intreat you not to mention it on any account; for he is greatly solicitous of having the matter remain a secret. He industriously conceals himself, and there are but three or four at most that do know any thing about it."

This Master Wigglesworth was the first professor of divinity in Harvard College. He is frequently mentioned in these letters, and in one of them his character appears at considerable length. "I must needs say, I cannot in justice imagine that this good gentleman is second to any. He is certainly a first rate, if not the first rate. His body is the less acceptable part of him; that is no wise to be despised. As to his intellectual powers, his being chosen into the professorship by some of our wisest and best men must speak him superlative. As for his publick preaching, you would guess him to be almost under an inspiration in it. His delivery is with great deliberation and distinctness. He has a small still voice, not loud, but audible. As for the impediment you mention, it is only a graceful lisp, that does not at all affect his speech to make him unintelligible. When I have heard him preach I have never observed but that every syllable was clearly articulated. And as for his never being a candidate for the gospel ministry, it is a mistake. He always was so, ever since he preached, and is so now. He has been in nomination (though I don't so well like the method) more than once, and the reason why he has been neglected is owing to the ignorance and unskilfulness of the rabble, who make the majority. They disgust every thing but noise and nonsense, and cannot be content to sit quiet, unless their auditory nerves are drummed upon with a voice like thunder. His meeting with no acceptance is a great reproach upon the understanding of the multitude. I guess he would hardly be prevailed to leave his business here only to make a fruitless journey, for I don't think he has any thing in prospect, I mean a settlement; and further, the learned this way would be loth to part with him. He is treated with great respect this way, and should he come to Portsmouth, your clergy, tho' his seniors, must stoop to him. As for his deafness I look on it as a good ministerial qualification. Mr. Prince is an excellent preacher, a fine scholar, but has an uncouth delivery; he is raw and uncultivated, not much of a gentleman. I should for my part pretty much suspect his conduct among you.-I asked the professor whether if he should be asked to preach any where for a small term, he could leave his business, and mentioned Piscataqua to him. He replied, that he would consult the president in such an affair. But, he added, I believe it will be best for them to hear only one. He is a very prudent man, and I am confident that if he had been sent to after the same manner that

Mr. Welsteed has, he would not have come; and yet he is a humble, meek, modest man."

It appears that considerable difficulty was found in settling a minister at Portsmouth. Our readers may not be displeased with the following paragraph on the subject. "You have ere this Mr. Gee's answer made public among you. I want to hear how you received it, and what your consequent proceedings are. The talk here is of Mr. Welsteed* for Portsmouth, and he is far superior to any that offers, unless the Professor could be obtained, which I believe is almost impracticable from some considerations. Let who will come, I fear Mr. Smoothing Plain will wheedle, ensnare, and *** them. You will be so kind as to let me hear how you go on in these matters. 'Tis a pity that your pulpit is so much swayed by the petticoat. But some men are born to obey, while women ranipant assume to rule and govern."

In another letter, speaking of several persons who were recommended as candidates for Portsmouth, a fact is stated respecting Mr. Prince, which will excite the astonishment of the candidates of the present generation. "As to Mr. Prince, he would not go, because he had no more than sixty sermons made, and he will go no where till he has doubled the number."

We might make several more extracts from these letters, which would afford glimpses at the history and manners of the times, political as well as religious; but the above must suffice.

Chis

LINES

WRITTEN ON VISITING THE BEAUTIFUL BURYING GROUND AT

NEW-HAVEN.

O where are they, whose all that earth could give
Beneath these senseless marbles disappeared?
Where even they, who taught these stones to grieve;
The hands that hew'd them, and the hearts that rear'd?
Such the poor bounds of all that's hoped or fear'd,
Within the griefs and smiles of this short day.
Here sunk the honour'd, vanish'd the endear'd :
This the last tribute love to love could pay,
An idle pageant pile, to graces pass'd away.

Why deck these sculptur'd trophies of the tomb?
Why, victims, garland thus the spoiler's fane?

* Mr. Welsteed, a few years after, became the successor of Mr. Waldron.

Hope ye by these to avert oblivion's doom;
In grief ambitious, and in ashes vain ?
Go, rather bid the sand the trace retain,
Of all that parted virtue felt and did!—
Still powerless man revolts from ruin's reign;
And pride has gleam'd upon the coffin-lid,
And rear'd o'er mouldering dust the mountain

pyramid.

Sink, mean memorials of what cannot die!
Be lowly as the relics ye o'erspread!
Nor lift your funeral forms so gorgeously,
To tell who slumbers in each narrow bed.
I would not honour thus the sainted dead;
Nor to each stranger's careless eye declare
My sacred griefs for joy and friendship fled.
O let me hide the names of those that were,
Deep in my stricken heart, and shrine them only there!

REVIEW.

ARTICLE XV.

