ititendinir to express any impurity of
action."
118 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
history ; and allusions to many extraordinary anticipa-
tions of discoveries supposed to be modern. Our anno-
tator also expatiates, with taste and feeling, upon the
beauties of his author, and collects numerous obvious or
imagined imitations of him in several poets of earlier and
later times. His extensive attainments as a linguist, and
that indefatigable industry to which I have more than
once adverted, enabled him to enrich this department of
his undertaking with an almost boundless profusion ; and
to present resemblances, parallelisms, allusions, and prob-
able copies of his text, from Arabic, Persian, Greek,
Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German
English, and other poets, from various parts of the Holy
Scriptures, and from every work of taste or knowledge
that could, without unnatural straining, contribute to his
purpose. In cases where he could not at once select
good English renderings of the authors quoted in these
illustrations, he has introduced translations of his own ;
and these, together with his criticisms, and his reasonings
on the utmost diversity of topics, evince a union of learn-
ing, taste, feeling, and judgment, such as has very rarely
been found. Sometimes, indeed, it must be admitted
that his admiration of his author and his theories carry
him beyond the limits of sober interpretation ; yet, on the
whole, these notes possess a rich and permanent value ;
and may be generally consulted, by one who guards
against this tendency, with the utmost safety,* as well as
advantage and pleasure. To facilitate the reader's appli-
cation to them, a comprehensive and judicious index of
the several subjects treated both in the poem and in the
notes, is placed at the end of the second volume.
Looking back upon the space which has been already
devoted to these volumes, I feel the expediency of check-
ing myself; and shall, therefore, only select two or three
specimens from Dr. Good's interesting commentary.
On turning to an exquisite passage in the 3d book,
beginning,
Nam jam non domus adcipiet te laeta, neque uxor
* It is a matter of sincere and deep regret, that the translator did not, by
expunging, instead of translating, some vi-ry objectionable passages near
the end of the fourth book, insure for this his elaborate work an unqualified
commendation.
DR. MASON GOOD. 119
Optuma, nee dulces obcurrent oscula natei
Prceripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent :
we find a very characteristic note, which, with the simple
omission of the Greek, Latin, and German originals,
cited by the annotator, I shall now introduce.
-" Thy babes belov'd,
Whose haste half-met thee, emulous to snatch
The dulcet kiss "
" I must not hear forbear to quote a beautiful passage
of Homer, towards which, as Lambinus has justly obser-
ved, Lucretius appears to have thrown his eye, in this
exquisite delineation, and whence, perhaps, he drew the
rudiments of one of his most pathetic traits :
Know thou, whoe'er with heavenly power contends,
Short is his date, and soon his glory ends.
From fields of death, when late he shall retire,
No infant on his knees shall call him sire. Pope.
" But though Lucretius may, perhaps, with respect to
one idea, be a copyist of Homer, Virgil is a far closer
copyist of Lucretius. Yet he has written, as Dr. Warton
judiciously asserts, with less tenderness and effect :
He feels the father's and the husband's bliss,
His infants climb, and struggle for a kiss ;
His modest house strict chastity maintains. Jl'arton.
" Our own language boasts of a variety of imitations of
this elegiac and exquisite passage ; of which several are
possessed of great feeling and simplicity. The following
is from the pathetic muse of Gray :
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care ;
% JVo children run, to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb hi&-knccs, the entied kiss to share.
" The two last lines are very nearly a verbal transla-
tion. The next imitation, to which 1 shall refer, is by
Thomson ; it is freer than that of Gray, but executed
120 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
with equal felicity. It occurs in his Winter, to which
season it particularly adverts :
In vain for him th' officious wife prepares
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm :
In vain, his little children, peeping out
Into the mingled storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence. Alas !
JVor wife, nor children, more shall he behold,
Nor friends, nor sacred home. Ver. 311.
" It is not unlikely that Thomson, rather than Lucre-
tius, has been copied in this delineation by Klopstock, in
the following verses, which comprise a part of the medi-
tations of the repentant Abadonna :
Come, let me see the man that yonder lies
Dying, and wrung with anguish as he dies ;
And mark his gory wounds. In dead of night
Haply he hasted, with a sire's delight
To clasp his babes, that round their mother's knee,
Lisp'd his dear name. These never shall he see !
By ruthless ruffians murder'd !
" Equally in point, with both these citations, is the
following, by Collins ; affording a picture which yields to
neither of them in tenderness or beauty. It comprises a
part of his well-known description of the Kelpie, a Water-
fiend :
For him, in vain, his anxious wife shall wait,
Or wander forth to meet him on his way ;
For him, in vain, at to-fall of the day,
His babes shall linger at th' unclosing gate.
Ah ! ne'er shall he return !
" I add the following from Dyer, because, though it
offers a parallel, if not a copied image, it directs to a
happier purpose. The poet is representing the agricul-
tural province of a worthy cottager with whom he was
acquainted, and who never suffered the growth of useless
trees about the few acres he occupied :
Only a slender tuft of useful ash,
And mingled beech, and elm. securely tall,
The little smiling cottage, warm embower'd:
DR. MASON GOOD. 121
The little smiling cottage, where at eve
Jfe mcrty his rosy children at the, door,
Prattling their icelcomes, and, his honest wife,
With good brown cake, and bacon-slice, intent
To cheer his hunger alter labor hard.
Fleece, Book I.
" Of a purport precisely similar, and pregnant with
similar imagery, is the ensuing address of a cottager to
his beloved wife, from the Idyls of Gessner, with which I
shall conclude this note. It occurs in his Herbstmor-
gen :
" When seated by thee, let the pent-up winds put forth
their rage : let the snow-storm cover the face of the
earth ; then chiefly feel I that thou art everything to
me. May the fulness of my prosperity be the lot of
yourselves, ye lovely children ! adorned with every grace
of your mother, which blossoms as a blessing upon us
both ! The first syllable she taught you to lisp was to let
me know that ye loved me. As I return from the field or
the flock, joyfully ye throng together, and call to me from
the sill of the door ; and clinging round my knees, re-
ceive, with childish rapture, the little presents I bring
you O how does your pure and innocent happiness
transport me !" Vol. I. page 502.
In adverting to the poetic representations of death and
its harbingers, some observations occur which are not un-
worthy the attention of biblical critics :
"The personification of Death, in the act of executing
the divine commands, is exhibited with great difference,
both as to features and character, amongst different na-
tions. Perhaps the most mean and insignificant delinea-
tion is the common monkish one of a skeleton with a
dart in one hand, and an hour-glass in the other,
ghauntly striding towards the victim of his attack : while
one of the most terrible and best defined, is that of the
Scandinavian poets, who represent him as mounted on
horseback, fleeing, in the dead of night with inconceiva-
ble rapidity, over hedges and ditches, vallies, mountains,
and rivers, in pursuit of his prey, meagre in flesh, wan
in color, and horrible in aspect, the horse possessing
the same character as the rider. Many of the German
ballads, and especially those of Burger, have, of late,
122 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
made a free use of this personification ; and it has
been contended that the picture is altogether of Scandi-
navian origin, and peculiar to the bards of that country :
yet what will such antiquarians say to the following par-
allel passage in the APOCALYPSE, ch. vi. 8. which, while
it evinces every characteristic feature of the foregoing
imagery, adds a variety of collateral circumstances of the
utmost sublimity and terror, unknown to Runic poetry,
infinitely superior to its proudest and most energetic
specimens : ' And I looked, and behold ! a ghastly horse,
and the name of his rider was DEATH ; and HELL fol-
lowed him. And they were empowered to exterminate a
fourth part of the earth with sword, and with famine, and
with pestilences and with the wild beasts of the earth.'
The word here translated ghastly, x.^^, is peculiarly
expressive in the original. It is more generally rendered
pale, but this is still less adequate to its real spirit ; it
means that green-sick, wan, and exanimate hue which
is pathognomically descriptive of the disease termed chlo-
rosis." Vol. II. page 585.
Again, in the very next page, while commenting upon
that '' daring dithyrambic expression," ' We change the
covering of the skies,' Dr. Good remarks, that the sacred
writings furnish many similar examples, and quotes the
originals of Psalm cii. 25, 26, and of Isaiah xl. 21 23.
Rendering the latter part of the citation from the Psalm
thus,
Even as a garment shall they be worn out,
And when thou choosest to change them they shall be changed.
I shall be forgiven for inserting the remainder of the
note.
" Have ye not known ? have ye not heard ?
Hath it not been published to you from the beginning ?
Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth ?
He who sitteth upon the circle of the earth,
And to whom its inhabitants are as grasshoppers ;
Who unfoldeth the heavens as a curtain,
And spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in ;
Who reduceth magistrates, yea, monarchs, to nothing
Can dissolve the earth itself into emptiness ?
"The arrangement here presented, of this sublime
passage of the original, is different from that afforded by
DR. MASON GOOD. 123
any modern version with which I am acquainted, yet I
have no doubt that it is what was intended by the
prophet himself. It gives a sense far more magnificent
than that in common acceptation ; is more consonant with
the context, and prevents the necessity of arbitrarily sup-
plying the verb it is, at the opening of verse 22, for which
there is no authority in the Hebrew. Upon turning to
the Septuagint, I find, also, that I am countenanced in
this rendering by the translation there offered, which, in
ver. 23, runs as follows :
"O ftS'ouf ntp^vT*.; w; cuffv et fX. ily '>
THN AE THN 'fiS OTAEN EFIOIHSEN.
" The word curtain, in ver. 22. which I have contin-
ued from our standard version, is rendered awning by
Dr. Stock, who justifies the change by a note cited from
bishop Lowth, as occurring in Shaw's Travels. With
due deference to these very excellent authorities, I still
think the standard rendering preferable. The kind of
curtain, immediately referred to, is that which was sus-
pended in Greece, Rome, and Asia, (in which last region
the same custom still prevails) over the theatres and
pleasure-gardens, to screen them from the heat of the
sun, and which was drawn or undrawn at option. For a
fuller account of which, the reader may turn to the note
on Book IV. ver. 80. of the present Poem : and especially
to my translation of the Song of Son<rs, Idyl IX.
Note 12.
" The beginning of ver. 24, obviously refers to the
graven images in ver. 19, 20 ; and, in bold metaphorical
language, delineates their utter impotence and vanity :
No they shall not be planted ; no they shall not be sown ;
No their stock shall not take root in the ground :
But he shall blow upon them, and they shall wither,
And the whirlwind shall scatter them like stubble.
" The particle i^, which means either yea, or no,
according to its position, verily, surely, omnino, is here
rendered, with much more force, negatively, than affir-
matively, as in our common versions : and it is in this
124 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
sense, also, that it is understood by the Septuagint."
Vol. II. p. 587.
It is with considerable effort that I restrain myself
from quoting many instructive passages, exfoliating the
principles of taste in the tine arts, and the history of
practical science, as well as of metaphysical speculation,
which I had marked for insertion. But no one who
wishes to acquire general knowledge, need hesitate to
consult these volumes from an apprehension that he may
consult them in vain.
ANNIVERSARY ORATION.
In March, 1808, Dr. Good delivered before the Medi-
cal Society of London, of which he was then the senior
secretary, the " Anniversary Oration, on the general
structure and physiology of plants, compared with those of
animals, and on the mutual convertibility of their de-
ments." He was unexpectedly called to the task, and
had but a short time for its preparation : but the attempt
was cordially received, and the Oration was published at
the unanimous request of the Society. Though only
constituting a pamphlet of 56 pages, it was regarded as
truly valuable.
The author commences in examining the general struc-
ture of the vegetable system, by first noticing the seed
of the plant, which he denominates its egg; he examines
the structure and component parts of this vegetable egg,
in what manner the root issues from one part of its cen-
tral organ (its corticle or heartkt,} and the trunk from
another part : then he traces the respective structure of
these derived organs, and the means by which, in several
plants, the one may be made interchangeably to assume
the functions of the other : he next unfolds, so to speak,
the substances of which the trunk consists ; elucidates
the process of its annual growth and lignification ; treats
of the number and nature of the different systems of
vegetable vessels, and investigates the questions of vege-
table circulation, irritability, and contractibility.
The author proceeds, in the second place, to point out
a few of the resemblances of vegetables to the economy
or habits of animals ; such as that of their production
DR. MASON GOOD. 125
that the blood of plants, like that of animals, is compound
that as in animals, so in vegetable life, the very same
tribe, or even individual, which, in some of its organs,
secretes a wholesome aliment, in other organs secretes a
deadly poison that vegetables as well as animals are
subject to the classification of locomotive or migratory,
and fixed or permanent that plants, like animals, have
a wonderful power of maintaining their common tempera-
ture, whatever be the temperature of the surrounding
atmosphere that both are capable of existing in very
great degrees of heat and cold and that both admit of
the division into terrestrial, aquatic, amphibious and
aerial.
Lastly, the author discusses the question of converti-
bility, and shews that vegetable matter can only be as-
similated to animal by parting with its excess of carbon,
and receiving a supply of its deficiency of azote. Then,
to complete the circle, it is shewn that by means of putre-
faction, the radical elements of animal matter return to
their original affinities.
Every part of this physiological disquisition, gives indi-
cations of various reading, extensive research, cautious
experiment, and impressive deduction. But as several of
its facts and reasonings have been brought forward, in a
more mature shape, in some of the author's later publica-
tions, this brief outline of its general nature and principal
features may suffice.
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY.
Pursuing the chronological order, I have next to speak
of Dr. Good's essay, " On Medical Technology," which
appeared in 1808 in the Transactions of the Medical Society
of London ; that scientific body awarding to the author
" the Fut/icrffillian medal" in testimony of their approba-
tion of his labor. And here it will not be expected that
I should characterize the essay with a decision akin to
that which might be assumed by a medical critic ; but
that I should simply present such a view as may be taken
by one who has not been indifferent to the subject of nom-
enclature or technology in general.
12tJ ACCOUNT OF THE \TOSKS OF
With regard to most of the liberal arts and sciences,
great improvements in technology, it is well known, have
been introduced during the last fifty years. The nom-
enclature of chemistry, especially, has undergone a com-
plete transformation ; and if any one wishes to convince
himself thoroughly of the vast influence of names upon
things, and the facilities given by accurate philosophical
language to invention and discovery, he need only to
study carefully the history of that department of science.
Medical technology, however, has not derived such advan-
tages from this circumstance as might have been expected ;
nor even has pharmacy been so purified from its jargon, as
every one who uses medicine, as well as every one who
prescribes medicine, might naturally wish.
The ordinary vocabulary of medicine still remains an
ill assorted mass of terms from numerous languages, and
numerous systems, alike destitute of precision and sim-
plicity. " We have (says Dr. Good) Hebrew and Arabic
terms ; Greek and Latin ; French, Italian, Spanish, Ger-
man, English, and even Indian, African, and Mexican ;
often barbarously and illegitimately compounded, fanci-
ful in their origin, and cacophonous in pronunciation."
The sources of the inadequacy and perplexity of medical
language, he traces, 1st. To the intermixture of differ-
ent tongues that have no family or dialectic union. 2dly.
To the want of a common principle in the origin or
appropriation of terms. 3dly. To the introduction of a
variety of useless synonyms. 4thly. To imprecision in
the use of the same terms. 5thly. To a needless coinage
of new terms. His examples in illustration are often
really curious, at least to an unprofessional reader. Some-
times, similarity of color has suggested the name, some-
times the order of time, at others natural history, at
others the names of persons and places. Among the
specimens furnished under the third class, are fames ca-
nina, rabies canina (dog-hunger, dog-madness :) cynancke
(dog-choak ;) boulimia (ox-maw ;) pica (magpie-longing;)
hippus and hippopyon (horse-twinkle, and horse-blotch ;)
elephantiasis (elephant-skin ;) scrophula (swine-evil ;)
vitiligo (calf-skin;) ichthyosis (fish-skin ;) &,c.
As a remedy for the numerous evils occasioned by a
vague, unsettled, and irregular nomenclature, Dr. Good
DR. MASON GOOD. 127
proposes, simply, to discard all equivocal terms as much
as possible, to create as few new words as possible, and
to limit the vocabulary as much as possible to one
language alone. He gives some cautions, however, as
to the employment of such Greek terms as have reached
us through the Latin ; and specifies, as a most important
rule in conferring due simplicity and precision upon the
nomenclature, that a scrupulous attention be paid to the
sense in which the affixed and suffixed particles are em-
ployed, in compound terms, to express the peculiar
quality of the disease denoted by the theme or radical.
He adverts to some striking anomalies which have prevail-
ed in the use of the particles ; and then prescribes a few
general regulations.
TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF JOB.
It is a striking fact in the history of letters, that the
most ancient book is also one of the most sublime. " The
whole book of Job, (says Mr. Pope*) with regard both to
sublimity of thought, and morality, exceeds beyond all
comparison, the most noble parts of Homer." And Dr
Good, in a eulogy on this noble composition, as just as it
is elegant, says, " Nothing can be purer than its morali-
ty ; nothing sublimer than its philosophy ; nothing more
majestic than its creed. It is full of elevation and gran-
deur ; daring in its conceptions ; splendid and forcible in
its images ; abrupt in his transitions ; and at the same
time, occasionally interspersed with touches of the most
exquisite and overwhelming tenderness."
This was denominated by Gregory Nazianzen, one of
the Jive metrical books, and, as such, it is placed in our
Bibles, with the other four, namely, the Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles, between the historical
and the prophetical books. Biblical critics, and others,
have collected and contributed a large store towards the
illustration of this valuable portion of Scripture : yet not-
withstanding, many questions may be raised, relative to
the reality of Job's person, the time and region in which
he lived, the author of the book, its precise object, &c. ;
to all of which it is not easy to furnish decisive replies.
* Pope's translation of the Odyssey, book xvL.tbe last no!c.
128 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
If, as has been often imagined, the narrative part of this
book is comprehended in the first two chapters, and the
last eleven verses of the concluding chapter, while all the
rest is devoted to the poem, then we may notice this cu-
rious fact, that in the said narrative portion, the word
JEHOVAH, THE LORD, occurs twenty-six times, while in
the poem itself, we find it only in chap. xii. 9 ; xxxviii. 1
xl. 1, 3, G; and chapter xlii. 1. Why is it, that this
sacred name is so frequently employed in the narrative,
and so sparingly introduced in the dialogue ? This, how-
ever, though a curious question, is one of minor im-
portance, unless, which I am incompetent to say, its full
discussion should tend to throw light upon the object and
structure of the entire composition.
Dr. Good, who through the greater part of his life paid
a very marked attention to " the five metrical books,'' and
has, indeed, given several spirited translations from them
in the notes to his Lucretius, devoted portions of the
Sunday mornings and evenings, for some years to a trans-
lation of the book of Job; which he published in 1812,
with an introductory dissertation and numerous notes,
constituting together a thick octavo volume.
The preliminary dissertation is divided into five sec-
tions, in which the author inquires successively into the
scene of the poem, its scope, subject, arrangement, lan-
guage, author, sera, and the doctrines which it is intend-
ed to teach. In the course of these inquiries, he assigns
the principal reasons from which he infers that Job was
a real person, a chieftain of great power and influence,
dwelling in Idumsea, Ausitis, or Uz, and that all the other
persons named, Eliphaz, Bildad, &c. were Idumaeans, or,
in other words, Edomite Arabs, chieftains or governors
of the respective cities or districts to which their names
are prefixed. From the peculiarities of the style of this
sublime composition, from its author's extensive acquain-
tance with the astronomy, natural history, and general
science of the age, and from other circumstances speci-
fied in the dissertation, Dr. Good concludes that the au-
thor must have been a Hebrew by birth and native lan-
guage, an Arabian by long residence and local study,
and must have lived subsequently to Abraham, but before
the Israelitish Exodus from Egypt : in short, that he could
DR. MASON GOOD. 129
have been no other than Moses, and that he composed it
during some part of his forty years' residence in Midian.
Dr. Good aims farther to prove that the poem is a regular
Hebrew epic, founded upon facts which occurred long
before ; and that, besides the instructive lessons derivable
from the character, prosperity, trial, afflictions, and resto-
ration of Job, the book was also intended to teach us the
patriarchal religion, as it existed before the introduction
of the Mosaic institutions.*
Some of these positions have been controverted by
other Biblical critics. Yet, on the whole, the opinion
that the book of Job is an epic poem, founded upon pre-
vious facts, t and written by Moses, is at last as tenable
as any which has been advanced. The objections to a
later author than the great Jewish legislator, appear to
me, I confess, insurmountable. And, if the author preced-
ed Moses, who was he ? If the author was not an He-
brew and a reputed prophet, how came the book to be
received into the canon of the Jewish Scriptures 1 Noth-
ing is less probable than that a nation so jealous of their
religious privileges as the Jews, should have enrolled in
their depository of sacred books, a poem written in refer-
ence to a foreigner by a foreigner.
Dr. Good, guided in this respect, if I do not mistake,
principally by the suggestions of Schultens and Grey,
supposes the book to be divided into six parts. These he
sketches with considerable vivacity and ability, in his
Introductory Dissertation ; from which, as it serves to
throw new light upon a book, which by many is very im-
perfectly understood, I shall present a copious extract.
* Dr. J. P. Smith, a writer alike distinguished for his erudition and his
candor, speaking of Dr. Good's Introductory Dissertation, says, " The
varii-'v of the history, the patriarchal antiquity of the poem, and its high
rank in the series of the divine dispensations, are here, in my opinion estab-
lished with much sobriety of criticism, and with solidity and copiousness
of proof." Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, vol. i. p. 209. In
a preceding passage, he mentions the ' happy and next to demonstrable
emendation," by which Dr. Good has restored perspicuity to a hitherto in-
extricable clause in chap. xix. 26.
Dr. Adam Clarke, also, in his Commentary on the Book of Job, frequent-
ly mentions Dr. Good's work, and uniformly with high respect. " Mr.
Good (says he) is a gentleman of great knowledge, great learning, and
correct thinking ; and whatever lie says or writes is entitled to respect. If
he have data, his conclusions are most generally consecutive and solid."
t Dr. Hales fixes the 'time of Job's trial, at about 184 years before the
birth of Abraham, and 689 before the Exodus from Egypt.
130 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
" The natural division, and that which was unques-
tionably intended by its author, is into six parts or books ;
for in this order it still continues to run, notwithstanding
all the confusion it has encountered by sub-arrange-
ments. These six parts are, an opening or exordium,
containing the introductory history and decree concern-
ing Job three distinct series of arguments, in each of
which the speakers are regularly allotted their respective
turns the summing up of the controversy and the close
or catastrophe, consisting of the suffering hero's grand and
glorious acquittal, and restoration to prosperity and hap-
piness. Under this view of it, I shall proceed to offer the
following analysis :
" Part I. constituting the opening or exordium, com-
prises the first two chapters in the ordinary division, and
is full of incident and transition. It commences with a
brief narrative of the principal personage of the piece, his
place of residence, rank in life, and inflexible integrity.
It then suddenly changes to a scene so transcendently lofty
and magnificent, that the grandest descriptions of the
most daring poets sink before it ; and nothing can be put
in comparison with it, but a few passages in Paradise
Lost, derived from the same source. The tribunal of the
Almighty is unveiled the hosts of good and evil spirits,
in obedience to his summons, present themselves before
him, to give an account of their conduct. The views of
Satan are particularly inquired into : and the unswerving
fidelity of Job, though a mortal, is pointedly held up to
him, and extolled. The evil spirit insinuates that Job is
only faithful because it is his interest to be faithful ; that
he serves his Creator because he has been peculiarly pro-
tected and prospered by him ; and that he would abandon
his integrity, the moment such protection should be with-
drawn. To confound him in so malicious an imputation,
the Almighty delivers Job into his hands, only forbidding
him to touch his person.
" Satan departs from the celestial tribunal ; and, col-
lecting the fury of his vindictive power into one tremen-
dous assault, strips the righteous patriarch, by the con-
joint aid of hostile incursions, thunder-storms, and whirl-
winds, on one and the same day, and that a day of do-
mestic rejoicing, of the whole of his property and of his
DR. MASON GOOD. 131
family, despatching messenger after messenger with a
separate tale of woe, till the whole tragedy is completed.
But the patriarch continues inflexible. He feels bitterly,
but he sins not, even in his heart instead of murmuring
against his Creator,
Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head,
And fell on the ground, and -WORSHIPPED, and sa,id,
"INaked came I forth from my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return thither !
Jehovah giveth, and Jehovah taketh away ;
BLESSED be the name of Jehovah!"
" The celestial session returns. The supreme Creator
again assumes the judgment-seat ; and the hosts of good
and evil spirits are once more arranged before him, for
his commands. The unswerving fidelity of Job is again
pointed out to Satan, and the futility of his malice public-
ly exposed. The evil spirit, though foiled, still continues
unabashed, and insinuates that he had no liberty to touch
his person. The Almighty surrenders his person into his
hands, and only commands him to spare his life.
"'Satan departs from the presence of Jehovah : and in
the same moment Job is smote from head to foot with a
burning leprosy ; and while agonized with this fresh af-
fliction, is tauntingly upbraided by his wife with the inu-
tility of all his religious services. The goad passes into
his soul, but it does not poison it. He resists this addi-
tional attack with a dignity as well as a firmness of faith
that does honor to human nature :
As the talk of one of the foolish, is thy talk.
Shall we then accept good from God,
And shall we not accept evil ?
" The part closes with what is designed to introduce
the main subject of the poem a preconcerted visit to the
suffering patriarch of three of his most intimate friends.
And in the simple narrative of their first seeing him,
there is a pathos that beggars all description, and which
cannot fail to strike home to every bosom that is capable
of feeling:
132 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
For they had appointed together to come,
To mourn with him, and to comfort him,
And they lift up their eyes from afar, and knew him not :
And they raised their voices and wept ;
And rent every one his mantle ;
And cast dust upon their heads, towards heaven.
And they sat down with him, on the ground,
Seven days and seven nights :
And no one spake to him a word,
For they saw that the affliction raged sorely.
" This part is peculiarly distinguished by simplicity,
sublimity, and fine feeling. In its diction it exhibits a
perfect contrast to that of the great body of the poem ;
and, in conjunction with the diction that follows, affords
proof of a complete mastery of style and language ; a
mastery unequalled, perhaps, in any other part of the
Hebrew Scriptures, and altogether unknown to every
other kind of Oriental composition. It is characteristic,
however, of the writer of this transcendent poem, a fact
well worthy of being remembered, as one mean of deter-
mining who he was, that he uniformly suits his orna-
ments to the occasion ; that, as though influenced by the
rules of the best Greek critics, he seldom employs a figu-
rative style where the incident or the passion is capable of
supporting itself,* and reserves his boldest images and
illustrations for cases that seem most to require them.
" Part II. extends from the beginning of the third to
the end of the fourteenth chapter ; and comprises the
first colloquy, or series of argument. Job, completely
overwhelmed, and believing himself abandoned by his
Creator, gives a loose to all the wildness of despondency ;
and, in an address of exquisite force and feeling, laments
that he ever beheld the light, and calls earnestly for death,
as the only refuge of the miserable. This burst of agony
is filled with the boldest images and imprecations ; and
might, perhaps, be thought in some parts of it, too daring,
but that it appears to have been regarded as a master-
piece by the best poets of Judaea, and is imitated, in its
boldest flights, by king David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
* This is just as obvious in the description of the apparition, chap. iv. 12
16, as in the present part : and other passages will readily occur to the
recollection of the reader.
DR. MASON GOOD, 133
Ezekiel ; of which the reader will meet with sufficient
specimens in the notes to this volume.
" To this cry of despondency, Eliphaz ventures upon
the first reply : and the little that was wanting to make
the cup of agony brim-full, is now added to it. The
patriarch's friends, stimulated unquestionably by the
secret impulse of Satan, have agreed upon the false prin-
ciple, that in the uniform dealings of Providence, happi-
ness and prosperity are the necessary marks and conse-
quence of integrity, and pain and misery of wickedness
and hence the grand argument on their part consists,
first, in charging the sufferer with the commission of sins
which he ought to confess and repent of; and next, in
accusing him of pride and hypocrisy, because he will not
consent to such confession. Eliphaz, however, is, from
natural habit, the mildest of the accusers; and his speech
begins with delicacy, and is conducted with the most
artful address. After duly apologizing for breaking in
upon the sufferings of his friend, he proceeds to point out
the inconsistency of a good man's repining under a state
of discipline ; and the absurdity of his not bearing up,
who had so often exhorted others to fortitude. He re-
marks, that the truly good are never utterly overthrown ;
but that the ways of Providence are wrapped in inextri-
cable mystery, and that nothing can be more arrogant
than for so weak, so ephemeral, so insect-like a being as
man is, to impeach them; a position which is illustrated
by the most powerful picture of an apparition that ever
was drawn by the pen of any writer in any age or coun-
try, disclosed to the speaker for the express purpose of
inculcating this solemn maxim. He concludes with ob-
serving, that as neither man nor angel, without the con-
sent of the Almighty, can render Job any assistance,
wrath and violence are folly ; and that nothing remains
for him, but to seek unto God, and commit the cause into
his hands ; whose correction will then be assuredly suc-
ceeded by a new series of happiness and prosperity.
" Job replies to Eliphaz, but is overborne by the bit-
terness of his remonstrance ; and under his accumulated
trials once more wishes to die. He reproaches his
friends for their severity ; and, in a most beautiful and
appropriate simile, compares the consolation he expected
12
134 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OF
from their soothing intercourse, and the cruel disappoint-
ment he met with, to the promise of a plentiful supply of
water held out to a parched-up caravan, by the fall of
floods of rain, surveyed at a distance, but which, on arriv-
ing at the place of their descent, are found to have entire-
ly evaporated, or to have branched out over the sands,
and become lost.
What time they wax warm, they evaporate ;
And when it grows hot they are dried up in their place :
The outlets of their channel wind about,
They stretch into nothing, and are lost.
The companies of Tema search earnestly,
The caravans of Sheba pant for them :
They are consumed such is their longing ;
They arrive at the place, and sink away.
Behold ! ye also are as nothing ;
Yc see mydowncasting, and shrink back.
"Suddenly he feels he has been too acrimonious;
apologizes, and entreats their further attention ; but is
instantly hurried away by a torrent of opposite passions ;
now, once more longing for death as the termination of
his sufferings, and now urged on by the natural desire of
life. He expostulates warmly, and at length unbecom-
ingly, with the Almighty ; and at once growing sensi-
ble of the irreverence, humbly confesses his offence, sup-
plicates forgiveness, and implores that his affliction may
cease.
" It is now Bildad's turn to speak ; who commences
with bitter and most provoking cruelty. He openly
charges the whole family of Job with gross wickedness,
on no other ground than their destruction by the whirl-
wind ; and throws suspicions against the patriarch him-
self, in consequence of his being a sufferer in the calam-
ity. Like Eliphaz, he also exhorts him to repent, and to
look to God for a restoration to prosperity, and never
more to depend on himself observing, in the language of
an apt and exquisite proverbial saying of the long-lived,
perhaps the antediluvian ages that the most succulent
plants are soonest withered, and that the reliance of the
hypocrite is a cobweb.
" Job, in the beginning of his reply to this speech,
shews that he has once more recovered himself, and is
DR. MASON GOOD. 135
superior to the acrimony of its assault. He acknowl-
edges that all power is with God, who alone has created
whatever exists ; but maintains, that, as to his moral gov-
ernment, we are grossly ignorant, and can account for
nothing that takes place ; and that the good and the wick-
ed suffer indiscriminately. At one moment, under the
influence of acute agony, he longs earnestly to plead his
cause with God, and to defend his habitual integrity ; but
awed suddenly by new ideas of the divine power and
purity, and aware that from both causes he must be over-
whelmed, he shrinks from so daring a task ; and con-
cludes with an affecting address to the Almighty, in
which he ventures to expostulate with him, as his crea-
tor and preserver. He grows warmer as he proceeds ; is
roused to desperation at the thought that God is become
his enemy and persecutor ; and once more vehemently
calls for a termination of his miseries by death.
" Zophar now takes his turn in the argument ; and
commences, like Bildad, with violent and rough invec-
tive. He condemns Job severely, for continuing to as-
sert his innocence before God. He contends, that the
ways of Providence are obvious, and that it is only his
own iniquity that makes them appear dark and mysteri-
ous. Like the preceding speakers, he exhorts him, m
fine and figurative language, to ' put away his iniquity/
and lift up his hands to the Almighty ; and promises that
he shall then soon lose all trace of his present calamity,
" As waters passed by, shall thou remember it,"
and that his late prosperity and happiness shall be re-
doubled upon him. But if not, he denounces his utter
and irremediable ruin.
" Job is stimulated by this repetition of so unjust and
opprobrious an accusation, and for the first time vents a
sarcasm on his part. In return for the proverbial sayings
of his companions, he retorts upon them sayings of a simi-
lar kind, many of them possessed of far more force and
appropriation. He then commences a direct attack upon
their own conduct ; and charges them with declaiming
on the part of God, from the base and unworthy hope of
propitiating him. He grows still warmer as he advances;
and under a consciousness of general innocence, de-
136 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
mands to be put to the bar, and to stand his trial with
the Almighty : he boldly summons his accusers, entreats
the Supreme Judge not to overwhelm him with his power
or his awfulness ; and, realizing the tribunal before him,
at once commences his pleading, in an address which,
according to the feeling of the moment, is vehement,
plaintive, argumentative, full of fear, of triumph, of expos-
tulation, and at last of despondency ; now representing
the Creator, in all his might and supremacy, as demol-
ishing a driven leaf, and hunting down parched stubble ;
next exhibiting doubts of a future state ; then exulting in
the belief of it; and, finally, sinking into utter gloom and
hopelessness.
" Part III. comprises the second series of controversy,
and extends from the fifteenth to the close of the twenty-
first chapter. Eliphaz opens the discussion, in his regu-
lar turn ; he accuses Job of vehemence and vanity ; as-
serts that no man is innocent ; and pointedly observes to
him, that, in regard to himself, his own conduct is suffi-
cient to condemn him : concluding with a train of highly
forcible and figurative apophthegms of great beauty and
antiquity, calculated to prove the certain and irrevocable
misery of the wicked and unrepentant.
" Job replies to him, and once more complains bitterly
of the reproaches and contumelies so unjustly heaped
upon him, but consoles himself in again appealing to the
Almighty, upon the subject of his innocence. He ac-
cuses his companions of holding him up to public deri-
sion, and entreats them to leave him, and return home :
he again pathetically bemoans his lot and looks forward
to the grave with scarcely a glimmering of hope, and an
almost utter despair of a resurrection from its ruins.
" Bildad next enters into the debate with his charac-
teristic virulence and violence, at the same time exhorting
Job to be temperate. The whole speech is a string of
generalities, and parabolic traditions of the first ages
concerning the fearful punishments in reserve for the
wicked ; all exquisitely sublime and beautiful in them-
selves, but possessing no other relevancy to the present
case, than that which results from the false argument,
that Job must be a great sinner because he is a great
sufferer.
DR. MASON GOOD. 137
" The reply of the patriarch to this contumelious
tirade, contained in the nineteenth chapter of the common
division, is one of the most brilliant parts of the whole
poem, and exhibits a wonderful intermixture of tender-
ness and triumph. It commences with a fresh complaint
of the cruelty of his assailants. The meek sufferer still
calls them his friends ; and in a most touching apostrophe
implores their pity in his deep affliction. He takes an
affecting survey of his hopeless situation, as assaulted
and broken down by the Almighty for purposes altogether
mysterious and unknown to him ; and then suddenly, as
though a ray of divine light and comfort had darted across
his soul, rises into the full hope of a future resurrection
and vindication of his innocence ; and, in the triumph of
so glorious an expectation, appears to forget his present
wretchedness and misery.
" Zophar now takes the lead r but merely to recapitu-
late the old argument under a new form. Job has not
yet confessed the heinous sins for which he is suffering ;
and hence, in bold and terrific pictures, chiefly, as on
many preceding occasions, derived from the lofty say-
ings of ancient times, he alarms him with the various
punishments reserved for the impenitent.
Job, in answer to Zophar, appears to collect his whole
strength of argument, as though resolved at one and the
same time to answer all that has been advanced upon the
subject by each of his opponents. He boldly controverts
their principle, that present prosperity is the lot of the
good, and present misery that of the wicked. He asserts,
even while trembling at the thought of so mysterious a
providence, that here the reprobate, instead of the right-
eous, are chiefly triumphant that this is their world that
they riot in it unrestrained, and take their full of enjoy-
ment. They may, perhaps, continues he, be reserved
against a day of future judgment and retribution ; but
where is the man that dares attack their conduct to their
face 1 who is there that does not fall prostrate before their
power and overwhelming influence ? even in death itself
they are publicly bemoaned, and every individual at-
tends upon their obsequies. Thus concludes the third
part of the poem ; and it could not possibly conclude
better.
138 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
" Part IV. comprises the third and last series of con-
troversy, and reaches from the twenty-second to the close
of the thirty-first chapter. Eliphaz, as usual, commen-
ces ; and roused by the cogent and argumentative elo-
quence of the preceding speech, is himself incited to a
stricter and closer discussion of the subject than he had
hitherto aimed at ; and pours forth his whole spirit into
one grand effort of confutation. His argument is full of
art, but it is, in a great degree, the art of the sophist.
He charges Job, in spite of his own guarded declarations
to the contrary, with being an advocate for the wicked,
by connecting wickedness and prosperity in the manner
of cause and effect ; and of course as being, in his
heart and propensities, a party to all the iniquities of the
antediluvians, that brought the deluge upon the world.
With the most accomplished subtilty, he dwells upon this
signal judgment, for the purpose of adverting to the single
delivery of the family of righteous Noah, their great pro-
genitor, as a proof that God neither does nor will suf-
fer the wicked to escape punishment, nor the righteous to
pass without reward. In addition to which, he proceeds
also to instance the striking rescue of Lot and his family
from the conflagration that devoured the cities on the
plains ; thus sophistically opposing two special and mirac-
ulous interpositions to the general course of divine provi-
dence. He concludes, as on various former occasions,
with exhorting Job to confess and abandon his inquities ;
and beautifully depicts, in new and forcible imagery, the
happiness that he will then find in reserve for him.
"The placid sufferer does not allow himself to be
turned off his guard. In his rejoinder, he again bemoans
the mercilessness of those around him, and once more
longs earnestly to find out and plead before the Almighty.
But all around him, he observes, is gloom and obscurity
yet, gloom and obscurity as it is, he still beholds him in na-
ture, and in every part of nature ; and, in direct opposition
to the opinion of his companions, doubts not that the pre-
sent affliction is dealt to him as a trial ; and rejoicing in the
recollection of his past submission to the divine will, ven-
tures to hope he shall yet issue from it as pure gold. He
then returns to the argument, and perseveres, to the silen-
cing, if not to the conviction, of his opponents. He shews,
DR. MASON GO01>. 13iJ
from a multiplicity of examples, drawn both from the pri-
vacy of retired life and the publicity of crowded cities, that
everything is suffered to take place at present in a mys-
terious and unexplained manner ; that, admitting a variety
of exceptions, the wicked are still generally successful, and
prosecute their course uncontrolled ; that even the un-
sinning embryon in the womb expires, not unfrequently,
as soon as created, as though neglected or despised by
its Maker ; and that the lonely widow is, in like manner,
left to pine in want and misery. He allows, nevertheless,
that nothing can be more precarious than the pleasures
and prosperity of vice ; that God has his eye at all times
upon the wicked ; and that often, though not generally,
they are overthrown in a moment, and reduced, from the
utmost height of splendor, to the lowest abyss of beggary
arid ruin.
" Bildad, to whom it belongs next to reply, is com-
pletely confounded. He is compelled to admit that the
present state of things proves the Deity to work with
absolute sway, and in an incomprehensible manner. But,
though driven from his former position, he still main-
tains that Job must be wicked, since every man is wicked
and altogether worthless in the sight of God ; all which,
in order to give the greater weight to his observations, he
confirms, by delivering them in the words of ancient and
proverbial maxims.
" Job, in reply to Bildad, is indignant at his not openly
retracting an opinion which, it was obvious, he could no
longer maintain. He is particularly irritated at his pre-
tending once more to quote the proverbial maxims of past
times, as though to enlist the wisdom of the ancients
against him ; and sarcastically follows him up by a string
of other traditions of a similar kind, possessing still more
magnificence, and at least as much general connexion.
And, having thus severely reproved him, he returns to
the argument, in chap, xxvii. and asserts that, distressed
as he is, and forsaken of God, habitual innocency has
ever belonged to him, and ever shall ; and on this very
account he secretly encourages a hope that he shall not
be ultimately forsaken ; and forcibly points out the very
different situation of the wicked when they also are over-
taken by calamity ; their ruin being, on the contrary,
140 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
utter and irreversible, and even entailed on their poster-
ity. Under the disappointment their visit had produced,
and the proofs of feebleness and folly it had exhibited
where wisdom and consolation were to have been ex-
pected, he proceeds to a highly figurative and exquisite
description of the value of genuine wisdom, and the diffi-
culty of searching out its habitation; concluding, as the
result of his inquiry, that it alone resides in and issues
from the Creator, and is only bestowed upon those who
sincerely fear him and depart from evil. He closes with
a detailed and deeply interesting examination into every
department of his life, an examination that ought to be
studied and copied by every one. He investigates his
conduct in the full sunshine of prosperity, as a magistrate,
as a husband, as a father, as a master ; and, in all these
characters, he feels capable of conscientiously justifying
himself. In the course of this historical scrutiny, he
draws a very affecting contrast between his past and his
present situation ; the period in which all was happiness
and splendor, and that in which all is trouble and humi-
liation. He challenges his companions, and the world at
large, to accuse him publicly and expressly of a single act
of injustice or oppression ; declares that, so far from
shrinking from such an accusation, he would wear it as a
frontlet upon his shoulder and his turban ; that, like a
witness on the side of his accuser, he would furnish him
with all the evidence in his power ; and pants earnestly
to be put to the bar, and abide the decision of his
country.
" Zophar should now have replied in rotation ; but he
has already exhausted himself and the argument closes.
" Part V. contains the summing up of the controversy ;
which is allotted to Elihu, a new character in the poem ;
but who, though hitherto unnoticed, appears to have en-
tered before the commencement of the debate, and to
have impartially studied its progress. The speech of
Elihu commences with the thirty-second chapter of the
common arrangement, which constitutes its peroration,
and offers a fine specimen of the art of bespeaking and
fixing attention. He first adverts to the general irrele-
vancy of the matter that has been advanced against Job
from every quarter by which he has been attacked, and
DR. MASON GOOD. 141
then proceeds to comment upon the patriarch himself.
Tacitly admitting the general force of the reasoning by
which he had confounded his opponents, Elihu nowhere
charges him with former wickedness because of his pres-
ent affliction ; but confines himself to his actual conduct,
and the tendency of his replies on the existing occasion,
both of which he reprehends with considerable warmth.
In various instances he repeats his words literally, and
animadverts upon them as highly irreverent ; and ob-
serves, that the dispensations of Providence, dark and
mysterious as they commonly appear to us, are always
full of wisdom and mercy, and that in many cases we are
made sensible of this even at this moment ; being fre-
quently, by such means, warned and reclaimed, some-
times publicly, but still oftener in secret, through the me-
dium of dreams, diseases, or other providential inter-
ferences.
" In chap, xxxiv. he attacks the position of Job, that
the present world is the portion of the wicked, and that
here prosperity is more frequently their lot than that of
the righteous ; and, with some degree of sophistry and
disingenuity, turns, like Eliphaz, this position of the pa-
triarch into a declaration that he approves of the ways of
wickedness as a mean of prosperity, and has no desire
to be righteous, unless where righteousness has a like
chance of advancing his worldly views. Upon this point
he attacks him with great severity ; and in general terms,
and general but beautiful and highly figurative descrip-
tions, adverts to the frequent and visible interferences of
the Almighty to relieve the poor and the oppressed, and
to hurl down the tyrant and the reprobate. He next ex-
horts Job to relinquish his present sentiments, and to con-
fess his transgressions, in full confidence of a return of
the divine favor. Submission he asserts (chap, xxxv.) to
be the only duty of man, and the wisest course he can
pursue ; that God can derive neither advantage from his
obedience nor disadvantage from his rebellion ; that man
alone can profit from the one, and suffer from the other;
and that, had Job suffered more, he would have disputed
less. The remainder of this exquisite oration points out,
consecutively, in strong and glowing language, full of
sublimity and the finest painting, that God is supreme ;
142 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
that he is all in all ; and that everything is subject to him
and regulated by him, and regulated in wisdom, goodness,
and justice ; that hence, instead of reviling, it becomes us
to submit ; that the worst of iniquities is, to wish for
death, in order to escape from a chastisement we are en-
during and have deserved ; and that, living or dying, it is
in vain to fly from the Creator, since all nature was form-
ed by him, and is the theatre of his power. The speaker
closes with a lofty and transcendent description of the
might and wisdom of the great Maker, in the works and
wonders of the creation ; the formation of rain, thunder,
lightning, snow, clouds, clear sky, the return of spring,
and the general revolution of the seasons; concerning all
which we know nothing, yet the whole of which is but a
faint and reflected light from him who ordained and com-
mands them :
Splendor itself is with God !
Insufferable majesty !
Almighty ! we cannot comprehend him
Surpassing in power and in judgment !
Yet doth not the might of his justice oppress.
Let mankind, therefore, stand in awe of him :
He looketh all the wise of heart to nothing.
" Part VI. The trial of faith, resignation, and integrity,
is now drawing to an end. The opponents of Job, and,
through them, the arch-demon by whom they were excit-
ed, have been baffled in their utmost exertions ; yet,
though silenced, they still sullenly refuse to retract. The
Almighty now visibly appears, to pronounce judgment,
and ' speaks to Job out of the whirlwind :' and the address
ascribed to him is a most astonishing combination of dig-
nity, sublimity, grandeur, and condescension ; and is as
worthy of the magnificent occasion, as anything can be,
delivered in human language.
" The line of argument pursued in the course of this
inimitable address is, that the mighty speaker is Lord of
all, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and that
everything must bow down before him ; that he is the
God of providence ; and that everything is formed by him
in wisdom, and bespeaks a mean to an end, and that
end, the happiness and enjoyment of his creatures. In
DR. MASON GOOD. 143
the developement of this reasoning, the formation of the
world is first brought before us, and described in lan-
guage that has never been equalled the revolution of
the heavenly bodies and the regular return of the sea-
sons. The argument then descends from so overwhelm-
ing a magnificence, and confines itself to phenomena that
are more immediately within the scope and feeling of
the sons of earth. It is God who supplies the wants of
every living creature : it is he who finds them food in
rocks and wildernesses ; it is his wisdom that has adapted
every kind to its own habits and mode of being ; that has
given cunning where cunning is necessary ; and, where un-
necessary, has withheld it that has endowed with rapidity
of foot, or of wing, where such qualities are found needful ;
and where might is demanded, has afforded proofs of
a might the most terrible and irresistible. The whole of
which is exquisitely illustrated by a variety of distinct in-
stances, drawn from natural history, and painted to the
very life : the following impressive corollary forming the
general close : God is supreme, and must be bowed to
and adored : his wisdom is incomprehensible, how vain
then to arraign it : his power omnipotent, how absurd
then to resist it : his goodness universal, how blind then
to deny it.
" This awful address is listened to with fearful convic-
tion. The humiliated sufferer confesses the folly of his
arrogance and presumption, and abhors himself for his
conduct.
" The peripetia, or revolution, immediately succeeds.
The self-abasement of Job is accepted; his three friends
are severely reprimanded for having formed a dishonora-
ble judgment concerning him, and having taken a false
and narrow view of the providence of the Almighty, in
contending that he never does or can permit trouble but
in cases of wickedness : a sacrifice is demanded of them,
and Job is appointed to be their intercessor : upon the
accomplishment of which, the severely tried patriarch is
restored to his former state of enjoyment, and his prosper-
ity is in every instance doubled." p. xli.
To this masterly and often impressive summary, I feel
that I ought to annex the author's view of the doctrines
taught in the book.
144 ACCOUNT or THE WORKS OF
" If we ask, What is the ultimate intention of the book
of Job ? and for what purpose is it introduced into the
Hebrew and Christian canons 1 It will then appear, that
it is for the purpose of making those canons complete, by
uniting, as full an account as is necessary of the dispen-
sation of the patriarchs, with the two dispensations by
which it was progressively succeeded. It will be seen,
that the chief doctrines of the patriarchal religion, as col-
lected from different parts of the poem, were as follow :
I. The creation of the world by one supreme and eter-
nal Intelligence, chap, xxxviii. xli.
II. Its regulation, by his perpetual and superintending
providence. Passim.
III. The intentions of his providence carried into effect
by the ministration of a heavenly hierarchy, chap. i.
6, 7; iii. 18, 19; v. 1.
IV. The heavenly hierarchy, composed of various ranks
and orders, possessing different names, dignities,
and offices, chap. iv. 18; xxxiii. 22,23; v. 2; xv.
15.
V. An apostacy, or defection, in some rank or order of
these powers : of which Satan seems to have been
one, and perhaps chief, chap. iv. 18 ; xv. 15 ; i. 6
12; ii. 27.
VI. The good and evil powers or principles, equally for-
med by the Creator, and hence equally denominated
" sons of God," both of them employed by him, in
the administration of his providence ; and both
amenable to him at stated courts, held for the pur-
pose of receiving an account of their respective
missions, chap. i. 6, 7 ; ii. 1.
VII. A day of future resurrection, judgment, and retri-
bution, to all mankind, chap. xiv. 13, 14, 15 ;
xix. 2529 ; xxi. 30 ; xxxi. 14.
VIII. The propitiation of the Creator, in the case of hu-
man transgressions, by sacrifices, and the mediation
and intercession of a righteous person, chap. i. 5 ;
xlii. 8, 9.
" Several of these doctrines are more clearly developed
than others ; yet, I think there are sufficient grounds for
deducing the whole of them." p. Ixv.
" It is curious to remark the different ground of argu-
DR. MASON GOOD. 145
ment assumed in favor of a future state, in the present
poem, and hence, perhaps, by the patriarchal times
generally, and that assumed by the philosophers of
Greece and Rome, who assented to the same doctrine ;
the former appealing alone to a resurrection of the body,
and appearing to have no idea of a distinct immortality of
the soul ; and the latter appealing alone to a distinct im-
mortality of the soul ; and appearing to have no idea of
a resurrection of the body. It remained for that dispen-
sation which has ' brought LIFE and IMMORTALITY to
light,' the resurrection of the body, and the real nature
of the soul, to reconcile the discrepancy, and to give to
each ground of argument its proper force, p. Ixxxiv.
In the main, this view of the doctrines exhibited in the
book of Job, has been allowed to be correct. Yet, a
qualification or two seem necessary to guard the young
theological student from mistake. Dr. Good assumes,
that the title "sons of God" is given in the Scriptures, to
evil powers or principles, as well as good ones. But this
is very questionable. Satan is stated to have presented
himself among the sons of God, but that circumstance
does not constitute him one. And, although it cannot
fairly be questioned that the doctrine of a celestial hier-
archy, composed of various orders of angels, is taught in
Scripture ; still it may be doubted whether or not it is
fully deducible from the passages cited by our author.
