The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

'NOVEMBER 10, 1855.

his feelings, he derived little solid benefit. The avidity
with which the poem was read, and the curiosity that
looked impatiently for its sequel, generated a singular kind
of literary fraud. The first part was not only pirated, as
already mentioned, but was followed by a spurious second
part, which ran through three editions within the year,
succeeded by another containing a continuation of the
third canto. The author of " Hudibras " had introduced a
new style of satire, which presented irresistible temptations
to the ,mail poets of the day. His ludicrous double
rhymes, his short measure, and his familiar diction, would
have been striking as novelties at any time ; and it may be
easily conceived that they were peculiarly effective coming
so closely after the sombre reign of Puritanism, when
their allusions were universally understood, and the whole
manner of the poem—its broad humour and trenchant
ridicule—fell in happily with the reaction that had taken
place in the public mind. The popularity of the work
threatened an inundation of laborious doggrel, and Butler
might probably have been drifted into oblivion by a flood of
imitators if he had not vindicated hie reputation by the
speedy publication of the second part, which obtained the
imprimaJur of Sir Roger L'Estrange on the 6th November,
1663, and was published under the date of 1664, with a
titlepage, on which it was carefully announced as having
been written " by the author of the first," to distinguish
it from counterfeits.
In a similar way we were overrun in our own
days by Brummagem Byrons, and counterfeit
Bozzes. But it is more difficult in authorship
than in mechanics to infringe upon the on
ginal patent. A plagiarist may successfully
steal, but a mere imitator cannot fraudulently
invent. Originality implies the first finding
of thought, and there is a sort of common•
law right to the honours and profits of dis-
covery.
Of the extraordinary popularity of " Hudi-
bras " it is told here :
The reception of " Hinlibras " at Court is, probably,
without a parallel in the history of books. The King was
so enchanted with it that he carried it about in his pocket,
and perpetually garnished his conversation with specimens
of its witty passages, which, thus stamped by royal appro-
bation, passed rapidly into general currency. Nor was his
Majesty content with merely quoting Butler; in an excess
of enthusiasm he sent for him, that he might gratify his
curiosity by the sight of a poet who had contributed so
largely to his amusement. The Lord Chancellor Hyde
showered promises of patronage upon him, and hung up
his portrait in his library. Every person about the Court
considered it his duty to make himself familiar with
" liudibras." It was minted into proverbs and bon-mots.
No book was so much read. No book was so much cited.
From the palace it found its way at once into the chocolate
houses and taverns ; and attained so rapid a popularity
that it was pirated within a month of its original pub-
lication.

And " minted into proverbs " it still remains.
It would be difficult even in Pope to find a
passage whose separate couplets have such
acceptance as in the description of the Puri-
tan's religion:—
For he was of that stubborn crew
Of errant saints, whom all men grant
To be the true Church Militant;
Such as do build their faith upon
The holy text of pike and gun;
Decide all controversies by
Infallible artillery;
And prove their doctrine orthodox
liy apostolic blows, and knocks;
Call tire, and sword, and desolation,
A godly, thorough Reformation,
Which always must be catried on,
And still be doing, never done ;
As if Religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended.
A sect, whose chief devotion lies
In odd perverse antipathies;
In falling out with that or this,
And finding somewhat still amiss;
More peevish, cross, and splenetic,
Than dog distract, or monkey sick.
That with more care keep holy-day
The wrong, than others the right way;
Compound for sins they are inclined to,
liy damning those they have no mind to:
Still so perverse and opposite,
As if they worshipped God for spite.
There has been no wit since Butler's time
who could write such a passage as that. His
genius could both dive and soar.
As if religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended,
contains a tone of argument against the I
extravagance of sectarianism. Again—
Still so perverse and opposite,
As if they worshipped God for spite,
presents an inimitable picture of the whole
class of wrangling, jangling disputants about
trifles—people who rend into shreds the
seamless coat of our Saviour.
The merit of this edition of the poets is now
established. Its dicta are, of course, open to
criticism in particular passages, but its vigorous
-.tarp Iptous

high reputation. The promptitude with which
he uses his literary knowledge is really re-
markable ; and we doubt whether in the active
portion of the literary profession any one else
could perform such a feat as bringing out every
month a volume illustrated by such a quantity
of minute lore and able dissertation.

Edward Irviny. An

nary Biography.

London: Freeman.

and Lite-

By Washington Wilks.

