stand out to our retrospect, if stripped of "The Cradle Hymn," and "Abroad in the Meadows," and "The Rose, that Beautiful Flower, the Glory of April and May!" And cross and lazy and hardhearted as we are, how much worse might we have been were it not for "The Dog's Delight," and "The Busy Bee," and "The Voice of the Sluggard," and "Whene'er I take my walks abroad!" Kind tutor! how mellow is thy memory! How hallowed and how innocent do the days now look that we spent with thee! and how glad we are to think that in the homes and the Sunday-schools of Britain and America, some millions of young minds are still, from year to year, enjoying thy companionship, so loving, wise, and holy! With poetical contempt of dates we have arrived at the minstrel's last lay, whilst we have scarcely reached the majority of the man. Suffice it then to add, that after being a short time tutor in the family of Sir John Hartopp, in his twentyfourth year he was invited to become the pastor of the congregational church in London, of which Joseph Caryl, Dr. Owen, and David Clarkson, had been successive ministers. This, for half a century, namely, from 1698 till his death on the 25th of November, 1748, was his office, and its work was what he loved; but through manifold infirmities his labors were often intermitted. At last, in 1712, he was seized with a nervous fever, which continued for many months, and from the effects of which his constitution never perfectly recovered. And then it was that Sir Thomas and Lady Abney, having tempted him out to their charming retreat at Theobald's, made him their prisoner for life, and converted a week's visit into a delightful detention of five-andthirty years. "Here," in the words of his biographer, Dr. Gibbons, "he enjoyed the uninterupted demonstrations of the truest friendship. Here, without any care of his own, he had every thing which could contribute to the enjoyment of life and favor the unwearied pursuit of his studies. Here he dwelt in a family, which for piety, order, harmony, and every virtue, was a house of God. Here he had the privilege of a country recess, the fragrant bower, the spreading lawn, the flowery garden, and other advantages, to soothe his mind and aid his restoration to health; to yield him, whenever he chose them, the most grateful intervals from his laborious studies, and enable him to return to them with redoubled vigor and delight." 66 In all the annals of hospitality there is hardly such another case. "A coalition," as Dr. Johnson calls it, a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits;" and in which, it may be added, there must have been, on either side, a rare exemption from the foibles with which ordinary goodness is afflicted. The Abneys did not weary of their guest, nor did that guest, amidst unwonted luxuries, grow soft and idle; and as it was in the cheerful asylum which they opened to the shattered invalid, that most of the works were penned, which now fill the six collective quartos, we are all of us the debtors of the generous knight and his gentle lady, nor, we may well believe, is their labor of love forgotten by Him, who, in the case of the least of his servants when sick, remembers those who visit them. Never was kindness more consideratenever was interposition more providential. As far as his own instincts and the circumstances of the times could indicate, Dr. Watt's calling was the improvement of Christian literature. In the previous century Bishop Hall had published the banns between Letters and Religion, and in his pungent "Characters" and entertaining Epistles," he had labored to press into the service of the sanctuary the shrewd observation of Theophrastus, the varied intelligence and vivacity of Pliny. But the example had not been followed. Notwithstanding the unprecedented amount of theological authorship with which the intervening age had overflowed, little or nothing had been done to propitiate men of taste to evangelical religion; and although, as regarded the older generation who had listened to Baxter and Owen, this was of minor moment, it greatly concerned their successors. Pious matrons in the country and God-fearing merchants in the city, felt a famine of the word, and whilst in the meetings they frequented, they sighed for the sap and the savor to which they had been accustomed in their youth, their sons and daughters were reading Pope and Addison throughout the week; and, in the self same meetings to which they were dragged by their pious seniors on the Sabbath they were yawning at the prolixity of the | his richly furnished mind, and giving forth, sermon, or tittering at the grotesque volume after volume, those books for similes of the preacher. Nor on the which after-ages were to bless his meSunday evening, in the parlor at home, mory. Few subjects of rational inquiry was the matter greatly mended. It escaped his versatile and eager pursuit, would have been well for the young and every new conquest was a tribute to people if they had read the good books his Master and a present