Leaving these, however, as in some measure open to dis-
cussion, the other particulars remain untouched ; and it
must surely impress the mind of a reflecting reader with
peculiar force, that in the avowedly oldest book in the
Jewish canon, doctrines should be clearly unfolded,
which Natural Religion in its brightest epochs never at-
tained ; while the same book contains indisputable allu-
sions to two, at least, of the characteristic doctrines of the
Christian dispensation, that of the resurrection of the
body, and that of a Saviour from sin and its conse-
quences, who is unequivocally designated by the highest
attributes and titles of Deity.
Enough having now been said, I trust, to shew that our
author's Introductory Dissertation is at once erudite and
instructive, I will present a specimen of the translation ;
13
146 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
which shall be that of the 19th chapter, containing the
pious patriarch's noble testimony of faith, worthy indeed
to be engraven " on the rock for ever."
JOB xix.
1. Whereupon Job answered, and said,
2. How long will ye afflict my soul,
And overwhelm me with words ?
3. These ten times have ye reviled me ;
Ye relax not, ye press forward upon me.
4. And be it, indeed, that I have transgressed,
That my transgression hath harbored within me,
5. Will YE, then, forsooth, triumph over me,
And expose co myself my own disgrace ?
C. Know, however, that God hath humiliated me ;
And that his toils have encompassed me about :
7. Behold ! I complain of the wrong, but am not heard ;
I cry aloud, but no answer.
8. He hath fenced up my way so that I cannot go forward,
And hath set darkness in my paths.
9. He hath stript me of my glory,
And overturned the crown on my head :
10. He demolisheth me on every side and I am gone ;
And he uprooteth my hope like a tree :
11. Yea, he kindleth his fury against me,
And accounteth me to him as his enemy.
12. His besiegers advance in a body,
And wheel their lines around me,
And encamp about my dwelling.
13. My brethren hath he put aloof from me,
And my familiars are quite estranged ;
14. My kinsfolk have forsaken me,
And my bosom friends forgotten me.
15. The sojourners in my house,
Yea, my own maid-servants, regard me as a stranger ;
I am reckoned an alien in their eyes.
16. I call to my man-servant, but he answereth not,
I entreat him to the very face.
17. My breath is scattered away by mv wife,
Though I implore HER by the offspring of my own'loini.
18. Even the dependants spurn at me ;
I rise up, and they hoot after me.
19. All my familiar friends abhor me ;
Even they whom I loved are turned against me.
20. My bones stick out through my skin and my flesh ;
And in the skin of my teeth am I dissolved.
21. Pity me ! pity me ! O ye, my friends !
For the hand of God hath smitten me.
22. Why, like God, should YE persecute me,
And not rest satisfied with my flesh . J
DR. MASON GOOD. 147
23. O ! that my words were even now written down ;
O ! that they were engraven on a table ;
24. With a pen of iron, upon lead !
That they were sculptur'd in a rock for ever !
25. For " I know that my REDEEMER liveth,
And will ascend at last upon the enrth :
26. And, after the DISEASE hath destroyed my skin,
That, in my flesh, I shall see God :
27. Whom I shall see for myself,
And my own eyes shall behold, and not another's,
Though my reins be consumed within me."
28. Then shall ye say, " How did we persecute him !"
When the root of the matter is disclosed concerning me.
29. O, tremble for yourselves before the sword ;
For fierce is the vengeance of the sword :
Therefore beware ofits judgment.
Dr. Good's original intention, with regard to the book
of Job, seems to have been to present a literal translation,
and one in heroic verse, in opposite pages ; as he had
previously done with respect to the Song of Songs. But
.after he had thus versified the first five chapters, he re-
linquished the task ; adding to his specimen a note ex-
pressive of his inability to throw " the many and exqui-
site beauties of the original," into a translation in modern
" measured verse." It is evident that at the time of this
attempt, he had not seen Mr. Scott's version. A com-
parison of the two may, therefore, gratify the inquisitive
reader : and I cannot present a better than is supplied
by the awful description of the vision in chapter iv.,
where the midnight darkness, the deathlike silence, the
horror, the whirlwind followed by a sudden stillness, the
burst of light and glory, the supernatural voice, each, in
its degree, contributes to the production of one of the
most sublime pictures ever sketched.
MR. SCOTT'S.
But hear the word divine, to me convey'd,
Than pearls more precious, in the midnight shade ;
Amidst th' emotions which from visions rise,
When more than nature's sleep seals human eyes.
Fear seiz'd my soul, the hand of horror strook
My shudd'ring flesh, and every member shook.
For a strong wind with rushing fury pass'd
So near, so loud, blast whirling after blast,
That my hair started at each stifFning pore,
And stood erect. At one the wild oproar
148 ACCOUNT OF THE AVORKS OP
Was hush'd ; a Presence burst upon my sight
(I saw no shape) in majesty of light :
Voice follow'd, and celestial accents broke,
Which in these terms their awl'ul dictates spoke :
" Is God arraign'd ? absolv'd man's sinful dust ?
Less pure his Maker ? and his Judge less just ?
Lo, he discerns, discern'd by him alone,
Spots in the sanctities around his throne :
Nor trusts his noble ministers of flame,
To yield him service unalloy'd with blame.
Yet, innocent of blame shall man be found ?
Tenants of clay, and reptiles of the ground ?
Crnsh'd like the moth, these beings of a day
With unregarded waste are swept away:
Their honors perish, and themselves descend
Fools to the grave, and thoughtless of their end."
DR. GOOD'S.
This, too, I've seen, this witness'd when alone
Breath'd o'er my ears, in hollow, whispering tone.
'Twas midnight deep the world was hush'd to rest,
And airy visions every brain possess'd :
O'er all my frame a horror crept severe,
An ice that shiver'd every bone with fear :
Before my face a spirit saw I swim
Erect uprose my hair o'er every limb ;
It stood the spectre stood to sight display'd,
Yet trac'd I not the image I surveyed :
'Twas silence dead no breath the torpor broke
When thus in hollow voice the vision spoke :
" Shall man his Maker's piercing ken endure ?
Before his God shall man be just and pure ?
Lo ! his own servants falter in his eyes,
His trustiest angels are not always wise.
What are the dwellers then in tents of clay,
Sprung from the dust, that into dust decay ?
Before the moth they fail ; with easier strife
Beat down and plunder'd of their little life ;
From morn to noon they perish to the ground
Unnotic'd drop, and quit their fluttering round ;
Their total sum of wisdom, when they die,
An empty boast, a mockery and lie."
The " critical and illustrative notes" subjoined to Dr.
Good's translation of Job, occupy 490 closely printed pa-
ges. As might be expected, they evince the most exten-
sive reading, and the author's peculiar facility in culling
fruits and flowers from every region, and presenting them
DR. MASON GOOD. 149
to those whom he wished to enrich and delight. While,
however, they exhibit a greater share of his characteris-
tic excellences than some of his former publications,
they are not free from defects, of which, that which a cir-
cumspect reader most regrets to see, is the author's
proneness to give the reins to his imagination. Still
these notes, many of which are strictly theological, while
others, whether critical, poetical, geological, or philo-
sophical, are as strictly elucidatory, cannot but be read
with advantage by the biblical student.* My own
total ignorance of the Hebrew language, incapacitates
me from offering any judgment upon the correctness
of the translation. To me, it has always appeared
somewhat stiff and technical ; while I have been inclin-
ed to regard the notes as too numerous. On my once
hinting at these defects to the author, in the frankness of
friendship, he acknowledged the justice of my remarks,
and said he should hope, in a new edition, to give great-
er freedom to some parts of the translation, without
impairing its general accuracy : and that he should prob-
ably strike out nearly all the notes, except those that
were written to justify his deviations from the authorized
version. I ought, perhaps, to say, in addition to the sen-
timents of Drs. Smith and Clarke, already quoted, that,
on my soliciting the opinion of a very profound Hebrew
scholar, as to this translation and the notes, be replied,
" The notes are more numerous than was necessary ; but
still the work is truly valuable, and it is the farthest pos-
sible from dry. I need not dwell upon specific differ-
ences ; but in point of real utility to the theological stu-
dent, I class together Lowth, Blayney, and Good."
* The author's notes on the Behemoth and the Leviatlian, I much regret
my want of room to insert. He proves, in my judgment, satisfactorily,
that the behemoth cannot be either the hippopotamus or the elephant, as
man}' commentators have imagined ; and assigns his reasons for believing'
that it belongs to a genus altogether extinct, like the mastodondcmton or
mammoth. The leviathan, he regards as no other than the crocodile. " The
general character of the leviathan seems so well to apply to this animal, iu
modern as well as in ancient times, the terror of all the coasts and coun-
tries about the Nile, that it is unnecessary to seek farther."
*13
150 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OF
PHYSIOLOGICAL NOSOLOGY.
Dr. Good's " Physiological System of Nosology, with
a corrected and simplified Nomenclature," was the re-
sult of several years' extensive experience and sedulous
research. It was commenced in 1808, and partially an-
nounced in the essay on Medical Technology, of which I
have already given an account ; but it was not published
until the year 1820. It is dedicated to the President
and Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Lon-
don ;" " a copy of the work having lain for public inspec-
tion upon the Censor's table" for nearly two months,
" and three other copies having been circulated among
the Fellows in rotation ;" after which " the author's re-
quest was unanimously acceded to."
Indeed, the high reputation of Dr. Good for profes-
sional zeal and industry, as well as for powerful talents,
unusual erudition, and a liberal spirit of investigation,
produced a cordial welcome for this comprehensive vol-
ume, among all classes of medical men ; the most able
of whom felt themselves pleasingly " constrained to ac-
knowledge that his intimate acquaintance with almost all
branches of science, literature, and the arts, placed him
in the very first rank of our learned physicians."* The
same professional critic speaks of this System of Nosology,
as having " been adopted as a text-book in various medi-
cal schools, as well as by individual writers. Like all
new systems of nosology, (says the same writer) it re-
quires a new technology and that is unquestionably an.
evil. The arrangement of Dr. Good, we certainly pre-
fer to every other, though no nosological arrangement has
yet appeared without defects. To the nomenclature, too,
we dare not object, since it is exclusively taken from the
Greek, as far as regards his classes, orders, and genera his
authorities, in general, being Celsus and Galen. When
he happens to wander farther, he usually supplies him-
self from ^Etius, Caelius Aurelianus, Diascorides, or
Aristotle."
Having adduced this professional opinion of Dr. Good's
system from one of the first authorities, and one whose
* Johnson's Medico-Chirurgical Review, vol. iii. p. 574.
DR. MASON GOOD. 151
judgment has been amply confirmed by that of several
medical friends ; I shall now proceed to describe the
work in the manner that may be most interesting to a
general reader ; that is, principally as a work of literary
research and scientific classification. In attempting
this, I shall avail myself of the masterly dissertation pre-
fixed by the author to his treatise.
The main objects of Dr. Good in the new system here
exhibited are, to connect the science of diseases more
closely than it has hitherto been, with the kindred
branches of natural knowledge ; to give it at once a
more obvious and intelligible classification, and an ar-
rangement more simple in principle, yet more compre-
hensive in extent ; to correct its nomenclature, where it
can be done without unnatural force ; to trace its distinc-
tive terms, botli upwards to their sources, and downwards
to their modern synonyms in various languages : thus
producing " not merely a manual for the student or a
text-book for the lecturer, but a book that may stand on
the same shelf with, and form a sort of appendix to, our
most popular systems of Natural History ; and may at
the same time, be perused by the classical scholar without
disgust at that barbarous jargon, with which the language
of medicine is so perpetually tesselated." The attempt
is evidently a bold one ; but it is throughout conducted
with a becoming spirit, both towards the author's prede-
cessors in the same region of inquiry, and with regard to
his own qualifications for the arduous task.
In his preliminary dissertation, (occupying 100 pages)
he describes, with great perspicuity, the chief nosologi-
cal systems of modern times, the nomenclature in actual
use, and the general nature of the improvements which
he proposes to introduce. Speaking first of nosological
treatises, he regards all their modes of arrangement as
reducible to two classes, those of synopsis and of system ;
and decisively prefers the latter, on account of the facili-
ties which it supplies both with reference to study and
to recollection. Of systematic arrangements, he briefly
describes the alphabetic, that formed on the duration of
diseases, that on the anatomy of the animal frame, that
which is referred to the cause of diseases, denominated
the etiological method, the mixed modification which
152 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
rests on extent, sex, and infancy, conjointly, and then,
the system built upon the distinctive symptoms, or coin-
cidents* of diseases, this latter being, in his opinion,
the only method, which will generally hold true to itself,
and on which entire dependence can be placed.
He next presents characteristic sketches in succes-
sion of the nosological systems of Plater, Sauvages, Lin-
na?us, Vogel, Sagar, Cullen, Selle, Plouquet, Pinel,
Macbride, Crichton, Darwin, Parr, and Young ; and of
the limited arrangements of Plench, Willan, Abernethy,
and Bateman. In pointing out the nature, merits, and
defects, of the several systems which are thus made to
pass in review before him, he evinces a kind, cour-
teous, and liberal spirit, developing, with obvious plea-
sure, the improvements which the author of one nosologi-
cal scheme has made upon those which preceded, and
marking those peculiarities which he has been able to
incorporate with systematic propriety in his own arrange-
ment. Several of the observations made by Dr. Good in
these concise delineations indicate great logical acumen
as well as philosophical research, and cannot but be pe-
rused with benefit by the student of medicine, or, indeed,
of natural history.
Thus, when he notices Dr. Cullen's very extraordinary
confusion of genera and species, he remarks that many
other nosologists have fallen into similar mistakes. To
prevent their recurrence, he subjoins the following in-
structive observations.
" A genus is not a disease, any more than it is an ani-
mal, a vegetable, or a mineral ; but a group or assem-
blage of any of these, possessing certain like characters,
and associated in consequence of such resemblance. The
consenting characters, being abstracted and put together,
constitute the generic definitions, and apply to the whole ;
while the subordinate characters or coincidents, by
which one differs from another, constitute the specific de-
finition, and distinguish 1 from 2, and 2 from 3, of the
same group or genus. A genus, therefore, is a mere ab-
stract term, a non-entity in nature ; highly useful, indeed,
in the chain of orders, but which can no more exist
* lu/u.Trra/u.n'raL from a-it^mTfrai, " to fall in, happen together, or
coincide."
DR. MASON GOOD. 153
without species, than a regiment, or a regimental com-
pany, can exist without soldiers. On this account it is
that no man can ever dif rover a genus, though he may
combine generic signs, and invent a generic name. The
usual order is the following : he first discovers an indivi-
dual, whether a plant, animal, or disease, possessing very
peculiar marks, so as to separate it distinctly from any
known individual, or groups of individuals. He may now,
therefore, be said to have found a new species. And he
proceeds next to arrange it. He first separates from it
the most striking mark by which it is distinguished ;
and if this should be strictly singular, it constitutes
alone a sufficient character for a new genus, and will
form what is called, from this very circumstance, its
essential generic character. If it be not strictly singu-
lar, he must look for another striking character, a
coincident or co-appearance, or if necessary, in order
to render the distinction complete, a third; and the gen-
eric character will consist in the union of these coinci-
dents, in the combination of the marks that are thus first
detached from the individual, and then brought into a
state of combination. To this combination of detached
or abstract signs he gives what name he pleases ; and he
thus obtains a generic name, as well as a generic defini-
tion. He then proceeds to select one, two, or more
other marks, by which the individual is peculiarly distin-
guished ; and these united form his specific definition, to
which, in like manner, he adds a specific name. He
has now discovered and identified a species, and formed
and denominated a genus. His genus, indeed, consists
at present but of a single species ; and many genera nev-
er consist of more ; but the genus is, nevertheless, formed
upon a collective principle ; it presupposes that other in-
dividuals may, hereafter, be detected, possessing the
same generic character, and consequently belonging to
the same banner ; at the same time differing in several
of its subordinate marks from the individuals already ar-
ranged under such banner ; and which, in consequence,
will produce new species as long as other individuals pos-
sessing such discrepancies shall be traced out." p. xx.
The second section of the preliminary dissertation,
which is devoted to medical nomenclature, is taken prin-
cipally from the essay on " medical technology," publish-
154 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
ed in 1810. There are, however, some interesting addi-
tions in reference to matters of etymology, the precise
original import of words, the extraordinary changes which
some of them have experienced in the lapse of time, and
the radical absurdity involved in some current phrases,
such for example, as tonic spasm, which is " literally exten-
sible contractibility."
In the third section the author explains his main de-
sign in the present work which is to attempt improve-
ment in the healing art in its two important branches of
nosological arrangement and nomenclature. He investi-
gates the primitive and modified meanings of several
words from a great variety of languages, and adverts to
some of the evils which arise from their loose and vague
use. He then ascertains the import of the common
prefixes and suffixes employed in the technology, and
shews that they are too often so introduced as to occasion
confusion, where accuracy and precision are above all
things desirable. The general inquiry, which he thus
pursues into its several ramifications, is new, I think, not
only in reference to medicine, but in great measure, also,
to Greek philology. It cannot but be useful to the intel-
ligent medical student ; while it is, indeed, well calcula-
ted to gratify the reader.
The author next proceeds to unfold the principles by
means of which he endeavors to incorporate the ele-
mentary study of animal diseases, with that of the ani-
mal structure, or rather, with the animal economy. He
decides to erect his edifice upon a physiological basis ;
and then sketches the plan which he proposes to himself
and recommends to others.
The author had first to balance between two schemes :
that of Haller, who begins at the first and simplest vestige
of the living fibre, and pursues the growing ens through
all its stages of evolution ; and that of later physiologists,
who take at once the animal frame in its mature and per-
fect state, and trace it from some one assumed function
through all the rest.
He " was soon led to a preference of the second scheme.
It is by far the simpler of the two, and directly harmonizes
with the fundamental principle, which runs through all
the systems of zoology, botany and mineralogy, of form-
DK. MASON GOOD. 155
ing the arrangement and selecting the characters from
the more perfect individuals, as specimens. He decided,
therefore, upon taking the more prominent functions of
the animal frame for his primary or classific division, and
the more important of their respective organs for his
secondary or ordinal ; and without tying himself to a
particular distribution of the former in any authorized or
popular use at the present moment, to follow what ap-
pears to be the order of nature in her simplest and most
intelligible march.
" Tor epair the exhaustion which is constantly taking
place in every part of the body from the common wear
and tear of life, it is necessary that the alimentary canal
should be supplied with a due proportion of food, the
procuration of which, therefore, constitutes, in savage aq
well as in civil society, the first concern of mankind.
The food thus procured is introduced into a set of organs
admirably devised for its reception ; and its elaboration
into a nutritive form constitutes what physiologists have
denominated the DIGESTIVE FUNCTION. The diseases,
then, to which this function is subject, will be found to
create the first class of the ensuing system.
" The food thus far elaborated has yet to be conveyed
to the lungs, and be still farther operated upon by the
atmosphere, before it becomes duly assimilated to the
nature of the fabric it has to support. The FUNCTION OF
RESPIRATION embraces this part of the animal economy ;
and the diseases to which this function is subject form
the second class of the arrangement.
" The blood, now matured and consummated, is re-
turned to the heart, and sent forth, in a circulating
course, to every organ of the body, as the common pabu-
lum from which it is to screen what it stands in need of:
the waste blood being carried back to the fountain from
which it issued. It is this circulatory track that consti-
tutes the SANGUINEOUS FUNCTION ; and the diseases by
which it is characterized form the third class of the en-
suing pages.
" But the blood does not circulate by its own power.
From the brain, which it recruits and refreshes, its vessels
(perhaps itself) receive a perpetual influx of that sensorial
energy which gives motion, as the blood gives food, to
156 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
the entire machine ; converts the organized into an ani-
mal and intellectual system, and forms the important
sphere of the IX ? ERVOUS FUNCTION. This function, also
affords scope for a large family of diseases ; and hence
we obtain a ground work for a fourth class.
" Such is the progress towards perfection in the life of
the individual. But man is not born to be an individual ;
he is designed to perpetuate his species ; and the last
finish to his frame consists in giving full developement and
activity to the organs which are subservient to this pur-
pose. We thus arrive at the SEXUAL FUNCTION ; and
obtain from the diseases by which it is marked, a fifth
class.
" As every part is thus receiving new matter from the
blood, it is necessary that that which is superseded
should be carried off by proper emunctories-: as it is also
necessary that the antagonist processes of restoration and
detrition should maintain a fair balance. And hence the
minute secretory and absorbent vessels hold the same
relation to each other as the arteries and veins, and con-
jointly create an EXCERNENT FUNCTION ; whose diseases
lay a foundation for the sixth class of our systematic
attempt.
" It will yet remain to create a class for external acci-
dcift.i, and those accidental mis form at ions which occa-
sionally disfigure the fetus. This will constitute the
seventh ; and under these seven classes it will possibly
be found that all the long list of diseases may be in-
cluded which man is called to suffer, or the art of medi-
cine to provide for." p. Ixxx.
Consistently with the arrangement thus simply dedu-
ced, our author divides his work (which comprises 546
closely printed 8vo. pages) into seven sections, devoted to
a series of seven classes and their subordinate orders, and
in order that the student may, \vithout difficulty, compre-
hend the nomenclature, he introduces a table of the
principal Affixes and Suffixes, with the senses in which
they are employed.
With a desire to render this work more extensively
useful, the author subjoins to the systematic name of every
disease, its chief technical and vernacular synonyms ;
confining, however, the vernacular synonyms to the
DR. MASON GOOD. 157
English, German, and French languages, the technical
ones, principally to the Greek, Latin, and Arabic. In
this department of research, his knowledge of the Orien-
tal languages has enabled him to proceed with firm steps
over regions into which but few of his predecessors in
physiology have attempted to make even an entrance.
But, besides this peculiarity, there is another, and a very
prominent feature in Dr. Good's treatise, which, I under-
stand, served more than everything else to give it popu-
larity.
" In order to afford relief to the dryness of technical
definitions, and verbal criticism, the author has digested
his notes into a running commentary, which he has en-
deavored to render replete with interesting cases, valuable
hints or remarks, and singular physiological facts, gleaned
from a pretty extensive perusal of the most approved au-
thorities, collective or individual, ancient or modern ;
occasionally interwoven with similar illustrations, as they
occurred to the writer in his own private walk and inter-
course of life."
This " running commentary," is printed with a small
type and occupies, on an average, more than half of the
page. A copious nosological index at the end of the vol-
ume, greatly facilitates reference, and proportionally aug-
ments the utility of the whole.
STUDY OF MEDICINE.
The first edition of Dr. Good's " Study of Medicine"
was published in 1822, in four thick Svo. volumes. It
presented a fairly proportioned complete picture of medi-
cal science, as it then existed. But, happily for the world,
neither the healinsf art nor the theoretic considerations
on which it so mainly depends, are stationary. They
partake of the general intellectual impulsion of the pre-
sent times : so that, while the principles experience ex-
tension and correction, the practical applications become,
in consequence, more simple, powerful, and direct. Thus
the exigencies of the profession, and the success of this
work (so well calculated for their use) concurred in the
production of a new edition in 1825; in which, by modi-
fications in the substance in many places, and valuable
14
158 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
supplementary matter in others, the progressive improve-
ments have been duly recorded ; the whole being now
comprised in five volumes.* As the largest portion of
the new matter appertains to what in the former impression
constituted the second volume, the author has effected
his augmentations " by dividing this alone into two vol-
umes, and adding a little to the paging of the next."
Dr. Good describes his object in this comprehensive
work to be to unite those different branches of medical
science, which when carried to any considerable extent,
have hitherto been treated separately by most writers,
into a general system, such as may be contemplated in a
single view, and pursued under a common study. The
branches thus united, are, 1. PHYSIOLOGY, or the doctrine
of the natural action of the living principle. 2. PATHOL-
OGY, or the doctrine of its morbid action. 3. NOSOLOGY,
or the doctrine of the classification of diseases. 4, THE-
RAPEUTICS, or the doctrine of their treatment and cure.
In the nosological arrangement, the author has made
slight alterations in the distribution of one or two of the
*In a letter addressed to Dr. Drake (bearing 1 date December llth,
1824,) Dr. Good gives the following account of the progress of the new
edition, and of the improvements which he proposed it to exhibit.
" I am now hard at work in printing off my second edition. two
volumes at a time, so that the whole will, I hope, be finished soon after
the end of March. Having completed, however, the entire range of its
composition, I have nothing to do but to correct the press. But I have
bestowed a good deal of additional labor upon it, to meet some of the hints
that have been communicated to me. It will now form, as far as I think it
should, a record of all the opinions and methods of the continent advanced
in our own day ; which has rendered it necessary for me to remodel the
writing in some pails of most of the pages, as well as to wade through an
immensity of trash, in pursuit of a little sterling matter; and, at .the
particular request of the Army Medical Board, and especially of the
Director General, it will a little enlarge on a few of the diseases of warm
climates, from documents of their own, which have not met the public eye.
There are also other subjects which remain to be brought forward, and
have either been starlet! or have grown into importance since the first
edition : as, Thomson's work on Varioloid Diseases, and the question it
involves : Willan's speculations on the same subject, published posthu-
mously : the destructive inflammation that occasionally takes place on
dissecting with a punctured hand (Erythema anatomictim ,-) the singular
emaciation or bloodlessness, described by some of the French writers
(Marasmus Anhicmia ;) the Melanosis of Breschet and others; and the
lateral curvature of the spine, or spinal muscles (Entasia Rhnchybia.)
Then there is an account to be given of Laennec's Stethoscope, &c. ; how
far Syphilis may be cured, or it ought to be attempted, without mercury :
many of the new medicines lately Imported from France. &c. You will
Lence perceive that I must have another volume."
DR. MASON GOOD. 159
diseases, as compared with his " System of Nosology :"
to the first six classes of which, however, he adheres, on
the whole, throughout these volumes. The first volume
comprises, in 630 pages, the whole of Class I., and the two
first orders of Class II. Vol. II. in t>C2 pages, the re-
mainder of Class II., and the two first orders of Class III.
Vol. III. in 518 pages, is devoted to the remaining
orders, genera and species of Class III. Vol. IV. in 688
pages, includes the whole of Class IV. And Vol. V. in
738 pages, comprehends Classes V and VI.
The notes at the feet of the pages, consist principally
of references to other works of celebrity, British and
Foreign, on the same or connected topics ; and the side
margin of every page contains, in a smaller type, a brief
running abstract of the contents of the several sentences
on the page itself. Every distinct opening of pages, too,
exhibits an abbreviated reference to the class, order,
genus, species : thus conducing greatly to a ready con-
sultation of the appropriate portion of the work to which
a student may wish to turn. A copious index of double
columns on 30 pages, containing a reference to any sub-
ject, as indicated by its Arabic, Greek, Latin, or English
name, in addition to the other facilities just specified,
gives to this work an advantage which few other modern
treatises, on either the theory or practice of science, can
boast of.
Dr. Good remarks, that a pretty active spirit of physio-
logy pervades the whole work. He has also availed him-
self of the advantage so readily afforded by his arrange-
ment, of prefixing to every class a " Physiological Proem,"
containing a summary of the most important laws and
discoveries in physiology, that tend to elucidate the sub-
jects comprehended in the class to which the proem be-
longs. " The author has, also, occasionally enriched these
dissertations by a glance at the more striking analogies of
the animal, and even of the vegetable world at large,
wherever they could add to the illustration." To me
these " proems" seem to constitute the most entertaining
and instructive portions of this highly entertaining and in-
structive work. I have read some of them again and again,
and always with an increased gratification. If they are
throughout correct, of which I need scarcely declare my-
160 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
self again an incompetent judge, they would of themselves
form an interesting volume. But many regions of physio-
logical research, are as yet debateable ground ; and as the
author confesses that he has here indulged " a pretty active
spirit," it is not improbable that the properly qualified
reader may not yield an entire assent to every statement
or deduction in these preliminary disquisitions however
sound the author's general principles, and however diver-
sified and beautiful many of his illustrations.
With a view to convey some idea of Dr. Good's method
of treating a disease, I select for an example that which
relates to Entasia Rachybia, muscular distortion of the
spine. After laying down a general definition, he adverts
to the various kinds, and dilates upon that first described
by Pott ; scrofulous, and producing caries. He then
traces the rachetic source, and remarks that in these
cases the disease is a primary affection of the bones, pro-
ducing angular distortion as opposed to lateral. He next
speaks of muscular, ligamentous, or cartilaginous distor-
tion, the organs being affected sometimes singly, sometimes
jointly. Then he adverts to the distinctions observed by
the Greek writers, viz. Lordosis, Cyrtosis, and Hybosis,
distinctions well discriminated by Pott. To these suc-
ceed brief accounts of the views of the disease taken by
Baynton, Wilson, Lloyd, and Jarrold. The author then
observes, that the muscular is much more common than
the osseous distortion of the spine, and sketches the dif-
ferent explanations of Grant, Harrison, and Dods. He
next shews the nature of the muscular distortion now
most common, assigns muscular debility as the proximate
cause, traces the commencement and progress of the dis-
ease, the augmentation of the evil by the modern disci-
pline of ladies' schools and then describes the preventive
and remediable means, as cupping, shampooing, friction,
advantageous position, couch, inclined plane, &c. ; add-
ing, however, that, besides these, pure air, sea-bathing,
and every other kind of tonic, whether external or inter-
nal, are of the utmost importance.
Among the occasional causes of this diseased incurva-
tion, Dr. Good includes the various contrivances adopted
to mould the female form into greater symmetry than it is
DR. MASON GOOD. 161
supposed to have received from its Creator. On this to-
pic, his remarks are as important as they are just.
"The greater frequency of the lateral distortion of the
spine in our own day, compared with its apparent range
in former times, together with the increased coercion and
complication of the plan laid down in many of our fash-
ionable schools for young ladies, seems clearly to indicate
that some part at least of its increased inroad is charge-
able to this source.
" The simple fact is, that the system of discipline is
carried too far, and rendered much too complicated ; and
art, which should never be more than the handmaid of
jifitiij-e, is elevated into her tyrant. In rustic life we have
health and vigor, and a pretty free use of the limbs and
muscles, because all are left to the impulse of the moment,
to be exercised without restraint. The country girl rests
when she is weary, and in whatever position she chooses
or finds easiest ; and walks, hops, or runs, as her fancy
may direct, when she has recovered herself: she bends
her body and erects it as she lists, and the flexor and ex-
tensor muscles are called into an equal and harmonious
play. There may be some degree of awkwardness, and
there generally will be, in her attitudes and movements ;
and the great scope of female discipline (as to the motions
of the body) should consist in correcting this. With this
it should begin, and with this it should terminate, wheth-
er our object be directed to giving grace to the unculti-
vated human figure, or the uncultivated brute. We may
modify the action of muscles in common use, or even call
more into play than are ordinarily exercised, as in various
kinds of dancing; but the moment we employ one set of
muscles at the expense of another ; keep the extensors
on a full stretch from day to day, by forbidr^ng the head
to stoop, or the back to be bent ; and throw the flexors of
these organs into disuse and despisal ; we destroy the
harmony of the frame, instead of adding to its elegance ;
weaken the muscles that have the disproportionate load
thrown upon them ; render the rejected muscles torpid
and unpliant ; sap the foundation of the general health,
and introduce a crookedness of the spine instead of
guarding against it. The child of the opulent, while too
*14
162 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
young to be fettered with a fashionable dress, or drilled into
the discipline of our female schools, has usually as much
health, and as little tendency to distortion, as the child of
the peasant : but let these two, for the ensuing eight or
ten years, change places with each other ; let the young
heiress of opulence be left at liberty ; and let the peasant
girl be restrained from her freedom of muscular exertion
in play and exercise of every kind ; and instead of this,
let her be compelled to sit bolt-upright, in a high nar-
row chair with a straight back, that hardly allows of any
flexion to the sitting muscles, or of any recurvation to the
spine ; and let the whole of her exercise, instead of ir-
regular play and frolic gaiety, be limited to the staid and
measured march of Melancholy in the Penseroso of Mil-
ton :
With even step and musing gait j
to be regularly performed for an hour or two every day,
and to constitute the whole of her corporeal relaxation
from month to month, girded, moreover, all the while,
with the paraphernalia of braces, bodiced stays, and a
spiked collar ; and there can be little doubt, that, while
the child of opulence shall be acquiring all the health
and vigor her parents could wish for, though it may be
with a color somewhat too shaded with brown, and an
air somewhat less elegant than might be desired, the
transplanted child of the cottage will exhibit a shape as
fine, and a demeanor as elegant, as fashion can commu-
nicate, but at the heavy expense of a languor and relaxa-
tion of fibre that no stays of props can compensate, and
no improvement of figure can atone for.
" Surely it is not necessary, in order to acquire all the
air and gracefulness of fashionable life, to banish from
the hour of recreation the old rational amusements of
battledore and shuttlecock, of tennis, trap-ball, or any
other game that calls into action the bending as well as
the extending muscles, gives firmness to every organ, and
the glow of health to the entire surface.
"Such, and a thousand similar recreations, varied ac-
cording to the fancy, should enter into the school-training
of the day, and alternate with the grave procession and the
DR. MASON GOOD. 163
measured dance, for there is no occasion to banish either ;
although many of the more intricate and venturous dances,
as the Bolero, should be but occasionally and moderately
indulged in ; since, as has been sufficiently shewn by -Mr.
Shaw, ' we have daily opportunities of observing, not only
the good effects of well-regulated exercise, but also the
actual deformity which arises from the disproportionate
developement that is produced by the undue exertion of
particular classes of muscles." vol. iv. p. 332.
Among our author's interesting treatises upon different
diseases, that which relates to Leprosy is one of the most
elaborate and curious. He traces the history of its tech-
nology, from the Hebrew, through the Arabic and
Greek languages, and is thus enabled to assign rea-
sons for much of the vagueness and confusion which
have prevailed respecting this disorder. The theologian,
as well as the student of medicine, may here derive bene-
fit from his researches. I much regret that their gene-
ral result is presented too much at length to allow of its
insertion in these pages.
I have already (p. 80.) alluded to letters from several of
the most distinguished physicians, and others, at home and
abroad, expressive of their high sense of the value of Dr.
Good's " Study of Medicine," and of its tendency " to
support and increase the reputation he had so deservedly
acquired, as one of the most learned and most philosophi-
cal members of the medical profession." It was once my
intention to solicit the permission of these gentlemen to
publish their respective letters, as honorable to themselves
for their frank and kind expressions of esteem, as to the
individual whom they panegyrize for the rich diversity of
his talents and attainments. But on farther meditation,
I feel it preferable to adduce the testimonies supplied by
two or three of our medical journals. To Dr. Johnson,
in whose Medico-Chirurgical Review, vols. iii. and iv.
there is a very elaborate and copious analysis, occupying
65 pages, I have already referred. But I may, notwith-
standing, present another extract. After specifying a
few defects in the first edition, which were corrected in
the second, the author of the analysis* adds :
* Usually imputed to Dr. Armstrong.
164 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
" With these trifling defects, we have no hesitation in
pronouncing the work, beyond all comparison, the best of
the kind in the English language. With the naval, the
military, the provincial, and the colonial practitioner, the
work before us, ought at once to supersede the unscien-
tific compilation of Dr. ; and it will do so."
In a note, the same professional critic observes, " We
have just heard a gentleman remark, that he was rather
disappointed in not finding minute information on a par-
ticular subject, for which he consulted these volumes.
The complaint was unreasonable. For minute informa-
tion, we must consult monographs, or distinct treatises.
In a system like this, however extensive, we can expect
no more than general information, and references to other
and more elaborate works, on the particular subject dis-
cussed."*
In " Anderson's Quarterly Journal of the Medical
Sciences," vol. ii. No. 8. October, 1825, a full account is
given of the improvements of the second edition of
the Study of Medicine. The reviewer says, " We have
already expressed our satisfaction at the reappearance
of this valuable and accurate work in a new edition.
Of such a work, indeed, when we consider it to be the
composition of one man, we may say, with truth, that
the age of laborious diligence is not past, and that there
is still an individual among us who can devour and
digest whole libraries. This would, no doubt, be surpri-
sing even in a man of a retired life, but it is doubly so in
one who is a practical physician, and a poet of no mean
fame. For learning, for research, for original observa-
tion, where is the practical system of the present day, we
may fearlessly ask, that can be compared to it ?" " Dr.
Good is a universal scholar ; intimately acquainted with
the learned and Oriental languages ; he writes English
with facility and elegance ; and we are sure that every
physician who is a man of taste and of learning, will pe-
ruse his pages with avidity and delight."
Again the Editor of the "Edinburgh Medical and
* It ought, however, to be observed, that the work abounds throughout,
with the statement of facts and the relation of cases ; the latter uniformly
given with graphic perspicuity, and, where they involved distressing or fa-
tal consequences, with much sympathy and feeling.
DR. MASON GOOD. 165
Surgical Journal," in the No. for January, 1826, after
specifying the principal improvements in Dr. Good's new
edition, proceeds :
" Of the merits of this work, we formerly expressed
our opinion at considerable length ; and it is not now re-
quisite to resume the subject. Its good and bad points
we canvassed in the spirit of liberal criticism ; but we
trust without asperity. Though we still entertain the
same opinion of its defects, we must confess, the oftener
we read it, the more excellent it appears. The informa-
tion is copious, accurate, and various ; the research and
learning unrivalled ; the style clear and precise ; and the
language, when not too affected, is classical and pleasing.
It certainly contains the most comprehensive and correct
view of medical knowledge extant ; and we know no
work from which the student will derive greater informa-
tion, arid obtain it in a more interesting manner."
I need not apologize for collecting these critical opin-
ions from the most respectable professional authorities, on
a work respecting the scientific value of which it would
be the height of absurdity for me to offer any judgment.
I may, perhaps, without incurring the charge of invad-
ing the province of others, remark, in addition to what
has preceded, that Dr. Good richly merits a distinct eulo-
gium for having, throughout these volumes, uniformly ex-
erted himself to check the influence of fashion in the in-
troduction and proscription of remedies, as well as in the
practice of medicine generally.*
THE BOOK OF NATURE.
This publication issued from the press early in 1826,
in three octavo volumes. It has, however, so infelicitous
* Since the above was written, I have received a letter from my esteemed
friend. Dr. J. VV. Francis, of .New York, in which he says, " The death
of our mutual friend, Dr. Good, has produced a sensation among our medi-
cal brethren, that shews most satisfactorily how high he stood in the estima-
tion of the profession. His writings are well known among us, and no les*
than three editions of his ' Study of Medicine' have been printed for our
medical improvement. I intend, dear sir. to transmit you some account of
what we Americans have thought of him; and I rejoice to learn that you
contemplate an account of his life and writings. Is it so ? I wish to say a
little of him. because of his vast renown in America, and the exemplary
virtues of his private character." This promised communication I much
regret to say, has not yet arrived.
1G6 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
a title, that it conveys no adequate idea, I might almost
say, no idea, of the nature of the puhlication itself.
These three volumes contain the lectures which Dr. Good
delivered, in three successive winters, at the Surrey In-
stitution. A few alterations and improvements have been
introduced, of which the author thus speaks :
" The progress of time (since 1810) and the mental
activity with which it has been followed up, have stri-
kingly confirmed various hints and opinions which he ven-
tured to suggest as he proceeded, and have introduced a
few novelties into one or two branches of science since
the period referred to ; but the interval which has hereby
occurred has enabled the author to keep pace with the
general march, and to pay due attention to such doctrines
or discoveries, in their respective positions of time and
place."
The plan of these volumes evinces less logical acumen
than is exhibited in some of his other publications ; but
this may probably have arisen from the author's delinea-
ting the outlines of the first series of lectures, without
having in contemplation any subsequent train of research
beyond their immediate scope. Considered all together,
however, notwithstanding the minor defects in arrange-
ment, there is much, in the disquisitions thus collected,
to amuse, to instruct, and often to delight and improve.
The young in perusing them will find their thirst for
knowledge kept alive while it is gratified ; and may yield
themselves to this instructer without any fear that their
better principles will be sapped, or their happiness endan-
gered. The author's style is vivacious, popular, and free
from technical stiffness, in a few cases perhaps to oratori-
cal ; but he passes from subject to subject, in his widely
diversified course, with that intellectual elasticity which
was one of his most remarkable endowments, and which
gave the principal charm to his successive productions.
The volumes are devoted respectively to three series of
lectures. Of these, the first is employed in unfolding " the
nature of the material world, and the scale of unorganized
and organized tribes that issue from it." This series com-
prises fifteen lectures, which treat of matter and the mate-
rial world, the elementary and constituent principles of
DR. MASON GOOD. 167
things, the properties of matter essential and peculiar,
geology, organized bodies, and the structure of plants
compared with that of animals, 'the general analogy of
animal and vegetable life, the principles of life, irrita-
bility, and muscular motion, the bones, cartilages, teeth,
hair, wool, silk, feathers, and other hard or solid parts of
the animal frame, the digestive function and its appro-
priate organs, diversities of food taken by different ani-
mals, the circulation of the blood, respiration, and
animalization, the processes of assimilation and nutri-
tion, and the external senses of animals.
The second series is employed in developing " the na-
ture of the animate world ; its peculiar powers and exter-
nal relations ; means of communicating ideas ; and the
formation of society." The subdivisions (in 13 lectures)
relate to zoological systems, and the distinctive charac-
ters of animals the varieties of the human race instinct
the distinguishing characters of instinct, sensation, and
intelligence sympathy, and fascination sleep, dream-
ing, reverie, and trance, sleep-walking and sleep-talking
voice and language, vocal imitations, and ventriloquism
the language of animals, the language of man legible
language, imitative and symbolical the literary education
of former times, and especially that of Greece and Rome
the dark or middle ages the revival of literature.
The third series, in 15 lectures, is devoted to " the
nature of mind ; its general faculties and furniture."
The subordinate divisions relate to materialism and im-
materialism the nature and duration of the soul, as ex-
plained by popular tradition, by various schools of philo-
sophy, and by revelation the human understanding
ancient and modern sceptics the " common sense" hy-
pothesis human happiness the general faculties and
free agency of the mind the origin, connexion, and cha-
racter of the passions the leading characters and pas-
sions of savage and of civilized life temperaments and
constitutional propensities pathognomy, or the expres-
sion of the passions physiognomy and craniognomy the
language of the passions on taste, genius, and imagina-
tion.
In this wide range of subjects, philosophical, zoologi-
168 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
cal, metaphysical, literary, and moral, it would be unrea-
sonable to expect that there should be no mistakes in
reasoning, no defects in principle, no infringements upon
good taste. But deductions from the value of the whole,
on either of these accounts, are much more seldom requi-
site than might have been expected, considering the great
diversity of topics, and the difficulties essentially involved
in some of them. The chief violation of good taste which
I have noticed, consists in the employment of scriptural
phrases* to illustrate other than theological subjects.
They are never employed irreverently, or in badinage ;
but in application to some intellectual inquiry. They
were introduced, I conjecture, in the author's original
composition of the Lectures, and escaped his notice at the
time of final revision for publication ; a time when he had
learned most scrupulously to abstain from everything cal-
culated to diminish the reverence due to Scripture.
What, however, is principally remarkable in these
volumes, is the judicious selection and grouping under
their proper heads, of a great variety of striking, curious,
and illustrative facts ; so brought together and exhibited
as to confirm most cogently the theory, or doctrine, or
verity, with a view to which they have been thus collect-
ed. While the author skilfully adduces facts and rea-
sonings in favor of some theories, he proceeds similarly
with regard to the refutation of others, especially of
those, whether deduced from supposed physiological or
metaphysical verities and principles, which militate against
the statement of revealed truth.
Were it not for my persuasion that the " Book of Na-
ture" will be extensively read, so soon as its real charac-
ter is known, I should be tempted to quote largely from
its pages. But, with that conviction, I shall simply pre-
sent a part of our author's inquiry into the varieties of
the human race. This is a well-known subject of scepti-
cal triumph, because of its assumed incompatibility with
the Mosaic account of the creation of the world. Blu-
menbach, Dr. Smith of America, and others, have most
* Such as, " the fulness of time/' " regeneration," " rejoicing as a giant
to run his race," " the day spring from on high," die.
DR. MASON GOOD. 169
decidedly refuted the infidel objection, drawn from the
imagined inconsistency of existing facts with the prime-
val relation. But there was still room for a popular and
spirited exhibition of the physiological arguments on this
side of the question, incorporated with those which flow
from a correct interpretation of the scripture narrative.
Dr. Good delineates the principal varieties under the
denominations of the European race, the Asiatic race,
the American, the African, and the Australian ; agreeing
nearly with the classifications of Blumenbach and Gmelin.
Then he places the objections above adverted to, in their
full force ; and after alluding to the hypothesis of those
who would refer the human and the monkey tribes to one
common stock, proceeds thus :
" In order, however, to settle this question completely,
let me mention a few of the anatomical points in which the
orang-otang differs from the human form, and which can-
not possibly be the effect of a mere variety, but must ne-
cessarily flow from an original and inherent distinction.
More might be added, but what I shall offer will be suf-
ficient ; and if I do not touch upon a comparison of the
interior faculties, it is merely because I will not insult
your understandings, nor degrade my own, by bringing
them into any kind of contact.
" Both the orang and pongo, which of all the monkey
tribes make the nearest approach to the structure of the
human skeleton, have three vertebrae fewer than man.
They have a peculiar membranous pouch connected with
the larynx or organ of the voice, which belongs to no divi-
sion of man whatever, white or black. The larynx itself,
is, in consequence of this, so peculiarly constructed as to
render it less capable even of inarticulate sounds, than
that of almost every other kind of quadruped : and, last-
ly, they have no proper feet ; for what are so called, are,
in reality, as directly hands as the terminal organs of the
arms : the great toe in m:m, and that which chiefly ena-
bles him to walk in an erect position, being a perfect
thumb in the orang-otang. Whence this animal is natu-
rally formed for climbing : and its natural position in
walking, and the position which it always assumes, except-
ing when under discipline, is that of all-fours ; the body
being supported on four hands, instead of on four feet as
15
170 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OP
in quadrupeds. And it is owing to this wide and essen-
tial difference, as, indeed, we had occasion to observe in
our last study, that M. Cuvier, and other zoologists of the
present day, have thought it expedient to invent a new
name by which the monkey and maucaco tribes may be
distinguished from all the rest; and, instead of QUADRU-
PEDS, have called them QUADRUMANA,or QUADRUMANUALS ;
by which they are at the same time equally distinguished
from every tribe of the human race, which are uniformly,
and alone, BI MANUAL.
" But throwing the monkey kind out of the question, as
in no respect related to the race of man, it must at least
be admitted, contend the second class of philosophers be-
fore us, that the wide differences in form, and color, and
degree of intellect, which the several divisions of mankind
exhibit, as you have now arranged them, must necessa-
rily have originated from different sources ; and that even
the Mosaic account itself will afford countenance to such
a hypothesis.
" This opinion was first stated, in modern times, by the
celebrated Isaac Peyrere, librarian to the Prince of
Conde ; who, about the middle of the last century, con-
tended, in a book which was not long afterwards con-
demned to the flames, though for other errors in conjunc-
tion with the present, that the narration of Moses speaks
expressly of the creation of two distinct species of man
an elder species which occupied a part of the sixth day's
creation, and is related in the first chapter of Genesis ;
and a junior, confined to Adam and Eve, the immediate
progenitors of the Hebrews, to whom this account was
addressed ; and which is not referred to till the seventh
verse of the second chapter, and even then without any
notice of the exact period in which they were formed.
After which transaction, observe this writer and those
who think with him, the historian confines himself en-
tirely to the annals of his own nation, or of those which
were occasionally connected with it. Neither is it easy,
they adjoin, to conceive, upon any other explanation, how
Cain, in so early a period of the world as is usually laid
down, could have been possessed of the implements of
husbandry which belonged to him ; or, what is meant by
the fear he expressed, upon leaving his father's family,
DR. MASON GOOD. 171
after the murder of Abel, that every one who found him
would slay him ; or, again, his going forth into another
country, marrying a wife there, and building a city soon
after the birth of his eldest son.
" Now, a cautious perusal of the Mosaic narrative, will,
I think, incontestably prove that the two accounts of the
creation of man refer to one and the same fact, to which
the historian merely returns, in the seventh verse of the
second chapter, for the purpose of giving it a more de-
tailed consideration ; for it is expressly asserted in the
fifth, or preceding verse but one, as the immediate
reason for the creation of Adam and Eve, that at that
' time there was not a man to till the ground ;' while, as
to the existence of artificers competent to the formation
of the first rude instruments employed in husbandry, and
a few patches of mankind scattered over the regions ad-
joining that in which Cain resided at the period of his fra-
tricide, it should be recollected that thisjfirst fall of man by
the hand of man, did not take place till a hundred and
twenty-nine years after the creation of Adam ; for it was
in his one hundred and thirtieth year, that Setli was given
to him in the place of Abel : an interval of time amply
sufficient, especially if we take into consideration the pe-
culiar fecundity of both animals and vegetables in their
primaeval state, for a multiplication of the race of man to
an extent of many thousand souls.
" On such a view of the subject, therefore, it should
seem that the only fair and explicit interpretation that
can be given to the Mosaic history is, that the whole hu-
man race has proceeded from one single pair, or, in the
words of another part of the Sacred Writings, ' that God
hath made of ONE BLOOD all nations of men for to dwell
on all the face of the earth.'* The book of Nature, is
in this, as in every other respect, in union with that of
Revelation : it tells us that one single pair must have
been adequate to all the purposes on which this class of
philosophers have grounded their objections : and it
should be further observed to them, that thus to multiply
causes without necessity, is not more inconsistent with
the operations of nature, than with the principles of
genuine philosophy.
* Acts xviii. 26.
172 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
" But the question still returns : whence, then, proceed
those astonishing diversities among the different nations
of mankind, upon which the arrangement now offered is
founded ?
''The answer is, that they are the effect of a combi-
nation of causes ; some of which are obvious, others of
which must be conjectured, and a few of which are be-
yond the reach of human comprehension but all of
which are common to other animals, as well as to man ;
for extraordinary as these diversities may appear, they are
equally to be met with in the varieties of several other
kinds of animals, that can be proved to have been pro-
duced from a single species, arid, in one or two instances,
from a single pair.
" The chief causes we are acquainted with are the four
following : climate, food, manner of life, and hereditary
diseases.
"I. The influence which CLIMATE principally produces
on the animal frame is on the color of the skin and on
the extent of the stature. All the deepest colors we are
acquainted with are those of hot climates ; and all the
lightest those of cold ones. In our own country we per-
ceive daily, that an exposure to the rays of the sun turns
the skin from its natural whiteness to a deep brown or
tan; and that a seclusion from the sun keeps it fair and
unfreckled. In like manner, the tree-frog (rana arbo-
red) while living in the shade is of a light yellow, but of a
dark green when he is obliged to shift from the shade
into the sunshine. To the nereis lacustris, though
whitish under the darkness of a projecting bank, is red
when exposed to the sun's rays. And that the larves of
most insects that burrow in the cavities of the earth, of
plants, or of animals, are white, from the same cause, is
clear, since being confined under glasses that admit the
influence of solar light, they exchange their whiteness
for a brownish hue.
