. uu.iuiuw'u"' ii'-jiu.-ii i. ""^^nPiPiviHMi 5 1 - 'I g l W M i ^lOSANGElft^ 2 o _ \\\U' %)jir? A- "1 1^\ C 9 "5 =e MICFLfj-, 1)1 c? *T ^t-LIBRARY-O/ ^tf-UBRARYfl/ 3A!Nfl-3WV s %nV>J0^ %0dlTV3-JO^ 8 ? per O ^0FCAilF(% S )\ I #- ^AavaaiH^ '%a3AlNQ]\\V N ^ ^JAINd 3W^ ? ] I C i i c 1 JA c MISCELLANEOUS : u ral. The minutes are afterwards charg- ed more swiftly to fly; and, as a special inducement to their rapid advance, they are invited to rest longer when she shall be here; a reward congenial with a shepherd's ideas. All this is exquisitely characteristic. Had Colin been made to utter pretty things in a fine style, he would have appeared, indeed, in gar- ments more splendid than this his holiday suit; yet they would have been borrowed robes, and under their guise still a clown, he Would but occasionally have proved himself to be a polite gen- tleman. But he is now a plain countryman throughout; and, except in those parts where the descriptions apply, as they were intended by the author, exclusively to the views and habits of a shepherd,* he speaks the impassioned language of human nature. This is universally understood, especially by those who have been in similar circumstances. Such persons will acknowledge that the feverish petulance of the solitary rustic, whom nothing pleases, bears a very strong resemblance to the ill-humoured effervescence of their own feelings on the absence of some beloved object. Joanna, the youngest daughter of Doctor Bentley, is usually mentioned as the lady in whose praise these pastoral verses were composed. That a copy of them might be presented to her, out of respect to her accomplishments and virtues, may be readily believed. But it will be credited by no one, who only partially knew Mr. Byrom, that he made any advances towards a place in the young lady's affections, with the sinister design of succeeding the more effectually in his application for a fellowship. Yet it has been hinted, that his college promotion was owing rather to his feigning an attachment to the daughter, than to any ad- ii in i n - . 1 1 . i i Sw vol- 1, page 1. MB. JOHN BYROM. Xi miration of his talents by the father. This is staled by none of his biographers as a fact, but is raised only in the convenient form of a surmise; and scarcely merits any attempts at refutation. Two considerations, however, will tend to shew the fallacy of this conjecture.: the remarkably frank and generous disposition of Mr.Byrom, is itself a sufficient contradiction to the calumny. His conduct, from childhood to old age, in every affair of life, was the opposite to double-dealing. Besides, there exists in the poem no allusion that can apply to Miss Bentley as the absent shepherdess. Although it was composed prior to his sitting for a. fellowship, yet it is not said My time, O ye Muses, was happily spent When Joanna went with me wherever I went. He would not have framed his eulogy in so general and loose a manner as to be equally appropriate to any other of the sex, if he had been the designing and selfish youth which this repre- sentation would make him. What lady would acknowledge such lines, unless they were inscribed with her name, or con- tained some specific reference to her person, mind, or circum- stances, which could neither be mistaken nor applied with propriety to another? But in all the accounts which are given of our author's motives, it is never once intimated that the young lady entertained an idea of the secret meaning of any courtly expressions in it which were applicable to herself. How any one else could assert that they were a covert and mean treat to her vanity, it is not easy to divine. Regarded merely as a youthful exercise of poetic skill, why may not this eclogue be allowed that free range of imagination which is claimed for similar compositions? Colin and Phebe, it is true, may, by a warm fancy, be supposed to mean Mr. Byrom and Miss Bentley, with the same degree of probability as the Palemon and Galatea of another poet may be imagined to pourtray two particular individuals whom be had not in his contemplation while writing, and whom he never intended \m fictitious characters to personate. But there is internal evidence in the poem, which, taken in conjunction with the testimony of his own family, makes it certain that if any compliment was implied in it beyond the mere playfulness of imagination, it was intended for another person. To his favourite sinter, Miss Phebe Byrom, this pastoral was addressed, as well as several other copies of verses. The mention of her name in it was al- ways accounted, by his connections, as tender a mark of per- sonal respect as a brother could confer on such a near relative. Exalting her, by an allowable poetic licence, into the imaginary XU THE LIPE OF object of his fondest .affections, in glowing language he depicts the charming effect which her presence gave to all the appear- ances of nature; and the clouded aspect which every thing bore when she was absent. On the whole, it is very probable that this story had its ori- gin either in vanity, or in the colloquial slander of some rival candidate who was at that time disappointed in his prospects of collegiate honours. For it is a fact which admits of no doubt, that, long before the publication of these verses, the preposses- sing