THE work before us is rather a series of essays
than a biography, and, as the title imports,
deals much more with the preacher than with
the man. It is composed on the rather
unusual plan of representing successive
phases of his career, and in disregard of the
strict chronological order of events. Before,
therefore, proceeding to further criticism, we
will lay before our readers a brief summary of
the salient points of his life which may serve
as a sort of chain-work to hold our remarks
together.
Edward Irving was born at the town of
Annan, the southernmost point of Scotland,
on the 15th of August, 1792. His father was
not what is commonly called a gentleman,
being a tanner by trade, but it does not seem
certain that he was not of gentle descent.
The maiden name of his mother was Louther,
and she was "said to be descended from
" Martin Luther, the Reformer." Of Irving's
boyhood few memorials are recorded. He was
fonder, we are told, of rowing and walking
than of his books, and the scholarship he
acquired was due to the strict discipline of
Mr. Adam Hope, his first schoolmaster. He
had previously been taught the alphabet by
" an old dame named Margaret Paine, aunt of
" the author of The Rights of Man,' the
" reputed instructress of that ' rebellious
" needlernan ' in elementary learning." He
gave early evidence of the vigorous turn of
his mind : his favorite companions were men,
and his favorite author Hooker. He graduated
with distinction at Edinburgh, and in his
seventeenth year was appointed mathematical
teacher in a large academy at Haddingtoa
Alter spending eight or ten years as a school-
master, Irving determined to become a mis-
sionary—a purpose from which he was diverted
by the rather unlooked-for invitation to the
assistant ministry of St. John's Church, Glas-
gow, then under the pastoral care of Dr.
Chalmers. A t Glasgow ho continued for two
years, at the end of which period he became
minister of the Caledonian Chapel in Cross-
street, Hatton-garden, the scene of his future
oratorical triumphs. He entered on the du-
ties of his office in the month of July, 1822,
and in the first quarter the seat-holders had
Increased from fifty to fifteen hundred Here
he remained till 1827, in May of which year
his new church was opened in Regent-square—
" a spacious and elegant building, erected by
" his Cross-street congregation at a cost of
" 15,0001." It was during his ministry in
Regent.square that Irving first began to pro-
mulgate those peculiar doctrines which ulti-
mately led to his excommunication by the
Scotch Kirk. This sentence was not finally
pronounced till the 15th of March, 1833, but
during the previous year he had relinquished
his ministrations in Regent-square, and bad
repaired, with a large body of his congrega-
tion, to a temporary church in Gray's inn-
road, which was subsequently exchanged for
one in Newman-street. This was the last in
which Irving ever preached in England. In
the spring of 1834 he went on a mission to
Edinburgh, and in November was taken ill at
Glasgow. He had literally worn himself out
by incessant excitement :
From the beginning of December he rose no more from
his bed. A pulse that would not be abated from the
height of a hundred per minute, and was sometimes a hun-
dred and forty—hours of quiet suffering, succeeded by
other hours of speechless lethargy—indicated the fatal ex-
tent of disease and exhaustion in a frame that had seemed
built for utmost longevity. His wife ( the three children
that remained to them had not accompanied her) was now
joined by his mother (who had already mourned the death
of two sons)—his sister, Mrs. Dickson,—and his father-in-
law, the Rev. Mr. Martin. He was sensible of their
presence, almost to the last hour—on the day before he
died, a Sunday, desiring his wife to read to him Psalms
and Epistles. Among the last sounds heard from his lips

1077

tongue. Again, he was beard to say, "It I die, I die to
the Lord ; living and dying, lam the Lord's." And so,
after aix hours of uncouaeiousness—ou Monday, Deeem•

ber the Bth—he was fuund to have passed away.

The popularity of Irving when he first came
to Loudon wkili something unparalleled :

The occasional sermons in London of Robert Hall or
Dr. Chalmers, aid not attract the crowds which nuw

pressed to EdWard Irving's weekly setvices. The Duke of
York repeated his visit, and carried with him other mem-
hers of the royal family. Brougham took Macintosh, and
Macintosh, by repeating at a diuner•table a beautiful sen-
tence he had heard from Irving in prayer, drew Canning.
The parliamentary leaders of both aides, and even the
Tory premier, Lord Liverpool (much to Lord Eldon's
horror)—the judges, and I.suristers of every degree—
fashionable physicians and medical students—duchesses,
noted beauties, city madams—clerics and dissenters—with
men and women who rather followed the fashion than
made particular pretensions to either intellect or religion
—besieged the doors, and were jammed together in the
aisles. Carriage panels were cracked in Cross•atreet uin
I)rury•lane, and the preacher was every whit as much the
rage as ever Kemble or Kean. It was found necessary,
fur the prevention of accidents, to admit the aeat•hulders
by a side door, and to limit the miscellaneous attendance
by the issue of tickets, for which application was made by
letter during the week. Even then, the preacher had to
make his way up pulpit•stairs covered with ladies, glad to
obtain that rude acommodation.