The Life of Wesley, with the Rise and Progress of Methodism. By Robert Southey, Esq. 2 vols. 405. 436. New-York, 1820. AN able and impartial history of the rise and establishment of Methodism was a desideratum till the appearance of this valuable work; which is interesting, not merely to the theologian, as narrating the progress of a new sect, but to the metaphysician and physiologist, as displaying new operations of the mind, new proofs and examples of the wonderful connexion and reciprocal influence of the mind and body. It is highly interesting to mark the growth, character, and effects of an enthusiasm which has extended so widely, and operated upon so many different individuals, to observe the power of opinion upon character, and the counteracting influence of character upon opinion; to perceive what vast and lasting effects may be produced by the energy of one man, and from the mingled good and evil resulting from mis-directed zeal, to learn a lesson of discretion as well as fervour. All this Mr. Southey has shown himself well qualified to assist us in performing, as he has exhibited in the work before us great good sense, candour, and judgment. We think he is much more free from prejudice, than might be expected from one, who is officially pledged to support the cause of the church and king

of Great Britain; and where he does not feel called upon to favour this, he writes, as one would anticipate, with much just feeling and fine talent. His materials were abundant, as the world has seldom seen men of more remarkable characters than the founders and early converts of Methodism, and many of the incidents of their lives strikingly exhibit the romantic quixotry of their minds. We cannot undertake to give even a brief abstract of all that is contained in these well filled volumes, but must content ourselves with exciting the curiosity of our readers by extracting some of the most remarkable facts and passages.

The subject of the memoirs was born at Epworth, in Lincolnshire, on the 17th of June, 1703, of highly respectable and worthy parents. His father was a clergyman of the church of England, who acquired, by writing a pamphlet in defence of the Revolution of 1688, and a poem upon the battle of Blenheim, that preferment which his talents and virtues as a clergyman could not gain for him. Religious impressions were early and deeply made upon the mind of his son John, by the care of an excellent mother, and by the imminent peril to which he was exposed, when only six years old, by the burning of his father's house. This was an incident not to be forgotten; his deliverance strongly impressed his mother as well as himself; and in reference to it, he had a house in flames engraved as an emblem under one of his portraits, with these words for a motto, "Is not this a brand plucked out of the burning?" He received his school education at the Charter House, and at the age of seventeen was removed to Christ Church, Oxford. We must not omit to mention an incident, which took place in his father's family, whilst he was at school; the story of which is similar to many other narratives which were very generally believed during the preceding century. Noises of various descriptions were heard in and about the house, such as groans, knockings, breaking of bottles, and clattering of pewter, which were attributed by all the family to some supernatural agency. We are very sorry that Mr. Southy has given this story the sanction of his belief. We had supposed that tricks enough of this sort had been played and detected, to furnish us with a satisfactory solution of any new story of the same kind. Mr. Southey remarks, in support of the credibility of this account, "With regard to the good end which they may be supposed to answer, it would be end sufficient if sometimes one of those unhappy persons who, looking through the dim glass of infidelity, see nothing beyond this life, and the narrow sphere of mortal existence, should, from the well established truth of one such story, (trifling and objectless as it might appear,) be led to a conclusion that there are more things in

heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy." But we think, that those who can resist the argument and evidence of natural and revealed religion on this subject, will be little likely to be affected by a story of this sort; if they will not believe Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

It was at the University that Wesley first distinguished himself by his religious zeal. He was powerfully affected by reading the work commonly attributed to Thomas à Kempis, De Imitatione Christi, and Bishop Taylor's Holy Living and Dying. "That part in particular of this splendid work, which relates to purity of intention, affected him exceedingly. Instantly,' he says, "I resolved to dedicate all my life to God-all my thoughts and words, and actions, being thoroughly convinced there was no medium; but that every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to God, or myself,-that is in effect to the Devil." " In this resolution he was joined by some young men, with whom he associated after he was chosen fellow of Lincoln College. They were nicknamed the Holy or the Godly Club, and consisted of John Wesley, and his brother Charles, George Whitefield, and a few others. It is a little remarkable, that those who were afterwards noted for extravagant irregularity in their manner of life, should have received a distinguishing appellation from the order and method with which they originally lived, "picking up, as they said, the very fragments of time, that not a moment of it might be lost."

Those, who are acquainted with Whitefield only through the traditions which are handed down of him in this country, will be surprised to learn, that in his youth he was little better than a graceless reprobate. He was the son of an inn-keeper, and used to appropriate to his own use the money which he took in the house, and what he could pilfer from his mother's pocket. He was a great devourer of romances, and at school, he even enacted a woman's part in a drama, and appeared in woman clothes. But Thomas à Kempis was the agent in his reformation also, and after perusing the work of that author, he used, in his intervals of leisure from attendance at the inn, to compose sermons. He and Wesley found each other congenial spirits at the university, and were fast running, with their companions, into extravagant fanaticism. They were peculiar in their dress, and habits of life, and so abstemious as greatly to injure their health, in consequence of which, one of their number died, and Wesley seemed likely soon to follow him to an early grave. A visit to his friends in some degree restored him, and he was urged by them to leave Oxford, and apply for the cure in which his father