" The same remark will apply to plants as well as to
animals ; and hence nothing more is necessary to bleach
or whiten them, than to exclude them from the light of
day. Hence the birds, beasts, flowers, and even fishes
of the equatorial regions, are uniformly brighter or deeper
tinctured in their spots, their feathers, their petals, and
DR. MASON GOOD. 173
their scales, than we find them in any other part of the
world. And hence one reason at least for the deep jet
which, for the most part, prevails among mankind under
the equator ; the dark-brown and copper-colors found un-
der the tropics ; and the olive, shifting through every in-
termediate shade to the fair and sanguine complexion, as
we proceed from the tropic of Cancer northwards. Hence,
too, the reason why the Asiatic and African women, con-
fined to the walls of their seraglios, are as white as Euro-
peans ; why Moorish children, of both sexes, are, at first,
equally fair, and why the fairness continues among the
girls, but is soon lost among the boys.
" As we approach the poles, on the contrary, we find
everything progressively whiten ; bears, foxes, hares, fal-
cons, crows, and blackbirds, all assume the same com-
mon livery ; while many of them change their color with
the change of the season itself. For the same reason, as
also because they have a thinner mucous web, the Abys-
sinians are less deep in color than the negro race ; for
though their geographical climate is nearly the same, their
physical climate differs essentially : the country stands
much higher, and its temperature is far lower.
" The immediate matter of color, as I had occasion to
observe more fully in a preceding lecture, is the mucous
pigment which forms the middle layer of the general in-
tegument of the skin ; and upon this, the sun, in hot cli-
mates, appears to act in a two-fold manner ; first, by the
direct affinity of its colorific rays with the oxygene of the
animal surface, in consequence of which the oxygene is
detached and flies off; and the carbone and hydrogene
being set at liberty, form a more or less perfect charcoal,
according to the nature of their union ; and next, by the
indirect influence which its calorific rays, like many other
stimulants, produce upon the liver, by exciting it to a se-
cretion of more abundant bile, and of a deeper hue: I
have formerly remarked, that this second or coloring layer
of the general integument of the skin, differs (as indeed
all the layers of the skin do) in their thickness, not only
in different kinds of animals, but very frequently in dif-
ferent species, varieties, and even individuals. Thus, in
our own country we find it more abundant in some per-
sons than in others ; and wherever it is most abundant,
*15
174 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
we find the complexion also of a darker, and coarser, and
greasier appearance, upon a common exposure to the so-
lar light and heat; and we find also, that the hair is al-
most uniformly influenced by such increase of color, and
is proportionally coarser and darker.
" It is of some consequence to attend to this observa-
tion ; for it may serve to explain a physiological fact that
has hitherto been supposed of difficult elucidation.
" A certain degree of heat, though less than that of
the tropics, appears favorable to increase of stature ; and
I have already observed, that the tallest tribes we are ac-
quainted with are situated at the back of Cape Horn, and
the Cape of Good Hope. On the contrary, the most di-
minutive we are acquainted with are those that inhabit
the coldest regions or the highest mountains in the world :
such are the Laplanders and Nova Zemblians in Europe,
the Samoieds, Ostiacs, and Tungooses in Asia, and the
Greenlanders and Eskimaux in America. Such, too, are
the Kimos of Madagascar, if the account of these pigmy
people may be depended upon, whose native region is
stated to be the central and highest tracts of the island,
forming, according to Commerson, an elevation of not
less than sixteen or eighteen hundred fathoms above the
level of the sea.
" A multitude of distinct tribes have of late years been
discovered in the interior of Africa, in the midst of the
black tribes, exhibiting nothing more than a red or cop-
per hue, with lank black hair. And, in like manner,
around the banks of the Lower Orinoco, in Mexico, where
the climate is much hotter, there are many clans of a
much lighter hue than those around the banks of the Rio
Negro, where it is much cooler ; and M. Humboldt has
hence ventured to assert that we have here a full proof
that climate produces no effect upon the color of the skin.
Such an assertion, however, is far too hasty; for he
should first have shown that the thickness of the mucous
web, or coloring material, is equally abundant in all these
instances. For if it be more abundant (as it probably is)
in the tribes that are swarthiest, we have reason to expect
that a swarthier color will be found where there is an
DR. MASON GOOD. 175
equal, or even a less exposure to solar light and heat ;
and we well know that the hair will vary in proportion.*
" II. The effects of DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD upon
the animal system are as extensive and as wonderful as
those of different climates. The fineness and coarseness
of the wool or hair, the firmness and flavor of the flesh,
and in some degree the color of the skin, and extent of
the stature, are all influenced by the nature of the diet.
Oils and spirits produce a peculiar excitement of the
liver ; and like the calorific rays of the sun, usually be-
come the means of throwing an overcharge of bile into the
circulation. Hence the sallow and olive hue of many who
unduly addict themselves to vinous potation, and who, at
the same time, make use of but little exercise. And
hence also the dark and dingy color of the pigmy people
inhabiting high northern latitudes, to whom we have just
adverted, and whose usual diet consists of fish and other
oils, often rancid and offensive. Though it must be ad-
mitted that this color is in most instances aided by the
clouds of smoke in which they sit constantly involved in
their wretched cabins, and the filth and grease with
which they often besmear their skins. And hence, also,
one cause of their diminutive stature ; the food they feed
on beinii unassitnilating and innutritive. Swine and all
other animals fed on madder-root, or that of gallium
rernm, or yellow-ladies-bed-straw, have the bones them-
selves tinged of a deep red, or a yellow; and M. Huber
of Lausanne, who has of late years made so many valua-
ble discoveries in the natural habits of the honey-bee, has
proved himself able, by a difference in the food alone, as
indeed Debraw had done long before him,t to convert what
is commonly, but improperly, called a neuter into a queen
bee.
" III. It would be superfluous to dwell on the changes
of body and perceptive powers produced in the animal
system by a DIFFERENCE IN THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
We have the most striking proofs of this effect in all
the domesticated animals by which we are surrounded.
Compare the wild horse with the disciplined ; the bison
* See Essai Politique sur la Nouvellc Espa^ne, par Alexandre de Hum-
boldt, &.c. pp. 84, 85. 4to. Paris, 1808, 1809.
t See Phil. Trans, for 1777, p. 15.
176 ACCOUNT OF THE W OttKS OF
with the ox, which last is usually regarded as the bison in
a state of lameness ; and the Siberian argali with the
sheep, which is said to have sprung from it. Compare
the modern Romans with the ancient ; the low cunning
and servile temper of too many of the Greek tribes of the
present day, that still bend to and kiss the Ottoman rod,
with the noble courage and patriotic enthusiasm of their
forefathers, who drove back the tyrant of Persia and his
million of men across the Hellespont, and dashed to
pieces the proud bridge with which he boasted of having
conquered the billows.
" It is in reality from long and deeply rooted habit
alone that the black, red, and olive color of the Ethiopian,
American, and Moguls, is continued in the future lineage
for so many generations after their removal into other
parts of the world ; and that nothing will, in general, re-
store the skin to its original fairness, but a long succession
of intermixtures with the European variety. It is a sin-
gular circumstance that the black color appears to form a
less permanent habit than the red or olive ; or in other
words, the color chiefly produced by the action of the
sun's colorific rays, than that produced by the action of
its calorific rays : for the children of olive and copper-
colored parents exhibit the parental hue from the moment
of birth ; but in those of blacks it is usually six, eight, or
ten months before the black pigment is fully secreted.
We also sometimes find this not secreted at all, whence
the anomaly of white negroes : and sometimes only in
interrupted lines or patches, whence the anomaly of spot-
ted negroes ; and we have even a few rare cases of ne-
groes in America, who, in consequence of very severe
illness, have had the whole of the black pigment absorbed
and carried ofF, and a white pigment diffused in its stead.
In other words, we have instances of a black man being
suddenly bleached into a white man. These instances
are indeed of rare occurrence ; but they are sufficient to
shew the absurdity of the argument for a plurality of hu-
man stocks or species, from a mere difference in the
color of the skin ; an argument thus proved to be
altogether superficial, and which we may gravely assert
to be not more than skin-deep.
DR. MASON GOOD. 177
"It is in consequence of this power in the system, of
secreting a dark-colored pigment under particular cir-
cumstances, that we not unfrequently see the skin of
very fair women, when in a state of pregnancy, changed
to a deep tawny, and almost to a black ; and it is hence
that the black pigment of the eye is perpetually main-
tained and replenished.*
" Dr. Wells gave a paper to the Royal Society, which
was read April 1, 1813, containing an account of a wo-
man (Harriet Tresh) ' whose left shoulder, arm, and
hand, are as black as the blackest African's, while all
the rest of the skin is very white. She is a native of
Sussex, and the cause she assigns is, that her mother
set her foot upon a lobster during her pregnancy.' So
that we have not only instances of blacks being suddenly
bleached, but of whites being made more or less black.
In like manner, confined birds sometimes become wholly
black ; and are said to become so, occasionally, in the
course of a single night. So the male kestrel, from being
barred on the tail feathers, becomes wholly ash-colored
except at the end ; and the heron, gull, and others,
whose tail is white when matured, are for the first two
years mottled.
" IV. But it is probable that a very great part of the
more striking distinctions we have noticed, and almost
all the subordinate variations occasionally to be met with,
are the result of a MORBID AND HEREDITARY AFFECTION.
The vast influence which this recondite but active cause
possesses over both the body and the mind, are known in
some degree to every one from facts that are daily pre-
senting themselves to us. We see gout, consumption,
scrofula, leprosy, propagated on various occasions, and
madness and fatuity, and hypochondriacal affections, as
frequently. Hence the unhappy race of Albinoes, and
whole pedigrees of white negroes ; hence the pigmy
stature of some families, and the gigantic size of others.
" Even when accident, or a cause we cannot discover,
has produced a preternatural conformation or defect in a
particular organ, it is astonishing to behold how readily it
is often copied by the generative principle, and how tena-
* Camper's Lect. on Comp. Anat. in regard to the Art of Drawing.
178 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
ciously it adheres to the future lineage. A preternatural
defect of the hand or foot has been propagated for many
generations, and has in numerous instances laid a foun-
dation for the family name. The name of Varus and
Plautus among the ancient Romans afford familiar exem-
plifications. Hence, hornless sheep and hornless oxen
produce an equally hornless offspring ; the broad-tailed
Asiatic sheep yields a progeny with a tail equally mon-
strous, and often of not less than half a hundred pounds'
weight ; and dogs and cats with mutilated tails not un-
frequently propagate the casual deficiency.
" There is a very peculiar variety of the sheep kind
given in the Philosophical Transactions for 1813, by
Colonel Humphreys of America, and which the American
naturalists have called, from its bowed or elbowy legs,
ovis?ie0n: but the common people the "otter-breed,"
from its resemblance to the general form of the otter,
and a rumor that it was at first produced by an unnatu-
ral intercourse between individuals of the two distinct
kinds. Its size is small ; the full weight being about
451b. with loose articulations, crooked fore-legs, and
great feebleness of power ; whence it walks with difficulty,
and is therefore quiet, and not fond of rambling. Acci-
dent seems to have produced this kind first, but the form
has been most correctly preserved in the progeny ; and so
tenaciously, that if a common sheep and ancon sheep of
either sex unite, the young will be either a perfect ancon,
or have no trace of it ; and if two are lambed at the same
time, and one be of one variety and the other of the other,
each is found to be perfect in its way, without any
amalgamation.
" In like manner, in all probability, from some primary
accident resulted the peculiar shape of the head and face
in ; niost nations as well as jn most families ; and hence
too those enormous prominences on the hinder parts of
one or two of the nations at the back of the Cape of
Good Hope, of which an instance was not long since ex-
hibited in this country with some degree of outrage on
moral feeling.
" Man, then, is not the only animal in which such
variations gf form and feature occur ; nor the animal in
DR. MASON GOOD. 179
which they occur either most frequently or in the most
extraordinary and extravagant manner.
" M. Blumenhach, who has pursued this interesting
subject with a liveliness the most entertaining, and a
chain of argument the most convincing, has selected the
swine genus from among many other quadrupeds that
would have answered as well, especially the dog and the
sheep, in order to institute a comparison of this very kind :
and he has completely succeeded in shewing that the
swine, even in countries where we have historical and
undeniable proofs, as especially in America, of its being
derived from one common and imported stock, exhibits,
in its different varieties, distinctions not only as numer-
ous and astonishing, but, so far as relates to the exterior
frame, of the very same kind as are to be met with in the
different varieties of the human species.
" In regard to size, the Cuba swine, well known, as
he observes, to have been imported into that island from
Europe, are at the present day double the height and
magnitude of the stock from which they were bred.
Whence we may well laugh at every argument in
favor of more than one human stock or species drawn
from the difference of stature in different nations of man.
In regard to color, they display at least as great a diversi-
ty. In Piedmont the swine are black ; in Bavaria red-
dish-brown ; in Normandy white. Human hair, observes
M. Blumenbach, is somewhat different from swine's bris-
tles ; yet in the present point of view they may be com-
pared with each other. Fair hair is soft, and of a silky
texture ; black hair is coarser, and often woolly. In like
manner, among the white swine in Normandy, the bris-
tles on the body are longer and softer than among other
swine ; and even those on the back, which are usually
stouter than the rest, are flaccid and cannot be employed
by the brush-makers.
" The whole difference between the cranium of a
Negro and that of an European is in no respect greater
than that which exists between the cranium of the wild
boar and that of the domestic swine. Those who are in
possession of Daubenton's drawings of the two, mustjbe
sensible of this, the fust moment they compare them to-
gether. The peculiarity among the Hindus of having the
180 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
bone of the leg remarkably long, meets a precise parallel
in the swine of Normandy, which stand so high on their
hind quarters, that the back forms an inclined plane to
the head ; and as the head itself partakes of the same
direction, the snout is but a little removed from the
ground.
" In some countries, indeed, the swine have degenerated
into races that in singularity far exceed the most extrava-
gant variations that have been found among the human
species. What can differ more widely than a cloven
foot and a solid hoof? Yet swine are found with both ;
the variety with a solid hoof was known to the ancients,
and still exists in Hungary and Sweden ; and even the
common sort, that were carried by the Spaniards to the
isle of Cuba in 1509, have since degenerated into a varie-
ty with a hoof of the same solid kind, and of the enor-
mous size of not less than half a span in diameter.
" How absurd, then, to contend that the distinctions
in the different varieties of the human race must have
proceeded from a plurality of species, while we are com-
pelled to admit that distinctions of a similar kind, but
more numerous and more extravagant, have proceeded
from a single species in other animals.
" It may appear singular, perhaps, that 1 have taken no
notice of the wide difference which is supposed to exist
in the intellectual faculties of the different species of man.
To confess the truth, I have purposely omitted it, be-
cause of all the arguments that have ever been offered to
support the doctrine of different species, this appears to
me the feeblest and most superficial. It may suit the
narrow purpose of a slave merchant of a trafficker in
human nerves and muscles of a wretch, who, in equal
defiance of the feelings and the laws of the day, has the
impudence to offer for sale, on the polluted shores of our
own country, in one and the same lot, as was the case
not long since, a dead cameleopard and a living Hotten-
tot woman : it may suit their purpose to introduce such
a distinction into their creed, and to let it constitute the
whole of their creed, but it is a distinction too trifling
and evanescent to claim the notice of a physiologist for
a moment.
" The variable talents of the mind are as propagable
as the variable features of the body, how, or by what
DR. MASON GOOD. 181
means, we know not, but the fact is incontrovertible.
Wit and dulness, genius and idiotism, run in direct
streams from generation to generation ; and hence the
moral character of families, of tribes, of whole nations.
The understanding of the Negro race, it is admitted, is
in many tribes strikingly and habitually obtuse. It has
thus, indeed, been propagated for a long succession of
ages ; and till the Negro mind receives a new turn, till it
becomes cultivated and called forth into action by some
such benevolent stimulus as that which is now abroad
generally, and especially such as is afforded it by the
African Institution of our own country, (an establish-
ment that ought never to be mentioned without rever-
ence,) the same obtuseness must necessarily continue,
and, by a prolongation of the habit, may perhaps even
increase. But let the man who would argue from this
single fact, that the race of negroes must be necessarily
an inferior species, distinct from all the rest of the world,
compare the taste, the talents, the genius, the erudition,
that have at different periods blazed forth in different in-
dividuals of this despised people, when placed under the
fostering providence of kindness and cultivation, with his
own, or those of the generality of his own countrymen,
and let him blush for the mistake he has made, and the
injury he has committed.
" Freidig, of Vienna, was an excellent architect, and a
capital performer on the violin ; Hannibal was not only
a colonel of artillery in the Russian service, but deeply
skilled in the mathematical and physical sciences ; so,
too, was Lislet, of the Isle of France, who was in conse-
quence made a member of the French Academy ; and
Arno, who was honored with a diploma of doctor of phi-
losophy by the university of Wirtemberg, in 1734. Let
us add to these the names of Vasa, and Ignatius Sancho,
whose taste and genius have enriched the polite literature
of our own country : and, with such examples of negro
powers before us, is it possible to do otherwise than adopt
the very just observation of a very quaint orator, who has
told us that the ' Negro, like the white man, is still God's
image, although carved in ebony ?'
" Nor is it to a few casual individuals among the black
tribes, appearing in distant countries, and at distant aeras
16
182 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OP
that we have to look for the clearest proofs of human
intelligence. At this moment, scattered like their own
oases, their islands of beautiful verdure, over the eastern
and western deserts of Africa, multitudes of little princi-
palities of negroes are still existing, multitudes that
have, of late years, been detected, and are still detecting,
whose national virtues would do honor to the most pol-
ished states of Europe : while at Timbuctoo, stretching
deepest towards the east of these principalities, from the
western coast, we meet, if we may credit the accounts we
have received, with one of the wealthiest, perhaps one of the
most populous and best governed, cities in the world ; its
sovereign a Negro, its army Negroes, its people Negroes ;
a city which is the general mart for the commerce of
Western Africa, and where trade and manufactures
seem to be equally esteemed and protected.*
" We know not the antiquity of this kingdom : but there
can be no doubt of its having a just claim to a very high
origin : and it is possible that, at the very period in which
our own ancestors, as described by Julius Caesar, were
naked and smeared over with paint, or merely clothed
with the skins of wild beasts, living in huts, and \vor-
* I follow Mr. Jackson's description, which is added to his " Account of
the Empire of Marocco," as by far ilie most circumstantial and authorita-
tive we have hitherto received. According to him " the city is situated on
a plain, surrounded by a sandy eminence, about twelve miles north of the
Nile El Abeade, or Nile of the Blacks; and three days' journey (erfael)at)
from the confines of Sahara ; about twelve miles in circumference, but
without walls. The town of Kabra, situated on the banks of the river, is
its commercial depot or port. The king 1 is the sovereign of Bambarra :
the name of this potentate, in 1800, was VV oolo : he is a black, and a native
of the country he governs. His usual place of residence is Jiunic, though
he has three palaces in Timbuctoo, which are said to contain an immense
quantity of gold." The present military appointments arc, it seems, entire-
ly from the negroes of Bambarra : the inhabitants are also, for the most
part, Negroes, who possess much of the Arab hospitality, and pride them-
selves in being attentive to strangers. By means of a water-carriage, east
and west of Kabra, great facility is given to the trade of Timbuctoo. which
is very extensive, as well in European as in Barbarv manufactures-. The
various costumes, indeed, exhibited in the market-places and in the streets,
sufficiently indicate this, each individual being liribiu-d in the dress of his
respective country. There is a perfect toleration in matters of religion,
except as to Jews. The police is extolled as surpassing anything of the
kind on this side the Desert: robberies and house-breaking are scarcely
known. The government of the city is entrusted to a divan of twelve
slemma. or magistrates ; and the civil jurisprudence superintended by a
learned cadi.
DR. MASON GOOD. 183
shipping the misletoe, the black kingdom of Bambarra, of
which Timbuctoois the capital, was as completely establish-
ed and flourishing as at the present moment.
" What has produced the difference we now behold?
What has kept the Bambareens, like the Chinese, nearly
in an invariable state for, perhaps, upwards of two thousand
years, and has enabled the rude and painted Britons to
become the first people of the world the most renowned
for arts and for arms for the best virtues of the heart,
and the best faculties of the understanding 1 Not a dif-
ference in the color of the skin ; but, first, the peculiar
favor of the Almighty ; next, a political constitution,
which was sighed for, and in some degree prefigured, by
Plato and Tully, but regarded as a masterpiece, beyond
the power of human accomplishment: and, lastly, a fond
and fostering cultivation of science, in every ramification
and department.
" Amidst the uproar and ruin of the world around us,
these are blessings which we still possess ; and which we
possess almost exclusively.* Let us prize them as they
deserve ; let us endeavor to be worthy of them. To the
great benefit resulting from literature and mental culti-
vation, the age is, indeed, thoroughly awake ; and it is
consolatory to turn from the sickening scenes of the con-
tinent, and fix the eye in this point of view upon our
native spot; to behold the ingenuous minds of multitudes
laboring with the desire of useful knowledge ; to con-
template the numerous temples that are rising all around
us, devoted to taste, to genius, to learning, to the liberal
arts ; and to mark the generous confederacies by which
they are supported and embellished." Vol. ii. p. 113.
TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
Dr. Good's peculiar fondness for Hebrew literature,
and for the noble specimens of the energy and sublimity
of that language contained in the metrical and prophe-
tical books of Scripture, induced him for several years
to devote some part of almost every week to the study and
translation of these favorite portions of the Old Testa-
* The Lecture was delivered in 1812.
184 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
ment. The result of his labors on " the Song of Songs"
and " the Book of Job" are before the public. But
much of his attention was also directed to the Prophecies
of Ezekiel, Joel, Zechariah, to the Book of Ecclesiastes,
&LC. of striking passages in each of which he has left
translations. During the years 1819, 1820, and 1821,
notwithstanding the occupation of his time in his great
works on Nosology and the Study of Medicine, he found
leisure to complete a translation of the Book of Proverbs,
to prepare a preliminary dissertation to that translation,
and a great number of critical, theological, and illustra-
tive notes. The manuscript copy of these, which is now
before me, is in some respects incomplete, not having re-
ceived the finishing touch of the author's hand. The
notes would, doubtless, have been considerably modified,
and the translation in a few respects a little changed,
before he would have allowed them to meet the public
eye. Imperfect, however, as the annotations are, they
exhibit, like those in some of the author's previous works,
an astonishing display of discursive illustration ; his ardent
mind delighting itself in gliding over the fields of ancient
and modern literature, to collect treasures of wisdom, and
apply them to the purposes of genuine elucidation.
The translation differs frequently from that of our
authorized version ; more frequently, however, in appear-
ance than in reality. I observe, too, that in some essen-
tial particulars it differs greatly from Dr. Boothroyd's, the
only other translation of the Book of Proverbs, with
which I have had an opportunity of comparing that of my
deceased friend.
In his subdivisions of this inspired collection of apho-
risms, Dr. Good, as will be seen, did not deviate much
from the most judicious of preceding commentators. But
his introductory dissertation contains several valuable
remarks on the proverbial sayings of all nations generally,
and on those of the Hebrews in particular. It compre-
hends, moreover, various specimens of the translation
which it was intended to precede. I shall, therefore,
insert a copious extract, which as it explains the author's
view of the book itself, and exhibits his version of several
passages, may in some respects conduce to the better
DR. MASON GOOD. 185
understanding of this ancient section of the canonical
scriptures.
" What was thus popular among all other parts of the
east, was popular, also, and in all ages, among the He-
brews ; from whom it is probable that the taste for moral
adages was first derived : and in the book of Job they
have handed down to us a full proof that the same taste
prevailed in the antediluvian days, and a rich store of the
moral sayings that were then in vogue. The speeches of
the respective interlocutors in this extraordinary poem are
in many instances ornamented with citations of this kind,
and some of them are composed of whole strings of such
citations ; to the antiquity of which, and their probable
existence before the flood, the speaker frequently appeals for
the purpose of giving them a stronger claim to attention.
" The same tendency to characterize or illustrate pass-
ing facts or events by well known adages of great anti-
quity and veneration runs through all the books of the
Old Testament, and is occasionally to be met with in the
new, more especially in the condescending and colloquial
intercourses of our Saviour with those around him.
" The book we are now entering upon is made up en-
tirely of such detached and sententious passages of moral
wisdom, or short rules of life. And whether we regard
the force of its diction, the variety of its manner, or the
extent of its subject, it is by far the most valuable of the
kind that has ever been offered to the world ; and is well
worthy of a place in the sacred treasury of the scriptures.
" The Hebrew title of the work ascribes its whole con-
tents to Solomon : and it is hence most probable that the
entire composition was furnished by his own hands or
mouth : the latter part of it, from the beginning of the
twenty-fifth chapter, forming evidently an appendix, was
collected after his death, and added to what appears to
have been more immediately arranged by himself. The
materials of the first five chapters of this appendix we are
distinctly told were copied out of comments left by Solo-
mon at his death, apparently in the archives of the royal
library ; the copyists being the scribes or other confiden-
tial officers of Hezekiah's court, supposed by Grotius,
from 2 Kings xviii. 18., to have been Eliakim, Shebnah,
and Joah, acting under the king's commands ; but who
*16
186 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
seem more probably, from Prov. xxx. 1., to have been
Ithiel and Ucal. The thirtieth chapter consists of words
furnished by Agur, the son of Jakeh, and hence called
'the words of Agur,' as the matter or words furnished by
Lemuel, are shortly afterwards called ' the words of Lem-
uel,' although we are at the same time told that they were
composed by his mother, and only committed by him to
memory. Of Agur, sacred history makes no further
mention ; but he was probably a confidential friend of
Solomon, and drew up what he has contributed, either
from recollection, or from some private record, at the
solicitation of Ithiel and Ucal, who seem to have been
commissioned for this purpose, and were probably, as
just noticed, ' the men of Hezekiah, the king of Judah,'
referred to in the opening of the thirtieth chapter. The
appendix closes with ' the words of Lemuel,' supposed to
be Solomon, and expressly declared to have been taught
him by his mother, who, in this case, must have been
Bathsheba ; and who seems to have composed them for
the use of her son when in the bloom of youth, and about
the time when he was formally declared by his father,
successor to the Jewish throne. As the person, how-
ever, who furnished this parabolic address is called king
Lemuel, he is conjectured by some writers to have been
a different individual from king Solomon : but as we have
no other account of any such personage as king Lemuel ;
as the title of the book assigns the whole of its contents
to Solomon alone, as its writer or speaker ; and as the
subject matter expressly applies to himself, and to no
other person we are acquainted with, there can be little
doubt that the word Lemuel is a mere familiar substitute
for that of Solomon, or rather of Se-lem-eh, which is the
Hebrew orthography, varied by a liberty very generally
taken on such occasions, in all languages, of uniting the
beginning, and altering the termination of the name, so
as from Se-lem-eh to produce first Se-lem-uel, and then
Lemuel.
" Solomon, who seems to have subjected all the known
sciences of the time to his use, and to have done so by
a special endowment, seems also to have turned his atten-
tion peculiarly to the popular method of teaching morality
by short striking descriptions and sententious precepts.
We are told by the author of the 1st book of Kings, iv.
DR. MASON GOOD. 187
32., that he spake not less than three thousand proverbs ;
and he himself tells us, Eccles. xii. 9., that, in ofSer to
teach the people knowledge, he sought out or selected
and set in order or arranged a considerable number of
these with great attention or good heed : and there can
be little doubt that the substance of the following work
is the result of this elaborate assortment ; which may
hence, in the judgment of Solomon himself, be supposed
to contain the flower and choice of his productions.
" It is, in truth, by far the most valuable book with
which he has favored the \vorld, and the most striking
monument of the wisdom with which he was specially
endowed : critically and captivatingly curious in the va-
riety of its style and method, and of universal compre-
hension in the subjects it embraces ; laying down rules
of conduct for all possible conditions of life, for kings and
courtiers and men of the world ; for masters and ser-
vants ; for fathers, mothers, and children ; for the favo-
rites of prosperity and the sons of affliction : so that it is
difficult to say in what way the wisdom that was bestowed
upon him could have been applied to a better purpose.
" This valuable production is, in the original, entitled
MESLIM, for which we have no term of exactly equivalent
power in our own, nor perhaps in any other language :
for it imports not merely brief axiomatic sentences of prac-
tical morality, but brief authoritative illustrations of moral
duties, delivered in strong and elevated language, under
any other form, whether of personification, similitude,
or personal address and embellished description. And
hence, MESLIM imports PARABLES as well as PROVERBS,
strictly so called : the ir*f*fc\!u, as well as the TrapHftHu, of
the Greeks : on which account the Greek term rafj/^u/*/,
and the Latin PROVERBIA, and our own derivation PRO-
VERBS, are, in a broad sense, employed to express PARA-
BLES, or high authoritative moral similitudes or allegories,
as well as sententious maxims ; which last, however, for
the most part, have some touch of comparison belonging
to them, as constituting the hinge on which they turn.
And hence, parables and proverbs, ^*/>*/?OA*/, and v^ium,
are used as convertible terms in the Gospels; or rather
what the three first evangelists call ir*p*&*M, or parables ;
St. John calls ^a^/^/^, or proverbs, as in chapter xvi. 25.
188 ACCOUNT OP THE VoRKS OF
" These things have I spoken to you in proverbs"
tv veifUfjMi; ; and even in chapter x. 6. "this parable" as it
is rendered in our established version, is still " this pro-
verb" -TXVTM TV TTUfKlfJitM \\i the GrCek.
" In denominating, therefore, the book of MF.SLIM the
book of PROVERBS, the latter term must be understood in
its utmost latitude, as importing allegorical or other figu-
rative illustrations of moral duties, as well as moral and
sententious axioms, for the MESLIM OF SOLOMON contain
both ; and this, too, not loosely and irregularly intermix-
ed, but in a nice progressive -order, admirably adapted to
their respective purposes. The whole work, indeed, as
it has descended to our own hands, is evidently comprised
of four distinct books or parts, each of which is distin-
guished both by an obvious introduction, and a change
of style and manner, though its real method and arrange-
ment seem, hitherto, to have escaped the attention of our
commentators and interpreters.
" PART I. extends from the opening of the work to
the close of the ninth chapter ; arid it is chiefly confined
to the conduct of juvenescence or early life, before a per-
manent condition is made choice of. The exordium, com-
prising the first six verses, is in the truest style of eastern
grandiloquence ; and it is principally to this first part of
the work that the royal moralist has devoted his descrip-
tive or parabolical talents ; in the course of which he
proves them to be of the highest order, and, in especial
reference to the period of age to which he limits himself,
he commences each of his parables or addresses with the
endearing term of " my Son !" or, " O ye children !" a
phraseology rarely to be met with afterwards, and only
with the exception of a single instance,* where the same
kind of address is incidentally renewed to persons of the
same age in the third part, and once in the fourth part,
where it occurs in the address of Lemuel's mother to
himself.
"All the most formidable dangers to which this season
of life is exposed, and the sins which most easily beset
it, are painted with the hand of a master. And whilst
the progress and issues of vice are exhibited under a va-
* Chap. xix. 27.
DR. MASON GOOD. 189
riety of the most striking delineations and metaphors in
their utmost deformity and horror, all the beauties of lan-
guage, and all the force of eloquence, are poured forth in
the diversified form of earnest expostulation, insinuating
tenderness, captivating argument, picturesque descrip-
tion, daring personification, and sublime allegory, to win
the ingenuous youth to virtue and piety, and to fix him in
a steady pursuit of his duties towards God and towards
man. Virtue is pronounced in the very outset to be es-
sential wisdom, and vice or wickedness essential folly :
and the personifications thus forcibly struck out at the
opening of the work are continued to its close. The
only wise man, therefore, is declared to be the truly good
and virtuous, or he that fears God, and reverences his
law : while the man of vice or wickedness, is a fool, a
dolt, an infatuated sot, a stubborn, froward, or perverse
wretch, and an abomination to Jehovah.
" Wisdom is, hence, allegorized as a tree of life, yield-
ing delicious shade, fruit, and protection to those that
approach her branches : throwing a garland of honor
around their shoulders, and decorating their heads with a
graceful chaplet, more precious than rubies. She is a
sage and eloquent monitor, lifting up her warning voice
at the gates and in the squares of the city, denouncing to
the young the snares and dangers to which they are ex-
posed, and exhorting them to abandon ' the way of the
wicked,' which ' is as darkness,' for the path of the just,
which is
as the brightening dawn,
Advancing and brightening to perfect day.
" She is the characteristic attribute, the darling off-
spring, of the Deity, who was with him, as his chief
object of delight, when he planned the mighty frame of
the creation :
Jehovah held me the chief of his train
Before his works, in the outset.
From everlasting was I anointed :
From the beginning, from the forecastings of the earth.
When there were no abysses I was brought forth ;
\\"hen no sluices, redundant with waters ;
Ere the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth ;
190 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
When, as yet, he had not prepared the land or the lakes,
Or beautified the dust of the world.
When he arranged the heavens I was there ;
When he turned the globe over the surface of the abyss;
When he established the atmosphere ;
When he strengthened the floodgates of the abyss ;
When he gave to the sea his commandment
That the waters should not overflow its boundary ;
When lie hewed out the foundations of the earth ;
Then was I with him, a favorite ;
Then was I from day to day his delight.
" The first idea of this wonderfully sublime description
was probably taken from the author of the book of Job,
chap, xxxviii. 4 18, whose classical ornaments, and,
more particularly, whose occasional Arabisms, Solomon
seems to have been peculiarly fond of copying ; but it is
in many respects original, and needs not fear a compari-
son with the magnificent source from which it has per-
haps been derived.
" Wisdom, under another similitude, is represented as
a princely potentate, preparing a rich banquet in his
splendid palace, sending forth his invitations freely in
every quarter, and making a proclamation himself from
the heights of the city, to all who stand in need of his
counsel.
Come, feast ye on my feast ;
And drink of the wine I have mingled :
Forsake the heedless and live,
And walk in the way of understanding.
Lo ! by me shall thy days be multiplied,
And years of life be added unto thee.
" The latter part of this allegory has not hitherto been
seized by the translators ; but, when correctly rendered,
it affords a contrast that adds wonderfully to the general
effect :
The essence of Folly is turbulence,
Thoughtlessness, and vanity. Can she know anything ?
She, too, sitteth at the opening of her pavilion ;
On the throne of the heights of the citv,
To call out to the travellers on their way,
Who are rightly pursuing their courses :
' Whoso is thoughtless ~: let him turn in hither.'
While to the silly-hearted thus saith she to Iiim,
DR. MASON GOOD. 191
' Sweet are the waters of stealth,
And delicious the feast of the clandestine.'
But he understandelh not that the ghosts are there,
That her guests are in the depths of hell.
" With this fearful and forcible stroke, the allegory
and the book itself concludes : the general object of the
whole being, as already observed, to inculcate upon the
young and the yet unsettled in life, the great duties of
fearing God, and reverencing parents ; of practising vir-
tue, temperance and modesty, and keeping the passions
in subjection, and to warn them against pride, arrogance,
self-conceit, frowardness, envy, mischief-making, back-
biting, hasty and imprudent friendships, and engage-
ments ; and above all, profligacy, debauchery, and scof-
fing, or making a mock at religion.
" PART II. commences at the opening of the tenth
chapter, as is obvious from the introductory clause of its
first verse, ' The Proverbs of Solomon,' which, indeed,
may be regarded as its title. Its range extends to the
sixteenth verse of the twenty-second chapter inclusively ;
the verse subsequent to this, opening with another exor-
dium, and consequently with a third part or book.
" The style and manner of the second part are as differ-
ent as possible from those of the first : and it is evidently
designed for the use of persons who are actually settled in
life, and have advanced from the age of youth to that of
manhood. And hence, while the preceding duties are
occasionally glanced at as of obligation in every stage of
life, the endearing phrases of ' my son !' and ' O ye chil-
dren !' are entirely dropped, and the writer chiefly incul-
cates the virtues of industry, honesty, frugality, fair and
upright dealing, prudence, ingenuousness, compassion,
mercy to animals, paucity and simplicity of words, hu-
mility, reverence of kings and all in authority, family
order and subordination, and the wholesome discipline of
children: the chief vices denounced and warned against
being those of sluggishness, deceit, falsehood, knavery,
over-reaching, squandering, hasty and improvident surety-
ship, slandering, hypocrisy, idle prating, tale-bearing,
backbiting, gluttony and ebriety, pride, wrath and hatred,
worldly-mindedness, and confidence in wealth, glory,
honor, power, or any other external possession or quality ;
192 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
the sum of the whole being not RICHES but RIGHTEOUS-
NESS ; which last is repeatedly designated as the chief
source of public as well as of private well-being ; as a
state virtue, not less than a domestic and social duty.
" To the subject of this book nothing could be better
adapted than the style. While in the preceding, which,
as already observed, is addressed to the young and the
unsettled, the richest ornaments of the fancy are made
choice of, to captivate their attention and allure them to
a right practice, in the present all is business and activi-
ty, brevity, concinnity, and terseness ; every thought,
though as highly polished, is, at the same time, as com-
pressed as possible ; and the writer, thoroughly aware of
the value of every moment of time at this important pe-
riod, lays down a complete series of short rules of life,
and concentrates the most momentous precepts into the
narrowest compass. The former appeals to the imagina-
tion, the latter to the judgment : the one exhibits all the
genius of poetry, the other all the art of composition ; and
hence the general matter is rendered as attractive in the
one instance as in the other.
" The great object in each of the proverbs or axioms
of the present part, is to enforce a moral principle in
words so few that they may be easily learned, and so cu-
riously selected and arranged that they may strike and
fix the attention instantaneously : whilst, to prevent the
mind from becoming fatigued by a long series of detach-
ed sentences, they are perpetually diversified by the most
playful changes of style and figure.
" Of these changes it will be sufficient to point out the
six following : the attentive reader may discover many
others, but it is not necessary to analyze the whole.
Sometimes the style is rendered striking by its peculiar
simplicity, or the familiarity of its illustration : sometimes
by the grandeur or loftiness of the metaphor or simile em-
ployed on the occasion : sometimes by a purposed or
enigmatical obscurity, which rouses the curiosity : very
frequently by a strong and catching antithesis : occasion-
ally by a pointed anaphora, or playful iteration of the
same word ; and in numerous instances by an elegant
pleonasm, or the expansion of a single or common idea
by a luxuriance of agreeable words.
DR. MASON GOOD. 193
" 1. Of the simple and familiar style we have exam-
ples in the following.
In the multitude of words there is no lack of blundering ;
Therefore he that restraineth his lips is discreet.
x. 19.
Commit thy doings to Jehovah,
And thy purposes shall be established.
xvi. 3.
The rich and the poor are mixed together,
Jehovah is the maker of them all.
xxii. 2.
"2. Of the grand and lofty style the following may
serve as instances :
In the path of righteousness is LIFE :
Yea, the high way is IMMORTALITY.
xii. 28.
HELL and DKSTRCCTION are before Jehovah :
How much more then the hearts of the sons of Adam.
xv. 11.
The man that wandereth from the way of understanding
Shall make his bed among the assembly of the GHOSTS.
xxi. 16.
A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty,
And casteth down the bulwark of its confidence.
xxi. 22.
" Which last may be regarded as a parabolic rendering
of the maxim announced by Lord Bacon, that ' Know-
ledge is power.'
" 3. Of the obscure and enigmatical style, I may se-
lect the following examples ; in the first and second of
which it may be observed, that the key or explanation is
given in the latter verse of the couplet.
A gift is a precious stone in the eye of its receivers :
On whichsoever side it is looked at, it quickeneth.
xvii. 8.
Acceptable words are a honeycomb ;
Sweet to the soul, and healing to the bones.
xvi. 24.
With the fruit of a man's mouth shall his belly be filled :
With the produce of his lips shall he be filled.
xviii. 20
17
194 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
" The meaning is, to explain it by another proverb,
' According as a man soweth, so shall he reap.' The fruit
of the mouth, of the lips, or of the thoughts, is a common
metaphor in sacred poetry, to express ' words ; ' and oc-
curs in Isa. Ivii. 19. Jer. vi. 19. Heb. xiii. 15. But the
best illustration of the distich is to be found in the paral-
lel proverb or parable ofjour Saviour upon eating with un-
washen. hands, which is- of the same enigmatical cast
and his own explanation of it to his disciples who did not
understand its drift: Matt. xv. 11, 15 20. 'Not that
which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that
which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.'
Then answered Peter, and said unto him, ' Declare unto
us this parable.' And Jesus said, ' Are ye, also, yet
without understanding ? Do not ye yet understand, that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly,
and is cast out into the draught ? But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and
they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man : but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a
man!'
" 4. The antithetic style is that which occurs most fre-
quently, and to which the royal writer appears to have
been most addicted. Instances of it are to be found in
almost every chapter, and sometimes in almost every
verse of a chapter. Let the following serve as exam-
ples :
The heart knoweth its own bitterness :
And a stranger cannot participate in its joy.
xiv. 10.
Get thou wisdom, O ! goodlier than gold ;
Yea, get thou understanding, more desirable than silver.
xvi. 16.
A rebuke cutteth deeper into a wise man
Than a hundred times flogging into a fool.
xvii. 10.
The mouth-wordiness of a man is a pool of water :
The well-spring of wisdom a flowing stream.
xviii. 4.
DR. MASON GOOD. 195
As a roaring lion is the wrath of a king ;
Bat as dew upon the grass his favor.
xix. 12.
Stuff! stuff! saith the buyer,
But let him go off with it, then he boasteth.
xx. 14.
"5. The labored style, which consists in a playful
iteration of the same word, is common to various kinds of
poetry in the West as well as in the East. In the notes
on my translation of Lucretius (vol. i. p. 132, ii. p. 4,) I
have given various examples from the Greek and Roman
poets, and in those on my translation of the book of Job,
I have given several others from the Asiatic poets, and
especially from those of Jerusalem. In the work before
us we have numerous examples of the same kind, though
they have rarely been attended to or preserved by the
translators. The following may serve as specimens :
Smartly shall he smart who is bail for a stranger ;
While he who hateth suretyship is secure.
xi. 15.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ;
But the friend of fools shall be friendless.
xiii. 20.
Whoso returneth evil for good,
Evil shall not depart from his house.
xvii. 13.
He who justifieth the guilty, and he who findcth guilty the just,
Verily both of them are an abomination to Jehovah.
xvii. 15.
" 6. Of the pleonastic or redundant style, we may se-
lect the following examples**-
To be slow to anger is better than to be valiant ;
And to rule one's spirit than to take a city.
xvi. 32.
The real friend loveth at all times,
And in adversity becometh a brother.
xvii. 17.
Multitudes cling to the countenance of the munificent ;
And every one is an adherent to the man of gifts.
xix. 6.
196 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
Whoso restraineth his words shall learn knowledge ;
Choice of breath is the man of discernment.
Even the dolt, while silent, is thought wise ;
While shutting his lips, intelligent.
xvii. 27, 23.
" In this tetrastich there is so striking a resemblance
to the following of an elegant Arabic writer, that they
ought to be brought together for a comparison.
Keep silence then ; nor speak but when besought :
Who listens long grows tired of what is told:
With tones of silver though thy tongue be fraught,
Know this that silence, of itself, is gold.
" PART III. is a miscellaneous collection of proverbs
and parables, brief axioms, and figurative descriptions
and addresses. It is consequently modelled after both
the preceding parts, and contains moral instruction for all
the different stages of life. It commences with an ob-
vious break and apostrophe at the seventeenth verse of
the twenty-second chapter, intimates, in the twentieth
verse, when correctly rendered, that it is a third under-
taking, division, or series of the subject, and that the ar-
rangement was made by Solomon himself, and closes
with the close of chapter the twenty-fourth. It yields in
no respect to either of the preceding : the matter is as
important, the diction as spirited and elegant, and the
personifications as bold and striking. The introduction
is' peculiarly beautiful and impressive :
Incline thine ear, and hearken to the words of the wise,
And apply thine heart to my instruct! jn.
O ! how sweet, if thou keep them in thy bosom.
Harmoniously shall they be fitted to thy lips.
For the fixing thy trust in Jehovah
To-day am I making thoe thoroughly know thyself;
Yea, a third time am I not imprinting upon thee
Concerning counsels and knowledge ?
" The vice of intoxication, and the train of evils that
accompany it, are, in this book, painted with a force and
accuracy of coloring, that we shall in vain seek for any
where else. It extends from the twenty-ninth verse of
the twenty-third chapter, to its close ; and the following
DR. MASON GOOD. 197
imagery is in the highest style of Oriental excellence, for
the full meaning of which the reader may turn to the
notes on the passage :
Look not on wine when it assumeth the ruby ;
When it throweth its eye from the cup.
Though it move round with blandishments,
In its end it will bite as a serpent,
Yea, sting as a cockatrice :
Thine eyes shall image profligate women,
And thine heart utter incoherencies.
" PART IV. is avowedly, as already observed, a post-
humous appendix ; consisting of various parabolic com-
positions, written and communicated by Solomon on dif-
ferent occasions, but never published by himself in an
arranged form ; yet altogether worthy of the place they
hold in the Sacred Scriptures. It comprises the last
seven chapters, and consequently commences with the
twenty-fifth chapter. The editors of this part of the
work are expressly declared to be the royal scribes or
librarians in the reign of Hezekiah, who seem to have
acted under the royal command, and were probably
Ithiel and Ucal, mentioned in the first verse of chapter
the thirtieth, as applying to Agur for documents in his
possession, or recollections in his memory. The admon-
itory verses composed for king Lemuel by his mother,
when he was in the flower of youth and high expecta-
tion, and with which the work concludes, are an inimi-
table production, as well in respect to their actual mate-
rials, as the delicacy with which they are selected. In-
stead of attempting to lay down rules concerning matters
of state and political government, the illustrious writer
confines herself, with the nicest and most becoming art,
to a recommendation of the gentler virtues of temper-
ance, benevolence, and mercy ; and a minute and un-
paralleled delineation of the female character, which
might bid fairest to promote the happiness of her son in
connubial life. The description, though strictly in con-
sonance with the domestic economy of the highest
sphere of life, in the early period referred to, and espe-
cially in the East, is of universal application, and cannot
be studied too closely ; and the value which Solomon ap-
17*
198 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OP
pears to have set upon this beautiful address is the most
striking practical illustration he could give of the impor-
tant lesson he so frequently inculcates,
Forsake not the precept of thy mother.
" From these remarks it must be evident, that a good
translation of the book of Proverbs cannot be accom-
plished without great difficulties, though difficulties of a
peculiar kind. In the book of Job, and in the prophe-
cies of Isaiah and Hosea, the text is often in the greatest
degree obscure, in consequence of the rapid transition
of the writer from one subject or metaphor to another,
and the frequent abruptness of his style. In the book
before us, the prevailing difficulties are those of following
up the particular construction of a verse, seizing the
proper sense of what may be regarded as its governing
term, and which constitutes the pivot on which the whole
turns ; and in finding an equivalent term in the vernacu-
lar tongue, capable of expressing a double sense, and of
being equally iterated, in all cases in which such itera-
tion is playfully introduced, and a double sense is made
to appear in the original. Without this, the general
moral may, indeed, be caught and communicated, but
the fine aroma, the essential and operative spirit, will
completely fly off in the distillation ; and what remains
will be nothing more than a caput mortuum, or dead
letter."
TRANSLATION OP THE PSALMS.
For the last four or five years of Dr. Good's life, much
of his time was devoted to a new translation of " The
Book of Psalms, from the Original Hebrew, with an
Outline of their History, and explanatory Notes." Dur-
ing this period, the Psalter was evidently his chief de-
light. To some of his friends he wrote about it ; to
others he expatiated upon it orally, read his translations
of particular psalms, and developed their peculiarities ;
to his family he expounded it, usually with great fervor
and pathos. If, when speaking of this comprehensive
summary, Luther's " Parva Biblia," he did not charac-
terize it in the precise language of Augustine,* and Am-
* Tutela pueris, Juvenibus ornamentum, solatium senibus, mulieribus
aptissimus decor. August. Prolog, in lib. Psal.
DR. MASON GOOD, 109
brose,* or in the quaint expressiveness of old Gerhard,!
he evidently blended, in his estimate of its value, all that
they have said, if not all that they could think. In one
of his latest letters to his constant and valued friend, Dr.
Drake, bearing date May 20, 1826 ; after speaking of
his " Book of Nature," which he then presented to the
Doctor, he proceeds, as with a decided persuasion that
he was about to mention his last work :
" I have thus been enabled to finish one of the designs
on which I have long set my affections ; and it will afford
me pleasure to learn that I have hereby given a little
mental recreation to a friend, in whose fortunes of joy
or sorrow I shall ever take a deep and almost personal
interest.
" But the time is short ! and a less firm possession of
health than formerly is mercifully designed to imprint
this most important lesson on my heart. May the gracious
Power that is reading it to me, enable me to improve it !
I must, therefore, ' work while it is called to-day.'
" I have just completed an entire new version of the
Psalter, after the manner of the book of Job : and I
have had very great pleasure in going through so rich a
treasure of spiritual worth and unrivalled poetry. It has
been a great and prime object with me to ascertain the
time, place, and circumstances which appertain to each
psalm, so as to assign to every one its exact historical
position : and a very attentive and critical examination
into the subject-matter of the whole, or the bearing of
particular words or phrases the drift of scenery, or his-
toric facts alluded to, has enabled me, as I trust, satis-
* Licet omnis Scriptura Divina Dei gratiam spiret; prsecipue tanicn
dulcis Psalmorum liber .... Hisloria instruit ; Lex clocet ; Prophetia an-
nunciat ; Correptio castigat ; Moralitas suadet : In Libro Psalmorum pro-
fectus est omnium. Amo. in Psal. Dav. prop/at.
t The Psalms are a jewel-cluster made up of the gold of doctrine, the
pearls of comfort, the gems of prayer. This book is a theatre of God's
works, a sweet field and rosary of promises, a paradise of delicious fruits
and heavenly delights : an ample sea, wherein tempest-tossed souls find
pearls of consolation : an heavenly school, wherein God himself is chief
instructer : the flower and quintessence of Scriptures : a glass of divine
grace, representing the fatherly countenance of God in Christ : and a most
accurate anatomy of the Christian soul, delineating all its affections, mo-
tions, temptations, and depths of perplexity] with their proper remedy.
Gerhard. Com. Pla. $ 144.
200 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
factorily to accomplish this yet novel undertaking ; and
thus to furnish to every separate psalm, if I mistake not,
a vastly greater interest than it can otherwise possess.
Not that I mean thereby to disturb the esoteric or mysti-
cal reference which they so frequently and unquestiona-
bly have to the Messiah, or to undervalue the inapprecia-
ble labors of the excellent Bishop Home ; but rather to
give them more force by a fuller display of their primary
and historic sources.
" I, therefore, in a preliminary dissertation, give a
chronological and general history of the Psalms, in their
respective order of time; illustrating each from its own
internal and most beautiful evidence, and assigning to
each its specific impression, as derived from the deeply
interesting historic facts with which it is connected."
After Dr. Good's death, the manuscript copy of this
work, over which he spent so many portions of his latest
and his best days, w T as found completely ready for the
press, even to the minutiae of the directions to the printer.
According to the arrangement proposed by himself, the
work would constitute two volumes octavo, each about
400 pages : the first comprehending the historical out-
line, and the translation of the Psalms to the end of Psalm
XC ; the second volume to comprehend the remaining
psalms, and the notes, critical, philological, and explana-
tory. But he adds, in a not a bcne, " If the whole can
be printed in one handsome volume, 1 object not."