manners, accurate classical knowledge, and amiable dispo- sition of Mr. Byrom, had recommended him to the friendship of Dr. Bentley. Whoever reads his poetical criticisms on Ho- race, Homer, &c. in the latter part of this volume, will be astonished at the profundity of his genius and the extent of his attainments; and will be further convinced that it was something beyond a pretended partiality for his daughter that induced the discerning Master of Trinity College to favour Mr. Byrom's election to a fellowship. He proceeded, at the usual period, to his degree of Master of Arts; and in the year 1716" resigned his college preferment. As it was not a lay fellowship, by the statutes of the house he could retain it no longer without entering into holy orders. His rea- sons for declining to minister in holy things, according to the forms of the Established Church, have never been satisfactorily stated. From this omission several persons have ventured to class him with the conscientious among Dissenters, and have imputed his Nonconformity in this instance to his political opi- nions, or to his refined ideas of church-government. His poli- tical sentiments were indeed the same as were held by a num- ber of most worthy characters in that age; and they were not the most friendly to all the principles and measures of Govern- ment. Yet had there not been another more powerful cause, these would have had very little influence on his determination with respect to the Church, because many of her dignitaries were the abettors of the same political principles. Nor was he hindered by any want of attachment to her doctrines and cere- monies; for she had not a more dutiful son; and however libe- ral he was towards contrary attachments in other people, it was his delight and high satisfaction through life to attend on the ministration of all her ordinances. Yet he appears to have been influenced at this critical period by religious motives of a pecu- liar nature. Soon after the resignation of his fellowship, being in an infirm state of health, he went to Montpellier, where he began to MR. JOHN 6YROM. xiii study physic, having an intention of exercising it as a profession. It is generally believed, that, during his residence in France, he imbibed the mystical opinions of Father Malebranche in Philoso- phy and of Fenelon and Madame Bourignon in Divinity. But these notions, however they might be increased by his remaining a short time in the region of their growth, had been embraced by him before he left Cambridge; and to his reasons for court- ing privacy they had communicated a powerful bias. The latter part of the Seventeenth Century was particularly marked by the violent concussions which took place between two opposite parties in religion. One of them may, not unaptly be called the party of the Moralists, and the other that of the Spiri- tualists. Their struggle was not confined to one church or coun- try: It extended through Christendom. Ever since the passing of the act of Uniformity, by which nearly two thousand of her best pastors reluctantly became Nonconformists, the Established Church of England had been suffering a decay in her vitals from the want of "able ministers of the New Testament." The successors of these worthies did not press on the consciences of their hearers those grand truths of Christianity, which distinguish it from every religious sys- tem of merely human origin. They were themselves ignorant of that inward kingdom of God, whicli is " righteousness* peace and joy in the Holy Ghost;" and could not therefore be expect- ed rightly to divide the woifl of truth, or to teach others the method of salvation. It became a fashionable practice among Clergymen to expatiate largely on the sublime morality of the Gospel. Great acuteness and precision were also expended in proving that the Christian Religion was in several respects su- perior to the systems of heathen sages. If a preacher could moreover, evince his dexterity in the pulpit by confuting the arguments of the Papists, he was immediately pronounced a good christian and an astute theologian. From this slight but true sketch, the fact is not at all extraordinary that no writer of eminence can be found in the Established Cnurch, from those days till nearly the middle of the eighteenth century, whose productions clearly exhibit the doctrines of Christ in their happy influence on the conduct, and their saving efficacy in the soul Repentance, Faith, and Holiness sometimes occur in the theolo- gical writings of that period; but they are only in the lowest ac- ceptations of those sacred terms. Repentance is generally set lorth as such a contrition for sin as secures the favour of Jeho- vah, without much, if any, need of the intervention of the Sa- viour. Faith ib represented, in all the pomp of words, as " the Xiv THE LIFE OF substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen j" but when examined, it is found to be, not the vital and opera- tive principle obviously intended by that word in the records of truth, but a cold assent of the understanding to this proposition, " Christianity is a revelation from God." And Holiness, accord- ing to them, is principally an abstinence from gross vices, and . a tranquility of mind which may comport with, what they call,