The majority of the press, it appears, were
favorable to the new star ; but—

The Times fell upon the pulpit celebrity in its eapaqty
of general guardian of the public taste. There appeared,
one July morning, an article commencing—" There is a
fashion in everything—in wigs and bonnets, in poetry and
novel.writing ; and lastly, in actors and preachers; and
while things go on in the ordinary way—while wigs du not
accumulate their curls into penwigs, nor bonnets swell
into coal-scuttles--while our popular poets scribble only
one poem, and our popular romancers only two novels, a
year—while our actors are content with one new reading
in a play of Shiskapeare, and our preachers aim at no
praises beyond those of the regular frequenters at fashion-
able chapels—we are disposed to let things pass, and allow
the candid and enlightened public to have their own way.
But the case is different with Mr. Irving. His popularity
absolutely frightens us 'from our propriety.' We learn
that statesmen and quack doctors. old ladies and judges,
young ladies and students at law, all flock with equal eager-
ness to hear the Caledonian orator. We become somewhat
anxious to know what are the attractions to collect together
such an heterol.eueuus mass: and, after a serious conridera-
tion, we profess ourselves unable to discover. Atter hear-
ing him, and after reading what he has written, we are, in
our own minds, fully convinced that he is a man of very
ordinary talents • that his understanding is weak in its
grasp, and limited in its observation ; and that his taste is
of the very lowest order of badly instructed schoulboyid.
He is an imitator of Dr. Chalmers, but nu noire like his
prototype that the inflated frog in the fable was like the
bull whom he strove to resemble : for the energy of thought
of his original, he gives us nothing but rumbling and dis-
torted commonplaces; for the impressive and impassioned
diction of his master, we have nothing but antitheses with.
out point, and epithets without distinctness ; while the
poor and insignificant idea, wrapped up in a heap of tinsel
and clumsy phraseology, looks like the lady in a lobster,
or a mouse under a canopy of state.' . . . We feel ashamed,
and begin to distrust our own judgment, when we sea that
we have one idea in common with such a turgid and shal-
low declaimer Surely, surely it cannot be long be-
fore this bubble bursts !"

Pamphlets on the subject were innu-
merable. On the whole, Mr. Wilks does
not consider the charges brought against
ither his style, his logic, or his orthodoxy,
entirely without foundation, but thinks they
are redeemed by his " splendid parts and his
" eminent services." We cannot agree with
him in this. It is difficult to say, of ono
who preached unsound doctrine with incon-
clusive arguments and coarse language that
his parts were splendid, or that his services
were eminent. But our estimation of Irving's
character should not be based on these conside-
rations at all. He masa magnificent enthusiast;
the adoration of angels and the orgies of devils—
ull the mysteries of the Apocalypse—the valley
of Armageddon, and the reign of the Saints—
these were things as habitually present to his
imagination as to that of the wildest fifth-
monarchy fanatic. It is idle to say of such a
man that he either was or was not heterodox,
irrational, or tumid. Irving defended himself
In the preface to the third edition of the
" Orations " in a lofty manner. His re-
mark s, however, are principally confined to
the one point of taste, and we think he has
the best of the argument. That he was a
speaker of first-rate eloquence the passages
quoted in the present volume are sufficient to
prove beyond question. Witness the exqui-
site language and solemn melody of the follow-
ing :
How oft bath this city, where I now write these lamen-
tations over a thoughtless age, been tilled and emptied of
her people since first she reared her imperial head! tiow
• generations revellers have •to another

taILILIIb/111111pariatmiru rizoou6co, ..K....,..-.
and hpisues. Among we mop • ••••
comment and copious research are beyond were verses of the twenty-third Psalm—" the Lord is m y her people since first ape rearm' urr lILIFCELY /Mans • +avv•
dispute. Mr. Bell has certainly added to his shepherd "—murmured, as if to himself, in the Hebrew . many generations of her revellers have gone to another