In the historical outline, the author regards it as toler-
ably decisive, that we assign not any of the psalms to an
earlier epoch than that of Moses, nor to a later than that
of Ezra, including the composition of the whole between
about 1452 and 415 years before the Christian sera. He
marks, as other critics have done, the division of the
book into five distinct sections, agreeing with the Ma-
sora ; in which the first extends to Psalm xli. inclusively,
the second to the close of Psalm Ixxii ; the third to the
end of Psalm Ixxxix ; the fourth includes Psalm cvi ;
and the fifth comprehends the remaining Psalms. Each
of these sections, as the attentive reader will have per-
ceived, terminates with a doxology ; such as,
' Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel !
From everlasting even to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.'
DR. MASON GOOD. 201
Or, as this,
'Blessed be Jehovah-God, the God of Israel,
Who alone worketh marvels.
Yea, blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever ;
And let his glory fill the whole earth ! Amen, and Amen.'
He then takes a cursory glance at the chief probable
authors, Moses, David, Heman, Ethan, and Asaph ; and
so speaks of the characters of those eminent individuals,
as to lead to the inference that " all- the psalms possess
the highest authority that human dignity can give them,
independently of their being inspired writings, and of
their poetic beauty." He next presents a most enter-
taining and curious account (perhaps in one or two in-
stances a little fanciful,) of the music of the temple, the
distinctive characters of the instruments, the probable
number of male and female choristers, the number and
character of the chiefs of the temple harmony, the ar-
rangement for the responses and choruses of the Levites
with their brethren opposite to them, " ward over agaimt
ward," the office of the Azrahites or Laureates, &c.
Dr. Good is disposed to attach a higher value to the
authority of the titles to many of the psalms, than has
been customary among those who have attempted to in-
vestigate this important portion of critical research. In
the same department of inquiry, also, he adverts to what
he regards as a palpable mistake in rendering a Hebrew
term by the words " to the chief musician," where the
word musician is entirely interpolated. Dr. Good assigns,
in these cases, as the proper rendering, " To the SU-
PREME," or, " Upon the SUPREME," according as the
text is distinguished by the second or third person. The
propriety of this rendering may easily be ascertained, by
turning to psalms iv, v, vi, viii, ix, xi, xii, xiii, &x.
An equal degree of difficulty has been felt with regard
to the meaning of the phrase prefixed to fifteen of the
psalms, and usually rendered, " a song of degrees." Dr.
Good remarks, that St. Jerom has correctly rendered it,
" Canticum Graduum," a song of steps or progress; that
the psalms to which the title is prefixed, were, in every
instance, sung during a march, or when the people were
advancing or stepping forward, as in their triumphant
return to Jerusalem after the Babylonish captivity, or ad-
202 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
vancing towards it on one of the annual festivals ; and
that the literal rendering in our own tongue, is, " a
progressionary or march-song ," colloquially, " a sacred
march." This interpretation of the titles, gives to most
of these fifteen psalms a peculiar beauty and energy.
After some appropriate observations on the acrostic or
alphabetic psalms, Dr. Good takes a general view of the
subjects which the entire book embraces ; from this I
quote the following graphic passage :
"We have already observed, that the subjects treated
of in the entire collection of the Psalter, embrace every
diversity of condition that can characterize either do-
mestic or public life. We have hence numerous exam-
ples of the sigh of penitence and contrition, the chas-
tened meekness of resignation, the holy importunity of
prayer, the sustaining confidence of faith, the energetic
shout of thanksgiving : descants on the attributes of God,
and the general course of his providence arid his grace ;
on the regularity and picturesque beauty of the seasons ;
on the wonderful structure and phenomena of the heavens,
the earth, and the ocean ; the peaceful quiet of rural
and pastoral life ; the roar and violence of the tempest,
and the terrors of the mariner when in danger of ship-
wreck. And, as the national events that are occasionally
brought forward, extend from the time of Moses to that
of Ezra, the Psalms may be contemplated as an abstract
of Jewish history, through the whole of this period ; the
incidents chiefly adverted to, many of which are dwelt
upon at great length, and described in the most glowing
and impressive colors, being the Egyptian bondage, and
the miraculous deliverance from it : the signs and mar-
vels performed while journeying to the land of Canaan,
from the passage of the Red Sea to the overthrow of the
devoted nations on either side of the Jordan : the calam-
ities that pressed upon David on his entering into public
life, and during his proscription by Saul: the wonderful
series of his triumphs : his consecration of mount Zion,
and removal of the ark to the tabernacle then erected for
its reception ; his reverses under the overwhelming in-
fluence of an infidel and traitorous faction, in league
with a part of his own family : his inauguration of Solo-
mon into the regal dignity as his successor ; the celebra-
DR. MASON GOOD. 203
tion of the marriage of the latter, apparently with the
princess of Egypt : occasional interpositions of miracu-
lous power in several subsequent periods of emergency ;
especially during the reigns of Jehoshaphat and Heze-
kiah : penitential cries for relief during the Babylonian
captivity : festals and triumphant eulogies on the marvel-
lous deliverance from that humiliated state ; and the an-
thems of exulting praise on the rebuilding and opening
the temple, and re-establishment of the walls of Jerusalem.
" But by far the most important feature of the Psalms
to the present and all future times, is their figurative or
parabolical character ; the secondary sense, in which
they prophetically describe, in lineaments that can sel-
dom be mistaken, the life and offices of the Redeemer,
the whole mystery of salvation by Christ Jesus.
" I dare not say that this esoteric but most important
sense is adumbrated in every individual psalm ; because
I well know that there are many in which it is not to be
found without a very licentious exercise of the fancy,
and even then without any advantage from the supposed
discovery. But the numerous references to this spiritual
signification, which occur in the New Testament, and
the striking parallelism of these as well as other passages,
in the eye of every one, to particular parts of the great
drama that is unfolded in the Gospel dispensation, form
an incontrovertible proof, that, in the pre-ordinance of
infinite wisdom, the first was from the beginning designed
to be a general type of the second."
Unquestionably, however, an extraordinary circumspec-
tion is required in applying the Psalms, as well as some
of the other Old Testament prophecies, to the Messiah,
and the events which took place when he appeared on
earth. Bishop Home has often failed greatly in this cir-
cumspection ; and Bishop Horsley, with his own peculiar
boldness, indulged in a license which is utterly repugnant
to the principles of sober Biblical interpretation. Dr.
Good has, now and then, found difficulty in escaping the
seductions of these great names, and especially that of
Home, the charm of whose devotional sweetness had,
long ago, won his esteem, and, of late years, his warmest
affection. If, on this point, I have formed a correct
opinion, there are but two rules for the safe and satisfac-
204 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
tory application of passages in the Old Testament to the
Messiah ; namely, the undisputed authority of the New
Testament, in the way of reference or of quotation ; and
the fact that the specific terms of a passage, in their
plain, manifest, unforced acceptation, and in the fair
scope of the context, so apply to the Saviour, as not to
admit of other application but by a violation of ordinary
rules of judgment or of grammatical construction. A
neglect of these principles has led many excellent men
to apply various passages of the Old Testament to the
primitive "Gospel times" generally and exclusively, (such
as Amos ix. 11 14 ; Isaiah xxviii. 20. xlix. 14 26. \\\.
4 6. Ixvi. 5 24.) which evidently, however they may
be partially verified in that early season, can only receive
their entire accomplishment in the ulterior recovery of
the Jews on their final and universal conversion to Christ.
In selecting a few specimens of Dr. Good's translations
and introductory or connected remarks, I shall commence
with that which, in a chronological arrangement, would
be placed first in the series. After adverting to various
portions of Scripture, which are evidently rhythmical,
and as evidently composed by Moses, he proceeds thus :
" There is no great difficulty in assigning the precise
occasion on which the present psalm was composed. It
is called " The Prayer of Moses," and was manifestly
written during the visitation of some judicial pestilence
or other calamity, that produced a tremendous destruction
among the people, in which, according to the words of
the psalm,
Thou ovenvhelmedst them with a look.*
So are we consumed by thine ire,
And hurried away by thy wrath.
And if we turn to the book of Numbers, we shall find the
PRAYER here adverted to, and the calamity so feelingly
described, related in an historical detail of the plague of
fiery serpents inflicted upon the Israelites on account of
their murmuring and refractory spirit at Zalmonah, or
Pum, where the people died in great multitudes. The
* For an explanation of this or any other deviation from the common
ivndering. the reader must consult the explanatory notes upon the several
passages.
DR. MASON GOOD. 205
words of the historian are, ' Therefore the people came to
Moses, and said, We have sinned against the Lord and
against thee ; PUAY THOU unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us :' AND MOSES PRAYED FOR THE
PEOPLE.*
" The subject of the prayer is in perfect unison with
the occasion. The holy supplicant begins with adoring
the almighty power of God, and pleads with him as the
dwelling-place or home of his people in all generations :
he draws a forcible picture of the vanity and feebleness
of man, and the inequality of the contest between the
creature and the Creator. He urges the penitence and
abasement of the assembled congregation ; and implores
for grace to make a due improvement of the awful ca-
lamity :
So teach MA- to number our days
That we may apply our hearts to wisdom :t
and closes with a humble trust in God's mercy for a re-
moval of the scourge, and a restoration of the divine
favor. |
" Dr. Kennicott, however, and various other critics,
disbelieved this psalm to have been the production of
Moses, and refer it to a much later age, though they can-
not agree as to what other age it is expressly adapted :
some of them even going so late as to the return from the
Babylonian captivity. The chief ground for this dissent
from the date assigned in the Bible, is an idea that the
term of man's life was, at the Mosaic era, much longer
than that of seventy or eighty years, as intimated in the
present psalm. But such an opinion seems founded on
the exceptions from the general rule, rather than the rule
itself. The life of Aaron, Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, un-
questionably exceeded the age of fourscore considerably,
and ran on from a hundred and ten, to a hundred and
twenty ; but all these were probably instances of special
favor. The decree which abbreviated the life of man, as
a general rule, to seventy or eighty years, was given as a
chastisement upon the whole race of Israelites in the wil-
derness ; and with these few exceptions, none of them,
* Num. xxi. 7. t Psalm xc. 12. | Psalm xc. 1317.
18
206 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
at the date of this psalm, as here conjectured, could have
reached more than seventy, and few of them so high a
number. But it does not appear that the term of life was
lengthened afterwards. Samuel died about seventy years
old, David under seventy-one, and Solomon under sixty :
and the history of the world shews us that the abbrevia-
tion of life in other countries was nearly in the same pro-
portion.
" In few words, the very fact of this curtailment of
man's duration, as occurring at the period before us, to-
gether with the nature of the crime for which the refrac-
tory Israelites were punished, their lusting after other
food than that they were miraculously supplied with, is
clearly hinted at in the eighth and ninth verses of the
psalm, and seems very sufficiently to support the present
appropriation :
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,
Our SECRET LUSTING in the light of thy countenance.
HOW UTTERLY ARE OUR DAYS CHANGED BV THINE IRE!
WE RUN THROUGH OUR YEARS AS A TALE :
whilst the rapidity of the change, the suddenness as well
as the extent of the mortality that passed upon them, is
forcibly as well as fearfully expressed in the third verse as
well as the fifth :
Thou turnest man to dust as thou sayest.
Return ye sons of the* ground !
Thou overwhelmest them with a look."
PSALM XC.
The prayer of Moses, the Man of God.
1. O Lord, thou art our dwelling-place
From generation to generation.
2. Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or thou hadst formed the earth or the world.
From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.
3. Thou turnest man to dust, as thou sayest
' Return, ye sons of the ground !'
4. While in thy view a thousand years are as a day,
A yesterday, when it is by-gone,
Or a watch in the night :
* Consult the explanatory note for this rendering.
DR. MASON GOOD.
5. Thou overwhelmest them with a look.
In the morning they were like grass, they were fresh :
6. In the morning it was flourishing and fresh ;
By the evening it is cut down and withered.
7. So are we consumed by thine anger !
And hurried away by thy wrath !
8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee ;
Our secret lusting in the light of thy countenance.
9. How utterly are our days changed by thine ire !
We run through our years as a tale.
10. The days of our years are seventy years at their utmost ;
And if by dint of strength they be eighty years,
Yet is their recruiting weariness and vanity ;
So soon is it cut down, and we are gone.
11. But who regardeth the power of thine anger ?
With a reverence of thee, thine indignation ?
12. So teach us to number our days
That we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
13. Return, O Jehovah ! how long first ?
And relent thou concerning thy people.
14. O soon let thy loving-kindness replenish us,
That we may exult and rejoice all our days.
15. Let us rejoice according to the days thou hast afflicted us,
The years we have seen of adversity.
16. Let thy dealing be displayed to thy servants ;
And thy glory to their children.
17. And let the pleasure of the Lord our God be upon us ;
And establish thou the work we take in hand,
Yea, the work we take in hand, do thou establish.
Some portions of the 49th psalm have, I believe, pre-
sented greater difficulties to translators than almost any
part of the Hebrew scriptures. This psalm, in Dr. Good's
opinion, was consecrated to the service of the passover,
and refers to a divine ransom, and the utter impossibility
of man's finding or making an atonement for himself, or
for any one else. The psalmist invites universal atten-
tion to this important truth
" And hence proceeds to show the folly and brutish-
ness of toiling for the body and accumulating wealth and
estates, while the care of the soul, ' the one thing need-
ful,' is neglected and forgotten. And it concludes with
the striking observation, that the worldling himself, how
much soever he may labor to inculcate his maxims and
practice upon all around him in a time of health and pros-
perity, will yet do justice, when leaving the world, to the
higher and more dignified pursuits of the good man, in
208 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
the midst of that besottedness of his rational powers
which has sunk him to a level with the beasts that
perish."
The propriety of this view will depend principally upon
the correctness with which Dr. Good assumes sons of the
ground, or groundlings, for the due rendering of the ori-
ginal. His reasons are given in the notes, and the He-
brew critic will decide as to their force and validity.
PSALM XLIX.
ON THE SUPREME.
A Psalm by the Sons of Korah.
1. Hear this, all ye peoples,
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world ;
2. Both sons of the ground, and sons of substance ;
Ye rich and ye poor together.
3. My mouth shall discourse of wisdom,
Yea, the theme of my heart shall be understanding.
4. I will bend mine ear to a parable ;
I will utter my burden upon the harp.
5. Why should I fear in these days of evil
That the iniquity of my supplanters should circumvent me ?
6. They that trust in their riches,
That boast of the greatness of their wealth,
7. No man can pay the ransom of his brother,
Or offer to God his own atonement ;
8. (So costly is the redemption of their souls !
So faileth it continually !)
9. That he should still live on,
That he should never see corruption.
10. For one beholdcth the wise die
As well as the fool and the brutish.
They perish, and leave to others their riches.
11. Their houses arc their subject for ever,
Their mansions from generation to generation.
They call their grounds after their names :
12. But the GROUNDLING in the midst of splendor endureth not ;
He is like the beasts they are on a level.
13. Such is their conduct their folly,
Yet will their posterity incline to their course. (Selah.)
14. They are stowed like sheep in the grave ;
Death shall feed upon them ;
And the just shall triumph over them in the morning:
For their STRENGTH is utter DISSOLUTION ;
The grave is their home.
15. But God shall redeem my soul :
DR. MASON GOOD. 209
From the grasp of the grave
Assuredly shall he take me away. (Selah.)
16. Fear not thou when one is made rich ;
When the glory of his house is increased.
17. For in his death he shall carry off nothing whatever ;
His glory shall not descend after him.
18. Though while he lived he gratified his own soul,
Then shall he laud thee for acting well for thyself.
19. He shall go to the generation of his fathers ;
Never more shall they see the light.
20. The GROUNDLING in the midst of splendor, but without
understanding,
Is like the beasts they are on a level.
Of psalm ii. Dr. Good thus speaks
" This psalm has descended to us without a title ; but
its exact place in the Jewish chronology is obvious, and
we have the authority of the New Testament that it was
composed by David himself, and with a more emphatic
reference to the great Son of David than to his own per-
sonal history. It is impossible, indeed, to read it in the
present day, without tracing out much of that secondary
or esoteric meaning which is so common to the language
of the book of Psalms ; or without perceiving that by the
' multitudes that murmur in vain' is strikingly typified
the fickle and ungrateful people of Israel ; by ' the rulers
that took counsel together,' the Jewish Sanhedrim ; and
by ' the heathen' that joined in the ' rage,' Herod and his
followers, who sought to destroy our Saviour when an in-
fant, and Pilate who condemned him, and the Roman
soldiers who crucified him. While in the general triumph
which pervades the poem, and especially in the para-
mount decree of universal empire which it announces,
we have a clear anticipation of the glorious events of our
own times, and the still more glorious successes of which
they are but the harbingers."
Dr. Good's translation is as follows.
PSALM II.
1. Why do the heathen rage ;
And the people murmur in vain ;
2. The kings of the earth array themselves ;
And the rulers take counsel together
Against Jehovah, and against his Anointed?
3. ' Let us break their bands asunder,
*18
210 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
And cast their cords away from us.'
4. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh :
The Lord shall have them in derision.
5. Thus shall he accost them in his wrath,
And confound them in his indignation :
6. ' Verily have I invested my king
Upon my holy hill of Zion.'
7. I will proclaim the decree
Jehovah hath announced concerning me ;
' Thou art my Son !
This day have 1 begotten thee.
i 8. Ask of me and I will give
The heathen for thine inheritance ;
Yea, the limits of the earth for thy possession.
9. Thou shalt crush them with a rod of iron ;
Thou shalt shiver them like a potter's vessel.'
10. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings !
Be admonished, ye judges of the land !
11. Obey Jehovah with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son lest he be angry,
And ye perish straightway
When his wrath is but just kindled.
Blessed are all they that take refuge in him !
The fourteenth and fifty-third psalms, which are almost
verbally alike throughout, are generally thought to have
been composed by David ; and Dr. G. supposes in a time
when profligacy, everywhere gaining ground, had be-
come almost universal. If it were in this fearful state of
things that the royal prophet composed these psalms, they
cannot but be regarded as peculiarly expressive. I shall
here present Dr. Good's translation of
PSALM XIV.
ON THE SUPREME : BY DAVID.
1. 'No God !' saith the profligate in his heart.
They are corrupters: they practise abominable ascendancy.
Not one doeth good.
2. Jehovah looked down upon mankind from heaven,
To see if there were any that had understanding
To seek after God.
3.. They are all led astray ;
They are altogether contaminated :
Not one doeth good not even one.
DR. MASON GOOD. 211
4. Have all the dealers in iniquity no sense,
Devouring my people as they devour bread ?
They call not upon Jehovah !
5. Fearfully therefore shall they fear.
Behold, God is in the community of the just.
6. Ye would put to shame the adversary of the helpless !
Behold, Jehovah is their refuge :
7. Who shall give forth from Zion salvation unto Israel :
Then shall he reverse the bondage of his people ;
Jacob shall exult, Israel shall leap for joy.
The 110th psalm, which was also composed by David
himself, has every indication of its prophetic character.
It forms a striking parallelism with the 2d psalm.
" Both (says Dr. Good) relate to the priesthood and
kingly dignity, to the exaltation and enthronement of
Messiah, and to his triumphant career over his enemies.
Both also contain the solemn adjuration of Jehovah, upon
his installation, in the words of the Almighty speaker
himself, confirmed by a repetition of the oath, King
David being also, in both odes, the utterer of all the rest
in his own person. The chief distinction consists in the
clear and exclusive application of the whole of the pre-
sent psalm to the history of the Messiah."
PSALM CX.
A Psalm of David.
1. Jehovah hath proclaimed to my Lord,
' Be thou seated on my right hand
Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.'
2. From Zion shall Jehovah stretch forth
The sceptre of thy might ;
Triumphantly in the midst of thine enemies.
3. Exuberant shall be thy people
In the day of thy power ;
In the glories of holiness.
Beyond the womb of the morning
Shall flow forth the dew of thine increase.
4. Jehovah hath sworn, and he will not repent,
' For evermore art thou a Priest
After the order of Melchisedcc.'
5. At THY right hand shall my Lord
Strike through kings in the day of his wrath :
6. He shall give judgment among the heathen.
212 ACCOUNT OP THE WORKS OF
The chief glutted with carnage
Shall he smite throughout the wide earth.
7. The occupier in the way shall he set on high,
So that he shall be exalted a chief.
The psalms being obviously intended for the public
worship of the Jews, are many of them adapted to choral
and responsive singing; it is evident, therefore, that an
attention to this peculiarity in their structure, will often
serve to give them additional spirit and energy, and often,
indeed, to elucidate their meaning. Some striking and
elegant attempts to develope the minutire of structure in
this respect have been made by Delany, in his " Life of
King David," by Kennicott, Horsley, and others; but
the process requires the utmost caution, lest the imagina-
tion should take the lead of the judgment. Dr. Good,
with his anxious desire to exfoliate the true meaning of
these divine compositions, has, on various occasions, ex-
hibited his view of the probable choral division of the
poem. Thus, in psalm cxviii. which he regards as written
by David, for a thanksgiving ode on a successful termina-
tion of the wars in which he had been engaged, to be
sung by the assembled Israelites, with the priests, &c.
David himself taking a part ; he presents the following,
as the most probable choral divisions.
PSALM CXVIII.
(General Chorus, or House of Israel.)
1. O give thanks to Jehovah, for he is good :
For his tender mercy is to everlasting.
(Chorus of Priests, or House of Aaron.)
2. Let Israel, now, declare
That his tender mercy is to everlasting.
(General Chorus.)
3. Let the house of Aaron, now, declare
That his tender mercy is to everlasting.
(Chorus of Priests.)
4. Let them, now, that fear Jehovah, declare
That his tender mercy is to everlasting.
(King David.)
5. I called upon Jehovah in distress ;
Jehovah answered me at large.
DR. MASON GOOD. 213
6. Let Jehovah be for me, I will not fear
Whatever man may do unto me.
7. Let Jehovah be for me, be with my succour ;
And of mine adversaries I will never be afraid.
(Chorus of Priests.)
8. It is better to trust in Jehovah
Than to put confidence in man.
9. It is better to trust in Jehovah
Than to put confidence in princes.
(King David.)
10. Let all the nations beset me round about,
In the name of Jehovah, behold, I would destroy them.
11. Let them beset me, yea, round about let them beset me,
In the name of Jehovah, behold, I would destroy them.
12. They have beset me as bees ;
They are quenched as the blaze of thorns.*
In the name of Jehovah, bohold, I have destroyed them.
13. Forcibly didst thou thrust at me ;
But Jehovah succoured me in the assault.
14. Jehovah is my strength and my song :
Verily, he is become my salvation.
(Chorus of Priests.)
15. Let the voice of triumph and salvation
Be in the tabernacle of the righteous.
The right hand of Jehovah hath displayed prowess.
(General Chorus.)
16. The right hand of Jehovah is exalted :
The right hand of Jehovah hath displayed prowess.
(King David.)
17. I shall not die ; but live,
And tell forth the deeds of Jehovah.
* Dr. Delany, in his " Life of King David," (vol. i. p. 373.) dilates very
forcibly upon the rich and beautiful imagery of this celebrated " epinicion."
" It is familar (he says) with David, to couch such images in three words,
as would, in the hands of Homer, be the materials of his noblest, most en-
larged, and most dignified descriptions." Thus, he takes two examples
from this twelfth verse :
" They (that is, all nations) compassed me about like bees ;
" They are quenched as the Jire of thorns.
" The reader (says the Doctor) has here, in miniature, two of the finest
images in Homer," and he quotes two passages from Pope's Homer,
book ii. ver. 209, &c. ver. 534, <fcc. in which both images are most ex-
quisitely wrought out. He then adds, " The candid reader will observe,
that here the idea of an army's resembling a flaming fire, is common both
to Homer and David ; but that the idea of that fire being quenched (when
the army was conquered) is peculiar to David." In the " Prayer Book"
translation of the Psalms, as Dr. Delany remarks, the two images are by
mistake blended as though they were but one ' They came about ine liko
bees, and are extinct, even as the fire among' the thorns,'
214 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
18. Correctly did Jehovah correct me ;
But lie gave rne not up unto death.
19. Open to me the gates of RIGHTEOUSNESS:
I will enter them I will give thanks unto Jehovah.
(Chorus of Priests.)
Opening the gate; before ichich the Congregation had hitherto
been standing.
20. This is the gate of Jehovah :
Into it let the righteous enter.
(King David, having entered with the Congregation.)
21. I will give thanks unto thee, for thou hast answered me ;
And art become my salvation.
(Chorus of Priests.)
22. The stone which the builders rejected
Is become the head stone of the corner :
23. From Jehovah hath this proceeded :
It is marvellous in our eyes.
(General Chorus.)
24. This is a day Jehovah hath made :
Let us exult and rejoice in it.
(King David.)
25. Save, now, I beseech thee, O Jehovah !*
Jehovah, I beseech thee, be thou now propitious !
(Chorus of Priests.)
26. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah :
From the house of Jehovah we give you blessing.
(General Chorus.)
27. Jehovah is God and he is shining upon us.
Bind the victim with cords up to the horns of the altar.
(King David.)
28. Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto thee :
Thou art my God, and I will exalt thee.
(General Chorus.)
29. O give thanks to Jehovah, for he is good;
For his tender-mercy is to everlasting.
Much do I fear, after all, that the portions of my de-
ceased friend's translations and notes, here selected, are
but inadequate specimens of the value and interest of his
undertaking, generally. I trust, however, that the public
will soon have better means of forming a correct judg-
ment. Meanwhile, I may venture to affirm that in this
DR. MASON GOOD. 215
his last labor, which he commenced, pursued, and closed,
with so much unmingled pleasure, his main objects were
to promote the glory of God, and the good of man ; to
detect the correspondences and affinities which subsist in
many points between the works of Nature, the move-
ments of Providence, and the riches of Divine Grace ;
to trace the characters of the principal writers of the
Psalms, and as far as possible to unfold the circumstances
in which they composed those touching and instructive
odes ; and to sho-.v, especially, with regard to David, not
simply how he should be viewed as a Monarch and a Pro-
phet, but how he should be appreciated as a lover of Na-
ture, whose spacious and outspread volume " formed his
daily and delightful study : he pored over it with the eye
of a painter, as he copied it with the pen of a poet, and
colored it with the warmth of a devout he:irt."
On comparing; the Dissertation and Notes which ac-
company this Translation of the Psalms, with those
which are published with Dr. Good's Translation of the
Book of Job, we perceive a great difference, not in point
of talent, but in reference to the simple exhibition of de-
vout sentiment. In the former there is much learning,
much research, and some display : in the latter, also, the
learning and research are equally evident ; but they are
evinced in their results, not in the effort of the author :
whose intellect seems absorbed while his devotion is en-
kindled by the holy inspiration of the sublime composi-
tions, to which his best feelings were so long enchained.
Hence, I think it will be found that though the fancy has
sometimes predominated in sketching the history of the
several psalms, yet, with regard to fixing the precise
meaning of the text, a more uniform sobriety of interpre-
tation prevails than in any of our author's previous at-
tempts as a sacred commentator. This peculiarity will
demand and receive a commensurate share of the public
confidence and esteem.
The analysis, interspersed with copious, and I hope
instructive extracts, which has thus been presented, of
the most important of Dr. Good's publications, and other
216 ACCOUNT OF THE WORKS OF
completed works, will render it unnecessary for me to at-
tempt an elaborate delineation of his intellectual cha-
racter.
The leading faculty was that of acquisition, which he
possessed in a remarkable measure, and which was con-
stantly employed from the earliest age, in augmenting
his mental stores. United with this, were the faculties
of retention, of orderly arrangement, and of fruitful and
diversified combination. If genius be rightly termed
" the power of making new combinations pleasing or
elevating to the mind, or useful to mankind," he pos-
sessed it in a high degree. He was always fertile in the
production of new trains of thought, new selections and
groupings of imagery, new expedients for the extension
of human good. But if genius be restricted to " the
power of discovery or of creative invention," whether in
philosophy or the arts, they who have most closely ex-
amined Dr. Good's works will be least inclined to claim
for him that distinction. Be this, however, as it may,
there can be no question that his intellectual powers were
of the first order, that, in the main, they were nicely
equipoised, and that he could exercise them with an
unusual buoyancy and elasticity. His memory was very
extraordinary ; doubtless much aided by the habits of ar-
rangement, so firmly established, as the reader will recol-
lect, by sedulous parental instruction. His early acquired
fondness for classical and elegant literature, laid his youth-
ful fancy open to the liveliest impressions, and made him
draw
" The inspiring breath of ancient arts,
and tread the sacred walks.
Where, at each step, imagination burns :"
and this, undoubtedly, again aided his memory ; the pic-
tures being reproduced by constant warmth of feeling.
The facility with which on all occasions he could recall
and relate detached and insulated facts, was peculiarly
attractive and not less useful. But the reason is very
obvious. However diverse, and even exuberant, the
stores of his knowledge often appeared, the whole were
methodized and connected together in his memory by
principles of association that flowed from the real nature
of things ; in other words, philosophical principles, by
DR. MASON GOOD. 217
means of which the particular truths arc classified in
order under the general heads to which they really be-
long ; serving effectually to endow the mind that tho-
roughly comprehends the principles with an extensive
command over those particular truths, whatever be their
variety or their importance.
With the mathematical sciences he was almost entirely
unacquainted ; but, making this exception, there was
scarcely a region of human knowledge which he had not
entered, and but few, indeed, into which he had not made
considerable advances; and wherever he found an en-
trance, there he retained a permanent possession ; for,
to the last, he never forgot what he once knew.
In short had he published nothing but his "Trans-
lation of Lucretius," he would have acquired a high
character for free, varied, and elegant versification, for
exalted acquisitions as a philosopher and as a linguist,
and for singular felicity in the choice and exhibition of
materials in a rich store of critical and tasteful illustra-
tion.
Had he published nothing but his " Translation of the
Book of Job," he would have obtained an eminent sta-
tion amongst Hebrew scholars, and the promoters of
biblical criticism.
And, had he published nothing but his " Study of
Medicine," his name would, in the opinion of one of his
ablest professional correspondents, have " gone down to
posterity, associated with the science of medicine itself,
as one of its most skilful practitioners, and one of its
most learned promoters."
I know not how to name another individual who has
arrived at equal eminence in three such totally distinct
departments of mental application. Let this be duly
weighed in connexion with the marked inadequacy of his
early education (notwithstanding its peculiar advantages
in some respects) to form either a scientific and skilful
medical practitioner, or an excellent scholar, and there
cannot but result a high estimate of the original powers
with which he was endowed, and of the inextinguishable
ardor with which, through life, he augmented their
energy and enlarged their sphere of action.
19
I
218 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
SECTION III.
A DEVELOPEMENT OF DR. GOOD'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER,
ILLUSTRATED 1JY EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS, AND
HIS OWN UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS.
IF, in a country excursion, we meet a peasant, and are
told that he is a hearty eater, an active walker, and a
sound sleeper, we receive the information with the same
indifference as we should if it were given relative to a
horse, or other animal, that was passing at the same mo-
ment ; but if, in addition, we are informed that this peasant
has written elegant poetry, or composed some beautiful
music, or translated several of Horace's odes, or made
himself master of the theory of astronomy, we gaze upon
him with a very different interest. And why is this, but
because we find that instead of spending his life in merely
exercising the functions of the body, or indulging the
appetites and senses, he has learned to exercise the intel-
lectual faculties ? The obvious superiority of the mind
to the body, accounts for our deeper interest in the sup-
posed case; and, in like manner, for the solicitude with
which we commonly listen to relations of the habits, the
peculiarities, the general appearance, and the disposition,
as well as the mode of study, of those who have become
distinguished for literary or scientific knowledge. This
is all well, as far as it goes ; but unless it advance one
step farther, it is sadly defective, notwithstanding. When
we recognize the distinction between the body and the
mind, and mark the inferiority of the former, the supe-
riority of the latter, have we done everything that philo-
sophy, or even common sense, requires ; why have we
neglected to bring into our estimate that essence of " the
Divinity that stirs within us ;" that awful all-pervading
sentiment, which, independently of our own spontaneity,
nay, in spite of it, intermingles the " longing after im-
mortality" with the dread of futurity ; that which makes
a man/ee/, let him acknowledge it or not, that "he shall
DR. MASON GOOD. 219
give an account for the deeds done in the body, whether
they be good or evil ?" The distinction between the
faculties of man as an accountable being, and his attri-
butes as an intellectual being, is as palpable, and as diffi-
cult to be evaded by inquirers who deal fairly with them-
selves and with their species, as the distinction between
mind and matter, or the active energy of thought, and
the inertia of a stone. Let the veriest sceptic attempt to
reduce the power of conscience, for example, to a mere
intellectual principle, that shall have no reference to a
Supreme Governor and the universal Judge, and he will
find it as impossible as to refer the phenomena of the
tides to the force of imagination, or those of an eclipse to
the creative speculations of a man of genius.
Man is as certainly a creature endowed with moral
responsibility, as he is a being possessed of a body to be
moved, and a mind to regulate the motions by its own
volition. He is constituted to be a religious being; it is
his grand distinction, and all around him, duly used,
and contemplated with a right mind, invites him to it.
Wherever we turn our eyes, to the heavens, to the
earth, to the seas, to the worlds above us, to the worlds
beneath, to the myriads of beings animate and inanimate,
which surround us, to the worlds beyond our ken, to
which the imagination makes its excursions, to the world
within, where our soberest and deepest thoughts are some-
times drawn, " above, about, and underneath " we behold,
with an evidence that stifles all doubt, that God exists,
exists to rule, and hence to be obeyed, exists to bless, and
therefore to be loved.
From trains of reasoning differing much from these,
but leading to the same result, even Lord Herbert could
infer that " there is no man well and entirely in his wits,
that doth not worship some deity ;" and that there was
less absurdity in admitting there could be " a rational
beast, than an irreligious man," the terms of the latter
proposition being more repugnant to sound reason than
those of the former. If, then, it be impossible to contem-
plate the nature of man in all the perfection and beauty
of which it is susceptible, without adverting to religion ;
if the influence of religious principle render him the
wisest, the happiest, and the most useful he is capable of
220 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
becoming, giving to his intellectual faculties an energy, a
scope, and an extent of beneficial application, otherwise
unknown ; it surely becomes a duty, in attempting to
delineate the character of an individual, to mark upon the
portrait the moral and religious as well as the mental fea-
tures, and thus to exhibit him as he really was, with regard
to those constituents of our being which confer the greatest
dignity, and excite the liveliest admiration.
But here, we are especially exposed to difficulties, and
beset with prejudices. " The inind, (as Lord Bacon long
ago remarked,) darkened by its covering the body, is far
from being a flat, equal, and clear mirror, that receives
and reflects the rays without mixture, but rather a magi-
cal glass full of superstitions and apparitions." Thus, an
omission which one class may regard as blameable, ano-
ther may applaud ; and consequently the attempt to sup-
ply such omission, which to the former class may seem
expedient, will probably be regarded by the other as alto-
gether unnecessary. Yet both classes cannot be right ;
and a few additional remarks may tend to shew where the
error lies.
With the great mass of mankind, the assumed law of
human action is a law of reputation, easily accommodated
to circumstances and character, and very seldom indicat-
ing a defective measure. The historian Palcrculus ap-
pealed to that law when he said of the cruel Scipio sEmi-
lianus, that " in the whole course of his life, he neither
did, nor said, nor thought, any thing but what was lauda-
ble." Hume proved how thoroughly he comprehended
the same law, when he defined virtue as consisting " in
those mutual actions and qualities that give to a spectator
the pleasing sentiment of approbation." And the equally
ardent lovers of virtue in the dark ages were quite as cor-
rect, when, according to Dr. Robertson, they justified the
prevailing custom, for " every person to choose, among
the various codes of laws then in force, that to which he
was most willing to conform."
In this age of intellectual and religious illumination,
the scales of moral judgment are, too often, equally
defective. I need not attempt to sketch the characters
of the successful commercial man, the able barrister,
the skilful physician, the man of deep and fortunate
DR. MASON GOOD. 2*21
research, and many others in every profession and every
rank, who have passed through the world without raising
a serious thought towards their Creator and Preserver, or
prescribing to themselves any code of morals except that
which accorded most with the modes and fashions of their
respective classes, and kept God and his will most out of
sight. Yet, who dare censure? nay, who must not com-
mend 1 For whom have they injured ? What law have they
broken ? If the case is to be decided by the law of cour-
tesy, or of worldly reputation, who but must praise? if by
the laws of their country, they must stand unirnpeached.
Still, a thoughtful man may venture, notwithstanding, to
hint, that there is a law, less fleeting, awfully binding,
nobly universal, the law of Him who is " a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart," who demands a
surrender of all our faculties and affections to his service,
in " whose sight even the heavens are not clean," and
before whom something is required which a conformity
to the laws of honor, courtesy, and reputation, cannot
alone supply.
Many, I am aware, will try to evade this conclusion,
by taking refuge in the current sophism, that " man is
not responsible for his opinions." Yet, if it be so, if a
human creature is free from all responsibility on account
of his opinions, for what is he responsible ? His actions ?
But why for them ? Why should man be responsible for
an action, when an animal is not? Obviously, because
he has a spring of action which an animal has not ; and
is any one who flees to so defenceless a refuge, able to
demonstrate that this spring, this motive, in no case de-
pends upon opinion ? It is possible for an acute disputant
to take shelter again under an equivoque ; but let him
assign the fair and palpable meaning to the word opinions,
in connexion with the occasion for which it was adduced,
and this again will fail him. Erroneous opinions with
respect to others, evidently influence our behavior towards
them, behavior, which will be open to either praise or
censure ; and erroneous opinions with regard to politics,
to religion, to the limits of speculation in commerce, have
in every age, in almost every nation, been productive of
the greatest evils. Did these evils involve no respon-
sibility ? If so, with what semblance of reason could the
19*
222 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
leaders or the followers in any party, religious or political,
blame those of the opposite party for the results of their
conduct 1 The blame (whether it be correctly applied, or
the contrary, is not the question,) the blame is nit-ant to
be most severe when it is pointed, not at an error of judg-
ment, but at an error in the principles or the opinions (for
practically they are the same) from which the censured
course of action emanated. Besides, if the proposition
here controverted were true, what would be the benefit of
freedom of inquiry 1 If correct and incorrect opinions are
equally safe, equally free from blame, equally conducive
to honor in this world and to happiness in the next, (all
of which the proposition implies,) nothing can be more
absurd than for a man to waste his time in trying to dis-
tinguish one from another.
Let, however, the inquiry be confined strictly to morals
and religion. A youth is of opinion, let it be supposed,
that he is able to regulate his own conduct, without re-
garding the suggestions of his father, as by attending to
them. In consequence of this erroneous opinion, he
neglects to read a letter of wise and salutary caution, and
soon falls into the very vices against which the letter was
calculated to guard him. Is he not responsible for this ?
But, it may be said, he was of opinion that the letter was
not actually written by his father, and, therefore, neglect-
ed it. Then surely responsibility attaches to him, for not
having recourse to the means by which he might ascer-
tain whether the letter was really written and sent by his
parent, or was a forgery ; and thus have so decided as to
escape those vices. It is enough to hint at the manifest
application of this to men whose principles lead them day
after day into evil ; who know, notwithstanding, that the
Bible demands attention as the record of their Heavenly
Father's will, and yet are of opinion that they may go
safely through the world, and incur no responsibility,
although they never investigate the claims of the Word of
God to the veneration which it demands, never acquaint
themselves with its contents, never bring themselves under
its sanctions, never obey its precepts, never dread the
gulf of perdition which it threatens, never aspire after the
regions of bliss to which it invites.
Once more, to evince the fallacy of this too popular
DR. MASON GOOD. 223
sentiment. Is it not probable, that many persons, when
they read or hear that " man is not responsible tor his
opinions," may wish to believe it true, from an internal
conviction that the loose and faulty opinions upon which
they have acted, have either precipitated them into vice,
or not operated to preserve them from it ? And may not
the wish issue in the actual adoption ? Whence proceed-
ed that wish and its result, but from the conviction that
they had committed some wrong, from the effects of which
this sentiment enables them in imagination to escape ?
Here, then, the state of the heart, and the felt defects in
the conduct, prepare the mind for the adoption of an
opinion : belief is evidently here a voluntary act; proving
infallibly that, in the case supposed, (and if in that, why
not in every other ?) men art responsible for the opinions,
or sentiments, or principles, which they adopt. Let the
young, especially, bear this in their thoughts, before a
course of vice, or of simple neglect of duty, make them in-
terested in the rejection of the truth. Let them be assured,
that in very many instances they are accountable, even to
man, for the actions which grow out of their opinions and
sentiments, and in all cases accountable to the Supreme
Being for the sentiments themselves ; that everything
with regard to opinions is important ; that responsibility
is incurred by embracing them too hastily, holding them
in ignorance,* or retaining them too long; that their mo-
ment bears a fixed relation to the subjects to which they
refer ; and that therefore, those are most momentous
which have regard to God, the soul, and eternity : that
the highest duty of man is to Him who is " The Highest,"
and the greatest crime, that which is committed against
the greatest authority.
The consideration of these errors has carried me far-
ther than I intended ; but it will not be found entirely
irrelative to some of the subsequent matter.
I will now advert to what I am disposed to regard as a
prejudice or mistake on the contrary side. It is often
asserted, that medical men are more inclined to indiffer-
* The apostles ascribed the condemnation and crucifixion of the Saviour
to the Jewish iynoraiicf of the true sense of their own Scriptures ; Acts iii.
17, 18.-, xiii. 27, 2. ; 1 Cor. ii. 3. Yet, they dealt with that ignorance as
an awful crime, and exhorted them to repeal of it ; Acls ii. 23. j iii. 19.
224 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
ence in religion, and, in fact, to infidelity, than any other
class of men. It would, of course, be difficult, if not im-
possible, to institute an actual computation ; but if there
could, I suspect the result would be, that lawyers, civil
engineers, chemists, mathematicians, astronomers, com-
mercial men, and, in Germany at least, even theologians,
would supply as great a proportion of persons either pro-
fessedly infidels, or totally indifferent to all religion, as
the medical profession. The principal reason in each
and all is the same. The mind, while left to itself, is so
completely absorbed in its selected pursuit, whether it be
of literature, science, or business, as to have neither time
nor inclination to turn to so serious a concern as that of
religion. If a few short intervals of leisure can be stolen
from such incessant occupation, what can be so salutary,
and what so harmless, as in those brief moments to avoid
everything gloomy, and allow the intellect and soul to
expatiate in the regions of conviviality and pleasure ?
Thus, amid the uninterrupted alternations of employment
and hilarity, no space being appropriated to the most in-
teresting as well as elevated of all topics, it is altogether
neglected ; a fleeting consciousness of the neglect, inter-
mingled too often, we may fear, with a persuasion (which
cannot with the utmost effort be entirely shut out) that
sin has been actually committed, as well as a binding
duty omitted, by a natural process renders the mind eager
to escape from itself into the regions of uncertainty, indif-
ference, and, it may be, scepticism. Slight modifications
in the causes will produce commensurate variations in the
effects'; but the general result will, I apprehend, be nearly
the same with regard to all the specified classes. Literary
and scientific men will evidently be tempted more often
to announce their scepticism, where it exists, than men
engrossed in commercial pursuits ; and thus it may incor-
rectly be inferred to prevail more in those classes than in
the latter. Medical men, intermingling more with general
society, from their professional vocation, will agrJn, on
that account, be farther exposed to the charge than even
others who have enjoyed a scientific education : yet I
apprehend scarcely any real difference will be found ; or,
if there should, that it is at once imputable to the dissolute
habits indulged by many young persons of that profession
DR. MASON GOOD. "2*25
durinsf their attendance at the hospitals, remote from pa-
rental watchfulness, and free from the restraints of moral
discipline. The latter source of evil will, it is hoped, be
nearly extinguished in a few years ; in consequence of the
great improvements rapidly making in every department
of medical education, and the strong desire evinced by
several eminent men, that there should be incorporated
with the habits of study, such rules as shall best insure
the professional benefits, while they most effectually check
the contamination of loose principles.
Another fallacy in judgment, to which I must briefly
advert, since it is applicable to the main object of the
present section of these memoirs, is that which induces
many to affirm, or, at least, to assume, whether they as-
sert it or not, that changes of sentiment on any great po-
litical or religious question imply a want of genuine prin-
ciple. That such changes often result from a defect in
principle, or inconsideration, or in both, there can be no
question : but that they, at least, as frequently flow from
the operation of intellectual or moral causes, to which no
blame can be justly imputed, is equally unquestionable.
And probably many more such changes would occur, and
would be openly announced, were men more true to them-
selves, more resolved to obey the dictates of their con-
science, and to pursue to their legitimate conclusions, in
principle and in practice, those important trains of thought
relative to topics of highest interest, which often suggest
themselves spontaneously, and which they can only ex-
tinguish by doing violence to their best feelings, at the
beck of some sordid and secondary motive. That can-
not be a right rule of judgment, which would universally
make the notions acquired in early life, resulting quite as
often from accident or prejudice, as from judicious intel-
lectual culture, the standard of action through the whole
course of human existence ; which would, for example,
cast blame upon Luther for not always remaining a pa-
pist, because at the commencement of his career of re-
formation he had violently professed himself such ;* and
* " Let the reader know (says he) that I was formerly a monk, and that
when I engaged in the cause of Reformation, I was a most frantic papist
(papislam iusauissimum ;) so intoxicated, nay, so drenched in the dogmas
226 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
would equally commend Erasmus, having once declared
himself a Roman Catholic, for remaining one to the end
of his life, although he again and again poured the whole
torrent of his ridicule upon Romish superstitions, and
levelled his severest censures against papal tyranny.
On all such occasions, it is highly desirable that our
judgment should be regulated by the suggestions of libe-
rality and candor, and that we should not blame merely
because an individual has quitted the party to which we
might have attached ourselves : recollecting that the party
he joins may be fully as much inclined to commend as
we are to blame ; and that if either the censure or the
commendation be directed to the mere change, without
having endeavored to ascertain, and free from prejudice
to appreciate, the real motives which effected it, they
who indulge in such hastily formed sentences of condem-
nation or acquittal may be more culpable than the persons
whose conduct they undertake to judge. It ought also
to be recollected, that though the decisive step which
marks the ultimate issue in a change of sentiments, may
by its suddenness excite surprise and enkindle doubts,
among those who know nothing of the mental or consci-
entious process which has really been going on ; it may,
notwithstanding, have been conducted with the utmost
circumspection, the successive steps may have been taken
with the most laudable deliberation, often, too, accompa-
nied by very painful struggles at the disruption of old as-
sociations, which prejudice, affection, and time, may have
alike contributed to strengthen. " Each mind (says one
of our most profound moral writers*) possesses in its in-
terior mansions a solemn retired apartment peculiarly its
own, into which none but himself and the Divinity can
enter. In this retired place, the passions mingle and
fluctuate in unknown agitations." When the man comes
of the pope, that I was quite ready to put to death, had I been able, or to
co-operate with those who would have put to death, persons who refused
obedieuce to the pope in any single article. Thus, I was not ice and frigidity
in defending the papacy, like Eckius and his associates, who appeared to
me to act more from self-interest than from conviction. Even lo this day
they seem to me to do the same, and to make a mockery of the pope. I,
on the other hand, was thoroughly in earnest.'' Luther's Preface to his
Works.
* Foster, Essay on a Man's writing Memoirs of Himself.
DR. MASON GOOD. 227
forth from this retirement, to render palpable to the world
the result of his converse with himself, and, it may be,
with his God, must we of necessity censure, because the
course of his proceedings is different from what it for-
merly was '.
One great evil of this fallacious judgment, especially
since it prevails so extensively, is, that it tends to check
the spontaneous operations of the mind, to stifle all honest
inquiry ; and tempts the young and the timid rather to
continue satisfied with their present notions, however
crude, or even dubious, than run the risk of odium, by
so cautiously scrutinizing opposed sentiments and max-
ims, as to feel themselves compelled to adopt new princi-
ples of action, and evince their energy by corresponding
conduct.
It tends, moreover, to deprive a man of all the advan-
tage which accrues from experience. He may watch the
unfolding of events, the vicissitudes of nations, the de-
struction of old systems of law and government, the es-
tablishment of others totally new, the unprecedented dif-
fusion of intellectual and religious knowledge, the rapid
growth and extent of missionary exertions, and may trace
some of the providential arrangements from which all
these have emanated ; yet he must, nevertheless, remain
what he \vas, or expose himself to censure for not pre-
tending to be, what none but God can be, immutable.
I shall not be understood to countenance or to palliate
thoughtless and hasty, much less unprincipled, modifica-
tions of sentiment or action : such as evidently spring
from love of wealth, or of fame, or of po\ver, from an
unreasonable dread of the current terms of reproach,
from that " fear of man which bringeth a snare :" 1 have
simply meant to expose and deplore a mistaken rule of
judgment, the evil effects of which I have often observed.
No thinking man is the same, in point of intellect, at
sixty years of age, as he was at forty, or at twenty ; nor
probably will he have remained the same in point of moral
conduct, the minor topics of religious sentiment, the man-
ifestations of devotion, or the actual state of his own
heart. Why should a spurious moral rule be permitted to
check the acknowledgement of the intervening changes?
Why should we not rather, in all cases, where in the
228 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
judgment of charity there is reason to believe they have
resulted from honest and honorable motives, be solicitous
to trace the real sources from which they have sprung,*
and thus to enlarge that truly valuable department of
knowledge, the knowledge of man ?
But the reader will probably think it more than time
that I should close these preliminary discussions, and
proceed to the main object of this section.
The Rev. Peter Good, I have long ago remarked, was
a man of extensive information, and of exemplary cha-
racter, communicating to his sons the rudiments of a sound
and useful education, training them to habits of order,
and by example as well as precept inviting them to the
practice of piety. So far as I can ascertain, from the
opinions of those who knew him, and from many of his
private papers which I have carefully examined, I should
regard him as a man of correct religious sentiments,
according to the evangelical interpretation of the plan of
salvation. Yet I suspect that both ho and his estimable
* One of the most instructive portions of one of our most valuable pieces
of auto-biography, Richard Baxter's '' Xarrutire of his Life and Times,"
is that in which he minutely developes, with remarkable frankness and
honesty, several changes in his own views, with regard to disputation, mat-
ters of opinion as distinguished from matters of faith, modes of preaching,
different degrees of moral and religious certainty, zeal for the conversion
of the heathen, &.c. between his early manhood and old age. One short
passage, in illustration of his manner and his spirit, to those who are not
acquainted with his writings. I will here insert. '' I do not la}' so great a
stress upon the external modes and (onus of worship as many young pro-
fessors do. I have suspected myself, as perhaps the reader may do. that
this is from a cooling and declining from my former zeal, (though the truth
is, I never much complied with men of that mind :) but 1 find that judg-
ment and cliarity are the causes of it, as far as I am able to discover. I
cannot be so narrow in my principles of church-communion as many are
that are so much for a liturgy, or so much against it. so much for ceremo-
nies, or so much agninsi them, lhal they can hold communion with no church
that is not of their mind and wny. If I were among the Greeks, the Lu-
therans, the Independents, yea, the Anabaplists, (that own no heresy, nor
set themselves against charily and peace.) I would hold sometimes occa-
sional communion with them as Christians, (if they will give me leave,
without forcing me to any sinful subscription or action.) Though my most
vsual communion should be with that society which I thought most agreea-
ble to the word of God, if I were free to choose. I cannot be of their
opinion, that think God will not accept him that praycth by the Common
Prayer Hook, and that such forms are a self-invented worship which God
rejecleth : nor can I be of their mind, that say the like of extemporary
prayers." Life, p. 133. folio edition.
DR. MASON GOOD. 229
relative, Mr. Mason, thought less seriously of the conse-
quences of erroneous speculation in reference to matters
of faith, than a due consideration of the nature of man
as a fallen creature, or the history of man as an erring
creature, will warrant.*
John Mason Good, on quitting the residence near his
father at llavant, to seek professional advantages in Lon-
don, and afterwards to settle at Sudbury, felt a high re-
spect lor religion and religious men, and expressed a de-
cided belief in the genuineness and divine authority of
the scriptures ; but with very inadequate notions of the
importance of correct religious sentiment. The ardor
with which he went through his medical engagements,
and the avidity with which he divided his hours of leisure
between the contending fascinations of literature arid of
society, left scarcely any space into which the concerns
of eternity could enter. He was busy and happy, re-
spected in his professional capacity, and esteemed in pri-
vate life; but he lived, it is to be feared, without " God
in the world." Disinclined, however, from joining the
ranks of infidelity, then most numerously occupied, he
continued to avow his belief in the holy scriptures, and
in a manuscript essay, still extant, descanted in favor of
the Credibility of Revelation, and refuted some of the
popular objections. Thus, with regard to the objection
of the leading infidels at the beginning 'of the eighteenth
century, that the Christian religion wanted universality,
being totally restricted to some particular countries, and
therefore came not from " the God of the whole earth,"
he presents these observations :
" That without such an universal communication, there
must be an infinite distance subsisting between man and
* " Helief workedi : belief of any thing vvorketh : belief of a part of
Christianity workcth a parti.il conformity to Christianity; and belief of the
whole worketh universal obedience. . . . Nothing- is more common than for
men to form gross notions of God, and of Christian doctrine ; and as surely
as they do form them, they act agreeably to their notions. All truths have
a worth ; but the truths of religion are the first in value, and ought to be the
first in rank. The gospel is truth and virtue struggling against error and
vice. . . . That false doctrine doth harm, cannot be doubted. It hath hurt
the bodies, the understandings, the consciences, and the tempers, of man-
kind : it hath injured the reputation, the property, the peace, the lives and
liberties, of thousands. It hail) suppressed genius, perverted government :
what evil hath it not done ?" R. Robinson.
20
230 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
man, is most obvious. But it is a difference which equally
subsists through other departments of the present life ;
and which the most superficial observation must discover.
Why is one man endowed with the utmost luxuriance of
health and self-enjoyment, while his nearest neighbor,
perhaps, languishes beneath the most wretched existence
from the cradle to the grave? Whence this infinite par-
tiality and disproportion in the dispensation of riches,
talents, and domestic felicity ? Why, in effect, was the
world at large created in the manner in which we find it?
The Laplander enjoys not the delights of an Italian sky,
nor the swarthy African the temperate breezes of the
north. The shores of Sicily are visited with earthquakes
and volcanoes ; and those of Jamaica and the other West
Indian islands with the most tremendous hurricanes and
whirlwinds. The wisdom, the liberties, and the elegan-
cies of Greece, have for ever fled from the Archipelago,
and the once barbarous cliffs of Britain have received
and cultivated them with success. Whence these im-
mense differences and inequalities ? Why, in this man-
ner, are some nations, without any superior merit of their
own, admitted to the enjoyment of the happiest climates
and political advantages, while millions of their fellow-
creatures, of equal original desert, are for ever excluded
from the participation ?
" That such differences exist, is one of the most obvi-
ous facts in nature : and that the Author of them is infi-
nitely wise and beneficent, is certain to a demonstration.
But if they be thus producible by a Being of such infinite
perfections, in every other instance, why should we
deem them incapable of being produced in the single
instance of the promulgation of an immediate revelation
from heaven ? There are mysteries, even in nature, which
we cannot investigate, paradoxes which we can never re-
solve : and if we expect to find fewer in religion, in the
relation which subsists between the Creator and his crea-
tures, we have indeed but little pursued such kinds of
studies, and must, in a thousand instances, find ourselves
perplexed and disappointed."
At this time, much as he might admire the general
system of revelation, and acutely as he could defend it
against objectors, he sought not for tranquillity and bliss
DR. MASON GOOD. 231
in the way which it prescribes. In an essay " On Hap-
piness," composed about the same period, he reasons
himself very elaborately into the persuasion that there is
an intimate connexion " between morals and natural phi-
losophy ;" that " the same spark that shoots through the
mind the ray of science and information, diffuses through
the heart the softer energies of nature ;" and he thus
exhibits the final issue of the momentous inquiry :
" From such considerations as these, then, it results
that he is pursuing the most probable path to human fe-
licity, who, blessed by nature with a soul moderately alive
to the social affections, and an understanding that elevates
him above the prejudices and passions of the ignorant,
cultivates with a sedulous attention the one, that he may
best enjoy the capacities of the other."
With these views as to the nature of happiness, and
the best mode of insuring it ; with a decided avowal,
moreover, of the system of materialism, and that of the
Universalists with respect to future punishment, he se-
lected for his principal associates some gentlemen who
professed their belief in the doctrines of modern Socini-
anism. He continued associated with them during the
last two or three years of his residence at Sudbury ; and
on his removal to London, in 1793, he joined one of the
most celebrated congregations of that persuasion in the
metropolis, with which he remained connected until the
beginning of the year 1807.
Mr. Good's unequivocal adoption of Socinian senti-
ments occasioned great uneasiness to his father, as well
as to some of his near relatives at Sudbury ; and few be-
sides the youngest readers of these memoirs will need
to be told that this uneasiness sprung from sober con-
sideration, and not from prejudice. For, if, as has been
remarked, after a cautious induction of particulars, by
one of the most elaborate investigators of the moral ten-
dencies of that system which rejects the Deity and atone-
ment of Christ, " if it be unfriendly to the conversion
of sinners to a life of holiness, and of professed unbe-
lievers to faith in Christ ; if it be a system which irreli-
gious men are the first, and serious Christians the last, to
embrace ; if it be found to relax the obligations to vir-
tuous affection and behavior, by relaxing the great stan-
232 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
dard of virtue itself; if it promote neither love to God
under his true character, nor benevolence to men, as it
is exemplified in the spirit of Christ and his apostles ; if
it lead those who embrace it to be wise in their own eyes,
and instead of humbly deprecating God's righteous dis-
pleasure, even in their dying moments, arrogantly to
challenge his justice ; if the charity which it inculcates
be founded on an indifference to divine truth ; if it be
inconsistent with an ardent love of Christ, and veneration
for the holy scriptures ; if the happiness which it pro-
motes be at variance with the joy of the gospel ; and,
finally, if it diminish the motives to gratitude, obedience,
and heavenly-mindedness, and have a natural tendency
to infidelity, it must be an immoral system, and conse-
quently not of God. It is not the gospel of Christ, but
another gospel. Those who preach it, preach another
Jesus, whom the apostles did not preach ; and those who
receive it, too frequently receive another spirit, which
they never imbibed. It is not the light which cometh
from above, but a cloud of darkness. It is not the high-
way of truth, which is away of holiness, but a by-path of
error, which misleads the unwary traveller ; and of which,
as we value our immortal interests, it becomes us to be-
ware."*
Yet, happily, Mr. Good was to a great extent pre-
served from the worst tendencies of this system. He
was too learned and too honest ever to affirm that the
belief of the Divinity and atonement of our Lord was
unknown in the purest age of the church, but was engen-
dered among other corruptions by false philosophy ; and
he had uniformly too great a regard for the scriptures 'of
the New Testament, to assert that the apostles indulged
in far-fetched reasoning, or made use of a Greek word,
(fsnpym*,) which conveyed an erroneous notion, from
want of knowledge of the term they ought to have em-
ployed : he never contended that St. Paul did not mean
to teach the doctrine of the resurrection of the body in
the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corin-
thians ; never sported the pernicious sophism that " where
mystery begins religion ends." Being " buried alive" in
occupations, and immersed in vexations of no ordinary
* Fuller's " Calvinistic and Socinian Systems compared as to their Moral
Tendency."
DR. MASON GOOD.
233
occurrence, he did not commune frequently with his o\vn
heart, and too naturally sunk into a lamentable indiffer-
ence to religion, at least, if that word correctly imply
" converse with God ;" but he never evinced indifference
to truth and rectitude, nor ever, I believe, became in-
voked in the more awful perplexities of scepticism.
Indeed, the Bible was always with him a favorite book :
though for many years, it is to be feared, he turned to it
rather as a source of literary amusement, or of critical
speculation, than for any higher purposes. After his
death there was found an interleaved Pocket Bible,
bound in two volumes, in which he often entered notes
and observations. This interesting relic is now in my
possession. The annotations are very numerous, and by
the variations in the hand-writing, and the appearance
of the ink, mark with sufficient accuracy the dates of
their insertion, from 1790, when they were commenced,
until about IS:24, when he found the type in which the
Bible is printed, too small for him to continue reading it
with comfort. These notes present decisive proofs of the
nature of his sentiments in different periods of his life ;
and in some cases mark his solicitude in later age to cor-
rect the errors of the season of speculation and thought-
lessness. I shall, therefore, as I proceed, select a few
quotations.
" PSALM xcix. 1. * He sitteth between the cherubims.'
To the Jupiter of the Greek and Roman poets were as-
signed a chariot and horses of thunder probably from
the resemblance between the noise of the last and the
rattling of the first. A similar fable, Michaelis observes,
is to be noticed among the Hebrews, and the cherubims
are expressly the horses of Jehovah's chariot." Written
probably about 1792.
" JOSHUA vi. 5 20. This description of the storming
of Jericho, stript of poetical imagery, appears to be noth-
ing more than is consistent with the nature of common
occurrences. In these and the connected verses, a kind
of siege is represented in the first place by the encircling
of the Israelites and this encircling might have been
intended to produce some such effect as the modern line
of circumvallation : at length the sound of the trumpets
and the shouting of the people formed the signal for a
*20
234 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
general attack. In consequence of which assault, the
place was taken by storm, and the walls were destroyed.
The books of Joshua and Judges are full of these poeti-
cal exaggerations, agreeably to the spirit of the people to
which they relate."
Again, " JOSHUA x. 12, 13. By the standing still of the
sun arid the moon, no more is probably meant than that
the battle began early in the morning, and was continued
till late at night, after the moon was risen. It is not im-
probable that, in the ardor of pursuit, Joshua might utter
a wish that the day were lengthened, to give him an op-
portunity of completing the advantage he had gained
over his enemies : if he did this if the evening were
remarkably light, and followed by a storm of hail and
thunder, by which the enemy was thrown into farther
confusion what would be more natural, in a song of
triumph, than to represent this day of victory as exceed-
ing others in length, as well as celebrity 1 and the hero,
as retarding the sun and moon in their course, and hav-
ing storms and tempests at his command?"
These seem to have been written before the annotator
became acquainted with Dr. Geddes, and they certainly
are not sketched with the boldness with which that learn-
ed individual proposed his explications of the Hebrew
narratives. Such attempts to evade, by irrational conjec-
tures, the necessity of imputing the extraordinary nature
of the events described to supernatural intervention, are
certainly unworthy of serious refutation. They are as-
cribed, by Mr. Good, to a German critic, /. G. Herder.
It is gratifying to observe that nothing of equal looseness
and puerility presents itself among the remaining notes.
Shortly after the date of the preceding, the notes be-
came of a more instructive kind, exhibiting brief accounts
of the author, epoch, and scope of the several books, evi-
dences of their authenticity, characteristics of the style
and manner of the different writers, &c. together with
new translations and concise explications of different
texts. A few of the latter are subjoined.
" PSALM ii. 12. ' Kiss the Son :' The allusion is to the
practice of the heathen and idolatrous nations around
them, among whom the worshippers were accustomed to
kiss their images as a proof of fervent and solemn dcvo-
DK. MASON GOOD. 235
tion. Hosea refers to this, chap. xiii. 2. Cicero mentions
a brazen statue at Agrigentum, worn down in the features
of the mouth by the frequent kissing of the multitude.
See Parkhurst, p?J, p. 473."*
" PSALM cxxxix. 15. 'When I was wrought with a
needle in the depths of the earth.' This is a proof, with
many others, of the frequency of the allusion, among the
Hebrews, to the sacerdotal robes. See Exodus xxviii. 2.
And hence the frequent allusions to them which we meet
with in the sacred poetry. Isa. Ixi. 10, &-c. The inde-
scribable texture of the human system is, therefore, with
much propriety compared to the exquisite needle-work of
the high priest's vestments."
RUTH iv. 7. In the Chajdee paraphrase ' plucked off
his glove.' Among all the Eastern nations it is customary
in their sales and deliveries of lands and goods, &,c. to
pull off a glove, and give it to the purchaser, by way of
investiture or livery. Hence the practice, in the feudal
times, of throwing a glove on the part of the person giving
a challenge. The king's champion, on his coronation,
still casts his glove in Westminster Hall."
" PSJAI.M cviii. 9. ' Will I cast out my shoe ;' according
to the Rabbins, ' my glove :' i. e. I have made a vow, or
am bound to conflict with them."
" 2 SAM. i. 18. The book of Jasher, here mentioned,
is only quoted in one other place, Josh. x. 13. where the
quotation is likewise evidently poetical, and forms three
distichs. The word Jasher implies a song, or singing :
thus, ar jasliir Moshch, ' then sung Moses :' so that it is
probable this book was a collection of sacred hymns,
composed at different times, and on different occasions.
"nC'p means a bow; but it means as well the action
of the instrument as the instrument itself, and this in a
figurative as well as a literal sense, ' ejaculation, flight,
sally.' 'Also he bade them teach the children of Israel
the ejaculation (flight or sally ;) behold it is written,' &/C."
* To adore is literally to lift the hand to the month, and the heathens
expressed their devotion in this way, as well as that specified above. Thus,
in M'uiittiii.-< F'lic, " Ccecilins, simulacra Serapidis denotato. vit vulgus
superstitiosus solet, manum ori admovens, osculum labiis pressit.' 7 " Cceci-
lius observed an image of Serapis, and having raised his hand to his mouth,
like one of the superstitious vulgar, he kissed it." This practice is obviously
alluded to, in Job xxxi. 2G, 27, 28.
236 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
" LUKE xiii. 24. ' Will seek to enter in, and shall not
be able.' This rendering seems to contradict Luke xi. 9.
' Seek and ye shall find,' as also the entire spirit of the
gospel. Let the verse be connected with the ensuing,
without a stop, and the difficulty is removed. ' Shall not
be able, when once the master of the house has risen up,
and hath shut to the door.' "
During much of the time that Mr. Good professed Soci-
nianism, his mind (he has often informed me) was not at
ease. Early recollections of the fruits of better senti-
ments often assailed him ; but his numerous engagements,
and the delights of the literary society into which he was
introduced soon after his removal to London, enabled him
in great measure to stifle conviction, and to glide along
upon the stream with external gaiety, not always, alas !
accompanied with internal serenity. Happily, however,
he was exposed to other influences, and especially to the
domestic influence of one whose affection, consistency,
and discretion in reference to her own sentiments, ope-
rated permanently, and with great energy, though almost
unconsciously to himself, in leading him to the right path.
This, together with the deportment of the Socinians with
regard to religion, their obvious want of fairness in con-
ducting many of their arguments, their intellectual pride,
and the sceptical turn of mind manifested by some of
them, tended considerably to produce the desired change.
To the effect of these were added several trying pro-
vidential dispensations known to his friends ; and others,
doubtless, known only to the great Searcher of hearts ;
and combined with all, that divine energy which gave
to each its operation, and caused conversations, medi-
tations, events, so to " work together for good," that he
who had long wandered was brought back, and most
cordially adopted the language, " Return unto thy rr.<t,
O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with
thee!"
" When you are weighing tilings in the balance, (re-
marks good old Baxter) you may add grain after grain,
and it makes no turning or motion at all, till you come to
the very last grain, and then suddenly that end which
was downward is turned upward. When you stand at
a loss between two highways, not knowing which way to
DR. MASON GOOD.
go, as long as you are deliberate you stand still : all the
reasons that come into your mind do not stir you : but
the last reason which resolves you, setteth you in motion.
So is it (most often) in the change of a sinner's heart and
life: he is not changed (but preparing towards it) while
he is but deliberating whether he should choose Christ or
the world ? But the last reason that comes in and deter-
mineth his will to Christ, and makes him resolve and enter
a firm covenant with him, this maketh the greatest change
that ever is made by any work in the world. For, how
can there be a greater than the turning of a soul from
the creature to the Creator ? so distant are the terms
of this change. After this one turning act, Christ hath
that heart, and the main bent and endeavors of the life,
which the world had before. The man hath a new end,
a new rule, a new guide, and a new master."*
With Mr. Good, it was very evident that the under-
standing was entirely convinced, long before the heart
was transformed. The same degree of communicated
influence does not so manifestly stimulate some disposi-
tions as it does others, " as the same quantity of fire will
not so soon put solid wood into a flame as it will light
straw," vat the latter will not glow so much nor retain its
heat so long. The precise epoch of the change was,
therefore, never known even to his nearest relatives; but
its REALITY was indisputable ; and they who had the
most frequent opportunities of noticing it, deemed it ano-
ther proof of that striking "diversity of operations " with
which " the same Spirit worketh all in all." However
for a while the scales might seem to oscillate, however
longer they might appear quiescent, " the last grain" was
mercifully applied, and the indications of the balance
were never after doubtful. Renovation of heart was
proved by renovation of conduct, and the graces of the
Spirit, burning brighter and brighter, were truly as " the
shining light, which shineth more and more unto the per-
fect day."
Regarding it, therefore, as the height of presumption,
under all the circumstances of the case, to attempt to
assign the period of this essential change in the character
* Directions for Spiritual Peace and Comfort, p. 143.
233 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
of my deceased friend, I shall simply advert to some lead-
ing facts, in the order of their occurrence, and by means
of his own papers, and other documents which I have
been allowed to consult, endeavor to exhibit their impres-
sion upon his mind and heart : I shall afterwards avail
myself of the most satisfactory evidence, again supplied
principally by his papers, of his benevolence, humility,
and devotion.
In narrating the principal events of Mr. Good's life, I
gave some proof (p. 62.) of the deep and permanent im-
pression made upon his spirits, by the death of his son,
in the year 1803. On that occasion, as on many others,
he endeavored to soothe his mind by poetic composition ;
and from among the pieces written to alleviate his afflic-
tion, I select the following :
ELEGY : TO THE SUPREME.
PSALM XLII.
As for the fountain pants the drooping hart ;
So pants, O God, my thirsty soul for thee
God of all life ! so faints for where thou art ;
When, O my God, thy presence shall I see ?
Tears are my food, tears only night and day,
While the proud foe cries, " Boaster ! where's thy God ?"
O'er the keen taunt I muse in dread dismay,
And pour my soul beneath th' afflictive rod.
Then memory wakes the days when I have gone
With crowds, exulting, to thy house of praise
What shouts of triumph then outstripp'd the dawn,
What kindling transports fill'd those holy days.
But why, my soul, should now thy courage fail ?
Why sink, o'erwhelm'd with impotence and fear ?
No : trust in God his praise shall yet prevail ;
For yet my God, my Saviour, shall appear.
Short boast ! for still I faint : but I will still
Call, O rny God, thy kindnesses to view,
O'er Jordan's banks display 'd, o'er Mizar's hill,
And tow'ring Hermon moist with morning dew.
As when the bursting waterspout its rage
Empties abrupt, deep roars to boiling deep ;
Such the dread war my shipwreck'd spirits wage,
So o'er my soul thy wrathful billows sweep.
DB. MASON GOOD. 239
Yet will the Lord his servant ne'er forsake ;
Through every day his goodness shall attend:
And every night rny grateful song shall wake,
My prayer to God, my father and my friend.
O ! hasten then ! thy wonted smiles afford :
Why leave me thus to mourn tlf oppressor's rod ?
Deep through each bone he wounds me, like a sword,
As his proud tongue cries, " Boaster ! where's thy God ?''
But why, my soul, should thus thy courage fail ?
Why sink o'erwhelm'd with impotence and fear?
Trust trust in God his praise shall yet prevail ;
For yet my God, my Saviour, shall appear.
Severely as Mr. Good felt this affliction, and powerfully
as it was calculated to convince him that other principles
than those which he had for some years avowed, were
necessary to sustain the soul under the pressure of heavy
chastisement, he was not yet prepared to surrender them.
Except at short intervals, when he was enabled to pursue
some emollient trains of thought, he viewed the entire
dispensation in an erroneous light, and yielded far more
to feelings of irritation than to a sentiment of submission.
But, indeed, he had much to break through, as well as to
break off; so that considerable time, and repeated efforts,
were necessary before he could escape from the enclosure
within which he had suffered his better faculties to be im-
prisoned.
Still, though he had become bewildered by the adop-
tion of erroneous sentiments, he never entirely lost his
love of truth : and hence the forced and unnatural criti-
cisms in which his theological friends indulged, and the
sceptical spirit which some of them manifested, by shock-
ing his uprightness, contributed almost daily to his ulti-
mate emancipation.
At length, the sermons of the minister of the congre-
gation with which he had connected himself, gave him
serious pain : and language which Mr. Good regarded as
equivalent to the recommendation of scepticism, led to
the following correspondence.
240 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
" To THE REVEREND .
" Caroline Place, Jan. 26th, 1807.
" Dear Sir,
" It is with much regret I feel myself compelled to
discontinue my attendance at the Chapel in ,
and to break off my connexion with a society with which
I have cordially associated for nearly fourteen years.
" I sincerely respect your talents, and the indefatigable
attention you have paid to Biblical and theological sub-
jects : I have the fullest conviction of your sincerity, and
desire to promote what you believe to be the great cause
of truth and Christianity ; but I feel severely that our
minds are not constituted alike ; and being totally inca-
pable of entering into that spirit of scepticism which you
deem it your duty to inculcate from the pulpit, I should
be guilty of hypocrisy if I were any longer to counte-
nance, by a personal attendance on your ministry, a sys-
tem which (even admitting it to be right in itself) is, at
least, repugnant to my own heart, and my own under-
standing.
" Without adverting to subjects which have hurt me
on former occasions, I now directly allude to various
opinions delivered in your very elaborate, and, in many
respects, excellent sermon of Sunday last; and especially
to the assertion that it is impossible to demonstrate the
existence and attributes of a God ; that all who have at-
tempted such demonstrations have only involved them-
selves in perplexity ; and that though a Christian may
see enough to satisfy himself upon the subject, from a
survey of the works of nature, he never can prove to
himself the being and attributes of a God, clearly and
free from all doubt.
" I mean merely to repeat what I understood to be the
general sense of the proposition ; and not to contend that
my memory has furnished me with your own words. And
here permit me to observe, that I have been so long
taught a different creed, not only from the reasonings of
St. Paul, Rom. i. 20. and elsewhere, but from many of
the best theologians and philosophers of our own country,
from Sir I. Newton, Clarke, Barrow, and Locke, that I
DR. MASON GOOD. 241
cannot, without pain, hear what appears to me a princi-
ple irrefragably established, treated with scepticism, and
especially such scepticism circulated from a Christian
pulpit.
" I have thus, privately, unbosomed my motives to you,
because, both as a minister and as a gentleman, you are
entitled to them ; and because I should be sorry to be
thought to have acted without motives, and even without
sufficient motives. My esteem and best wishes, however,
you will always possess, notwithstanding my secession
from the Chapel, for I am persuaded of the integrity of
your efforts. I am obliged to you for every attention you
have shown me ; and shall, at all times, be happy to re-
turn you any service in my power.
" I remain, Dear Sir,
" Your obliged and faithful friend and servant,
"J. M. GOOD."
" To JOHN MASON GOOD, ESQ.- CAROLINE PLACE.
, Jan. 27th, 1807.
" Dear Sir,
" I am obliged to you for your polite communication
of your intention to withdraw from Chapel,
and of your motives for that determination. Having my-
self exercised to so great an extent the right of private
judgment, I would be the last person to object to the ex-
ercise of that right in others.
" I cannot, however, help considering myself as pe-
culiarly unfortunate, that after all the pains which I have
taken to establish the truth of the Christian revelation,
I should, in the estimation of an intelligent, and, I would
hope, not uncandid hearer, lie open to the charge of *'-
culcating from the pit/pit a spirit of scepticism, and that
the allusion which I made on Sunday last to the unsatis-
factory nature of the exploded priori demonstration of
the divine existence, should have been understood as a
declaration of a deficiency in the proper evidence of the
being and attributes of God.
" I certainly would not myself attend the ministry of
a preacher who was sceptical either in the divine exist-
ence, or the truth of the Christian revelation. I must,
21
242 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
therefore, completely justify you in withdrawing from my
ministry while you entertain your present views. I can
only regret that I have expressed myself inadvertently in
a manner so liable to be misunderstood ; and' sincerely
wishing you health and happiness,
" I am, Dear Sir,
" Your obedient servant,
" To THE REVEREND .
" Caroline Place, Jan.Wth, 1807.
" Dear Sir,
" I am ^obliged to you for your letter, and add only a
word or two, in explanation of a single phrase which you
seem to regard as uncandid. The term scepticism I have
not used opprobriously, but in the very sense in which
you yourself seem to have applied it, in the discourse in
question, to the apostle Thomas, by asserting, upon his
refusal to admit the evidence of his fellow-disciples, as
to our Saviour's resurrection, that ' it is possible, perhaps,
that the scepticism of Thomas, may, in this instance,
have been carried a little too far.'
" I quote your idea, and I believe, your words. And
here, without adverting to other expressions of a similar
nature, suffer me to close with asking you, whether I can
legitimately draw any other conclusion from such a pro-
position, than that a scepticism, in some small degree
short of that manifested by St. Thomas, is, in the opinion
of him who advances that proposition, not only justifia-
ble, but an act of duty ? and that, to a certain extent, he
means to inculcate the spirit or disposition on which it
is founded 1
" It only remains that I repeat my sincere wishes for
your happiness, and that I am,
" Dear Sir,
" Your obedient servant,
" JOHN MASON GOOD."
To this letter Mr. Good received no reply.
Shortly afterwards, in writing to an old friend, Dr.
Disney, who had then quitted London, and resided at
DR. MASON GOOD. 243
the Hyde, near Chelmsford, Mr. Good narrated the cir-
cumstances which occasioned this correspondence. In
the Doctor's reply, he thus speaks of the sceptical spirit
of the minister from whom Mr. Good felt compelled to
separate, and of its effects.
" It has long been the favorite scheme of a certain
person to speak very highly of scepticism, and I have
long been made to understand that his commendation of
scepticism, and his loose manner of expressing himself
on certain subjects, extensively served the cause of infi-
delity among his pupils. I never cultivated his acquain-
tance, for reasons which I thought good and conclusive,
while resident in the neighborhood of London, and in
which I have been more strongly confirmed since I left
it. I feel for the mortification you express, and have only
to say, I most cordially wish you had no occasion for do-
ing what you have done."
After adverting to the critical state of our public affairs
at that period, he adds,
" Still I do not despair ; but the discipline will be se-
vere. Now scepticism would lay me prostrate at once :
for there is delusion abroad in religion as well as in poli-
tics."
The separation that thus took place between Mr. Good
and a minister and congregation with which he had been
connected for nearly fourteen years, would naturally lead
to a re-examination of the principles and notions held by
them in common. The consequence was, a gradual sur-
render of all the characteristics of the Socinian creed ;
and a corresponding adoption of sentiments more in ac-
cordance with those of his always honored father, and of
his valuable relative, Mr. Mason, upon whose religious
views he now meditated with a renewal of his early
veneration. He, as yet, however, scarcely adverted to
them but as mere speculative opinions, simply preferable
to those he had just abandoned : it was long before they
assumed the character of principles of action, and issued,
by God's blessing, in the transformation of his heart and
affections.
For public worship he now frequented the Temple
Church, where the powerful reasoning of Dr. Rennell, often
engaged in the discussion of topics which, at this period,
244 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
occupied so much of Mr. Good's attention, served to con-
firm him in the propriety of the step he had taken. After
a year or two, he frequently attended public worship, with
his family, at St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, and
cultivated with the vicar an intimate intercourse, which I
have every reason to believe was, in the best sense, bene-
ficial to him. Then, after a few more years, the greater
proximity to his own residence, and still more a cordial
esteem for the minister and his doctrines, led him to wor-
ship almost constantly at St. John's Chapel, Bedford
Row ;* where he availed himself of the successive pasto-
ral labors of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Jerram, until he passed
from all worshipping assemblies here, to join " the general
assembly and church of the Jirnt-born" " in heaven."
Shortly after Mr. Good detached himself from the
Socinians he became acquainted with the Rev. Samuel
Marsden, Senior Chaplain of the Colony of New South
Wales, who returned to England early in 1807, and
remained until May, I8C9: in order, first to convince the
government at home of the perilous state in which he left
the colony, and secondly, to point out, and persuade them
to adopt, the best means for its rescue and amelioration ;
with an ulterior object, namely, the introduction of Chris-
tianity among the heathen natives of the Australasian
islands. This excellent individual, as distinguished for
his engaging simplicity, and his genuine candor, as for
the unswerving intrepidity with which he devotes himself
to purposes of the purest Christian benevolence, no sooner
developed his plans to Mr. Good, than he found the ardor
of a generous spirit united with his own in promoting the
same great objects. When Mr. Marsden was in London,
they were together daily ; and when the pursuit of any of
his laudable purposes, commercial, mechanical, political
or religious, took him for a season from the metropolis, he
kept up a constant correspondence with his friend. The
result was, indeed, an inviolable friendship of the highest
order, productive of benefit to both parties Mr. Marsden
deriving knowledge incessantly from Mr. Good, in every
department of art, science, and literature, which seemed
* Occasionally, however, he attended at Christ-Church, Newgate Street,
where his friend, the Rev. T. Hartwell Home, discharged part of the cleri-
cal duty.
DR. MASON GOOD. 245
likely to conduce to either the civilizing or evangelizing
of the Australasian world ; Mr. Good deriving as inces-
santly, but perhaps unconsciously, a growing admiration
of the true sublimity of humble, unassuming, but un-
questionable and active piety. He wondered, as he often
told me, at the self-denying spirit, which, at the sacrifice
of much personal comfort, would pass from the northern
to the southern extremity of England ;* on merely hear-
ing of something which might probably be turned to the
benefit of the outcasts in Botany Bay, or of the rude in-
habitants of New Zealand ; he endeavored, as one who
loved to trace phenomena to their causes, to ascertain
the principles from which this unremitting exertion
sprung; he traced it (for he often assured me he could
find no other clue) to the elevating influence of divine
grace ; and he could not but indulge the often-repeated
wish that his own motives were as pure and refined, and
his own conduct as exemplary, as those of his much
valued friend. From this intercourse, also, and Mr.
Good's subsequent meditation upon it, as well as from an
uninterrupted correspondence on the same topics, up to
the time of Mr. Good s death, much religious advantage,
I doubt not, resulted.
From 1808, to the beginning of 1812, Mr. Good devoted
a great portion of his Sunday mornings and evenings to
his Translation of the book of Job, and the large body
of notes which accompanies it. Though many of these
are strictly of a literary character, yet there are others
that relate to the most solemn topics, as, human accoun-
tability, human misery, sin, death, the resurrection, an
appointed Redeemer, a future judgment, &.c. and which
he evidently contemplated with the deepest seriousness,
and has often described with much force and pathos.
Still, I am not aware that there is, within the whole com-
* The first time I saw Mr. Marsden, in January, 1808, he had just return-
ed from Hull, and had travelled nearly the whole journey, on the outside
of a coach, in a heavy fall of snow, being unable to procure an inside
place. He seemed scarcely conscious of the inclemency of the season, and
declared he felt no inconvenience from his journey . " He had accomplished
his object, and that was enough." And what was that object, which could
raise him above the exhaustions of fatigue, and the sense of severe cold ?
He had tngttged a ropemaker, who was iriUincr, at Mr. Marsden's expensf,
to go and teach his art to the New Zealanders T
*21
246 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
pass of the notes, a specific reference to the plan of the
gospel, as a restorative dispensation, in which, by the
atoning efficacy of a Saviour's blood, sin may be pardon-
ed, and by the purifying energy of the Holy Spirit, man
may be raised to the dignity from which he had fallen,
and again shine in the " image of God." He did not
appear, therefore, as yet, to regard this as entirely essen-
tial to true religion ; in other words, to consider the evan-
gelical system as the only solid basis of a rational hope of
eternal felicity and glory.
It was manifest, however, to myself and others, who
were permitted to converse with him freely on these
points, that there was a progression of the most gratifying
kind : and the papers now before me confirm the persua-
sion then formed. In the year 1812, he composed ano-
ther essay on " Happiness," differing widely, indeed, from
that written in 1792, to which I have referred, a few
pages back. The comparison furnishes a striking proof
of the effect produced by the lapse of twenty years, and
their commensurate providential discipline, upon a man's
trains of thought. 1 will venture, therefore, to quote the
concluding passages of this more recent dissertation.
" We have already seen that, in proportion as society
is ignorant, men are wicked ; in proportion as it be-
comes wise (in the correct sense) they grow virtuous.
They acquire clearer ideas of right and wrong, which
are obviously nothing more than virtue and vice, under
an additional set of names, or in a state of activity. And
were the rules and laws of right, virtue, or wisdom to be
constantly adhered to, or, in other words, the will of the
Deity to be fully complied with, there can be no question
that mankind, even in the present state, would enjoy all
the happiness their nature will allow of; and that a kind
of paradise would once more visit the earth.
"And why, then, is not the will of the Deity fully
complied with? Why, since the consequence is so un-
doubted, and so beneficial, are not the rules of virtue con-
stantly and universally adhered to ?
" This is a most important question, as well in itself as
in its results.
" The will of the Deity, or the entire rules of virtue,
are not always adhered to, first, because, as collected
DR. MASON GOOD. 247
from reason or the light of nature alone, they are not,
through the whole range of this complicated subject, in all
instances equally clear and perspicuous; and, secondly,
because in a thousand instances in which there is no
want of clearness or perspicuity, there is a want of sanc-
tion of a compulsory and adequate force. The rules
of virtue are general, and must necessarily be general ;
but the cases to which they apply are particular. The
case is present and often impulsive, but the operation of
the rule is remote, and it may not operate at all ; and
hence the pleasure of immediate gratification is perpetu-
ally unhinging this harmonious system, and plunging
mankind into vice with their eyes open.
" But civil laws, moreover, or the authority of the
social compact, in favor of virtue, are not only often inad-
equate in their force, but they must necessarily, in a
thousand instances, be inadequate in their extent. It is
impossible for man of himself to provide against every
case of vice or criminality that may offend the public ; for
the keenest casuist can form no idea of many of such
cases till they are before him ; and if he could, the whole
world would not contain the statute-books that should be
written upon the subject.
" There are also duties which a man owes to himself,
as well as to his neighbor: or, in other words, human
happiness, as we have already seen, depends almost as
largely upon his exercise of private as of public virtues.
But the eye of civil law cannot follow him into the per-
formance of these duties, for it cannot follow him into his
privacy : it cannot take cognizance of his personal faults
or offences, nor often apply its sanction if it could do so.
And hence, in most countries, this important part of mo-
rality is purposely left out of the civil code, as a hopeless
and intractable subject. Yet even in the breach of public
duties, specifically stated and provided for, it cannot
always follow up the offender, and apply the punishment ;
for he may secrete himself among his own colleagues, and
elude, or he may abandon his country, and defy the arm
of justice.
" There seems, then, to be a something still wanting.
If the Deity have so benevolently willed the happiness of
man, and made virtue the rule of that happiness, ought
248 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
he not, upon the same principle of benevolence, to have
declared his will more openly than by the mere, and, at
times, doubtful, inferences of reason ? in characters, in-
deed, so plain, that he who runs may read ? and ought
he not also to have employed sanctions so universal as to
cover every case, and so weighty as to command every
attention 1
" As a being of infinite benevolence, undoubtedly he
ought. And what, in this character, he ought to have
done, Tie has actually accomplished. He has declared
his will by an express revelation, and has thus confirmed
the voice of reason by a voice from heaven : he has made
this revelation a written law, and has enforced it by the
strongest sanctions to which the mind of man can be
open not only by his best chance of happiness here, but
by all his hopes and expectations of happiness hereafter.
And he has hence completed the code of human obliga-
tions, by adding to the duties which we owe to our neighbor
and to ourselves, a clear rescript of those we owe to our
Maker. Nor is such revelation of recent date ; for a
state of retributive justice beyond the grave constituted,
as we have already seen, the belief of mankind in the
earliest ages of time ; and amidst all the revolutions the
world has witnessed, amidst the most savage barbarism
and the foulest idolatries, there never perhaps has been a
country in which all traces of it have been entirely lost,
or have even entirely ceased to operate.
" At different periods, and in different manners, the
Deity has renewed this divine communication according
as his infinite wisdom has seen the world stand in need
of it. New doctrines and discoveries, and doctrines and
discoveries, too, of the highest importance, but which it
is not my province to touch upon in the present place,
have in every instance accompanied such renewal, justi-
ficatory of the supernatural interposition. But the sanc-
tion has, in every instance, been the same ; while, and I
speak it with reverence, the proofs of divine benevolence
have with every promulgation been growing fuller and
fuller revealed religion thus co-operating with natural,
co-operating with the great frame of the visible world,
co-operating with every pulse and feeling of our own
hearts, in establishing the delightful truth, that GOD is
DR. MASON GOOD. 249
LOVE ; and in calling upon us to love him, not from any
cold and lifeless picture of the abstract beauty of holi-
ness, beautiful as it unquestionably is in itself, but from
the touching and all-subduing motive, BECAUSE HE FIRST
LOVED us."
The growing thoughtfulness of his habits led him now
to more frequent self-examination, and excited more
earnest desires that his whole existence might not pass
away before he had accomplished the great object of this
probationary stale. On attaining his fiftieth year, he thus
(in lines introduced not on account of their beauty but
of their sincerity) expressed his pensive meditations on
the past, and solicited divine guidance for the future.
VERSES
COMPOSED ON ENTERING MY FIFTIETH YEAR.
May 25th, 1813.
Two-thirds of life, or something more
If nicely scann'd, now travell'd o'er,
Let me review the travell'd scene,
And fairly weigh what life has been.
If right 1 reckon, it is this ;
A chequered web of ill and bliss ;
Some love of good, far more of ill ;
The deed prevailing o'er the will ;
Correct resolves, and aim at right,
Alternate felt and put to flight ;
Gay promise smiling but to wound ;
Truth eager sought, and error found;
The tree of Hope now yielding fruit,
And shivered now through every shoot.
Such is the sum : but let rne not
Unjustly charge my varied lot.
Though hard at times, how hard indeed
Had my demerits met their meed ;
Though hard, how rare has been the groan
That sprang not from myself alone.
While (and with gratitude I trace,
And own so undeserv'd a grace,)
From every ill the hand of Heaven
To draw some use has daily striven ;
To check my heart's too ardent stream,
Tha* urg'd a trust in every dream,
And led me to that, empty shade,
Myself, alone to look for aid :
To teach me earth was ne'er design'd
A resting-place to suit the mind ;
250 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
How vain its joys, how full of pride
Its learning, when not sanctified ; ,
To plume me for a higher scope,
And make me humble, while I hope.
Father Supreme ! continue still,
As most accordant to thy will,
These wholesome conflicts, till the end
Be reach 'd, at which they daily tend.
Then, whether long or short my life,
Slight or severe th' allotted strife,
Imports not ; This is all in all
To live prepar'd for every call ;
To feel thy guidance here, and trust
To feel it still beyond the dust.
From this time Mr. Good earnestly cultivated the ac-
quaintance of pious men. What was still better, he be-
came more closely acquainted with his own heart ; and
sought for enjoyment in devout meditation. Always an
admirer of the works of nature, he now contemplated
them with a new relish ; and whether he suffered his
thoughts to expatiate over the grander scenes which the
universe presents, or tied them down to some of the mi-
nuter objects of the creation, he still, as his books of
poetic memoranda amply show, saw, in the order, the
splendor, or the beauty which he admired, the impress of
Deity.
Let this be takn as a specimen :
THE DAISY.
Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep,
Need we to prove a God is here ;
The Daisy, fresh from Winter's sleep,
Tells of his hand in lines as clear.
For who but he who arch'd the skies,
And pours the Day-spring's living flood,
Wondrous alike in all he tries,
Could rear the Daisy's purple bud ?
Mould its green cup, its wiry stem ;
Its fringed border nicely spin ;
And cut the gold-embossed gem
That, set in silver, gleams within ?
And fling it, unrestrain'd and free,
O'er hill and dale and desert sod,
That man, where'er he walks, may see,
In every step, the stamp of God.
DR. MASON GOOD. 251
I may here introduce another little piece, written about
the same time, which, though less elegant than the above,
excites interest on account of the tone of deep sincerity
which pervades it.
THE RESTING-PLACE.
" There remaineth a rest for the people of God!"
Round the world I look, and find
Nothing that can fill the mind :
Learned toils, and arts that show
All is vain the wisest know.
Round I look, and solid bliss
Seek for next, but ever miss.
Pleasure springs, but, soon as found,
Dies, or only lives to wound.
From the world I turn, and try
Deep within what treasures lie.
Fruitless search ! look where I will
'Tis a wilderness of ill.
Tir'd at length, of all around,
Tir'd of all within me found,
Up to Heav'n I look and there
See the only good and fair ;
All the panting soul desires,
Bliss that fills, but never tires ;
Knowledge such as suits the blest,
Sacred, high eternal rest.
Rock of Ages ! here I build,
Here, if so thy grace has will'd ;
Quit the world, and seek in theo
All I want or wish to be.
It was in one of our confidential conversations on the
most momentous of all topics, in the summer of 1815,
that Mr. Good first distinctly announced to me his cor-
dial persuasion that the evangelical representation of the
doctrines of Scripture was that which alone accorded
with the system of revealed truth. He said he had
greatly hesitated, as to the correctness of a proposition
I had advanced a few years before,* that there was no
intermediate ground upon which a sound reasoner could
* In my " Letters ou the Evidences, Doctrines, and Duties, of the Cliri-
tian Religion."
252 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
make a fair stand, between that of pure deism and that
of moderate orthodoxy, as held by the evangelical classes
both of churchmen and dissenters ; but that he now re-
garded that proposition as correct. At the same time,
he detailed several of the Socinian and Arian interpreta-
tions of passages usually brought forward in these dis-
putes, and, with his accustomed frankness, explained
how he had come, by degrees, to consider them all as
unsatisfactory, and, for an accountable being, unsafe.
Of the gradual modification of his sentiments, as well
as of the decision which by God's blessing he now at-
tained, the notes in his Bible present ample evidence.
But I shall only select two or three of the latter kind,
written between 1817 and 1822.
" HEBREWS x. 19,20. The spirit of man is concealed
by the veil of the flesh : the spiritual things of the law,
the holy of holies, were concealed by the veil of the
temple. Christ is the end and sum of the whole ; and
as the high priest entered into the holy of holies by
the veil of the temple under the law, so we can only enter
into the holiest by ' the blood of Jesus,' by the veil of his
flesh, or incarnation, of which the veil of the temple was
a striking type. And never did type and antitype more
completely harmonize with each other, and prove their
relation : for when Christ exclaimed upon the cross, ' It
is finished,' and gave up the ghost when the veil of his
flesh was rent, the veil of the temple was rent at the same
moment. The former entrance into the holy of holies,
which was only temporary and typical, then vanished
and the ' new and living way,' the way everlasting, was
then opened: and what under the old dispensation was
only open to the high priest, and that but once a year,
was, from that moment, open to us all, and open for all
times and all occasions a consecrated way, in which we
are exhorted to enter with all boldness, in full assurance
of faith ; having ' our hearts first sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
" GENESIS ii. 23,24. Under the figurative language
contained in these two verses is a concealed representa-
tion of tha whole mystery of the gospel the union of
Christ with the church, the glorious bride, that in the
fulness of the times he will present to himself, free from
I)R. MASON GOOD. 253
spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish. St. Paul ex-
pressly tells us, Eph. v. 30, 31. that this momentous fact
is here referred to, and spoken of in veiled or esoteric
language. It is the first reference in the Old Testament
the earliest history of man, therefore, opens with it ; it
was the mystery of Paradise ; ' the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world, unto his own glory.' "
" GENESIS iii. 7. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they
sewed fig leaves," &,c.
" It is so in every age and every part of the world.
The moment a man becomes consciously guilty, his eyes
are opened to the knowledge of evil ; he feels himself
naked, and seeks a cover or a hiding place : he is full of
shame, and cannot endure to be looked at even by his
fellows ; he endeavors by some flimsy pretext, some
apron of fig leaves, to screen either himself or the deed
he has committed from their eyes. But most of all does
he feel his nakedness before God, and endeavor to hide
from his presence. Happy, indeed, is he, who, with this
consciousness of guilt and shame, is able by any means
to discern a covering that may conceal the naked de-
formity of his person from the penetrating eye of his
Maker. One such covering there is, and but one, and
blessed is he who is permitted to lay hold of it, and to
put it on it is the robe of the Redeemer's righteous-
ness."
At this period of his life, Mr. Good, as he informed
me, read with the most intense interest, Jeremy Taylor's
Holy Living : and one of his commonplace books evinces
the state of his own feelings during the perusal. Under
the head of Apophthegms from Bishop Taylor, are several
of great value, of which I shall quote but two or three.
" No man is a better merchant than he that lays out
his time upon God, and his money upon the poor."
" Let every man that hath a calling be diligent in the
pursuance of its employment : yet ever remembering so
to work in his calling as not to neglect the work of his
higher calling, but to begin and end the day with God."
"Holiness of intention or purpose. This grace is so
excellent that it sanctifies the most common action of our
lives ; and yet so necessary, that without it the very best
22
254 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
actions of our devotion are imperfect and vicious. That
we should intend and design God's glory in every act we
do, whether it be natural or chosen, is expressed by St.
Paul, ' whether we eat or drink, do all to the glory of
God :' which rule, when we observe, every action of na-
ture becomes religious, and every meal is an act of wor-
ship. Holy intention is to the actions of a man, that
which the soul is to the body, or form to matter, or the
root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain
to a river, or the base to a pillar. For without these
the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree
is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry,
the pillar sinks into flatness and ruin, and the action is
sinful, or unprofitable and vain."
Mr. Good's thoughts and meditations being thus set
into the right current, it pleased God, by the afflictive
dispensations of his providence, to confirm and preserve
them in that direction. For a considerable period Mrs.
Good's health was very indifferent ; and at a season when
she had been longer than usual well, both their daugh-
ters were afflicted almost simultaneously, with protracted
and dangerous indispositions. The family were then on
a visit to Mr. Good's son-in-law, at South End, a few miles
from London ; and Mr. G. was, for six or seven weeks
in succession, engaged during the days in his professional
pursuits, and during the nights most sedulously and so-
licitously watching the sick beds of his afflicted children.
At this season of parental anxiety he scarcely got any
sleep, except as he travelled from South End to the house
in town : yet, though often worn down with fatigue and
watching, and depressed with the most painful apprehen-
sions, his spirits and his hopes never entirely forsook him.
He seems, indeed, to have " HEARD the rod, and him who
appointed it ;" to have understood its voice, and rightly
improved it ; deriving from this affliction a deeper sense
of the uncertainty of life and its enjoyments, of the sove-
reignty of God, as well as of his merciful forbearance, of
the efficacy of faith, and the delight of resignation upon
Christian principles, than on occasion of any former trial.
In the short interval between the recovery of one
daughter, and the commencement of the severe indispo-
DR. MASON GOOD. 255
sition of the other, he thus expressed himself in a letter
to his valued relative, Dr. Walton.
" I receive her again from the hand of her Creator as
one raised from the dead, and given 10 me a second time.
... I hope I shall never forget this great and signal inter-
position of the Divine favor, in the solemn votes I have
voluntarily undertaken. How difficult is it to bring one's
mind, in the prospect of so severe a loss, to repeat with
seriousness and an unfeigned heart what we are every
day saying, with too little attention and solemnity, ' Thy
will be done !'* I tried as earnestly as I was able, and I
even now dare not trust myself to inquire whether I
attained all the spirit of resignation which ought to have
been manifested. He who knoweth how to pity our in-
firmities, has had mercy at least upon the effort, and has
graciously accepted the imperfect attempt ; and has not
overwhelmed me with a similar bereavement to the heavy
affliction I suffered many years ago, and upon which I
never, to this hour, dare suffer myself to think. Yet I
know that even that was attended with benefit to myself,
heavy as it descended upon me."
After his death, there was found on the opening page
of his interleaved Pocket Bible, a most gratifying token,
not merely of his affection for his daughters, (of which,
indeed, they needed not this proof,) but of a devout and
grateful permanent recognition of the mercy of God
vouchsafed in their recovery.
" My dear Margaret's dangerous sickness, from a bil-
ious fever, commenced July 4th, 1818, and only began
to decline about July 24th.
" My dear Susanna's still more dangerous sickness,
from an inflammation of the brain, commenced about the
ensuing August 10th : she was given over about August
16th; and began to recover about August 27th. For
this double recovery I feel myself called upon to keep an
annual day of thanksgiving to Almighty God, as long as
it may please him to spare me.
" August 8th, 1819. J. M. G."
* Nothing', I am informed, could be more touching!)' impressive, them the
solemn pause, resulting from the struggle between paternal affection and
humhle submission to the Divine will, which in domestic worship during'
ibese afflictions, always succeeded his utterance of this petition.
256 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
I ought previously to have mentioned, that nearly
three years before the occurrence of the severe indispo-
sitions whose favorable termination is thus gratefully re-
corded, Dr. Good's eldest daughter had married a gentle-
man, then distinguished by his singular attainments, and
subsequently by his ardent piety, the Rev. Cornelius
Neale. The union took place with the brightest antici-
pations of extensive and permanent happiness, anticipa-
tions fully realized, except with regard to permanency.
Mr. Neale, who had with extraordinary industry as well
as talent, and commensurate success, gone through his
academical course at Cambridge, (leaving that Univer-
sity in 1812, with the honor of Senior Wrangler, Chan-
cellor's Medallist, and the gainer of Dr. Smith's first
mathematical prize,) possessed but a delicate constitu-
tion of body, which became gradually more enfeebled by
intellectual exertion, and the sedentary habits too com-
mon amongst studious men. Afterwards, on his taking
orders, and devoting himself most sedulously to the
duties of the clerical office, his frequent visits to the poor
in damp and comfortless houses in a country village, soon
brought upon him a pulmonary complaint, which closed
his valuable life in August, 1823.
Upon a mind less alive than Dr. Good's to the kindlier
sympathies and emotions, the circumstances of the long
affliction of an endeared relative could not but operate
powerfully. Besides these, there were brought into exer-
cise the new feelings occasioned by the birth of grand-
children ; new alternations of hope and fear, of delight
and anguish, resulting from the vicissitudes of their health,
and rendered doubly interesting by the peculiar state of
their parents : and thus was supplied, as I cannot but
believe, precisely the discipline which was necessary to
effect Dr. Good's entire confirmation in Christian princi-
ples, and induce him cordially to yield all his faculties " a
I/ring sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God." The subse-
quent afflictive events, in which he was called to share,
served but to free him more from secular adhesions, to
quicken his activity in the heavenly course, and to prompt
him to the augmented exercise of Christian benevolence,
in various channels of usefulness.
Well do I recollect his unusual delight in announcing
BE. MASON GOOD. 257
to me the decision of his beloved son-in-law to devote
himself to the ministry of the gospel, and the strong in-
terest with which he related many particulars of intellec-
tual and providential discipline, some of them very strik-
ing, which issued in that decision. To Dr. Drake, and
other friends, his letters were dictated by equally plea-
surable emotions. But the gratification was not of long
continuance. Mr. Neale took orders in April, or May,
18-22. In May, 1823, Dr. Good, in writing to Dr. Drake,
thus expresses himself
" We have now removed from Caroline Place, to No.
SO, Guilford Street. But our entrance into this new
residence is marked with a gloom that I am much afraid
will hang heavy on the few years that Providence may
yet allot to me. Our dear and incomparable Mr. Neale,
who you know married our beloved Susanna, is at this
moment an inmate in it, laboring under a hectic fever,
which, I am very fearful, will cut him off in the midst of
life, of an exemplary service to God in the church, of the
utmost utility to the poor and the parishes in which he
has been employed, himself and his wife, beloved, per-
haps, more than ever couple were before. He will leave
me to-morrow, for a house in the vicinity of London ; but
I cannot let him go far. We are thus overwhelmed with
grief; but we endeavovor to yield to the rod and Him who
hath appointed it. Mr. Neale himself is in a frame of
mind that any man might envy, ill as he is, and my dear
Susanna has strength found her to be able to nurse him
night and day. Adieu, my dear friend ! of your condo-
lence we are all sure."
In another letter to the same friend, written within
four months of that from which the preceding is extract-
ed, Dr. Good thus pours out his feelings on the event
which terminated all his solicitudes, and those of his fami-
ly, on account of Mr. Neale.
" Guilford Street, August 18th, 1823.
" My dear Friend,
" When I received your last kind letter, I was daily
expecting the close of my dear and most excellent son-in-
law's sufferings, and had already tried, but with little
success, the plan you suggested, which, in truth, we were
*22
258 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
obliged to discontinue, in consequence of its increasing
the exacerbation.
" The conflict is now over he has entered into his
rest; having expired, as you may probably have seen by
the newspapers, on Friday the 8th instant.
" The last text he preached from, when he had no idea
of any serious illness, was, " To me to live is Christ, but
to die is gain." It was within a few hours afterwards that
he was attacked with an haemoptysis. His whole heart was
in his ministry ; and the simple, unvarnished, but most
impressive character, of his pulpit oratory, was calculated,
with God's blessing, to work wonders among the highest
as well as the lowest classes.
" Under these circumstances, the alarming sickness
with which he was attacked, might naturally, perhaps,
be called ' a mysterious dispensation.' But he would
never allow such a term to be employed, for it never
was made use of, he said, without betraying f .omething of
a latent murmur.
" He suffered much at times, and the pain alone was
sufficient, and especially towards the close of the struggle,
to throw him into severe perspiration but his remark
was, ' My Saviour sweated drops of blood for me,' and
this upheld him. It was a severe conflict to break off
his strong attachment to his beloved children and his
still more beloved wife ; and yet at last he was enabled
to make a total surrender of himself to the will of God,
and for months had ' his conversation in heaven,' far
more than on earth. Yet, all the kindliness of his heart,
and all the fine taste of his genius, accompanied him to
the latest moment : less than eight-and-forty hours before
his dissolution, he told his dear wife, with a faltering voice,
that, as he had not written her any lines for a long time,
if she would bring him a pencil and a piece of paper, he
would give her some ; when he wrote off one of the most
beautiful devotional odes I have ever seen. During the
night before his departure, it was observed by Mrs. Good,
who sat up by him, that she was fearful the night had
been tedious to him ; he replied, ' I shall have a long and
a glorious day.' He spoke prophetically and the pro-
phecy was fulfilled.
DR. MASON GOOD. 259
" What, my clear friend, are all the splendor and the
pageantry of the world, compared with the sublime and
solemn scenes to which I have thus been an eye-witness?
Surely these are foretastes of that ' fulness of joy,' and
those ' pleasures for evermore,' which are reserved at the
right hand of God, for those who are favored with so
beatific a vision. They give, if it were wanted, a fresh
and energetic stamp of reality to the glorious manifesta-
tion of the gospel, and shew us for what we were born
and the more important lesson how this high destiny may
be attained. My earnest prayer is, that the lesson may
be lost upon no one within its sphere and with the feeble
powers of my own pen, I would enlarge that sphere, if
possible, throughout the universe : and I would address
it to you, my dear friend, as importunately as to myself.
"We are all in great grief, as you may suppose, and
especially my beloved daughter but we are upheld by a
thousand consolations, that fall to the lot of but few.
" Farewell, my dear friend, for the present ; and be-
lieve me ever,
" Affectionately yours,
"J. M. GOOD."
I may now, in farther illustration of Dr. Good's reli-
gious sentiments and feelings, select a few pieces from
his devotional poetry : leaving them to make their im-
pression, not on account of the elevation of the language,
or the sublimity of thought; but as proofs of the genuine
emotion of a soul attuned in unison to the most touching
and awful subjects, as well as of a complete subjugation
of mind and heart to truths long resisted, but at length
received in all their energy, and exemplified in all their
purity.
ON EASTEH DAY, 1819.
" Truly this was the son of God." Matt, xxvii. 54.
" Yes, this was the Son of God.
'Tis for man he bears the rod :
Eaith and skies are veil'd in grief;
Man alone shews unbelief.
260 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
" 'Tis finish'd." Through creation's bound
Fly, O fly, triumphant sound !
" 'Tis finish'd !" Heaven transported sings ;
" 'Tis finish'd !" Earth re-echoing rings.
" 'Tis finish'd !" through the realms of woe
The hated accents sternly flow :
" Tis finish'd !" Man the traitor lives ;
The ransom's paid, and God forgives.
" 'Tis finish'd !" Yes, the toil is o'er :
The wondrous toil the Saviour bore,
From Death's dread jaws the sting he draws,
And on the CROSS achieves his cause.
Sing the CROSS : O, badge of shame !
Be STAFF OF GLORY, now. thy name.
Sing the Cross ; for, o'er thy tree,
What triumphs crowd, blest Calvary !
" 'Tis finish'd !" The mysterious plan,
The mighty destiny of man.
Angels had gaz'd, with baffled skill,
And time but travelled to fulfil.
" 'Tis finish'd !" all the vision high
That wrapt of old, the prophet's eye ;
And still with ecstacy shall break
O'er the last martyr's flaming stake.
" 'Tis finish'd !" see the Victor rise ;
Shake off the grave, and claim the skies,
Ye heav'ns ! your doors wide open fling:
Ye angel-quires ! receive your King.
" 'Tis finish'd !" but what mortal dare
In that triumph hope to share ?
Saviour ! to thy cross I flee :
Say " 'tis finish'd" and for me!
Then I'll sing the Cross ! the Cross !
And count all other gain but loss :
I'll sing the Cross, and to thy tree
Cling evermore, blest Calvary !
PEACE, BE STILL.
Composed while watching at Night, and alone, over a very painful
Illness of my dear Wife -. Feb. 1820.
" Peace be still !" O Thou ! whose word
The raging sea thus once address'd ;
And quelled the tempest as it heard,
And all its fury lulled to rest :
DR. MASON GOOD. 261
" Peace be still !" once more exclaim,
And quell this raging of disease ;
These pangs that rend a worn-out frame,
That seeks in vain a moment's ease.
" Peace be still !" 'Tis this alone
Stamps with success the healing art :
No drug can soothe a single groan,
If this withhold its sovereign part.
" Peace be still!" O heavenly charm
For every form of human ill :
Hear it, ye pains! your rage disarm,
Hear the blest mandate " Peace be still !"
EPITAPH ON AN UNNAMED SAINT.
O ! spot revered ! though thou may'st hold,
Within thy consecrated mould,
Names more familiar to the great,
And wider famed for wealth or state ;
Yet never, since the hallow'd hour
When Russell rais'd thy walls t' embower
Against the last trump's dread alarm,
The wardrobe of God's saints* from harm.
No, never hast thou, holy Earth !
Clasp'd in thy bosom gentler worth,
A form more dear to man or God,
Than now reclines beneath thy sod.
Let CAM'S green banks, from cell to cell,
Still on the echoing plaudits dwell,
That rang when, in his year, he bore
All the joint wreaths of college lore ; t
Here in this gloom, be told alone
The higher virtues, often shown,
When the pure altar and the hearth
Gave new and nobler feelings birth ;
And fram'd a pattern none could see,
But love, and laud, and wish to be.
* On the walls of Chiswick Churchyard is engraved the following in-
scription : " This wall was made at \e Charge of ye Right Honourable &
trulie Pious lord Francis Russelle of Bedford, out of pure zeale and care
for ye keeping of this Churchyard, & ye wardrobe, of God's Saints whose
Bodies lay buryed from violating- by Swine &. other Prophanalion. So
witnessed! William Walker. V. A. D. 1623."
t " Camb. Calend. Year 1812. Senior Wrangler ; Chancellor's Medallist.
First Smith's Mathamatical Prize-31an."
2G2 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
Blest Saint ! I dare not : them hast said,
In life, and on the dying bed,
Still meek and lowly, and but dross
Accounting all things, save the CROSS,
There only glorying ; and the verse
That should revere thy simple herse
The lesson that should be reveal'd
The Muse must drop her lips are seal'd.
Chiswick Churchyard, Aug. 20th, 1823.
FOR MY DEAR MASON.*
Jesus with an e3 T e of love
Marks little children from above :
And, when on earth for man he bled,
Took them in his arms and said,
" Little children! come to me,
And a Saviour's welcome see.
If you love me, you shall share,
While on earth, my tenderest care,
And, in death, shall mount above,
Where your angels live in love,
And their father's presence view ;
And heaven is form'd of such as you."
A Fool-piece to Sir Joshua Reynolds' Print of
LITTLE SAMUEL.
Jesus to little children says,
" Those that love me with heart and mind,
I too will love, and all their days,
Whene'er they seek me they shall find."
This, little Samuel, when a boy,
Learn'd at his pious mother's side ;
And every day 'twas his employ
To pray that God would be his guide.
He bent his knees, and rais'd his eyes,
And clasp'd his little hands so tight,
And God, that makes the Sun to rise,
Poured o'er his mind diviner light.
* This, and the little touching piece that follows it, were addressed by
Dr. Good to his grandson, MHSOII Neale, when lie was about five years of
age. The reader, while perusing them, will probably be reminded of John-
son's remark (in his Life of \\ alts) on the difficulty of " a voluntary de-
scent from the dignity of science" to teach children.
DR. MASON GOOD. 263
THE NAME OF JESUS.
" Thou shall call his name JESUS ; for he shall save his people from their
sins."
" Jesus ! Saviour !" yet again,
Messenger of heavenly love,
O, repeat th' angelic strain ;
Strike that name, all names above.
" Jesus ! Saviour !" at the sound
Can there be a heart asleep ;
Through creation's utmost bound
Let the thrilling music sweep.
Lo ! he comes his name to attest,
Mighty Saviour of mankind.
Wide as guilt has spread his pest,
Healing, here, the guilty find.
Prince of Peace Desire of all !
All the nations wait for thee :
Mount thy chariot rule the ball
Captive lead captivity.
Save us by thy promised birth :
By thy present spirit save :
By thy toils, thy pangs on earth !
By thy conquest o'er the grave.
When in health temptations throng,
When, in sickness, gloomy fear ;
In life, in death, be thou my song ;
Jesus ! mighty Saviour ! hear.*
IN' THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD ; AND THE WORD WAS WITH
GOD, AND THE WORD WAS GOD.
O WORD ! O WISDOM ! heaven's high theme !
Where must the theme begin ?
Maker and Sufferer ! Lord Supreme !
Yet sacrifice for sin !
* The above were suggested by a sennon, which Dr. Good heard,
preached by the Rev. Tlios. Hartwell Home, on December 25th, 1823.
He transmitted a copy to 3Ir. Home the following- day, accompanied by
the subjoined note.
'' My Dear Friend,
" The best proof I can give you of my obligat'on to you for your labor
of last night, is by sending you the enclosed, the outline of which occurred
to me on my return home. Were it more worthy of the subject, it would
be more worthy of your acceptance, as well as more gratifying to
Yours very faithfully,
Guilford-street, Friday Afternoon. J. M. GOOD."
264 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
Now REASON ! trim thy brightest lamp,
Thy boldest powers excite ;
Muster thy doubts, a copious camp
And arm thee for the fight.
View nature through and, from the round
Of things to sense reveal'd,
Contend 'tis thine alike to sound
Th' abyss of things conceal'd.
Hold, and affirm that God must heed
The sinner's contrite sighs,
Though never victim were to bleed,
Or frankincense to rise.
Prove by the plummet, rule, and line,
By logic's nicest plan,
That MAN could ne'er be half divine,
Nor aught DIVINE be man :
That he who holds the worlds in awe,
Whose fiat formed the sky,
Could ne'er be subjugate to law,
Nor breathe, and groan, and die.
This prove till all the learn'd submit :
Here learning I despise,
Or only own what Holy Writ
To heavenly minds supplies.
O Word ! O Wisdom ! boundless theme
Of rapture and of grief :
Lord, I believe the truth supreme.
O, help my unbelief.
BEHOLD THE MAN !
Behold the Man ! was ever face
With grief so furrow'd and worn down ?
ScofF'd at and scourg'd a reed his mace,
And goading thorns his mimic crown.
A reed his mace his crown rude thorns,
Whose sceptre sways earth, heaven, and hell
Whose glory all the heights adorns,
Whose praise adoring seraphs tell.
Behold the Man ! and in that man
A love surpassing wonder see ;
For thee in streams his life blood ran,
He bow'd, he groan'd, he died for thee.
DR. MASON GOOD. 265
Behold the Man ! through time's long reign
Ye dead, awake ! ye unborn, view !
From the deep world's foundation slain,
Th' atoning Lamb is slain for you.
Behold the Man ! and, while ye may,
Sue to his sceptre, and adore ;
To-day he calls beyond to-day
That precious voice may sound no more.
Behold the Man ! hehold the God !
The mighty Conqueror bursts the tomb ;
He rises, and resumes his rod ;
Flee while ye may the sinner's doom.
Life is a sea how fair its face,
How smooth its dimpling waters pace,
Its canopy how pure !
But rocks below, and tempests sleep,
Insidious, o'er the glassy deep,
Nor leave an hour secure.
Life is a wilderness beset
With tangling thorns, and treach'rous net,
And prowl'd by beasts of prey.
One path alone conducts aright,
One narrow path, with little light ;
A thousand lead astray.
Life is a warfare and alike
Prepared to parley, or to strike,
The practis'd foe draws nigh.
O, hold no truce ! less dangerous far
To stand, and all his phalanx dare,
Than trust his specious lie.
Whate'er its form, whate'er its flow,
While life is lent to man below,
One duty stands confest
To watch incessant, firm of mind,
To watch where'er the post assign'd,
And leave to God the rest.
'Twas while they watch'd, the shepherd-swain*
Heard angels strike to angel-strains
The song of heavenly love :
Blest harmony ! that far excels
All music else on earth that dwells,
Or e'er was tun'd above.
'Twas while they watch'd the sages trac'd
The star that every star eftac'd
23
266 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
With new and nobler shine :
They follow'd, and it led the way
To where the infant Saviour lay,
And gave them light divine.
'Twas while they watch'd. with lamp in hand,
And oil well stor'd, the virgin band
The bridal pomp descried ;
They join'd it and the heavenly gate,
That op'd to them its glorious state,
Was clos'd on all beside.
Watch ! " watch and pray !" in suffering hour
Thus he exclaim'd, who felt its power,
And triumph 'd in the strife.
Victor of death ! thy voice I hear :
Fain would I watch with holy fear,
Would watch and pray through life's career,
And only cease with life.
For the last seven or eight years of his life, Dr. Good,
persuaded of the incalculable benefits, of the highest
order, likely to accrue from Bible and Missionary socie-
ties, gave to them his most cordial support; on many
occasions advocating their cause at public meetings, and
on others employing his pen in their defence. To the
concerns of " the Church Missionary Society" especially,
he devoted himself with the utmost activity and ardor, as
a most judicious, learned, and able member of its com-
mittee. He suggested some useful plans for the instruc-
tion of missionaries, and, in certain cases, of their wives,
in the general principles of medical science, the nature
and operation of the simpler remedies, and in the safe
practical application of such knowledge to numerous
cases which may obviously occur amongst the inhabitants
of the dark and uncivilized regions in which Christian
missionaries most frequently labor. These suggestions
were not merely proposed in general terms, in the com-
mittee ; but, in many instances, carried into the minutiae
of detail, by instructions which Dr. Good gave personally
to the missionaries themselves.* Nor was the advice
* At his death, the Committee of the Church Missionary Society trans-
mitted to Mrs. Good a resolution expressive of the very high value they set
upon his services, and of the heavy loss they were conscious they sustained
by that event. The resolution was accompanied by a letter of cordial sym-
pathy from the Rev. E. Bickersteth, the Secretary.
DR. MASON GOOD.
thus given confined to professional topics. The stores
of his richly endowed mind were opened to their use ou
subjects of general literature, biblical criticism, the rules
of translation, the principles of geology, botany, zoology,
nay, every department of knowledge calculated to fit them
thoroughly for their noble and arduous undertaking.
Nor, again, were these kind and valuable offices confined
to individuals of the Church Missionary Society alone.
His soul was too liberal and capacious, and his convic-
tion of the paucity of the laborers too deep, to induce him
for a moment to wish or to imagine that the glorious ob-
ject could be accomplished entirely by missionaries of
any one persuasion. On different occasions I have intro-
duced to him missionaries and others connected with
various religious societies, who were anxious to profit by
his advice, on topics respecting which they scarcely knew
where else to apply ; and, uniformly, the individuals who
thus availed themselves of the privilege, have testified in
the most lively terms their grateful sense of the affec-
tionate kindness of his demeanor, and the value of his
suggestions.
During four or five years preceding the close of Dr.
Good's life, he never (as I have mentioned towards the
end of the first section of these Memoirs) seems to have
lost sight of the practical conviction of the shortness of
human existence, and the uncertainty of its termination.
This conviction, while it quickened his activity with
regard to the professional works upon which he was en-
gaged, and which, from the best motives, he was solici-
tous to finish, served also to quicken his vigilance in the
Christian course, to give relish to his hours of retirement,
and to sweeten his converse with God. Nor did he
restrain himself to contemplation and devotion alone,
greatly as he enjoyed them. In various intervals of
leisure, which they who knew the most of the multi-
plicity of his occupations and pursuits most wonder how
he found, he gave vent to his trains of meditation arid
feeling, in the composition of essays of greater or less ex-
tent, (as the subject drew him out, or the opportunity
permitted,) of which the manuscript copies were found af-
268 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
ter his death, under the title of " OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS."
These, indeed, give evidence that
"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light, through chinks that time hath made :"
and that, as he approached the close of his earthly career,
he was advancing in meetness for the celestial regions.
They are also calculated to make a salutary impression
upon reflecting minds. I shall, therefore, select with
freedom from these instructive compositions; simply
adding, that, in order that the state of mind of their
writer may be duly appreciated, they should be perused
with the recollection that they are not the productions of
an ascetic, secluded from the world, and yielding himself
solely to exercises of devotion, but of a man engaged con-
scientiously in the duties of a laborious profession, as
well as in the composition of elaborate works of science
and practice ; from which he withdrew, as moments of
retirement could be found, thus to solace himself.
OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS.
AND ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD.
Genesis v. 24.
" This is the only walk in which we can never go
astray ; and happy he who, amidst the innumerable paths
by which he is surrounded, is led to the proper walk.
To walk with God, we must take heed to every step of
his providence and his grace we must have a holy fear
of not keeping close to him ; though he will never leave
us, if we do not leave him. We must maintain a sacred
communion with him, and have our conversation in
heaven rather than on earth ; we must be perpetually
receding from the world, and withdrawing from its at-
tachments. We must feel our hearts glow with a greater
degree of love to him, and, by the influence of his holy
Spirit upon our affections, become gradually more assimi-
DR. MASON GOOD. 269
lated to the divine nature. We must take his word for
our directory, his promises for our food, and his blessed
Son for our sole reliance, making the foot of the cross our
only resting place.
" If we thus walk with God through the wilderness of
life, he will walk with us when we reach the dark ' valley
of the shadow of death;' and though we cannot hope for
the same translation as Enoch, still, like him, ' we shall
not be, because God hath taken us.'
MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.
John xviii. 36.
"The world cannot exist without moral order, the first
principles of which are written in the heart, and become
a law of themselves unto those who are without the know-
ledge of a revealed law.* And, hence, it has been a
great aim of every revealed dispensation to coincide
with and give all possible support to this natural and
most wholesome impression. Now, the ordinary effect
of this law of moral order is to render a man respected
and happy, whatever may be his station in life ; and so
far the maxims of the world concur with those of religion ;
for the man of piety is by his very tenets obliged to act
up to the spirit of this law, and must necessarily partici-
pate in its general advantages. And as the moralist com-
monly finds that ' honesty is the best policy,' so the Chris-
tian ascertains, upon the same scale, even in respect to
external concerns, that ' the ways of wisdom are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace :' that ' godliness
is profitable unto all things ; having promise of the life
that now is, and of that which is to come.'t
" On this middle ground, the two systems touch, but
beyond this there is little or no connexion on either side.
' My kingdom (said our Saviour) is not of this world.'
And it is wonderful to behold how much the general provi-
dence, as well as the spectal interposition of God, has,
at all times, been laboring to fix this important doctrine
in our bosoms ; and to show us how little worldly power,
or worldly talents, or worldly influence of any kind, have
*Rom. ii. H. t 1 Tim. iv.8.
'270 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
availed to propagate or uphold religion ; to introduce it
into the heart, or to keep it there. The brightest and
most heroic times for the church, have generally been
those of persecution : the darkest and most disgraceful,
those in which the arm of secular power has thrust for-
ward its impotent and unhallowed efforts in her behalf;
and compelled mankind to become proselytes to the faith.
" What has the mightiest and most pompous crusade
ever achieved in favor of that very cross whose cause it
so wantonly undertook ; and under whose banners, con-
secrated indeed by the oil of mistaken or arrogant hiero-
phants, but never by the unction of the eternal Spirit,
the confederate armies of Europe have marched forward
against the painim foe with enthusiasm ? What single
spot on the whole map of the globe can we select as a
trophy of its triumphant career, as an extension of the
boundary line of Christendom 1 When have such ex-
ploits ever succeeded in permanently planting a church,
or rescuing a single village from the thraldom of super-
stition or infidelity ? Or where, indeed, have they ever
been crowned with the success that might have been
reasonably expected on every other occasion ; and which
has accompanied the sword of other powers when drawn
for the spread of false religions? Where Bramha now
lords it with almost undisputed sway, from the Ganges to
the Indus, there is little doubt that the faith of Budha was
once the reigning superstition : and the rich and varie-
gated regions of Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, the
plundered and subjugated patriarchate of the East, the
oppressive sufferings of the Archipelago, still attest, in a
long train of triumphs, the proud harvests of the Crescent.
" Whence this extraordinary difference ? this contrast
so ineconcileable with the natural order of things, and
the march of moral calculation 1 The words of our
adorable Saviour alone solve the mystery : ' My kingdom
is not of this world, (else) would my servants fight/
" What have the wealth, or the splendor, or the talents,
of the world, ever accomplished in favor of genuine re-
ligion 1 or what are they accomplishing at this moment ?
If we turn to the magnificent biographies of those who
are already gone to give an account of this momentous
concern at the bar of the final Judge ; or follow up their
DK. MASON GOOD. ^" I
successors into the witty or the fashionable circles of our
own day how small is the aggregate of their contribu-
tions ! A precious example of genuine piety, issuing
from the one or the other of these sources, is occasionally
to be traced in the horizon, illuminating the surrounding
opake with its refreshing lustre, as though to show that
such a meteor is possible : while the general body seem
spell-bound, for the purpose of verifying our Saviour's
declaration, ' My kingdom is not of this world.'
" It was so in his day, and it will be so to the end of
time. What was the furniture of the first evangelists,
and how were they caparisoned for the combat ? ' Pro-
vide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses,
nor scrip for your journey ; neither two coats, neither
shoes, nor yet staves. Take no thought how or what ye
shall speak ; for it shall be given you in that same hour
what ye shall speak.'*
" And so it was from the beginning. When God led
forth his people from Egypt, it was entirely a work of
special providence. In the barren wilderness they multi-
plied as the stars in the firmament for number ; their
clothes waxed not old upon them, nor were their shoes
worn out by journeying : the heavens rained down food,
and the flinty rock poured forth water. But chiefly was
the great principle manifested, that ' the kingdom of God
is not of this world,' when they were on the point of
entering the land of Canaan, and of measuring their
strength with that fearful enemy, whose name alone had
cowed the hearts of their fathers only forty years before,
from the false representation that they were giants in
stature, t and defended by towns whose walls reached up
to the heavens. t The whole passage, as related in the
book of Joshua, is full of a simplicity and a majesty un-
rivalled in any other volume, and rarely equalled in the
bible itself. In the face of this formidable people, who,
aware of their approach, and in league with every ad-
joining power, were drawn up in a line of defence, they
w-ere commanded to march forward to the banks of the
wide and impetuous Jordan, at that time overflowing its
- .Malt. x. 9, 10, 19.
t Numb. xiii. 28. } Deul. i. 28.
272 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
sides from the vernal floods of the neighboring moun-
tains, and to cross the river. The whole army was in-
stantly in motion ; prepared at all hazards to obey the
call, though they had neither rafts nor pontoons, nor any
other visible means of coping with the stream. It was
the voice of Jehovah that gave the word ; and in the
power of Jehovah they put their trust. They were nobly
resolved to do their utmost, and to leave the issue in the
hands of the God of Israel. It was enough ; and those
who act thus are always safe. We have no claim to ex-
pect the interposition of Providence, if we do not make
use of every exertion for ourselves : and then may be
most sure of it, when we have been most unwearied in
our efforts.
" The army of Israel, and the multitudes of the entire
nation who were with them, their wives and their little
ones, being thus prepared and full of expectation, were
suddenly ordered to halt. And to show how little God
stands in need of human power and human prowess, and
that the means of carrying forward his kingdom are not
of this world the ark by itself is commanded to take
the lead, sustained on the shoulders of a few unarmed
Levites alone, while the army and the people are forbid-
den to approach it within the distance of half a mile.
In this manner marched forward the procession ; the
unarmed ark protecting the men of war, instead of the
men of war protecting the unarmed ark. In this manner
was it that the waters of Jordan fled,* like lambs, at the
presence of the divine symbol : and the hostile country
on the other side its banks was invaded, and fell prostrate
before its mighty and irresistible influence.!
" What a consolation does this subject offer to every
missionary undertaking of the present day, founded upon
just principles, and simply actuated by a humble but zeal-
ous endeavor to extend the boundaries of that kingdom
which is not of this world. How fully doth it open to us
the only path in which we are to tread, and the only
* Psalm exiv. 5.
t On contrasting this language with Dr. Good's notes on parts of the
book of Joshua, (p. 234,) and endeavoring (o account for so essential a dif-
ference, we must recur, for the only solution, to the Psalmist " This is the
Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
DR. MASON GOOD.
armor we are to display. All human means must be re-
sorted to that lie within our reach, suggested by prudence
and sanctified by prayer. Yet, even these are to be but
auxiliaries, and kept in the back ground, while, as to the
world, its wealth and its talents are but little needed ;
and its pornp and its dominion are the worst allies we
can engage on our behalf. Without the ark of the Lord
the Lord of all the earth* no enterprise can be suc-
cessful : but let this go before us, and success is certain,
whatever difficulties may obstruct our way : ' When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and,
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.'t ' Who
art thou, O great mountain ? before Zerubbabel thou
shalt become a plain. '| ' Not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. '
w This high tone of feeling, this truly evangelical spirit,
has, happily for us, and for the entire globe, at length
been seized, and is acting upon ; and the promises of
God are in every quarter maintaining their veracity."
FORM OF PRAYER.
July Wtli, 1823.JI
" Which I purpose to use among others, every morn-
ing, so long as it may please God that I shall continue in
the exercise of my profession ; and which is here copied
out, not so much to assist my own memory, as to give a
hint to many who may perhaps feel thankful for it when
I am removed to a state where personal vanity can have
no access, and the opinion of the world can be no longer
of any importance. I should wish it to close the subse-
quent editions of my ' Study of Medicine.'
* Josh. iii. 13. t Isa. xliii. 2. \ Zech. iv. 7. $ Ibid. 6.
|| A few days before the death of his beloved son-in-law. Mr. Neale.
For several years ihe spirit of this prayer was fully exemplified in Dr.
Good's practice. The sympathy he manifested for his patients was of the
highest, order. When he prescribed, he was in ihe habit of praying for
Divine direction ; on administering a medicine himself, he was often known
to utter a short ejaculatory prayer ; and. in cases where a fatal issue was
inevitable, he most scrupulously avoided the cruel delusion too common on
such occasions, but with the utmost delicacy and feeling announced his ap-
prehensions.
274 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
" O thou great bestower of health, strength, and com-
fort ! grant thy blessing upon the professional duties in
which this day I may engage. Give me judgment to
discern disease, and skill to treat it ; and crown with
thy favor the means that may be devised for recovery ;
for, with thine assistance, the humblest instrument may
succeed, as, without it, the ablest must prove unavailing.
" Save me from all sordid motives ; and endow me with a
spirit of pity and liberality towards the poor, and of ten-
derness and sympathy towards all ; that I may enter into
the various feelings by which they are respectively tried ;
may weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those
that rejoice.
" And sanctify thou their souls, as well as heal their
bodies. Let faith and patience, and every Christian virtue
they are called upon to exercise, have their perfect work :
so that in the gracious dealings of thy Spirit and of thy
providence, they may find in the end, whatever that end
may be, that it has been good for them to have been
afflicted.
" Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the love of that
adorable Redeemer, who, while on earth, went about
doing good, and now ever liveth to make intercession for
us in heaven. Amen."
" THE WAY EVERLASTING.
Psalm cxxxix. 24.
" This is the only way that can be worth the pursuit
of an immortal being : a way that may hold on with him
through his entire career, and not stop short and deceive
him in the middle of his course.
" Now of all the ways, and they are innumerable,
which the world has to offer us which of them is there that
can boast of this momentous and indispensable requisite?
which of them can style itself A WAY EVERLASTING ? In-
stead of being everlasting, there is not one of them that
can engage to accompany us through the present life
some of them not through a twelvemonth of it, while by
far the greater number fail as soon as we enter upon
them, and prove their vanity at the very outset.
DR. MASON GOOD. 275
" It is, therefore, a very subordinate inquiry, what are
the kinds of pleasure that any of these have to offer ?
Nor is it of much more importance to be informed whe-
ther they can make good their pretensions ? which, after
all, few, if any of them, are able to do. For admitting
they can realize what they hold out to us, our mortification
must only be the greater when we find that the crop of
fruition is exhausted, the season of enjoyment at an end,
and that there is no new harvest to succeed to it.
" What we want, and without which we should never
be satisfied, is that which the psalmist here longs for
A WAV KVCRKASTIXG \ a something that shall run the
whole race of the soul, and keep up with its illimitable
duration. Can ambition give us anything of this kind?
Every one who looks the least beyond his own person
must say no ! The man who treads in this way, seldom
indeed holds on so far as even the way itself lies open ;
worn out by the hectic that consumes his enfevered
frame, or cut down in the midst of his hey-day by some
fatal mischance that he did not calculate upon. Yet, let
him reach the goal let him be crowned with the guer-
don he has sighed for, and which his sweat and his labor
have more than merited. Are the laurels, indeed, peren-
nial ? Has he, in reality, acquired the precise object he
has boen in pursuit of? Let the Alexanders, the Caesars,
the Charlemagnes, the Cro'mwells, the Bonapartes of the
world, answer the question. Instead of a way everlast-
ing, they have only acquired a
Monumentum sere perennius ;
a pyramid more lasting than brass : and their only real
guerdon is a hicjacet on a marble tablet. This is all \ve
know of them on this side the grave, and there have been
but few of their companions here who would wish to be
companions with them beyond it.
"But the ways of the world are innumerable, and this
is only one of them. There is the way of wealth ; the
way of pomp and ostentation ; the way of popular ap-
plause ; the way of gallantry ; the way of gluttony ; the
way of indolent repose ; and the way of wit and learning.
These, too, have their respective attractions. Over their
portals are engraven the most alluring mottos, the most
specious promises ; like the philacteries over the shoul-
276 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
ders and foreheads of the Pharisees of old ; and, like
them too, making an open mock of those who placed
them there.
" I do not mean to say that they are all exactly upon a
level, equally hollow and deceitful, and alike unworthy the
pursuit of an immortal spirit. But take the best of them
the way of sound, illuminating science; that which
unfolds to us the beautiful order of nature, and the ada-
mantine rock of moral obligations. It accompanies us
only to the end of the present life, and vanishes at the
very point where we stand most in need of a guiding
clue. It leads us to the grave but it leads us no further ;
and its end, like that of all the rest, is destruction. This,
in truth, is the iron that entered into the soul of the best
and the wisest sages of antiquity, when engaged in the
momentous inquiry before us. They had their hopes and
their surmises, but they had nothing more. The strongest
part of the Epicurean philosophy is that which points out
the unsatisfactory nature of all those arguments which
mere reason is able to offer in favor of a future state.
And hence, he who apparently knew them all (for they
are of very ancient rise, and for the most part only
reached Greece from the East) is fully justified in assert-
ing that ' in much wisdom is much grief; and he that
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.'* ' Life and
immortality are brought to light (alone) by the gospel. 't
This is a doctrine that cannot be too strongly insisted
upon : for though it is not the only, nor even the chief
doctrine the gospel communicates, it is that without
which every other would be but of little importance.
" The only way everlasting, then, that \ve can ever
know 7 if we except that of everlasting destruction and
consequently the only way that is fitted to the nature of
an immortal soul, is the way of religion and of religion
as expressly revealed to us by God himself; and it is a
way not more distinguished by this peculiar attribute of
perpetuity than by every other that it possesses.
" Instead of captivating by the magnificence or deco-
rations of its vestibule, and the beauty of its opening
scenery, nothing can be more staggering or repulsive :
' Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
* Ecoles. i. 18. t 2 Tim. i. 10.
DR. MASON GOOD. 277
unto life, and few there be that find it.'* Its ensign is a
Cross ; and the discipline it demands of every one who
enters it, is a course of mortification at his commence-
ment, and a life of humility through his whole career.
But, equally different from every other path in which we
can possibly tread, it widens and brightens, and grows
delightful as we proceed ; and gives at length to the as-
tonished eye every charm of real worth, every unmingled
beauty of scene, in rich and uncontracted profusion,
which every other path makes an empty boast of, and
gives them in perpetuity; for death itself is not allowed
to destroy the extatic prospect. The dark valley of the
shadow of death must, indeed, be passed through ; but
the beams of the Sun of righteousness will ever illume it,
and display, beyond its beclouded vista, 'the path of life'
still spreading, the ' fulness of joy' that is in God's pre-
sence, the pleasures that are at his right hand for ever-
more. t
" It is this last part of the description that gives the
finishing stroke to the whole, and forms the sum of the
happiness of heaven the way that it displays to us is a
way everlasting. Were it not so, indeed, it would be
heaven no longer. The single thought that the joys of
the blest above could have a close, would give a sting to
every delight, and raise a sigh in the midst of every halle-
lujah. And it is on this point, therefore, that the holy
psalmist concentrates his attention in the passage before
us; with this he concludes his supplication, overlooking
all the rest, as though swallowed up in the grand and
momentous idea of perpetuity, and totally inadequate to
the vast grasp of his aspirations without it O, LEAD MB
IN THE WAY EVERLASTING !"
" BE OF GOOD CHEER : IT IS I J BE NOT AFRAID.
Malt. xiv. 27.
" We are perpetually hearing of the troubles .and ca-
lamities of life : and God knows there is reason enough
for the complaint in every quarter. Where is the breeze
that does not waft a sigh ? the sun that is not at times
* Matt. vii. 14. t Psalm xvi. 11.
24
278 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
veiled in clouds ? the harvest that does not produce thorns
and briars ? where is the house without its mourning 1
the city without its place of graves 1 How constantly is
congratulation exchanged for condolence ; and the joyous
peal for the knell of death 1 Life is a series of griefs and
harassments ; and we no sooner escape from one evil, than
we have to encounter another. And as the man is the
daily sport of wayward facts, so is the mind of wayward
fancies. As though we were not satisfied with the sorrows
that actually lie in our way, we create visionary ones in
our imagination, or anticipate those that are approach-
ing ; and, descrying them through the mist of our own
fears, give them a horror and gigantic gauntness that
does not naturally belong to them.
" Now, for all this there is but one remedy : and,
blessed be God, that remedy is a specific : it has stood
the test of nearly two thousand years, and has never failed
in a single instance. It is the repose of the Christian
upon his Saviour : a consciousness of his perpetual pre-
sence and support. ' Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not
afraid.' The Christian lays the entire score to the charge
of sin. Man had no fear, no trouble of any kind, when
in a state of innocence: and when he shall be removed
from his present sinful condition, he will be removed,
also, from the sorrows and perplexities that are indige-
nous to it. In heaven the heart is happy, because it is
holy. There can be no tears where God is present ; no
anxiety, to mar the pleasures that are at his right hand
for evermore. The harmony of the skies has no discord
the song of the Lamb is all triumph. How can he be
afraid who has for ever sat down by the side of the great
Captain of his salvation, and whose banner, waving over
him, is love ?
" This is one support on which the Christian relies in
his passage through the wilderness of the present world ;
and it gives steadiness to his foot, and exhilaration to his
cup. He confides in his Saviour as to the result. If his
course be painful, he knows it will be but short ; and he,
hence, girds up the loins of his faith, and refreshes him-
self by foretastes of the future.
" But the Christian is not left to anticipation alone.
He has another support, and of ineffable value, that ap-
DR. MASON GOOD. 279
plies to the time being ; and softens the roughness and
mitigates the sting of every evil he is actually encounter-
ing. He not only knows that he shall dwell with ' him
whom his soul loveth'* hereafter, but that his beloved
Saviour is personally with him as his companion in every
trial, and will arm him with strength according to his
day. Our blessed Lord has no where told us that a pro-
fession of the gospel, an assumption of his cross, will be
a smooth and inviting course ; but only that its sufferings
will he amply compensated ; and that the balance of en-
joyment will be infinitely in its favor in the long run.
' The ways of wisdom are, indeed, ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace ;' but it is a pleasantness and
a peace, not of the world, but in spite of the world, and
which the worldling intermcddleth not with.'t ' In the
world (says our Lord) ye shall have tribulation ; but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world : and, lo! I
am with you alway, even to the end of the world. Be of
good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid.'
" There is no one point our blessed Lord seems to have
been more solicitous to inculcate during his ministry on
earth, than a cordial reliance on the presence and special
protection of God, as an antidote against the troubles of
life. It forms the leading subject of the first sermon his
lips ever uttered, and it runs through the whole of his
dying address. ' Take no thought for the morrow ; for
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself:
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.'! ' Peace I
leave with you ; my peace I give unto you. Not as the
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid.'^,
" The first of these passages refers to the general pro-
vidence of God, or that which, with infinite wisdom and
goodness, controls the affairs of ordinary life : the second
to his special providence, or the peculiar interpositions
of his grace, on extraordinary emergencies. And both
are the rich dowry of the Christian.
" Why should he be troubled in thought about the fate
of the morrow, who knows that God, who is his God, has
* Sol. Songs, i. 7. t Prov. xiv. 10.
t Matt. vi. 34. $ John xiv. 27.
280 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
taken thought for him beforehand ; and has given com-
mission to the morrow to provide for itself? Its sun will
surely shine its bread and water will surely be made
good. And, even in the midst of all its evils, which no
forethought can ward off, and which the highest day of
prosperity will even find sufficient, he who has taught
him to drop all anxiety upon the subject, will be with
him to bear or to lighten the burden, still whispering in
his ear ' Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid.'
" But it may be his lot to suffer extraordinarily ; and
to suffer too, from his very adherence to his duty ; from
his attachment to ' the faith that was once delivered to
the saints.' He may be thrown into the furnace of per-
secution ; ' the commandment may be urgent, and the
flame exceeding hot ;'* but the form of the Son of God
shall still walk in the midst of the fire ;t and its smell
shall not pass on him, neither shall it have power over
his body. | ' Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid.'
" He may be doomed to struggle with domestic afflic-
tion : the storm may gather round him from every quar-
ter : its waves may roar and be tumultuous ; and his little
bark be on the point of foundering amidst the swell.
Still lift up thine eyes, and behold ! Lo, Jesus is walk-
ing upon the sea : hear the gracious accents of his
voice ' Be of good cheer : it is I ; be not afraid.'
"But he is stretched upon the bed of sickness; every
human hope vanisheth ; heavy hang the shades of death
on his eyelids. His disconsolate family press around him,
and pierce his heart ; the smugglings of dissolution rend
his limbs ; and an awful eternity stretches before him.
What can support him in this complicated struggle ? 'this
overwhelming conflict of soul and body 1 Here, too, the
means are ample ; the crisis is abundantly provided for.
The Saviour is still present more than ever ; he enters
with a fellow-feeling into his sufferings : for he, too, has
tasted the bitterness of death ; he has slept in the bed of
the grave ; he has trodden the same path, and even
smoothed it by his footsteps, and is only gone before to
prepare him a place. || Lift up the quivering lid, and
* Dan. iii. 22. t Id. 25. + Id. 27.
Malt, xiv, 26. || John xiv. 2,
DR. MASON GOOD. 281
catch a glimpse of him: hear the music of his voice,
for it is still sounding 'Be of good cheer : it is I ; be
not afraid. I am he that liveth and was dead ; and be-
hold, I live for evermore, amen : and have the keys of
hell and of death."*
AND THEY HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LORD GOD WALKING
IN THE GARDEN IN THE COOL OF THE EVENING. t
" The voice of God is for ever speaking, but man is
not for ever hearing it ; and hears it, indeed, at all times,
far less than he should do. But there are seasons in
which God will be heard, whether we may choose it or
not. The most abandoned sinner that ever lived cannot
for ever shut his ears against the voice of his Creator.
He may drown the sound, perhaps, at times in the dis-
cordant din of the world ; in the noise and uproar and
merriment of a feast ; he may rise above its hallowed
whisper in the giddy vortex of prosperity ; or may stupify
himself beyond its reach in the apoplexy of intoxication.
.Nay, he may, with fool-hardihood, brave its loud address
in the tempest and in the thunder-storm, and remain
careless and unmoved amidst the wreck of nature around
him. But the voice of God shall still find him out, and
terrify him in the midst of all his evasions.
" It shall find him out when he least expects it, and
when he is least prepared for it. IN THE COOL OF THE
EVENING, when retired from the world, and wearied with
its business or its pleasures ; when reclined at ease in
his own bowers, or seeking quiet or recreation in his
shady walks the voice of God will find him in the gar-
den, and arrest him with the awful sound, ' Where art
thou ?' To fly is now in vain : his feet are fast locked
as in a trap ; and the trees of the garden form no shelter.
" Again strikes the awful sound, 'Where art thou?'
the eye of God is upon him, and reads into his heart's
core. No disguise can now serve him. No shield, no
* Rev. i. 18.
t This was written on the receipt of Dr. Drake's " Winter Evenings,"
and " Evenings in Autumn."
*24
282 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
protector is at hand. He feels himself naked indeed he
feels, and sinks with shame and confusion.
" How miserable is the life of the wicked man ! He
dares not trust himself to the company of his own con-
science. He may cast up the accounts of his merchan-
dise, and exult in them : but he dares not cast up the
nearer accounts of his own heart. Life is, indeed, for
him a forced state, a fever, a delirium : and its only com-
fort is the sweat and the exhaustion of a crowd, or the
stupifying narcotic of the bowl or the bottle.
" How miserable is the life of the wicked man ! All
the beauty of nature is lost upon him. He needs no
flaming sword to keep him from the garden of Eden : for
the single thought that the LORD GOD is walking in the
garden, will at all times drive him away from it like a
whirlwind.
" It is here, however, it is IN THE COOL OF THE
EVENING, in the retirement of silence and solitude, when
not a breath is stirring around us, that the voice of God
is oftenest heard. Elijah was commanded to take his
stand upon the mountain ; and he beheld the mountain
rent with a whirlwind ; and after the whirlwind an earth-
quake ; and after the earthquake a conflagration. Yet
Jehovah was not in the whirlwind, nor in the earthquake,
nor in the conflagration. But A STILL SMALL VOICE suc-
ceeded, and that voice was the voice of Jehovah.
" Happy he who hears it as Elijah did ! in the way of
duty, and charged with a confidential commission. But
let it come how it may, and for what purpose it may, yet
let him hear it. The still small voice of God can never
fail to bring with it a blessing : and in the cool of the
evening, in the privacy of the garden, the heart is most
open to its impressive message.
" It may be a voice of warning : but it will still be in
mercy. O, hear it, and be thankful. Drink in the solemn
menace, and prostrate thyself. Escape for thy life from
the course and companions it denounces. Escape, lest
thou be consumed in their iniquity. O, haste then and
escape ! for the sun, whose beams shall soon be hid in
the smoke of vengeance, is already rising upon the earth.
DR. MASON GOOD. 233
Escape from the condemned crowd, and flee to the privi-
leged spot to the little city of Zoar.*
" It may come as a voice of chastisement. It may lay
thee on the bed of sickness, or sweep away the delight of
thine eyes. Still hear its solemn import, and bethink
thyself. Reflect on the abuse with which thou has em-
ployed every former mercy : how little the hand of God
has been acknowledged in thy prosperity : what idols
have usurped his supreme place in thy heart ; how rapid
the step with which thou wert rushing on to eternal
destruction a lover of pleasure, and without God in the
world.' Hear thou the rod, and him that hath appointed
it :t it is still sent to thee in mercy. Humble thyself in
dust and ashes ; pour out thy soul in deep penitence ;
kiss the Son, while his wrath is thus kindled but a little ;J
put thy trust in him, lest thou perish in the way. He
may demand the cutting off a right hand, or the plucking
out a right eye ; but ' it is profitable for thee that one of
thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body
should be cast into hell.' If Eli cannot enter into
heaven with his sons let him enter by himself and re-
joice with trembling.
" But there are those to whose ear the voice of God
comes in tones of unmingled delight ; who languish and
ever faint for it, as the panting hart in the desert for the
water spring. These are the children of God ; the
despised saints of the world : but who cannot be more
despised by the world than they themselves despise the
world's frivolous and short lived enjoyments. Though
they are in the world, they are not of the world ; they
are travellers to a better country, to a more abiding city.
The day is to them a time of probation ; they conscien-
tiously discharge the duties that lie before them, and
fulfil the work of the day in its day. But they pant for
the season of refreshment ; for the cool of the evening ;
for the hour of meditation and prayer ; for that decline
of the sun's heat and garish splendor, in which the world
recedes, and heaven opens before them. They hear the
voice of God walking in the garden, and joyfully go forth
to meet him ; they press forward from the shades, and
are not afraid.
* Gen. xix. 23. f Mich. vi. 9. J Ps. ii. 12.
$ Matt. v. 29.
284 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
"Everything, then, around them, gives a token of
God's presence ; the solemn stillness, the soothing twi-
light, the tinkling sheep bell, the village curfew, the
rippling stream, the fragrant breath of the wild hedge-
row, the even song of the woodlands ; the harmonious
carol of nature poured forth from every quarter and every
object in praise of the great Creator. Here is no discord :
the garden of Eden is again open ; the flaming sword is
withdrawn. Man is at peace with God, and all things
are at peace with man.
" It was thus the holy Psalmist mused. Retiring from
the concerns of the world, he, too, sought communion
with God ; he sought the cool of the evening, and heard
his voice walking in the garden. He saw the work of
his hands, in the firmament opening above ; and in the
various tribes of animals spread below, rejoicing in the
deep forest, and in the green pasture, and in the balmy
air, and in the rustling waters. But most of all did he
see God in the wonderful structure of his own kind ; in
the condescending grace displayed to him ; in the dig-
nity to which he is advanced by the great mystery of re-
demption raised from the dust to rank with angels, from
sin to the friendship of God himself.
" It was this last thought that overwhelmed him with
astonishment, and compelled him to exclaim, as the head,
the heart, and the tongue of the thronging temple around
him, the priest of the hallowed altar before which he
bowed :
When I contemplate the heavens, the work of thy fingers,
The moon and the stars which thou art arraying,*
What is man, that thou art mindful of him ?
Yea, the son of the ground,* that thou visitest him?
Behold,* thou hast made him little lower than the angels,
And crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands ;
Thou hast put everything under his feet :
All flocks and herds, even the beasts of the forest,
The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea,
Traversing the paths of the waters.
O Jehovah ! our Lord,
How excellent is thy name in all the earth !
* These passages are rendered strictly from the Hebrew ; and show
fully, among other things, that the psalm was intended as an evening song
of praise.
DR. MASON GOOD. 285
AND AS HE REASONED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, TEMPERANCE,
AND JUDGMENT TO COME, FELIX TREM11LED.
Acts xxiv. 2-j.
" The whole of this story, and especially the admirable
defence of St. Paul, equally distinguished by its dignity,
its eloquence, its art, and its holy courage, might well vie
in interest with the most impressive causes that have ever
been brought before a human bar, were it even possible
to confine its consequences to the individual arraigned,
or to the concerns of the present world. But when we
give full scope to its mighty bearing, examine the subject
to which the accusation relates, as forming the key stone
oCthe Christian creed, and dwell on the holy confidence
with which St. Paul advances and maintains it as the
ground work of his own defence, all other trials and
courts of judicature shrink into insignificance before it.
" It is peculiarly instructive to mark how entirely the
apostolic defendant passes by all the abuse and invective,
the charge of being ' a pestilent fellow,' and ' a ringleader
of the sect of the Nazarenes,' with which the counsel for
the prosecution opens his address as altogether con-
temptible, and unworthy of his notice; and with what
rapidity he passes on to the real malignity, the gravamen,
of the crime imputed to him, his belief in the resurrec-
tion of the Son of God from the dead, as the first fruits
of the resurrection of all mankind: as though still having
before him the momentous truth he had just written to
the Corinthians, ' If Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain, ye are yet in your sins.'*
" Whatever the collateral matter brought forward on
this occasion, St. Paul felt that it was against this master
doctrine of the infant church, that the whole venom of
his enemies was let loose. And to this, therefore, he
restricts his defence. ' Except,' says he, ' it be for this
one voice, this single declaration, that I cried, standing
amongst them, Touching the resurrection of the dead
(for no other charge) am I called amongst you this day.'
" The case was so clear, that the court could not hesi-
* 1 Cor. xv. 17.
286 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
tate a moment. The accusers were filled with confu-
sion ; and the prisoner, though not immediately released,
owing to the corruption of the judge, who, \ve are ex-
pressly told, hoped that money should have been given
him of Paul, that he might loose him,'* and who we may,
hereby, be confident had been prodigally bribed on the
other side to condemn him, was merely entrusted to the
general superintendence of a centurion, who was ex-
pressly commanded to { let him have his liberty, and to
forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or to come to
him.'t
" But the most important feature in the entire case is
the striking contrast exhibited in the conduct and de-
meanor of St. Paul himself and that of the Roman gov-
ernor, to whose award he was committed, and upon whom,
under God, his fate altogether depended. We behold
the one standing, as a prisoner, at the bar, surrounded
by a band of soldiers ; the other sitting on the judgment-
seat in all the pomp and circumstance of power : yet the
prisoner is bold and at ease, while the judge shrinks and
trembles before him. What is the cause of this marvel-
lously reversed order of things ? the mysterious impulse
that thus induces them, as it were, to change places ?
that gives quiet and dignity to fetters, and thorns and
confusion of face to authority ?
" The answer is one in which every human being is
concerned ; and which has operated from the begin-
ning of the world, and will continue to operate till its
consummation. The infinite difference of their past
lives : the influence of conscience upon their hearts, now
equally arraigning them before her still loftier tribunal,
and whispering her just award in their ears.
" When Mr. Addison was lying on his death-bed,
being sensible, by the grace of God, of a composure that
falls to the lot of but few Christians in that trying hour,
he called for one of the infidels he had been acquainted
with, that he might read a lesson to him in the holy calm
of his mind ; ' See, (said he) how a Christian can die !'
The language of St. Paul in his defence on the present
occasion, is, ' See how a Christian can live !' and live,
* Acts xxiv. 26. t Acts xxiv. 23.
DR. MASON GOOD. 287
too, in the midst of calumny and oppression, of bondg
and the sight of martyrdom. ' This (says he) I confess
unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so
worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things that
are written in the law and the prophets. And have hope
towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there
shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and
unjust. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always
a conscience void of offence toward God and toward
men.''*
" The great secret is here disclosed to us : the heroic
feeling is fully accounted for ; and the discipline may be
practised in all ages. If any man would be a partaker
of the joy and the exultation which St. Paul manifests,
and which raises him above every weight of affliction, let
him live his life; let him tread in his footsteps; let him,
too, exercise ' a conscience void of offence toward God
and toward men ;' let him, too, exert his faith in ' all
things which are written in the law and the prophets ;'
let him, too, ' worship the God of his fathers in the way'
which the world may laugh at and condemn, and he
shall reap the same reward he shall rise to the same
tone of triumph. External circumstances will, to such a
man, be of little moment. In bonds or at large, in evil
report "or good report, in life or in death, he is endowed
with a buoyant and compensating power, that renders all
earthly things indifferent to him. ' The peace of God,
which passcth all understanding,' shall still surely be his,
and shall still ' keep him in the knowledge and the love of
God. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, shall still be with him, and
remain with him for ever.' On such a man what hold
can persecution take? What influence can the flaming
stake have, or the agonizing cross ? He will glory in
tribulation, he will sing praises in torture, and will ex-
claim, with St. Paul, on another occasion, ' Yea, and if
I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,
I joy and rejoice with you all.'
" On the contrary, of what advantage is wealth or sta-
tion, or official authority, to him whose awakening con-
* Acts xxiv. 16. t Tliil. ii. 17.
288 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
science stirs up the flames of hell in his bosom ? and
shows on what a pointed spear that man leans who rests
his heart on the world ? Such was Felix at the time be-
fore us. His conscience had never, perhaps, till now
been stirred up at all. For, however tender by nature,
and watchful in the discharge of its duty, it may be
hardened and set asleep by art. Unhappily, there are
narcotics in abundance, and far more dangerous than
those of pharmacy, and that lie within the reach of every
one, and that are too often culled by every one that can
stupify it, as it appears to have been stupified in the case
before us; that can render life a delirium, and put a lie
in the right hand of the fool who thus cheats himself.
Thousands and tens of thousands are there who have
thus dragged themselves from the beginning of life ;
whose conscience has never once awoke ; and who go
on with the besotted dream to their graves ; and then
only open their eyes to the dread reality of ' the worm
that never dieth, and the fire that is never quenched.'
"Happy they, O ! happy above all men, whose con-
science never sleeps ; who prize its warning voice ; drink
in its wholesome monitions ; discipline themselves by its
precepts ; and sweep, and garnish, and sanctify their
hearts, as a temple for the Holy Ghost. And next to
these are they happy and happy, too, in the midst of all
the pangs that may chastise them, the cleansing agony
they are doomed to endure whose slumbering conscience
is, at length, startled in the midst of its lethargy, and
urged to a faithful discharge of its duty ; who, in the noon
and sunshine of their sinful career, are stopped short by
the hand of Providence ; are stung with a feeling of their
own guilt and depravity ; and, while in the high road of
profligacy and forgetfulness of God, have a lesson read
to them ' of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to
come,' that makes them tremble. It is a season of mercy,
it is a call to repentance ; the penance may be sharp, but
it leads to health and happiness ; it is a blessed purga-
tory, and the only one to be found in the scriptures ; the
only middle state of torment, that can save from hell, and
prove preparatory to heaven.
" It was vouchsafed to Felix, but, like millions who
have been favored in the same manner since, he was
DR. MASON GOOD. 289
found a coward in the day of trial, and flinched from its
searching potency. The iron entered into his soul, it
touched him to the quickest point of his heart ; all his
deeds of oppression, extortion, and injustice, arose in
fearful vision before his face ; his robbery of the widow
and the orphan, his condemnation of the innocent, his
rapacity and cruelty toward the prisoner who was then
addressing him, and who he felt ought to be as free as
himself; they were the ghosts of his past crimes, per-
mitted to haunt him (in the polluted seat of justice, and
to harrow all his heart-strings. ' And as Paul reasoned
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Fe-
lix trembled.' He trembled, but he did nothing more ;
he trembled, but it was not the trembling of penitence ;
he trembled, but he lulled the panic with an opiate :
' Go thy way,' said he, ' for this time, and when I have a
convenient season, I will send for thee.'
" It is thus the great God is trifled with from day to
day, and the Holy Spirit grieved, and the Redeemer of
the world crucified afresh. O ! pause, ye whose hearts
are conceiving the same deadly words pause, ere' they
proceed from your lips. They may be the last words ye
may ever pronounce : the bolt of avenging justice may
overtake you while uttering them. Or, if such be not
the case, your doom may still be as certain ; your ever-
lasting ruin as inevitable ; and this, too, though you
should live to the age of Methuselah. There may be ' a
convenient season' for others, but to you it may never
return. He who breaks it oflT when once offered to him,
may never find any ' convenient season' afterwards. It
came not to him at the time from his own seeking ; and
it may never again be vouchsafed to him by the bounteous
Spirit that sent it. The day of grace may have spent its
last sands ; and the only season that remains, and that
will remain for ever, may be a season of hopelessness.
The heart may be given over ; the caustic that was meant
to produce a wholesome smart may have seared it; and
the blessing be turned into a curse. The man may again,
indeed, hear ' of righteousness, temperance, and judg-
ment to come' but he may hear without trembling till
the judgment to come overtakes him, and his trembling
shall be for ever."
25
290 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
LET US NOW GO EVEN UNTO BETHLEHEM, AND SEE THIS
THING WHICH IS COME TO PASS, WHICH THE LORD
HATH MADE KNOWN UNTO US.*
Luke ii. 15.
" It is now nearly two thousand years since the great
spectacle, to which this invitation relates, was displayed
in the sight of men and of angels ; a spectacle, beyond
all controversy, the first in power, in wisdom, and in be-
nevolence, that has ever been exhibited on the theatre of
universal being ; and which, so to speak, forms the mas-
terpiece of the combined attributes of the Godhead.
An*d yet how many millions of human kind, for whose
benefit alone it has been performed, have passed into the
world and out of it without ever having heard thereof by
the smallest whisper. And, what is of far more impor-
tance to ourselves, how many millions are there of those
who not only hear of it, but to whom the invitation is
from year to year, nay, from day to day, expressly ad-
dressed, and whose everlasting salvation depends upon
their compliance, who never once think of accepting
it, and are satisfied with the invitation alone ; who have
the bible before them, but suffer it to remain a sealed
book ; and never open, even its first page, with any seri-
ous desire of studying its subject-matter; who never take
a single step in the road to Bethlehem, to examine what
God hath there made known unto us. So brutish is the
heart of man, so dull its desire after heavenly things, so
rooted to the concerns of earth ; as though, like the
grass on which we tread, he could only grow from the
ground. So intoxicated is he with his temporal interests
the bubble of the moment, that bursts even while he
is grasping it, that the great business of an eternal state
is forgotten ; or rather, sacrificed at the shrine of the
reigning idol of the hour. The gracious errand of divine
love is never listened to, the song of angels is unheard,
and the stupendous plan of redemption is suffered to
pass by as a pageant.
* Written at Christmas, 1825.
DR. MASON GOOD.
" O, the long-suffering, the loving-kindness of an of-
fended God ! Truly, ' thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds !'
And, hence alone is it that, instead of a deluge of water,
like that which formerly destroyed the world, or a con-
suming fire, like that which is in reserve for it hereafter,
the same gracious message is still repeated to us down to
the present hour ; and we are still, and especially as on
this returning festival of the Saviour's nativity, invited
to ' go even now unto Bethlehem, and see the thing which
is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto
us.' Let us, then, now, EVEN NOW, if never before, fol-
low the footsteps of the heavenly host, the track in which
their holy harpirigs guide us ; let^us catch the sweet carol
of their accordant tongues, ' Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good-will towards men.'
" And what does Bethlehem unfold to us? The eye
of sense perceives nothing but a stable, a mother of
humble station, and a swaddled babe lying in a manger.
Yet this is the sight to which we are directed ; this is
the spectacle on which heaven is looking down with in-
tense eagerness ; this the grand event for which time has
been travelling onward, and in which all the prophecies
and the promises of God are concentrated. It is the babe
lying in a manger. O parodox of men, and of angels !
O stupendous miracle of seeming contradictions ! ' O
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know-
ledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and
his ways past finding out !" That manger cradles the
Lord of heaven and earth ; that feeble babe is ' the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace!'
What a prodigy, and what a scene for its developement !
When man was made of the dust of the earth, a para-
dise was prepared for his reception ; and all creation put
on its richest livery. When the Son of God is made
man, and descends from heaven upon the gracious errand
of man's eternal salvation, he hath riot where to lay his
head, and is consigned to ' a manger because there is no
room for him in the inn.'
" WHAT A LESSON OF HUMILITY is HERE READ TO us !
It is not with the great, or the mighty, or the noble,
that the Saviour of the world condescends to take up his
292 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
abode ; to be clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and to fare
sumptuously every day. It is not in the courts, or the
palaces, or even the temple of Jerusalem, that he chooses
to make his blessed entrance into the world. But, tramp-
ling, as it were, upon all that man calls great and mag-
nificent ; making an open mock of the pomp, and the
pride, and the vain glory of life, he vouchsafes to dignify
the walk of the lowly with his presence, 'to fill the
hungry with good things, while the rich are sent empty
away :' to be born in a stable, instead of under a cano-
py ; in Bethlehem, the city of David, ' though little among
the thousands of Judah,'* rather than in the capital of
the Jewish monarchy, the citadel of its strength.
" And, as was the opening, so, too, was the progress
of his career. ' Not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, were called ;'t but it was
the poor who had the Gospel chiefly preached unto them ;
and the halt, and the deaf, and the dumb, and the blind,
who were selected to be the principal heralds of the
Redeemer's praise. Where, then, is boasting under the
Gospel 1 It is utterly excluded, it is anathematized, it is
proscribed by every step of our divine Master's progress,
from his mysterious entrance into life to his awful exit;
from the manger at Bethlehem, to the cross at Calvary.
" And as he hallowed the path of humility, so did he
that of affliction. It was his daily trial to ' endure the
contradiction of sinners ;' his ' visage was marred more
than any man's ; he bore our griefs, and carried our
sorrows; was wounded for our transgression, and bruised
for our iniquities ;' and, ' was made perfect through suf-
fering.'
" What a lesson of human wisdom is here read to
us! Let philosophy look on, and blush at its own con-
ceits. How little has man's understanding been able, at
any time, to fathom the nature and the attributes of the
Deity, or to dive into his mysterious councils ! Every age
and nation have had their successive mythologies and
theologies, their creeds for the vulgar and their creeds
for the learned. Egypt, India, Persia, and Greece, have
vied with each other in their respective fancies. And }
*Mic.v. 2. flCor.i. 28.
DR. MASON GOOD. 293
as though for the express purpose of shewing us the utter
vanity of aH the natural powers of the human mind, when
pressed to their utmost stretch of elaborate cultivation,
the experiment was permitted to be carried on among
these nations in succession, through a period of little
less than four thousand years. And what, in every in-
stance, was the result? Shadows instead of realities ;
visionary conjectures instead of substantial truths :
No light, but rather darkness visible.
" And then, and not till then, ' after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom,' was thus proved to 'know
not God, it pleased God,' by what the world called ' the
foolishness of preaching,' thus retorting its own terms
upon itself, by the great scheme of redemption, by the
revelation of his own Son from heaven, to illuminate the
darkness of nature, and ' to save them that believe.'
" Where, then, is the wise ? Where is the disputer of
this world ? God hath chosen the foolish things of the
world (foolish in the world's own conceit) to confound
the wise ; yea, God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things that are mighty ; and base
things of the world, and things which are despised, hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are nbt, to bring to
nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence.'*
" Such was the glowing and triumphant language of
St. Paul, in his day, to the Jews, who were still requiring
signs, and to the Greeks, who were still seeking after
worldly wisdom. ' But we,' says he, ' preach Christ
crucified ; unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto
the Greeks foolishness ; but, unto them that are called,
Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.'t
" The triumphant language of the apostle has been
fulfilled ; his prophetic vision has been realized ; and
Christ has proved most marvellously the power and the
widom of God in every age of the world since his own
era. Yet how incorrigible is the heart of man when
perverted ! how obstinate in its errors ! how blind to the
noon-day, * the light from heaven, above the brightness
* 1 Cor. i. 20, 27, 28, 29. t Id. i. 22, 23.
*25
294 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
of the sun,' that shines around it ! if the question be
still asked, 'Where is the disputer of this world?'
Thousands will, even to the present hour, hold up their
hands unabashed, and proudly accept the Scripture chal-
lenge. They go to Bethlehem, indeed, but they return
as they go there: no heavenly music has sounded in their
ears ; they have seen neither angel nor Saviour ; they
went not to worship, and will not believe. ' The thing
which has come to pass,' and which the Lord hath made
known to mankind at large, they regard, not as matter
of implicit faith and holy wonder, but as matter for the
tribunal of their own reason. With insufferable arrogance
they arraign the Godhead before its impotent bar ; they
measure the plan of infinite wisdom, the energy of Al-
mighty power, the great mystery of godliness, by their
own standard ; and convict the cause of falsehood or of
error upon the sole ground that reason cannot comprehend
it. And hence, as in the time of the apostles, to some
it is, in many parts, a stumbling block, to others alto-
gether foolishness ; some, sitting in the seat of the scorner,
would summarily enter a general verdict of imposture :
while more, perhaps, not far off, though openly condemn-
ing one half, are yet ready enough, with an affectation of
liberality, to acquit the remainder, on being allowed to
put their own corrections into the inspired text. Merci-
ful God ! great, indeed, was thy long-suffering that waited
in the days of Noah! but how much greater is that which
waiteth in our own day, overpowered as it is in such a
diversity of ways with ' the profane and vain babblings,
and oppositions of science falsely so called !'*
" Let, then, the world go where it may, let us. go
even unto Bethlehem. What a lesson is there read to
us on the evil of sin ! In the dealings of God's provi-
dence there is no waste, and as little in the dealings of
his grace. A masterly economy, an exact adjustment of
cause to effect, is a striking characteristic in both. And
hence, if the wickedness of the world could have been
expiated at a less price than the sacrifice of the Son of
God, never would lie have left the throne of his glory to
become " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."
* 1 Tim. vi. 20.
DR. MASON GOOD.
And what can more forcibly demonstrate to us the in-
trinsic enormity of sin, of sin of every kind, the utter
abhorrence with which God beholds it in all its incalcu-
lable ramifications, its essential repugnancy to the purity
and holiness of his own nature, than the stupendous
cost of its atonement. Though armed with almighty
power, God has not the power to forgive sin uncondition-
ally ; though his mercy is infinite, not a pang due to
mankind could be remitted to the Son of his love : though
Christ was God, and ' thought it no arrogancy to be equal
with God,' the severe penalty demanded for human trans-
gression was that of making himself of no reputation, of
divesting or ' empty ing himself 1 of his glory, as the pas-
sage has been more correctly rendered ; of humbling
himself to the fashion of a man, nay, to ' the form of a
servant,' ' despised and rejected of men ;' and of becom-
ing ' obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.'
O wonderful concentration of harmonizing inconsisten-
cies ! God becomes man ; the Everlasting Father a feeble
babe ; Essential Holiness a sin-offering ; the inexhausti-
ble Fount of all blessing and happiness is made a curse :
' Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness,'
infinite the evil of sin.
" Let us go also to Bethlehem, and there read a lesson
of love : of the love which God has so stupendously mani-
fested to man ; and the love which man ought to feel to-
wards God. ' Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends :* but God com-
mendeth his love towards us in that, while we were yet
enemies, Christ died for us.'t
" It was love, infinite, exuberant love, that planned,
from all eternity, the blessed scheme of man's redemp-
tion. Before guilt was contracted, or man was in being,
salvation was provided for him ; the atonement was ready
before sin was committed. 'Lo, I come !' said the
Saviour of the world ; and in the volume of the book of
heaven the engagement was recorded from the begin-
ning : ' Lo, I come to do thy will, O God !'
" And through the whole accomplishment of this will,
love alone was the ruling principle. Every step was
* John xv. 13. f Rom. v. 8.
296 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
marked with it, every action testified it, and every word
sealed it. His miracles were all love, inexhaustible,
overflowing love : the most aggravating provocation could
never turn the sweet current, nor rouse its gentle surface
into a ripple. Instead of commanding fire from heaven
upon his enemies, he breathed forth his blessing on them
that cursed him, and prayed for them that despitefully
used him and persecuted him ; and died on the cross
with the touching benediction of, ' Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do !'
"But, O, the tenderness, the sweet and overwhelming
endearment, the friendship and affection beyond that of
a brother, which he poured forth to his disciples in the
scenes of privacy and blessed confidence. When he
weeps at the grave of Lazarus, who can help weeping
with him? When delivering his last address to his be-
loved eleven how melancholy that one should have fallen
off from the original number ! there was love in that
emergency, O Iscariot, even for thee, hadst thou, then,
like the overtaken, but soon subdued and penitent Peter,
gone 'out, and wept bitterly.' Who can hear his touching
address without melting ? what heart but is all attention
to catch every word as it drops from his gracious lips !
what distress, but what comfort does he set before thee !
how completely are his own sufferings forgotten and swal-
lowed up in the agony that oppresses the faithful few
around him. He sees them terrified, overpowered, brok-
en-hearted ; he beholds the tearful eye, and the bursting
bosom, and the speechless silence. And, O! what a cup
of cordial does he provide for them ! never was so conso-
latory a farewell uttered, so rich a legacy bequeathed.
'Peace I leave with you : my peace I give unto you. Not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'
" And what our divine Master said unto his disciples
at that time, he says to his disciples still, and will say to
them to the end of the world. Let us, then, go to Beth-
lehem ; let us see this thing which has now, more especial-
ly, come to pass; which is, at length, fully consummated.
Let us learn the lesson of love which it so impressively
sets before us. Let love beget love ; the love of God
call forth the love of man ; love supreme, uninterrupted,
DR. MASON GOOD. 297
overflowing, to him who first loved us ; and love free,
unlimited, and universal to our fellow mortals. ' By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love
one another.'
" Let us go, then, to Bethlehem ; let us begin with
the Saviour if we would end with him. Let us go even
to Bethlehem, but let us not take up our final abode
there. Let us follow the footsteps of our Redeemer from
Bethlehem to Calvary, from Calvary to mount Olivet ;
from his humiliation to his exaltation ; from his cross to
his crown. Let us follow him from his first advent to his
second ; from the manger to ' the regeneration, when the
Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory.' Yes ;
to Bethlehem let us go; but let us catch the angelic carol
of this holy season, and employ it as a chant for every
day of our lives. He who thus unites with the multitude
of the heavenly host, while here below, in singing ' Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to-
wards men,' may humbly hope he is in the right way to
unite, ere long, in the realms above with the far greater
chorus, the multitude that no man can number, in strik-
ing to a still higher, and more triumphant note, their
own favorite anthem, that new song which shall never
cease to be new throughout the countless ages of eternity,
' Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power,
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and
glory, and blessing ; for he hath redeemed us to God by
his blood, out of every kindred, and people, and nation,
and tongue. Hallelujah ! for the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth.' "
Besides the "Occasional Thoughts" thus quoted, there
are others equally instructive and impressive, on the
texts 1 John v. 4, Job xxviii. '2, 1 Sam. xxv. 1, and Matt,
xi. 5. In conformity with Dr. Good's usual habits of
order, he entered upon a slip of paper, the texts which
seem to have been regarded as most suited for these short
but interesting trains of reflection, drawing a line down-
ward across the passages on which he had been able to
pursue on paper the entire course of his meditations.
From this memorandum it appears that he had intended
298 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
writing on four more topics ; and from their order and
nature I cannot but imagine that with them he meant to
terminate the series ; or, indeed, considering his antici-
pations of death, as evinced by his letters, I cannot but
conclude, that he thought his life and the series would
close nearly together. The subjects were,
" The winds of doctrine." Eph. iv. 14.
" They took knowledge of them that they had been
with Jesus." Acts iv. 13.
" Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust ; for thy
dew is as the dew of herbs ; and the earth shall cast out
the dead." Isaiah xxvi. 19.
" One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I
see." John. ix. 25.
And truly one may well be filled with delight and as-
tonishment at the radical and permanent change thus
strikingly accomplished, and more and more manifested
unto the end of his course. Meditating upon the eager-
ness t with which for years he pursued the phantom fame,
and upon the insatiable nature of human desires ; recol-
lecting that, if a covetuous man could fill his stores with
gold, he would not therefore fill his heart ; that if the
ambitious man could acquire more titles than he could
enumerate, he would not thereby sate his ambition ; that
if the man athirst after human learning were to accumu-
late a library unequalled in extent and variety, he would
still pant for more knowledge, and eagerly aim at facilities
in its pursuit ; that though a man of scientific research
were to waste his strength and exhaust his spirits, yet
the cravings of his curiosity would not be diminished, nor
the agitations of his soul cease ; that the varied pursuits
of man, and the absorption to which they lead, by a thick
veil of intellectual conceits, too often intercept the view
of eternal objects ; still we have here the most cogent
proof that there is no insurmountable barrier to purposes
of Divine mercy ; that the flashes of immortality, when-
ever God pleases, are all searching and penetrating, and
what is otherwise most powerful sinks into nothing com-
pared with the irresistible energy with which the Holy
Spirit prepares his own way into the heart of man, and
transforms that heart into a living temple for himself.
DR. MASON GOOD. 299
These are the considerations which will give, I hope,
to the preceding developement of religious character, an
interest, notwithstanding its many imperfections; and
which have principally weighed with me in attempting
the delineation.
I need not now occupy the time of the reader by en-
larging upon the manner in which Dr. Good discharged
the offices of friendship or of domestic society ; or by
relating instances in proof of his self-denying kindness
to the poor, his disinterested benevolence, his ever ready
and sincere sympathy with the afflicted. He had for
some years studied in the school, where the lesson is re-
iterated, to " rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep
with them that weep ;" and it was his daily care to the
very close of life to exemplify that lesson. I may, how-
ever, adduce an affecting illustration of this, by inserting
the last letter which he ever wrote. It was addressed to
a pious lady, the wife of a clergyman in , who,
under apprehension of a cancerous affection, had written
to him.
" Guilford Street, Dec. 21, 1826.
" My dear Mrs. H ,
" Your very excellent and impressive letter has deeply
interested us in everything that relates to you, though I
assure you we did not stand in need of any circumstance
so afflictive, to associate our feelings in your welfare.
We had heard, in a loose way, of the fears you were
entertaining, and we had already sympathized with you j
but the rumor having appeared to die away, we were in
hope it was without foundation. I am sure Mr. C
has given you the best advice that, I mean, of corning
to town, and obtaining the best professional opinion and
assistance you can ; and I have only to add hereto, that
I think you should come without delay. It is possible
that, by the blessing of God, means may at present be
devised for eradicating the disorder without any painful
operation ; for it seems to me, that the complaint, what-
ever it may terminate in when confirmed, is at present
only in such a state as to render it doubtful what name to
give the tumor. But by all means, and let the event prove
what it may, give Mr. Abernethy, or whomsoever you
300 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
may consult, (and you cannot consult a more skilful man
than himself) an opportunity of trying his own powers,
and choosing his own time, for whatever may be judged
requisite.
" You write under the guidance of so blessed a spirit,
and with feelings so dear to every good and pious heart,
that, let the result be what it may, there can be no ques-
tion that you will ultimately have to rejoice in the tribu-
lation ; and look upon it as sent in kindness by Him,
who never afflicts willingly, nor grieves ' the children of
men ;' and allow me to add, that an example like this
which you are permitted to afford in suffering, and in
meekness of resignation, cannot fail of having a com-
manding influence on the world at large. ' See how
these Christians suffer !' is, thank God, an exclamation
that may occasionally be heard in the present day, as
well as in former times ; and it has already struck deeply
home into our own hearts.
"But the chief cause of my writing is, to offer you, on
the present occasion, in my own name and that of my
dear wife, every facility that our house will afford : come
to us without loss of time, and so far as my professional
influence may extend among my brethren, or the offices
of friendship may be of any avail, you shall readily com-
mand them. I assure you, we feel also very deeply for
Mr. H , as I trust he will perceive, when he comes
to town. But I must leave Mrs. Good to add her own
request to mine, upon this important subject, and I trust
our conjoint entreaty will not be in vain. With kindest
regards to Mr. H , believe me,
" My dear Madam,
" Ever faithfully yours,
" J. M. GOOD."
The sympathy thus affectionately offered, was never
administered : for, only two days after Dr. Good had
written this letter, he left home, as I have already men-
tioned, to visit his daughter and her children, at Shepper-
ton ; and before the reply, though transmitted without
delay, reached him, he was so seriously ill, as to render
its being read to him altogether inexpedient. Having,
in the passage to which I have just referred, spoken of
DR. MASON GOOD. 301
the severe indisposition which so rapidly terminated in
his death, it now remains for me to enable the reader to
judge of his state of mind, and of the divine supports
\vliich he experienced at that awful and affecting season :
this I shall do by extracting largely from a letter, trans-
mitted at my request, by those members of his family,
whose affection, ever watchful, soothed him most in the
time of his last and greatest extremity.
" Dear Sir,
" Since you desire to record with sacred care, a correct
statement of the faith and feelings of your departed
friend, during the solemn closing scene of his earthly pil-
grimage ; the following memoranda are, in compliance
with your request, forwarded to you for this purpose.
These short notes were written by individuals of the
family, a very few days after the death of their greatly
loved relative. If affection should tempt them to be too
minute, and to transgress the limits which less interested
spectators would have assigned to themselves in describ-
ing such a scene, it will be forgiven by those who are
already deriving peace, and more than peace -joy, in
the assurance, that ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His saints/
" Had you, my dear Sir, been in the dying chamber of
the friend whom you so much valued, and who returned
your friendship with unvarying affection and esteem
through so long a period of years, you would have joined
with his family in adopting the language of the Rev. John
Scott, upon a similar occasion, when he says, ' We feel
we have had a grand and most edifying Christian spec-
tacle proposed to us.' And you would dwell with par-
ticular delight upon the apology offered by Hooker, for
minuteness in the detail of scenes like these. ' The Lord
himself hath not disdained so exactly to register in the
Book of Life, after what sort his servants have closed up
their days on earth, that he descendeth even to their very
meanest actions ; their cries, their groans, their pant-
ings, breathings, and last gaspings, he hath most so-
lemnly commended to the memory of all generations.
And shall it seem unto us superfluous, at such times as
26
302 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
these are, to hear in what manner they have ended their
lives V
" You have, dear Sir, already alluded to your friend's
ill state of health, previous to his journey to Leamington,
and to his unavoidably delayed visit to Shepperton, about
two months afterwards. In this retirement, he was
accustomed occasionally to relinquish, for a short time,
his professional studies, and to unbend his mind in the
midst of his family and friends. The memoranda you
requested, state, that on the 23d of December he set out
on his journey thither. Mrs. Good having left him as
usual after the breakfast hour, till the time appointed for
leaving home, observed, as he got into the carriage, that
he looked extremely ill ; and stated her full belief that he
w-as unable to bear the ride ; he would not, however, con-
sent to the postponement of his visit, and proceeded on to
Piccadilly, where, with great exertion, he paid a medical
visit. On continuing their journey, Mrs. G. observed
that the exercise produced great pain, and urged him to
return ; again he declined complying with her request,
stating the extreme disappointment and anxiety it would
cause his daughters, the youngest being then on a visit
to her sister. They, therefore, proceeded slowly, and
reached Shepperton an hour and a half after the ap-
pointed time. His children were much grieved to notice
the alteration in his countenance and manner : but he
assured them that what he felt was the effect of the ride,
and would be removed in a few days ; and endeavored,
with his usual cheerfulness, to join the family in the
dining-room, only resting on a sofa. He rallied for a few
minutes after dinner, and calling his grandchildren to
him, gave to each the little books which he had selected
for them, and in some of which he had made for his
grandson interlineations, by way of explanation of some
simple philosophical experiments ; while in others were
passages carefully erased with his own hand, as contain-
ing expressions or principles which he disapproved :
these were his last gifts. Shortly afterwards he was
obliged to remove to a room adjoining his sleeping cham-
ber, so soon to become the chamber of death.
" On the same evening, the attendance of his friend
Mr. Cooper was requested ; he, at that time, being at his
DR. MASON GOOD. 303
country house, in the same village ; and it was a cause of
peculiar thankfulness to Dr. Good and his family, in this
season of affliction, that Mr. Cooper was so near.*
"From Sunday, Dec. 24th, to Thursday, Dec. 28th,
Dr. Good continued, though with daily increasing diffi-
culty, to be moved on a sofa in the room adjoining. Fre-
quent doses of opium were even then obliged to be
administered ; they produced occasional confusion of
thought, which he was fully aware of, and recalled him-
self, saying, ' O, this opium, it distresses me ; I cannot
separate imagination from reality ; but I must be quiet.'
The fear of committing himself, or speaking incoherently,
not only at this time, but even in a much later period of
his illness, Dr. Good's family and friends were consoled
by remarking; because it gave the full weight to all his
deliberate statements of his own views or feelings, which
such statements would have deserved had they been de-
livered while in possession of entire health and vigor of
mind. What regard was due to them may be judged by
the consultation held with Mr. Cooper, already alluded
to and many pthers which may be noticed in these me-
moranda. Notwithstanding, however, his extreme suf-
fering, he entertained not the smallest idea of immediate
danger, and fully believed the present attack would pass
off. It was at this period he said to Mrs. Good, ' You
know my views have been for some years past materially
changed. I have been now doctrinally right, but practi-
cally wrong.' The nurse, who at this time sat up with
him, says that great part of the night was spent in prayer :
* " In a later period of his illness, they were much indebted to the
prompt and kind attendance, first of Dr. Cooper, with whom Dr. Good
was formerly connected in some literary work, and afterwards of Mr. B.
Travers, his colleague in a public office. Both these gentlemen afforded
with the utmost kindness their friendly assistance, though they had twenty
miles to travel for this purpose. Mr. Ives, of Chertsey, had long before
this offered his kind and constant attendance, which had been gladly
accepted. To none of these attentions was Dr. Good insensible ; he grate-
fully felt them ; but especially was he deeply indebted to his friend Mr.
Cooper for his skill, his unremitting watchfulness, and unwearied kindness
to himself and family. From the period in which Dr. Good became
materially worse till alter his death, Mr. Cooper never quitted him, except
for a very short time to give some needed directions in his own house ; he
slept on a sofa in the room which opened into his friend's dying chamber,
and with the most tender sympathy administered with his own hands all
the palliations his skill could suggest."
304 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
sometimes, however, he spoke to her, exhorting her not to
delay the consideration of religion. Unwilling to grieve
his family by any expression of the agony he endured,
his very delirium served to show his kindness; as he
then generally talked of being well, and begged those
around him not to concern themselves so much.
" The wonderful ebb and flow of reason, the aberra-
tion of mind at some seasons, succeeded by a complete
self-collectedness and full possession of his reasoning
powers at others, can scarcely be conceived by those who
were not eye-witnesses of the fact.
"Like many other individuals, he often manifested
' the ruling 'passion 1 during his last illness. After he was
entirely confined to his bed, and whilst suffering great
pain, he desired one of his daughters to prepare him a
mixture, using the chemical terms for the different in-
gredients : she replied, 'Dear Papa, you must be more
plain in your directions, or I am afraid I shall mistake.'
Dr. G., who had just strength to raise his head a little
from the pillow, said, in a gentle tone of half reproofy
' Don't you remember the name of that? I thought you
had known it is only so and so but it is well to call
things by their right names.' At another time, when she
urged him to take larger doses of Hyoscyamus, as they
seemed to produce temporary relief, he entered minutely
into all his reasons for preferring a more frequent repeti-
tion, rather than an increase of the quantity, adding,
' therefore give me just the number of drops I tell you.'
These little incidents, in connexion with his always using
terms of art to describe his pain, and often saying to his
family, ' You will find' this or that complaint he had to
speak of ' in my book,' obviously indicate the yet unex-
tinguished prevalence of his leading dispositions, a love
of order, and an ardent attachment to his professional
pursuits.
" None but those who intimately knew Dr. Good can
conceive how, in the daily occurrences of life, he seemed
to forget his own ease in his attention to the wants of
others, and in his earnest desire to promote their comfort.
And never was this disposition more manifested than
during his last illness. On one occasion he said to his
eldest daughter, ' Perhaps I did wrong in coming here
DR. MASON GOOD. 305
on Saturday ; but I knew how greatly distressed you and
Margaret would be, and I could not bear it. I thought
the exacerbation of the disease would pass off with a
little rest, and so I believe it will in time. Now, how-
ever, it is all well, I am very thankful to be in the midst
of my family ; only, I grieve for the trouble I give you
all : and the dear children too, poor little loves. I can-
not bear them now ; but my dear boy Mason must come
to me by and by.'
" On Friday December 29th, as you have already re-
marked, Air. Cooper held a consultation with Dr. Good,
who saw and wrote a prescription with his usual accu-
racy for his patient, the niece of his much loved and
greatly esteemed friend, the Rev. Mr. Russell, rector of
the parish. A more striking scene can scarcely be con-
ceived The young lady, who was extremely ill, and
supposed to be in immediate danger, was, at her own
earnest request, brought into the house, and placed by
the bed-side of her kind physician, who gathered up all
his strength to attend to her symptoms, which were
stated with extreme difficulty. At this time his own
danger began to be apprehended by his afflicted family,
and the friends of both parties listened, with no common
interest, to what was passing before them. The exertion,
however, was far too much for Dr. Good. The excite-
ment it produced, occasioned through the whole of the
same night and succeeding day much confusion of
thought.
" In the evening of Saturday December 30th, he was
once more completely himself; and this being observed,
Mr. Russell was sent for. On his entrance, Dr. Good
put out his hand, saying, ' You are the very person whom
next to my own family I am most anxious to see. 5 Mr.
Russell replied, ' I am come for the purpose of imploring
the blessing of the Redeemer upon you.' Dr. Good then
inquired, mentioning their names individually, if all his
family were present? And each answering, he said in
almost his usual tone of voice, and with much composure
of manner, ' I cannot say I feel those triumphs which
some Christians have experienced ; but I have taken,
what unfortunately the generality of Christians too much
take, I have taken the middle walk of Christianity ; I
*26
306 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
have endeavored to live up to its duties and doctrines,
but I have lived below its privileges. I most firmly be-
lieve all the doctrines of Scripture^ as declared by our
church. I have endeavored to take God for my Father
and my Saviour; but I want more spirituality, more hu-
mility, I want to be humbled.' Here he became much
agitated, but yet went on, ' I have resigned myself to
the will of God. If I know myself, I neither despair
nor presume ; but my constitution is by nature sanguine
in all things, so that I am afraid of trusting to myself.'
Some remarks being made about the righteousness of
Christ, Dr. Good replied, ' No man living can be more
sensible than I am, that there is nothing in ourselves ;
and of the absolute necessity of relying only upon the
merits of Jesus Christ. I know there is a sense in which
that expression of Saint Paul's, "of whom I am chief"
is applicable to all ; but there are some to whom it is pe-
culiarly appropriate, and I fear I am one. I have not
improved the opportunities given me ; I have had large
opportunities given me, and I have not improved them as
I might : I have been led astray by the vanitv of human
learning, and the love of human applause.'
" Something being said about the cleansing blood of
Jesus Christ ; he again repeated, 'Do not think I de-
spair ; I am naturally sanguine, I am afraid of myself.'
In compliance with Dr. Good's own request, Mr. Russell
then read John i. 15, 16. dwelling upon the words ' Out
of his fullness have we all received.' Mr. Russell then
asked, ' Is there any thing in particular that you wish
me to pray for?' Dr. Good answered, ' No, I have en-
deavored to give you, not as a matter of form, but in the
sight of God, a transcript of my feelings.' ' But,' re-
peated Mr. R , ' is there nothing in particular that
you wish me to pray for ?' The reply was, ' I want to
be more humbled under a sense of sin ; I want more
spirituality, more humility.' Mr. Russell accordingly
knelt down to pray. But after this testimony to the
truth, this statement of his feelings, in which all the
powers of his soul and body seemed summoned up and
concentrated, nature was exhausted.
" Those present had been throughout this trying, yet
abundantly consolatory scene, fearful that a return of de-
DR. MASON GOOD.
lirium would follow so much exhaustion ; but before the
conclusion of Mr. Russell's prayer, Dr. Good fell into
the only peaceful sleep which he had enjoyed for many
days.
" Sunday December 31st, was a day of intense agony
and frequent wanderings of mind ; yet with intervals of
perfect recollection and composure. About noon Dr.
Good sent for his little grandson, and after solemnly
blessing him, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, he added instantly, ' Now no
more, go, I dare not trust myself;' showing in this last
remark a perfect self-recollection, a state of mind which
continued for several hours. Shortly after this, some one
mentioned Miss W.'s name, (the young lady who was
governess to his grandchildren.) Dr. Good desired to
see her, and on her coming into the room, and taking
the convulsed hand, which he evidently wished but
wanted the power to put forth, he spoke some words
expressive of his satisfaction as to her care of the chil-
dren', and urging the responsibility of the charge she had
undertaken, and her need of remembering it, especially,
he added, ' whilst their mother was laid aside (meaning
by attendance upon himself) and I know not how long
that may last.' ' I don't know,' he said, ' how much I
may have to suffer, but I am yet a strong man ; whether
we shall ever meet around the dining-table again, I can-
not tell;' and concluded by some expression of hope and
desire that he should meet her hereafter.
" Dr. Hooper arrived late in the evening of this day.
Our dear father immediately knew him, described his
own sufferings in the usual medical terms, and was not
satisfied unless the quantity as well as quality of the me-
dicines administered was stated to him. Dr. H. did not
remain long, too quickly perceiving how unavailing, in
this case, was human skill : with tenderness and frank-
ness he told us his opinion, and assured us of his readi-
ness to remain longer, notwithstanding his pressing medi-
cal engagements, if his continuance would be of the
slightest benefit to his friend. In the intervals of com-
posure, and when not suffering from extreme exacerba-
tions of pain, some of Dr. G.'s family endeavored to re-
peat occasionally short texts of scripture, to which he
308 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP
always listened with pleasure, appearing however much
more struck with some than with others. On one occa-
sion, without any suggestion or leading remark from
those around, he was heard to repeat distinctly with
quivering convulsive lips, ' All the promises of God are
yea and amen in Christ Jesus.' ' What words for dying
lips to rest upon.' At another time, as one of his family
was sitting by, he uttered some expression, not accurately
remembered, of deep sorrow for sin. This text was then
mentioned, ' If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.' He repeated, ' faithful : yes nothing
can be more suitable.'
" The same evening one of his family kneeling over
him said, 'May I pray, can you bear it?' the reply was
' I am not sure, I am in great pain ; but try and pray.'
Accordingly a few words were offered up, imploring that
the Saviour would reveal more of His loving-kindness,
His exceeding glory, to him ; he listened attentively, and
uttered something expressive of his feeling that these
petitions were suitable to him, and of his deeply joining
in them.
"On Monday, January 1st, his sufferings increased,
and his mind wandered. At 7 o'clock on the morning
of this day his youngest daughter proposed repeating a
well known text of scripture, as the likeliest means of
recalling him to himself. She was answered that this in
his present weakness would only confuse him more. A
text of scripture, however, was repeated, and the effect
was wonderful ; it seemed a perfect calling back of the
mind : he listened with manifest pleasure, and concluded
it himself. Many were the texts which were repeated
at different intervals throughout this day, and to which
he listened with more or less pleasure, as they more or
less seemed to strike his feelings as suitable to his own
case. Some of them were, ' The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin.' ' Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of God.' ' The Lord is my Shepherd 1 .'
' Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil.' Mr. Russell being about
to quit the room, Dr. Good called out, begging him not
DR. MASON GOOD. 309
* to go. It was most strikingly impressive to hear his
quivering lips uttering the words of scripture, at a time
when intense agony occasioned such convulsive motions
of the whole body, that the bed often shook under him.
His youngest daughter, who was then holding his poor
cold hands, said to him, ' Do you remember your favorite
hymn ?' ' There is a fountain fill'd with blood :' he had
repeated it in the earlier part of his illness, and told Mr.
Russell that sometimes when walking through the streets
of London he used to repeat it to himself. In one in-
stance he altered it unintentionally, but still strictly pre-
serving the sense.
" Dr. Good repeated it as given in the St. John's col-
lection of hymns, with this exception Instead of
' When this poor lisping stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.'
he substituted
' When this decaying mouldering frame
Lies crumbling in the dust.'
This little variation may not be regarded as altogether
unimportant, since it shews that his mental powers were
still vigorous.
" Sometimes when those around could not remember
the exact words of the passage of Scripture intended
to be quoted, be corrected the error, and repeated them
accurately. One of the texts he appeared to dwell upon
with most earnestness and delight was, ' JESUS CHRIST,
the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.' When Dr.
Good's former Unitarian views are remembered, the
dwelling upon this particular text could not but be con-
solatory to his family. Another text, which, without any
suggestion or leading remark, he repeated several times,
was, ' Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubba-
bel thou shalt become a plain ; and He shall bring forth
the head-stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace,
Grace unto it,' dwelling with peculiar emphasis upon the
words, ' Grace, Grace unto it.'
" He also appeared to derive great comfort from these
texts repeated by Mr. Russell, ' When flesh and heart
fail,' &c. Also, ' When thou walkest through the fire, I
will be with thee,' &c. He also listened with much ap-
310 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF
parent comfort to that portion of the Te Deum suggested
to him by his wife, ' When Thou hadst overcome the
sharpness of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of
heaven to all believers.'
"On the afternoon of this day, (Monday,) Dr. Good
perfectly knew every one, again expressed himself thank-
ful to be placed in the midst of his family, and to be near
Mr. Russell. When Mr. Travers arrived in the evening,
he immediately recognized him, addressed him by name,
and submitted to the means used for his relief, though
painful. Upon the last opiate draught being given, he
he would not rest satisfied until told the precise quantity,
which consisted of fifty drops of laudanum ; and, con-
sidering the great quantity administered at different times,
it is indeed surprising that his memory and mental powers
should, up to this period, have been so little impaired.
Mr. Travers, having employed all the means which sur-
gical skill could devise, seeing they were of no avail, did
not remain long with Dr. Good. After this time, he was
constantly convulsed, and uttered but one or two con-
nected sentences. Seeing one of his family standing by,
he made use of his frequent appellation 'dearest.' But
his power of comprehension appeared to last much longer
than his power of articulation or of expression. His
hearing now became greatly affected. Mr. Russell called
to him in a loud voice, 'Jesus Christ the Saviour:'
he was not insensible to that sound. His valued clerical
friend then repeated to him, in the same elevated tone,
' Behold the Lamb of God:' this roused him, and with
energy, the energy of a dying believer, he terminated
the sentence, ' WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SINS OF THE
WORLD :' which were the last words he intelligibly uttered,
being about three hours before his death. Mr. Russell
twice commended the departing spirit into the hands of
Him who gave it. The last time was about one o'clock
on the morning of Tuesday the 2d of January 1827, and
at four o'clock the same morning, the breath, which had
gradually become shorter and shorter, ceased entirely."
And now let us retire from this solemn scene, assured
that the blessed spirit, as it escaped from the encumbran-
ces of mortality, soared to the eternal regions, and joined
DR. MASON GOOD. 311
the "innumerable multitude" who "surround the throne"
and " cast their crowns at the feet of THE LAMB ;" con-
soling the bereaved relatives with that assurance, and
seeking benefit to ourselves by contrasting the peaceful
end of the Christian believer with the numerous instances
which daily occur of men who die " without hope :"
remembering that the main " difference between one
man's death and another's, dependeth on the difference
between heart and heart, life and life, preparation and
unpreparedness ;" a difference which is essential, and
flows from the grace of God.
SERMON,
OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF
JOHN MASON GOOD, M. D. F. R. S. &c.
BY CHARLES JERRAM, M. A.
VICAR OF CHOBHAM, AND LATE MINISTER OF ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL.
2 Tim. i. 12.
".I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day."
THERE is something peculiarly awful in death, not only
as the separation from all we love and value on earth ;
not only of the termination of all our temporal plans and
pursuits, as the dissolution of our bodily frame, and the
entire breaking up of the present system of things ; but
especially as the commencement of a new state of exis-
tence, as the entrance into regions hitherto untried and
unknown, as the admission into an order of society alto-
gether new and strange, and the beginning of a period
that measures its duration, not by the succession of
months and years, but by eternal ages, and the existence
of Him, who knows neither beginning of days nor end of
time.
It is truej many pass out of this life into the next,
without much thought or anxiety. They submit to the
evil, as one of necessity, and common to man, and think
of nothing that may lie beyond the grave. They must
take their chance as others do ; and with their eyes vol-
untarily closed, plunge into the abyss, without knowing or
27
314 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
much reflecting into what depths they may fall. Thought-
ful men, however, are differently affected by death. Its
probable, or even possible results greatly occupy their
mind. The soul must live forever ; an account of the
past must be given to a Judge, whose decision will be
final, and its consequences eternal. Imagination can fix
no limits to the magnitude of these facts, and the greatest
anxiety is felt respecting them. A place of refuge, when
the storm gathers ; a prospect of happiness, when the
present scene closes ; a resting place for the weary, a
sure habitation, O, how desirable! But where are they
to be found ? What an inquiry ! How enviable is the
condition of him, who has carefully viewed the alternative
of life and death, and has no misgiving thoughts, no fore-
boding fears as to the future ! He stands on the shore,
looks at the ocean, is ready to embark, and can say to his
friends, " I am leaving you, but I shall soon reach the
haven of rest; I know my pilot; I can trust the vessel,
and I fear no danger."
Such was the confidence of St. Paul ; and such, in a
lower and qualified sense, was that of the lamented indi-
vidual, whose recent death we are now called upon to
improve. Each could say, though not with the same de-
gree of assurance, nor with equal strength of hope, " I
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day."
We may consider this passage as speaking the lan-
guage, I. OF SERIOUS REFLECTION; II. OF ESTABLISHED
FAITH ; and, III. OF ASSURED HOPE.
I will make a few remarks on each of these topics,
and conclude with an application of them to the case of
our departed friend ; and may " the spirit of all grace"
lead us into such a train of thought, as may issue in each
of us being able to say for ourselves, " / know whom /
have believed, and / am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day."
I have said, that the text is the language of,
I. SERIOUS REFLECTION : and that it is so, might be
collected even,
DR. MASON GOOD. 315
1. From its indefinite terms. Nothing is here said
specifically, except that the apostle had a fixed confidence
and an assured hope. He mentions a day, a deposit, and
an individual, without stating the particulars which were
passing through his mind. He speaks of " that day,"
without telling us what day ; of a deposit, but says noth-
ing of its nature ; of an individual, but he does not
mention tvhom. Now what does this indicate, but that
his mind had been so constantly fixed on these topics,
that there was no need to mention them definitely ?
The day of judgment was so ever present in his
thoughts, that he could scarcely think of any other day,
except in reference to it ; and therefore he calls it, as he
does in two other places of this epistle, (i. 18. iv. 8.)
" thct day," the day for which all other days were made;
that alone in which man has a deep interest, and which
must determine the issue of every other day.
Again : The care of the soul was so paramount to all
other cares, that all anxiety about the latter was lost in
the former ; and therefore, when he speaks of taking
care of anything, it was unnecessary for him to mention
the soul; for this was always meant, if nothing else were
directly spoken of. Hence, when he says, " I am per-
suaded that he is able to keep that which I have commit-
ted to him," not a moment's doubt could remain as to the
nature of the deposit ; for there was but one thing about
the security of which he had any anxiety ; and that was
his soul his soul, with all its concerns, as connected
with time and eternity.
Again : with regard to Jesus Christ, there was no one
in earth or heaven that was so constantly in his mind.
Just as the traveller, when crossing either sea or land, if
he looks upwards, always sees the same sun ; so this
blessed apostle, through the whole journey of life, and in
all its vicissitudes, kept his eye incessantly on this " Sun
of righteousness." Whatever was the subject of his con-
versation or writing, it always led to, and ended in him.
He could think of nothing else, and speak of nothing
else. He was his Saviour and his God, his sun and his
shield, his hope and his consolation, his guide and his
friend, his joy and his crown. There was " none in
heaven but he, and none upon earth whom he desired
316 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
in comparison of him." When, therefore, he says, " I
know whom \ have believed," it was perfectly unneces-
sary to mention his name : there was but one, there
could be but one, to whom his thoughts reverted, who
was worthy of his confidence, and was able to sustain it.
So that the very indefiniteness of the passage shews the
frequency and intenseness with which the apostle re-
flected on the topics to which he alludes. But it is,
2. Prom the manner in which St. Paul here speaks of
a most solemn transaction, that we especially perceive his
deep thought fulness and serious reflection. From a con-
sideration of what he knew of Christ, he had been induced
to commit to him the keeping of his soul, till the final
judgment ; and he now, as he had often done before,
reviews this transaction, and considers it in all its bear-
ings and certain consequences. He seems to have been
reflecting on the power of Christ to preserve his deposit ;
and the awful alternative, if he should have misplaced
his confidence : but on the closest scrutiny of what he
had done, he sees no reason to repent, or wish he had
acted otherwise. On the contrary he feels perfectly satis-
fied that everything is safe, and that he shall never be
disappointed of his hope. When the deposit is required,
he is confident it will be found, and will be produced to
his unspeakable advantage and joy. He is like a person
who has the charge of a treasure of inestimable value ;
and who knows that it is impossible for himself to keep
safe possession of it; and yet, upon his producing it on
an indefinite day, everything that is valuable to him in
this world depends. He looks anxiously therefore around
him for some one with whom he may entrust it, and hav-
ing at length found one, who is willing to undertake the
charge of it, and whom he thinks able to preserve it, he
commits it into his hands, and incurs all risks. From a
natural anxiety as to the issue, he frequently reviews the
transaction. He again and again thinks of his treasure,
of the day of final audit, and of the person in whom he
had reposed his confidence : but from every review, he
derives increased satisfaction. The more intimately he
becomes acquainted with his friend, the stronger is his
conviction that nothing can overcome his power, or shake
his steadfastness, or abate his kindness. His first impres*
DR. MASON GOOD. 317
sion of safety is at length raised to the full assurance of
hope, and he says, with the utmost confidence, " I know
whom 1 have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed to him, against that
day."
Such, my brethren, were the serious reflections of the
apostle on the solemn transaction in which he had com-
mitted his soul to the keeping of Jesus Christ : and tell
me whether the affair did not deserve and demand all the
care he so anxiously bestowed upon it. What can you
conceive of greater magnitute ? What that is pregnant
with more momentous results 1 Can imagination bring
together more than is comprehended in the three words,
The soul of man : The Son of God: The day of judg-
ment ? Or can it connect, in one transaction, more than
is involved in committing the soul to the son of God,
against the day of judgment ?
Weigh the icords separately ; and what estimate will
you put upon the soul? On what scale of relative value
will you appreciate that which derived its origin from the
inspiration of God, and was stamped with the impression
of the divine image? that which is the connecting link
between earth and heaven ? which extends itself through
boundless space and endless duration ? which has capacity
of sufficient dimensions to contain the joys of heaven or
endure the pains of hell ? which was redeemed at an in-
finite price 1 which engages the ceaseless attention of the
principalities and powers both of light and darkness, and
which is destined to be the everlasting associate of angels
or devils ? What is the price then I ask of the human
soul, and what will a man take in exchange for it ? What
sleepless anxiety must every man feel for its safety !
What sacrifices of present ease and enjoyment, of wealth
and reputation, of health and even of life will he not
cheerfully make that the soul may receive its due portion
of attention, and be finally saved ! So reason would con-
clude ; so common sense would suppose ; so self-interest
would seem to suggest. But what are the facts of the
case 1 Where is this just estimate practically formed ?
Who thinks and plans and acts as if the soul were the
chief concern of man '? Nay, may we not rather ask,
who really thinks it deserves any care at all ? Who has
*27
318 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
spent one single day in serious inquiry about either its
origin or its destiny ; its capacity or its powers ; its re-
demption or its salvation? Who resists a temptation for
its safety, or sacrifices a lust for its dignity, or foregoes a
momentary enjoyment for its everlasting well-being ? O,
my brethren, what ravages has sin made, not only on the
happiness, but on the qualities of man on thought on
reflection on reason on the soul ! All that is spiritual,
immortal and godlike, is merged in sense, in appetite, in
the brute. The profligate " wastes his spiritual substance
in riotous living." The profane " sells his heavenly birth-
right for a mess of pottage." The covetous clings to the
earth, and " loads himself with thick clay :" and even
the beggar, as if it were not enough that the body should
perish for lack of food, prodigally throws away his soul
also ! May God, for God only can do it, awaken us
from this sleep of death, and arouse us to a sense of our
true interests ! When he does this, we shall be pressed
in spirit, and " work out our salvation with fear and
trembling."
But if the price of the soul be above rubies, what shall
we think of Him, who " redeemed it with his precious
blood ?" What, I ask, do you think of Christ 1 What
do you think of his person, who is " the wonderful Coun-
sellor ; the mighty God ; the everlasting Father ; the
King of kings, and Lord of lords 1" What think you of
his humiliation, who, though he was " the brightness of
his Father's glory and the express image of his person,"
yet " made himself of no reputation, but took upon him
the form of a servant ; and was made in the likeness of
men : and being formed in fashion as a man, humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross?" What think you of the grace of Him,
" who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes became
poor ; that ye, through his poverty, might be made rich ?"
What think you of the mysterious character of Him, who
was " God manifested in the flesh ?" What of his great-
ness, power and glory, who is " the hope of the ends of
the earth," the guide and support and joy of all the saints
from the first parent of man to his latest posterity ? What
of him, whose " kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and
whose dominion is from generation to generation ?" at
DR. MASON GOOD. 319
whose " name every knee shall bow, and every tongue
confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father V
Who ruleth over all things both in earth and heaven
who " hath spoiled principalities and powers ;" who has
conquered death and the grave; who will subdue Satan,
destroy his kingdom, reduce the whole world to the obe-
dience of faith ; reign triumphantly in his church, and
fill the whole earth with his glory ? What, I ask, do you
think of Christ 1 Is the Redeemer of Israel come ?
Are the prophecies respecting him accomplished ? Has
the Son of God appeared among us? Has he made the
atoning sacrifice ? Has he entered heaven for us? Is
he invested with his kingdom, and " made head over all
things for his church?" Has he commissioned his
ministers to preach the gospel to every creature ? Are
there any signs of his second coming ? any shaking
among the nations ; any light breaking into " the habita-
tions of darkness aud cruelty ;" any indications of " the
little stone, cut out of the mountain without hands, becom-
ing a great mountain and filling the whole earth ?" any
tokens of the " mystic Babylon" falling before the ark of
the covenant? any preludes to "the battle of the Lord
God Almighty ?" to the overthrow of Satan's kingdom,
and the establishment among every people and nation
and language of that kingdom which shall fill the whole
earth with peace and righteousness and glory? If so, I
ask again, what think ye of Christ ? Can imagination
fix any bounds to the grandeur of his character, the ex-
tent of his dominion or his importance to man ? Well
might the apostle ever have hirn present in his mind, and
deem him worthy of being entrusted with the keeping of
his soul !
I cannot conclude these reflections, without remarking
how different an aspect this view of things gives to the
Christian system, to those notions of it, which reduce
Jesus Christ to the level of a mere man, to a divine mes-
senger and moral teacher. There is indeed nothing of
mystery in this ; but there is nothing also of grandeur
and.magnificence. It finds man in the dark, and it fur-
nishes him with a portion of light ; liable to evil tenden-
cies, and it gives him advice ; subject to mortality, and it
reveals a future life. The centre of this system is a man,
320 SERMON ON THE DEATH OP
and he performs the part of a man, of a good and a wise
man. Like Socrates and Plato, who were also good and
wise men, he points out the path of honor and of recti-
tude, and assures us that virtue is its own reward in tire
present world, and is entitled also to reward in the life to
corne. But look at the coldness, the nakedness, the
meanness of the affair ; and then turn your eye upward,
and behold " the Sun of Righteousness," and gaze on
his glory, and feel his warmth, and walk in his light, and
contemplate the myriads of beings, in the east and
in the west, in the north and in the south, whom
he animates, delights and blesses in his daily course, and
will continue to do so, while he retains his station in the
spiritual firmament ; and when these heavens and this
earth shall pass away, he shall establish a new order of
things, and reign gloriously in " new heavens and a new
earth," till at length, " he shall deliver up the kingdom
to God even the Father, and God shall be all in all."
We have thus seen that two of the subjects which were
constantly uppermost in the thoughts of St. Paul, the
soul and the Son of God, were well worthy of his most
serious reflection ; nor shall we think the third less so,
when we connect the day of judgment, with all the cir-
cumstances of grandeur and terror that will attend, and
the final and irreversible results which will follow it. But
on these topics I cannot now dwell ; and indeed, in a
case where all description must fall infinitely short of the
reality, the wisest plan seems to be to leave imagination
to take its own course, and present its own picture to the
mind. What that day will be " for which all other days
were made," or what that voice, which will awake the
dead ; or that power which shall shake the firm earth ;
or that fire which shall dissolve the heavens, or that Ma-
jesty of the Son of Man, before which all creation shall
be confounded, I cannot explain. Nor will I attempt to
describe the congregated world, standing before the Son
of God, surrounded with the glory of the Father, and all
his holy angels, awaiting their irreversible sentence
from his awful lips ; nor that terror and heart-withering
despair, which will seize his enemies when " hell goeth
forth to meet them at their coming ;" nor what is implied
in " the worm that never dieth, and the fire which is not
DR. MASOX GOOD. 321
quenched." Nor will I say anything of " the redeemed
returning and coming to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy ;" nor of the " opening of the everlasting doors, that
the King of glory may enter in," with all hi* ransomed
and triumphant church; nor of their being shut in with
their Lord ; nor of their ascriptions of praise ; nor of
their holy and happy associates ; nor of the New Jerusa-
lem ; nor of the water and the tree of life; nor of what
is implied in the tabernacle of God being with men, and
of his dwelling among them, and of his wiping away all
tears from their eyes, and of there being no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain; nor of
the rest, the enjoyment, the glory, the perpetuity of this
new state of things ; I will not dwell on these topics ;
only I must say that such a day as this is deserving of
our serious thoughts and reflection, because we have
each an infinite stake in it. We shall not be spectators,
but actors. It will not be a pageant, but a reality. Not
an assize for others, but a day of trial for ourselves : and
on the issue of which our everlasting " weal or woe," de-
pends.
Such then are the three great subjects which the apos-
tle ever had before him : the Soul ; the Son of God; and
the day of judgment ; subjects large enough, it will be
confessed, to fill the whole mind, and to occupy it with
intense thought. Nor shall we be surprised at the con-
clusion to which they finally brought him. He was de-
termined to commit that soul into the hands of that
Saviour against that day. Let us make a brief remark
or two upon it.
There is a peculiar grandeur in the transaction. The
stake is immense ; the person taking the charge of it is
the Son of God, coming down from heaven, for the ex-
press purpose ; and the results are unalterable and ever-
lasting. What can be compared with this ? A kingdom
in the extremity of danger, hazarding its last conflict
with a foe, hitherto invincible, and now, as its last re-
source, placing itself in the hands of a new commander,
whose name had filled the world with its glory, dwindles
into nothing before it; because everything in this case
is finite and temporal ; everything in the other, infinite
and eternal.
322 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
The transaction is one of urgent necessity. The soul
is in danger of being lost. There is but one possible way
of securing it ; for " there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we can be saved, but
only the name of Jesus Christ." The day of death,
which is to us as the day of judgment, is at hand, it may
be the present day. The affair therefore must be attended
to, or we are ruined ; and it must be attended to imme-
diately, or we incur the fearful risk of its being never
done at all. " Now, then, is the accepted time, now is
the day of salvation."
Lastly, the transaction comprises the whole of religion.
It is the sum and substance of everything which is
contained in the whole gospel ; it has its foundation in
all its peculiar doctrines; the divinity of the Saviour, his
atoning sacrifice, his eternal priesthood, his mediatorial
government. It calls for the exercise of every Christian
grace faith, hope, love, dependence, patience, perse-
verance, meekness, humility, gratitude. It involves all
Christian privileges and prospects adoption into the
family of God, union and communion with the Saviour,
supplies of grace, and strength, and eternal glory. And
when a person has committed his soul into the hands of
the Son of God, against the day of judgment, he has
performed the great business of life ; he has answered
all the purposes of redemption, and he has secured all
the interests of eternity. But it is more than time that
I draw your attention to the text, as speaking the lan-
guage of
II. ESTABLISHED FAITH. On this point, I need not
long dwell. It is obvious that when the apostle says, " I
know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he
is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day," he expresses his firm and entire reli-
ance on Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul ; and
that after repeated and most careful reviews of what he
had done, he sees no reason to alter his mind, and noth-
ing to shake his confidence : he still reposes in Christ,
and is determined to do so to the very last : his faith is
established, and his mind is at rest. It is needless there-
fore to insist further upon this ; but I will take occasion
DR. MASON GOOD. 323
from this instance of genuine faith, to draw your atten-
tion to its nature and reasonableness.
The minds of Christians have often been perplexed on
the subject of faith ; and they have been harassed with
doubts whether theirs be scriptural, and such as God will
approve. Now this passage seems admirably calculated
to remove these perplexities, and to put the question en-
tirely to rest. Let us then dwell for a moment on each
step in the progress of the apostle towards this established
faith ; and it will be remarked that there are three
KNOWLEDGE, BELIEF, TRUST. " / know whom I have
believed, and I have trusted my soul to Him." Know-
ledge then, it will be observed, was his first step. He
first knew, and then believed. It is of importance to
remark this, because it has been sometimes said, that
faith is the offspring of ignorance, atid flourishes best in
the absence of evidence. This indeed may be true of
the faith of many who call themselves Christians, but it
is not the faith which the gospel recognizes. Thousands
believe what others believe, and merely because others
believe it. They receive, as articles of faith, what their
church prescribes, without a moment's thought on what
higher authority it rests. If their church be orthodox,
they are so ; but if it admit as truth the grossest errors,
they make no distinction, and receive the whole as Chris-
tian verities. But this is superstition, not religion ; cre-
dulity, not faith ; and ought never to be confounded with
that reception of Christian doctrines which results from
the evidence of scriptural testimony. The faith of the
apostle, it is evident, proceeded from his knowledge of
Christ ; and let it be observed that this knowledge is
twofold historical and experimental. He believed in
Jesus Christ for the same reason that he believed in any
other person of whom he had heard mention, or whose
name was recorded in history. He had heard of Jesus
Christ from those that knew him; and he read in records,
which he had no reason to distrust, of his miracles, and
prophecies, and doctrines, and could entertain no rea-
sonable doubt of their truth ; and therefore he believed
them. And this was the apostle's historical knowledge
of Christ ; and it is the same, in substance, as that of
Christians in the present day. They also have access to
324 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
the same records ; they read the same facts, and come to
the same conclusion. They could not do otherwise,
without rejecting the principles on which credit is given
to all the facts and events of former times, and thus de-
stroying the foundation of all historical knowledge. Now
this knowledge of the facts recorded in the gospel, af-
fords a basis on which faith first reposes ; it satisfies the
mind that Christ is the Messiah and the Saviour of the
world ; but it is not all that is necessary for the peace
and happiness of a Christian. He has a personal interest
in the Saviour of whom he reads, and has an important
affair to transact with him ; and he needs an acquain-
tance with him of a more intimate kind, before he can
feel perfectly at ease in entrusting his concerns in his
hands. A comparatively slight knowledge of an indi-
vidual, in whom we have no particular interest, may suf-
fice for our giving him credit for many excellent qualities;
but if we have a deep stake in the truth of what we have
heard only in report, we need something further to justify
our confidence. We cannot be satisfied without some
intimate knowledge of him ; some experience of his
kindness and ability ; and the more we obtain of this
kind of knowledge, the more firm is our reliance and
repose. Now such is the Christian's experimental know-
ledge of Jesus Christ. What he first heard of him, jus-
tified him in crediting what was recorded of him ; but
having an important trust to repose in him, he seeks a
closer acquaintance with the Saviour, and finds at length
that " he is able to save to the uttermost all that come
unto God by him." Hence it appears that faith has its
foundation in knowledge ; in knowledge grounded upon
facts and actual experience ; and without such know-
ledge, there can be no genuine and established faith.
The second step towards an established faith is a belief
or full assent of the mind and heart to the truth which
we have learned in the gospel. This indeed has been
shown, as the necessary result of the knowledge of
Christ, but I here repeat it for the purpose of more dis-
tinctly noticing the gradation from knowledge to belief,
and the nature of that assent which the Christian gives
to the mysteries of the gospel. This belief does not im-
ply that we understand or even think of the principle
DR. MASON GOOD. 325
or modes which are involved in Christian doctrines, but it
regards simply the fftrts which they contain ; and these
are things very different and distinct. We believe innu-
merable facts, of the principles or causes of which we
know nothing, and believe nothing. The union between
the soul and body of man, is a fact which we readily
admit; but of the manner in which that union subsists,
and the essences of each we are entirely ignorant, and
believe nothing. " God manifest in the flesh," is a fact
which is as easy to be believed as any other ; but there
is a mystery in the manner in which that union was
effected, which baffles human conception : and we are
not required to believe anything respecting it. Almost
every Christian doctrine involves a mystery, and we are
charged with believing unintelligible dogmas. But this
imputation is unjust. The proposition which states the
doctrine is perfectly clear, and it is this only which we
believe. The knowledge of the Christian respecting
Jesus Christ, and the doctrines of the gospel, extends
only to plain facts, and these are the things only which
he believes : and all that I would now add on this topic
is, that the Christian has all the satisfaction in believing
in Christ that the nature of the case admits. He has
better evidence, as has been repeatedly shown, for admit-
ting the facts stated of him in the Scripture, than for
crediting other recorded events of the same antiquity ;
and superadded to this, he has the knowledge of experi-
ence : he has the evidence of moral sense, the conviction
which undeniable effects produce of the cause which
gave them birth. It was to this kind of evidence that
the blind man restored to sight resorted, when questioned
by the Jews as to the cause of his cure : " one thing I
know, whereas I was blind, now I see." May God grant
us a greater abundance of this evidence ! It will serve
us in stead of ten thousand subtle arguments ; and what
is still better, be always in readiness to repel the insinua-
tions which would lead us to doubt of the reality of our
interest in Christ.
I have still one or two remarks to make on the last
stage in genuine faith, and that indeed to which the for-
mer are only introductory. It is the trusting of the soul
into the hands of Jesus Christ, to be saved by him. Hav-
28
326 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
ing received sufficient information respecting the Saviour,
and having placed the fullest confidence in what is re-
corded of him, the Christian comes at length to the all-
important transaction of depositing his treasure with him,
of committing his soul to his custody, to be saved at that
day. Now the nature of this trust is the clearest thing
imaginable ; it is one, in temporal things, of every day's
occurrence, and in which we make no mistake ; ibr
however common it be to place a mistaken reliance, it
never occurs that we mistake having placed our confi-
dence. Apply this to faith in Christ. You know some-
thing of him, and you believe in him, because you know
him. The only thing that is now wanted, is to put that
knowledge and belief into practice, by committing the
soul into his custody. He came into the world for the
express purpose of saving the soul ; you believe that he
is able to save it, and the next step is, to commit it into
his hands ; and then you can say with the apostle, " 1
know whom I have believed, and I have entrusted my soul
to his keeping." What then, my brethren, is there mys-
terious in faith? Is it not an easy affair to ascertain
what you knoin of Christ, what you believe respecting
him, and whether you have trusted in him ? The only
point on which I would particularly admonish you, is to
take care that you advance to the last stage of faith ;
arid I do so, because few ever reach this. They know
something of Christ, and they give credit to all that is
recorded of him; and at this point they stop; and it is
precisely here where Satan stops. He knows all and
more than all that you know of Christ, and he believes
it all ; but he can go no further ; and if you remain
here, your belief will no more avail you than that of
Satan avails him. The last, the all-important, and for
which everything eke is simply preparatory the last
Stage IS COMMITTING THE SOUL INTO THE HANDS OF
CHRIST FOR SALVATION. This then is FAITH ; it consists
of KNOWLEDGE, BELIEF, TRUST these three : but the
greatest of these is TRUST. And what is there unrea-
sonable in this ? It is common to treat the Christian,
who makes so much of faith, as a weak enthusiast a
wild fanatic. But what ground is there for such con-
tempt ? Does he not act on the same principle as that
DR. MASON GOOD. 327
on which all the extensive concerns of human life are
transacted ? Wlr.it, for instance, induces the merchant
to send his goods to foreign countries, and place them in
die hands of men whom he has never seen ? It is an-
swered, lie has made inquiries into character and ability,
iind is satisfied with both : he believes the information
he has received, and he commits his property to his care.
And is not this precisely the case with the Christian,
who has confided his soul to Christ? The only differ-
ence is, that the soul infinitely transcends in value all
other treasures, and therefore requires a corresponding
care that we are not deceived in the individual to whom
it is entrusted ; but lie is furnished with all the addi-
tional evidence which the paramount importance of the
case demands ; his faith rests on infinitely surer docu-
ments than any which merely human testimony can af-
ford, and on a Being who is able to sustain all his hopes,
for he sustains the world, and fixes the destinies of man.
The Christian kno/r.< in whom he has believed, with a
more perfect and better established knowledge than any
man knows the person to whom he confides his greatest
earthly treasures. Let not then the man of the world
treat the man of God as a weak and credulous enthusiast.
The same reasons which will satisfy him in conducting
his temporal concerns, satisfy the Christian in transacting
those which are eternal ; and the Christian who reposes
his soul on Christ, has a better foundation on which to
rest, than he who confides his property to man. Man is
vanity in his best estate, and will deceive our expecta-
tions. But Jesus Christ is the Rock of ages : he liveth
and abideth for ever " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
to-d:iy, and for ever."
An established faith, like this of the apostle, can
scarcely fail to be accompanied by
III. As ASSURED HOPE : and this is strongly ex-
pressed in our text : " I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day." Having, after mature reflection, deposited his
treasure with One who is so able and ready to take the
charge of it, it might naturally be expected that he would
feel the greatest satisfaction on every review of the trans-
328 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
action, and a confident persuasion that it was perfectly
safe. He had dug deep, and laid the foundation of his
building on a rock ; and therefore when " the flood arose,
and the stream heat vehemently upon it," he would have
no misgiving fears, but wait in calm repose till the tem-
pest had passed over. And this composure of mind is
one of the present unspeakable advantages of having
used due reflection in committing the soul to the care of
the Son of God. In the even tenor of life, when no
immediate danger threatens, and no principles are put to
the test, a few slight thoughts of Christ and the soul may
be sufficient to keep the mind at ease, and satisfy the
conscience that all is well ; but when trials come, when
sickness visits, when death approaches, and the realities
of the future world burst suddenly on the mind, then
something more will be wanted than vague notions, un-
settled opinions, and unfounded hopes : and the confu-
sion and terror will be dreadful, if everything be to seek
at the important crisis when all should be prepared and
in readiness.
But how different is the case of the prudent man, who
has laid his plans to meet the worst of times ; who took
his fust steps with caution, and proceeded on just and
well established principles ! In the time of emergency,
he looks on the past, and receives comfort. He calls to
mind his former experience, and derives hope for the
future. The storm may be coming on, but he is at safe
anchorage. Death may approach, but he has lost his
terrors, and he looks beyond the grave with " a hope full
of immortality." But it is not necessary that I should
enlarge on the comfort of an assured hope. All must be
sensible that there is no happiness like that of being
able to say, in the day of trial, and in the last conflict,
" I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have committed to
him, against that day."
I am unwilling, however, to lose the opportunity which
this passage of scripture affords, of pointing out the dif-
ference between the nature of faith and hope; and I do
this the rather, because the two are often confounded
and mistaken for each other, and serious consequences
have resulted from the error. Faith, we know, is neces-
DR. MASON' GOOD.
sary to salvation ; but hope is not necessary. Now if the
former may exist without the latter, as we shall soon sec
that it may, it is evident that the soul may be safe, with-
out the comfort of knowing it : but if the persuasion of
our being safe be misiaken, as it often is, for the faith
which confides the soul to Christ, then, as that persua-
sion may be the result of ignorance and presumption, as
we know it sometimes is, the most fatal consequences
must ensue, for that which is not necessary to salvation
has been substituted for that which is ; and a false foun-
dation has been laid for future happiness, which must
sink at the moment when the need of it is most felt :
whilst, on the other hand, the true believer, who has not
this persuasion of his safety, may be exceedingly dis-
tressed with the fear that his religion is deficient in an
essential quality.
Now I conceive that the passage before us makes the
difference between faith and hope exceedingly clear. We
see from it, that it is the province of faith, to believe
and trust in Christ; and of hope, to derive comfort from
having done so. Faith commits the soul to the keeping
of the Son of God ; and hope is persuaded that he will
take care of it. Faith fixes its foot on a rock ; and hope
feels assured that it is safe. Faith lays hold of Him,
who has conquered death and the grave ; and hope exults,
" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
This, then, is their obvious distinction : but it must
be repeated, that though faith and hope stand somewhat
in the same relation to each other as cause and effect,
yet they do not always accompany each other ; and the
former sometimes exists without being attended with the
latter. The reasons are obvious. Faith, we have seen,
consists in so believing in Christ, as to confide the soul
to his care ; and when the consciousness of his power
and willingness to undertake this charge is felt, there
must be joy and peace : but various circumstances may
prevent this consciousness ; and when this is the case,
doubt and uneasiness must follow. Occasional lapses
into sin, omissions of duty, defects in Christian temper,
languid desires after holiness, inordinate earthly affec-
tions, coldness and formality in religious services, a mor-
330 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
bid sensibility, mental or bodily infirmity, and an almost
endless variety of things may darken the mind, occasion
doubts of personal sincerity, and induce the individual
to call in question the reality of his religious profession ;
and though he may still retain the strongest conviction of
the ability and readiness of Christ to save sinner.';, and
may say with Job, " though he slay me, yet will I trust
in him j" yet the very fear that he may reject him, con-
scious as he is that he deserves to be rejected, will occa-
sion great anxiety and distress.
But besides this, circumstances may arise of so awful
and unexpected a nature, as to fill the mind with sudden
terror, and render it totally incapable of reflection ; and
when this is the case, the fact of there being no real
danger brings no repose. When the storm arose on the
lake of Gennesaret, the minds of the disciples were so
overwhelmed with fear, that " all hope that they should
be saved" seemed taken away, though Jesus Christ him-
self was embarked with them. When " the mount burned
with fire," and was surrounded " with blackness and dark-
ness and tempest," and " the sound of the trumpet waxed
louder and louder," not only were the people of Israel
filled with fear, but " so terrible was the sight, that even
Moses said. I exceedingly fear and quake." Let a per-
son, who has no want of natural fortitude, stand on a
rock in the midst of the sea, the waves of which never
yet reached its summit ; and though, in ordinary circum-
stances, he would feel no alarm, yet when, for the first
time, he sees the storm sweep over the bosom of the
great deep, and the billows roll in terrible fury, and the
elements above and below him meet in dreadful conflict,
and it is more than probable that his courage would fail
him, that he would imagine the firm foundations of the
earth were giving way, and that his destruction was in-
evitable. The individual, it is true, was safe all this
while, the rock on which he stood had braved ten thou-
sand such tempests, and would stand unmoved in ten
thousand more, yet he would still be filled with terror,
and the voice of an angel could not calm his fears. And
thus, I am persuaded, it has often happened, that the
Christian, resting his whole salvation upon Jesus Christ,
has been thrown into the greatest dismay, and placed on
DR. MASON GOOD. 331
the very brink of despondency, when " the King of Ter-
rors" has suddenly presented himself, and thrown open,
in an instant, the doors of the invi>ible world, and has
disclosed, in one overwhelming view, all that is vast, and
terrible, and unchangeable in these everlasting regions.
Deep has seemed to call unto deep, at that awful moment,
and all the waves and billows of interminable woe seemed
to be passing over his soul ; and all that he could do in
an hour of terror like this, was to cry, " What must I do
to be saved ?" " Save, Lord, or I perish." It is in vain
to remind him, in circumstances so alarming, of the rock
on which he stands : of the Saviour, who has the care of
him ; of the covenant, which insures his salvation, or of
the promises of eternal truth : fear has closed his ears,
and driven reason and reflection from their seat ; and
nothing is seen or heard, or thought of, but tribulation,
and anguish, and woe.
Let it however be observed, that this is the exception,
and not the rule ; the occasional alarm, and not the set-
tled repose of him who rests on the Rock of ages, and
knows in whom he has believed : such can, for the most
part, and almost habitually say, " I am persuaded that
he is able to keep what I have committed to him, against
that day."
To this I may add, that as this faith and hope gene-
rally accompany each other, so also they have to each
other a relation of degree : a weak faith is followed by a
faint hope; a strong faith, by a firm hope; and a "full
assurance of faith," by a " full assurance of hope." So
that they not only correspond with each other as cause
and effect, but have also a relative connexion of quality
and strength. This indeed is too obvious to be insisted
upon, and I mention it merely in order to point out the
cure for a feeble and desponding mind. Doubts and
fears, respecting the safety of our state, usually arise
either from a defective knowledge of Jesus Christ in his
person or offices, or from an apprehension that our faith
in him is not genuine. If we would remove these fears,
and obtain a settled and well grounded hope, the process
is obvious. Study the character of the Saviour ; get the
mind thoroughly imbued with his whole history, as ex-
hibited in the promises and prophecies respecting his
332 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
first coming; his wonderful incarnation, his life and
miracles, his sayings and doctrines, his spirit and tem-
per, his kindness and compassion, his sufferings and
death, and the ends they were to answer ; his resurrec-
tion and ascension, his mediatorial priesthood and gov-
ernment, the ultimate purpose of his grace and mercy to
man ; and the final triumph of his kingdom over death
and the grave and hell, and the everlasting salvation of
unnumbered millions of the race of man. Do more than
this. Learn what he meant, when he said, " My flesh is
meat indeed ; and my blood is drink indeed." " I am
the bread of life. If any man eat of this bread he shall
live for ever." Obtain an experimental acquaintance
with him ; aim at an union and communion with him.
Walk with him, as Enoch did : Let " the life which you
live be by faith in the Son of God ;" and having thus
gained an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ, you will
feel the utmost confidence that all you repose in him will
be safe, and be able to adopt the words of the apostle in
their full meaning and abundant comfort, " I know whom
I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day."
I will only further direct your attention to the order in
which faith and hope stand. It is the order, you will
observe, of cause and effect ; and it would be as absurd
to expect hope where faith does not exist, as to look for
an effect without any cause : and yet irrational as such
an expectation may appear, nothing is more common.
Thousands express a confident hope of final salvation,
who have not the least regard to Jesus Christ, from
whom alone salvation flows. Let the question be propos-
ed to the mass of professing Christians, " Why do you
hope to be saved V and the common answer will be,
either that they have led inoffensive lives, and have dili-
gently attended the ordinances of religion ; or that they
are less criminal than many others, and doubtless shall
obtain forgiveness of their defects at the hands of a mer-
ciful God. Now in these and similar pleas of hope,
there is not the least recognition of a Saviour ; no regard
whatever is paid to the atoning sacrifice, and no refe-
rence to God as "reconciling the world unto himself, by
DR. MASON GOOD. 333
the death of his Son." Their hope would have been
precisely the same, if there had been no revelation of
the love of God to man through Jesus Christ, and nothing
had been done by Christ to expiate the sin of the world
by his own death. But will a hope like this support the
soul in the day of the great account ? Let those who
now trust to it, weigh the question well, and learn what
that means, " other foundation can no man lay than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ ," " for there is
none other name under heaven given among men where-
by we can be saved." Let it then never be forgotten,
that there can be no hope without faith ; and that the
only order in which these graces can stand, is faith first,
and then hope.
But it is more than time that I apply this subject to
the case of our departed friend.
That the faith of Dr. Good was built on the same foun-
dation as that of St. Paul, and that hope sustained him,
as it did this holy apostle, above the fear of death, we
have the most ample testimony ; and when we have ad-
verted to a few facts in the life of our friend, we shall
see reasonto conclude, that,
1. The reposing of his soul for salvation in the hands
of Jesus Christ, and the satisfaction he felt in the review
of his having done so, were the result of much reflection
and serious deliberation.
It is well known that our departed friend had, at one
period of his life, imbibed the opinions of the Socinian
school. He rejected the doctrines of the divinity of
Christ, his atoning sacrifice, and his mediatorial govern-
ment ; and received the tenets which distinguish that pe-
culiar sect. It is equally well known, that at a more
advanced period of his life he relinquished those senti-
ments, and in process of time adopted the general system
of doctrines as stated and maintained in the Established
Church. Now, in order to see the full importance of this
essential change of sentiment in Dr. Good, and its practi-
cal bearing on the great question which it involves, it
will be necessary to take a short view of his literary
character, and the causes which led him to renounce his
former creed.
334 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
All, who knew Dr. Good, will allow that he was a
scholar of no ordinary attainments ; but the i.rt<nt of his
talents and erudition is kno\vn perhaps by few, and I feel
apprehensive that in confining myself even within very
narrow limits, I may still seem to overstate the facts of
the case. But I should not do justice to the cause of
truth, if I did not make a few observations on his rich
intellectual endowments and literary eminence. He pos-
sessed so quick and retentive a memory, that whatever he
heard or read with interest became his own ; and hence
his memory was a store-house, in which were deposited
the riches which others, as well as himself, had collected
from the vast sources of the natural, moral, and intel-
lectual world. His perception of tilings was remarkably
prompt, clear, and discriminate, so that he almost intui-
tively saw the nature and bearing of things, as soon as
presented to him. His mind was large and comprehen-
sive, so that he could generally take in the whole of a
subject, as well as distinguish its minute parts: and
hence he possessed, in a more than ordinary degree, the
rare talent of correctly classifying and placing facts in a
luminous order. The versatility of his talents, and the
extent of his erudition, were truly extraordinary. He-
seemed to be capable of fixing his mind with equal in-
tenseness on the most opposite subjects: and there is
scarcely a single department of literature, of philosophy,
of the arts, or of taste, which has not in its turn received
his attention, and been enlarged by his genius. Those
who intimately knew him, and indeed his published
works attest the fact, say that he had a critical knowledge
of many of the ancient and modern languages, and a rom-
ptttnt ac quaint ancc with not fewer than twehe. It is
supposed that his published works, if collected, would fill
upwards of twenty thick and closely printed octavo vol-
umes, seventeen or eighteen of which are standard works,
many of them on deep and recondite subjects, and all of
them enriched with various knowledge, drawn up with
great correctness of style, and adorned with the imagery
of a vivid imagination. But I pass by these things, to
remark, that among his various profession:)!, classical,
and scientific pursuits, he found time to attend to Biblical
DR. MASON GOOD. 335
literature ; and about twenty-three years ago, he gave to
the public the first fruits of his acquisitions in thi? depart-
ment of science, in a translation of the Book of Canticles,
with notes critical and explanatory ; and in the year
1^1^, he published, in a thick octavo volume, a transla-
tion of the Book of Job, also with copious notes. In this
latter publication especially, there is even a redundancy
of literary wealth ; and he seems to have rendered almost
every nation and tongue, whether ancient or modern,
tributary to the illustration of this interesting, but in many
parts, obscure portion of the sacred volume. But beside
these published works, he has left in manuscript a trans-
lation of the Book of Proverbs ; and also of the Psalms.
This latter translation is accompanied by various histori-
cal, critical, and theological dissertations, and is appa-
rently ready for the press. It seems to have been his last,
and certainly it was his most favorite work. It was un-
dertaken, and probably composed under the impression
that it icuiild be his last ; and a learned and pious friend
who, a few months ago, was favored with the perusal of
some parts of this work, informs me that " it is truly ex-
quisite." I may just add, that his interleaved Bible
shews not only that the Sacred Scriptures were his fa-
vorite study, but that he brought to the illustration of them
whatever could be collected from the copious stores of
ancient and modern literature. This, however, is neither
the time nor place to go further into the literary charac-
ter of our departed friend : nor should I have gone thus
far, had I not thought it necessary to do so, in order to
place, in a proper point of view, the importance which
lies to that entire change of sentiment in Christian
doctrine to which I have before alluded. It is quite evi-
dent that our departed friend was competent to examine
the ground upon which each system rests ; that he was
not likely to make such a change, without mature delibe-
ration: and that the course of his studies naturally led,
as \\cll as eminently qualified him, to go fully into the
whole subject : and the fact that he did, under all these
circumstances, relinquish his former tenets, and ultimately
embrace the orthodox faith, is very important.
The causes which led to this change were various :
336 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
the principal, no doubt was, that he found the tenets of
Socinianisin inconsistent with the plain import of Scrip-
ture, and its uniform texture ; and the fact is thus stated
by one, who could not be unacquainted with it. " It is
now about twenty years since he entirely withdrew him-
self from all connexion with Unitarians. Previous to
this decisive step, his mind had appeared dissatisfied with
many of their statements, as being repugnant to the clear
testimony of scripture. But one discourse in particular
of Mr. , seemed to be, in his judgment, so entirely
at variance with the Bible, that he determined, on that
very Sunday evening, to write a statement of his own
views, with a declaration of his intention to discontinue
his attendance at his accustomed place of worship." The
authority then of the divine word, and the doctrines he
had embraced, he clearly saw could not be held together ;
and as he had no alternative, but the rejection of one, he
surrendered the last; a course of conduct which is not
always pursued, for it far more frequently happens, in
similar dilemmas, that the Scriptures become the sacrifice,
and infidelity the retreat : a result indeed so natural,
where Socinianism has been identified with Christianity,
and found at length to be untenable, that it is somewhat
suprising that it does not universally take place. It does
however occur with sufficient frequency, greatly to swell
the number of infidels, from the deserted ranks of Soci-
nianism.
I ascribe it very much to the honesty of Dr. Good, as a
critic and a scholar, that he came to the determination of
renouncing his early opinions. He was too acute not to
see the discrepancy between them and the standard of
Christianity ; and too faithful to the canons by which the
language of all authors ought to be interpreted, not to
surrender sentiments when thus opposed to principles.
Hence he made no hesitation in thus formally renouncing
a creed which he could not maintain without relinquish-
ing the principles which lie at the foundation of science
in general.
But I cannot here dwell more particularly on this im-
portant change in the religious opinions of our departed
friend ; only I would observe, that it took place long
t>R. MASON GOOD. 337
before he experienced a corresponding change of nature.
Light broke into his understanding, before grace found
its way into his heart. He saw the error of his former
tenets, before their danger ; he found them at variance
with the deductions of reason, before he discovered that
they were subversive of happiness, and threw an impene-
trable shade over all that is glorious in our hopes, or ex-
quisite in our enjoyments ; and had he died in his former
opinions, he would have wanted all that sustained and
comforted him on the bed of death. His altered creed,
however, was at length followed by,
2. A corresponding change of heart and life, he be-
came " a new man," and thus verified the declaration of
the apostle, " If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new
creature ; old things have passed away, and all things
are become new."
In remarking, however, on the religious character of
Dr. Good, I would premise, that it was not till within the
last few years of his life that a marked and decided
change took place. " There has been, (says one of his
beloved family, of whose communication I shall now
make considerable use,) a very gradual, yet to those who
knew him intimately, a very perceptible increase of real
piety and love manifesting itself in his whole conduct,
for some years past : but this has been especially obvious
during the last three or four years." I have reason to
believe that the change here alluded to is chiefly to be
ascribed, under the blessing of God, to a very severe do-
mestic affliction in the death of his son-in-law, the Rev.
Mr. Neale. This eminent scholar and devoted Christian
minister was removed from his family and the church in
the midst of his days. During a long and painful illness,
he was watched over by almost more than parental solici-
tude by Dr. Good ; and it was evident to all his family
that his mind was most deeply impressed by the Chris-
tian meekness, patient suffering, heavenly mindedness,
and deep experience of this beloved relative. It was
scarcely possible that an example like this could be lost
on so reflecting and susceptible a man as Dr. Good. He
was evidently much affected by it, and was led to greater
frequency and earnestness in prayer : and from this time
there was a manifest, decided, and progressively advanc-
29
338 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
ing improvement in the temper, desires, and pursuits of
our departed friend. But let us proceed with the narra-
tive which I had just commenced. " It is now," con-
tinues the same relative, " about fourteen years since
family prayer was first introduced, but in a manner alto-
gether different from the deep feeling and interest with
which of late years, he has conducted this important ser-
vice. It was with him, for some time, evidently a formal
duty, hurried over as a mere ceremony, without any pro-
per feeling of its value or privilege. At first, some short
prayer was read, without any reading of scripture, and
only in the morning. About a twelvemonth afterward, a
portion of scripture was read, and prayers morning and
evening ; but in a way, O how much unlike the deeply
serious and most earnest manner shewn of late ! when he
has often been completely overcome by his feelings, and '
forgetful of his own fatigue, and of the length of time
thus occupied, it has been necessary occasionally to re-
mind him of the unavoidable engagements of his domes-
tics. But latterly, no personal or family objects would
have been allowed by him to stand in the way of the
regular performance of this sacred duty. His punctual
attendance upon public worship also, has for some time
past been observed to be gradually more and more strik-
ing, as has most evidently his approbation and love of
evangelical preaching. His self-denying kindness to the,
poor has been also very remarkable, and whilst there has
been clearly seen of late years a growing benevolence of
character, and a willingness to embrace every opportunity
of doing good, professionally or otherwise, to those who
needed his help ; he has seemed to take an especial pica-
sure in being made useful to any whom he believed to be
the servants of God. The interests of the Church Mis-
sionary Society were especially dear to him. They
were the frequent subject of his conversation in his own
family, especially after any interval of separation had
elapsed.
" To his own family he avoided speaking particularly
of himself, and of those sufferings which it is now known
he must have endured, for some time previous to his de-
parture, knowing the distress it would give ; but to others
he frequently spoke of his declining health ; yet rather
DR. MASON GOOD. 339
%
gently intimating than openly declaring what the issue
would be. He had of late been much engaged in looking
over his affairs, arranging his papers, and burning many,
not, as it seemed to his family, with any apprehension of
the rapid progress of the disease he labored under, or of
the nearness of his departure hence, but apparently in a
spirit of watchfulness, that he might be ready for that
day and that hour in which the Son of man cometh.
His journey^ to Shepperton, a few days previous to his
death, brought on violent pain, and he was almost ex^
hausted on his arrival, but he rallied, after a time, suffi-
ciently to give his grandchildren each a little present as
his last gift. During his last illness, extreme pain inca-
pacitated him from talking much, but he was sometimes
heard to utter broken sentences, such as ' O the folly
of putting off religion to a dying bed !' without seeming
to have any immediate reference to his own case, because
he expected, at this time, to recover from the present at-
tack. Again : ' O the vanity of human learning !' The
nurse, who sat up with him in an earlier part of this illness
alone, says, that great part of the night was spent in
prayer. Sometimes he would speak to her, and the pur-
port of his observations, we have reason to believe, was
an exhortation not to put off religion. Unwilling to
grieve his family by any expressions of the agony he en-
dured, his very delirium served to show the kind feelings
of his mind, as he then generally talked of being well,
and begged those around him not to concern themselves
so much. The wonderful ebb and flow of reason, the
entire aberration of mind, at some seasons, often suc-
ceeded by a complete self-collection and full possession
of all his reasoning powers at other times, can scarcely
be conceived by those who were not eye-witnesses of the
fact. He was often fully aware of this change himself,
one time saying, ' O this opium ! it has distressed me :
I cannot separate imaginations from realities, but I must
be quiet.' At another time, after solemnly blessing his
grandson in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, he added instantly, ' Now, no
more : go, I dare not trust myself.' This fear of com-
mitting himself, or speaking unadvisedly, his family and
friends were consoled by remarking, because it gave the
340 SERMON ON THE DEATH OP
full weight to all the deliberate statements of his own
views or feelings which such statements could ever
have deserved, had they been delivered whilst he waa
in possession of entire health and vigor of mind. I will
merely add to this interesting account of the gradual,
but most decided change in the religious state of Dr.
Good, that he gave public evidence that be had not " re-
ceived the grace of God in vain." Few, I believe, who
were favored with an intimate acquaintance with him,
would deny that there was an increased seriousness in
his deportment, and a far greater zeal in the service of
God. How constantly he was in his place in this chapel,
you can yourselves testify ; and it was very rarely indeed,
that he did not present himself at the altar, when the
dying love of the Saviour was to be commemorated; arid
I have often witnessed, with great satisfaction, his appa-
rent devotion on these solemn occasions. He was always
a kind husband and affectionate father, but Christianity
greatly quickened and refined these feelings, and gave
them a holier direction. The same observations are ap-
plicable to the manner in which he discharged the offices
of friendship and Christian charity ; and I feel a pecu-
liar pleasure in stating thus publicly, that I have seldom,
in my intercourse with Christian friends, met with an
individual more kind, more disinterested, and more af-
fectionate. His purse was always ready to promote any
charitable object, and his professional talents, to admin-
ister gratuitous relief to such as needed it. And here
I cannot help reading to you a paper, which has just
been found among some manuscripts which he has enti-
tled, " Occasional Thoughts," and which are written
generally on texts of Scripture, and discover great ori-
ginality of thinking, point in expression, and above all,
fervent piety and devotion of heart. The paper is dated
July 27, 1823, and was evidently intended to be turned
to a public use.*
But after all, let me not be understood as representing
Dr. Good as a perfect character, or even as greatly pre-
eminent in piety and spiritual mindedness. To do so,
would be to contradict his own declaration on his death-
* For the Paper above alluded to, see Form of Prayer, pp. 273, 274.
DR. MASON GOOD. 341
bed"; for it was a subject of grief to him that he had not
taken a higher standard, and aimed at greater Christian
attainments. "I have taken," he said, "what unfortu-
nately the generality of Christians take, the middle walk
of Christianity, I have endeavored to live up to its doc-
trines and duties ; but I have lived below my privileges.
I have had large opportunities given me, but I have not
improved them as I might have done. I have been led
astray by the vanity of human learning, and by the love
of human applause :" and when asked by the pious min-
ister, in whose parish he died, whether there were any
thing in particular that he would wish him to pray for,
he replied, " I want to be more humbled under a sense
of sin ; I want more spirituality, more humility." And
here I cannot help remarking, that the great defect of
Christians in general is that lamented by our departed
friend. They do not expect, and therefore do not aim at,
great attainments in the divine life. It seems sufficient
to them if they just prevent the spark of religion from
dying, and are just able to reach the kingdom of heaven.
But let such know that they are depriving themselves
of the most exquisite pleasures, during their Christian
course ; and incurring the risk of seeing their sun go
down under a cloud. The consistent Christian, who
raises his expectations of spiritual attainments to a high
pitch, and who assumes, and acts on that assumption,
that he " can do all things through Christ which strength-
eneth him," will far outstrip all others in obtaining a
meetness for heaven ; and will, in all probability, enjoy a
much stronger sense of the divine favor in the hour of
death, " for them, says God, that honor me, I will honor."
As we have the most undoubted evidence that religion,
and the care of the soul were with Dr. Good an affair of
deep reflection, so we have equal proof that he had most
deliberately placed
3. His lolwle dependence for salvation on Jesus Christ;
and this deserves especial remark, as it is precisely on
this point that the reality of his change of sentiment and
renovation of heart would be put to the test ; for " no
man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost ;"
nor would any one entirely renounce every other depen-
dence in the hour of death, save Jesus Christ, and him
342 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF
crucified, unless he believed him to be " able to save to
the uttermost all that come unto God by him." In de-
liberately putting therefore his soul into the hands of the
Saviour, and knowing in whom he had believed, he at
once acknowledged, and rested his everlasting interests
upon the Godhead of the Saviour, and the all-sufficiency
of his atoning sacrifice. Now that Dr. Good did this, is
most evident from some of his last and most solemn de-
clarations. " No man living," said he a day or two pre-
ceding his death, " can be more sensible than I am that
there is nothing in ourselves in which to trust, and of the
absolute necessity, of relying on the merits of Jesus
Christ." " All the promises, (he again remarked with
great emphasis,) are yea and amen, in Christ Jesus."
He more than once repeated parts of that beautiful hymn
of Cowper,
" There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains."
And he dwelt with great feeling on the following verse :
" E'er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love hath been my theme,
And shall be till I die."
I dwell the rather on this, because it affords the most
satisfactory evidence of his complete renunciation of So-
cinian principles, and his entire reliance for salvation on
the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It only remains that I add respecting him, that " know-
ing in whom he had believed,
4. He was persuaded that he was able to keep what he
had committed to Mm against that day." Or in other
words, his faith in Christ yielded him a well grounded
hope of everlasting life. This hope, it is true, did not
rise to that degree of assurance, which fills the soul with
joy, as well as peace ; he said " I cannot say that I feel
those triumphs which some Christians have experienced ;"
and he seemed rather to check than indulge what might
lead to them ; for he said " my constitution is by nature
sanguine in all things, so that I am afraid of trusting my-
self." He often however repeated that text, and dwelt
DR. MASON GOOD. 343
upon it with evident satisfaction, " Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever ;" and when the power of
distinct articulation was gone, and he was almost in the
action of death, and his kind clerical friend said to him,
" Behold the Lamb of God," he added, with an effort
that surprised those around him, " who taketh away the
sins of the world." And these were the last words he
intelligibly uttered. He soon after fell asleep, and his
spirit ascended up to God who gave it, there to join with
kindred spirits, in ascribing " unto him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood ; and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father, glory and
dominion for ever and ever, Amen."
The lesson which this narrative seems peculiarly cal-
culated to teach is the insignificance of the highest intel-
lectual endowments, and the most extensive erudition,
when compared with Christian character, and an experi-
mental knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
I readily grant that no earthly distinction can be put in
competition with mental pre-eminence. All that glitters
in the eye as grand, and all that captivates the heart in
wealth and pleasure, sink into nothing before the great-
ness of a superior mind, enriched with the stores of wis-
dom and knowledge. But alas ! even this distinction
may be enjoyed, and the great purpose for which man
was created and redeemed be defeated. The greatest
attainment of man is a conformity to the divine image,
and his highest destiny is to be " partaker with the saints
in light." Whoever comes short of these, falls below the
standard of man, and forfeits his chum to the heavenly
inheritance ; he is poor in the midst of his mental wealth,
and without resource for the day of need. A death bed
will expose both his poverty and wretchedness ; and
the opening of a world, where nothing can be admitted
that does not bear the character of holiness, and the
stamp of the divine image will in a moment disclose the
utter worthlessness of all that the world admires and
idolizes. Had our departed friend possessed nothing
better than natural endowments and literary acquirements,
in what a wretched condition would he have been, when
those talents and those attainments would have been of
344 SERMON ON THE DEATH OF DR. GOOD.
no further account, than as they involved a higher re-
sponsibility and the abuse of them had incurred a deeper
guilt and heavier condemnation ! He would then have
exclaimed in the language of hopeless despair, instead,
as he did, of comparative insignificance, " O the vanity
of human learning! O the folly of human applause !" It
is on occasions like these, that we see the littleness of
rank and station, of titles and honors ; for they cannot
procure a night's repose, nor mitigate a single pain, nor
silence one accusation of conscience, nor diffuse a ray of
light over the darkness that hangs over futurity, nor bring
down one token of the divine favor. Here, nothing but
principles, nothing but faith, nothing but a Saviour can
avail us. The prince and the scholar here stand on the
same ground as the humblest peasant. They have pre-
cisely the same wants, 4fiey need the same supports, and
must be cheered with the same promises. They feel
alike, and they express themselves alike. They both
need forgiveness, and both say " God be merciful to me
a sinner !" They both stand on the verge of the same
world, and both cry " Save, Lord, or I perish." They
both want the same Omnipotent support, and they both
lay hold of the same " hope set before them." I entreat
you then, my brethren, to appreciate that rightly now,
which you are sure to do, if you are in a sound mind, on
the bed of death. Let nothing be deemed of such impor-
tance as Christian principles and Christian character.
Meditate much on the three greatest subjects to which
the thoughts of man can reach. THE SOUL. THE SON
OF GOD. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. Connect the three :
and never rest till you can so conjoin them as to say I
KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, AND I AM PERSUADED
THAT HE IS ABLE TO KEEP WHAT I HAVE COMMITTED TO
HIM AGAINST THAT DAY.
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