to mankind. their parents recommended, or sung the True to his own maxim, "I hate the psalms of which these never wearied; thoughts of making any thing in religion but, after yesterday's Spectator, Owen on heavy or tiresome;" he sought to make Perseverance was heavy reading, and every attractive theme, and every useful even the best-disposed youth could hardly science, the handmaid of religion, even as convince himself that Sternhold was sub- he longed to see religion the mistress of limer than Dryden. Dr. Watts felt the an intelligent and well-instructed family. desideratum. The whole course of his And with this twofold aim-seeking at studies had prepared him for supplying it, once to Christianize knowledge and to reand there was nothing to which he was fine and expand the mind of the Christian more inclined by the entire bent of his community, and with a prevailing refergenius. And now, in the good provi- ence to the rising race he took up in dence of God, he enjoyed the opportunity, succession, Logic, Astronomy, Geography, and the rest of his life was mainly spent in English Grammar, Scripture History; advancing the cause of Christian culture, and as, in his "Logic," he had given dithrough the medium of an attractive au- rections for the right use of reason, so, in thorship. his work on the Passions, he gave instrucBut the congregation in Bury street tions for the right guidance of man's was as self-sacrificing as the Abneys were moral and emotional nature; besides pubgenerous. They could not part with a lishing treatises more purely theological pastor whose praise was in all the on Prayer and Christian Ethics, and on churches, and of whom they themselves controverted questions in divinity, and a were proud; neither would they selfishly volume entitled "Reliquiæ Juveniles," restrain him from his higher calling and perhaps the most characteristic of the his wider ministry. They released him whole, as containing in its miscellaneous from all his more toilsome duties. They pages short papers on all kind of topics, found for him a colleague, with whom, grave and gay, mental and material, terfor thirty years and upwards, he was hap-restrial and celestial, in Latin verse and pily associated. They were glad to hear English prose. the Doctor when he was able to preach; and when the Doctor was nervous or indisposed, he himself was happy to join the rest in listening to Mr. Price. And, indeed, in preaching he was not so preëminent. Although his voice was musical and his utterance delightfully distinct, his manner was calm and deliberate, and more fitted to instruct an affectionate circle than to arouse a promiscuous auditory. He had neither the material volume and sonorous vehemence which constitute the modern Boanerges, nor the excitable temperament which sometimes makes up for physical defects; and, it may be questioned, whether it was not, on the whole, better for Bury street that Mr. Price was the stated preacher. So Dr. Watts was allowed to ply the ministry which God had given him; and in the longer or shorter intervals of illness, he went on replenishing more and more Of these a few are now obsolete, owing to the advancement of the sciences, and others have been pushed out of favor by brisker or more brilliant competitors. But still they have accomplished their purpose. For the instruction of youth, they have necessitated the preparation of manuals at once attractive and thorough, and conveying information in a tone of cheerful affection and benevolent solicitude for their higher interests. Some, however, can not easily be superseded. We doubt if even Todd's "Student's Guide," with all its modern adaptation and its welcome minuteness, will consign to oblivion the "Improvement of the Mind," so practical in its details and so inspiring in its tone; and although the universities may have now produced systems of logic more suitable to their objects than our author's clear and masterly compend, we know of nothing so likely to in terest the non-professional reader in his own mind and its intellectual processes, or to aid him in his inquiries after truth.* In his theological disquisitions, Dr. Watts was not so successful as in his contributions to Christian literature. The best of his hymns leave little for the most fastidious to censure, and nothing for the most aspiring to hope; and his sermon on "The End of Time," is as profoundly awakening as "The Happiness of Separate Spirits" is elevating to our nobler sentiments and reproving to our earthliness. But when he quitted the devotional and the practical for the speculative, he was away from home. Every one wants to climb a mountain, and it is exceedingly difficult to believe beforehand that it needs much strength to achieve the task, or that mists can be very dangerous: it looks so clear from below, and we feel so strong in the valley. And all of us can remember how, in the days of our youth, the first use we made of our Aristotelian alpenstock, was an attempt to ascend some metaphysical Mont Blanc or theological Jungfrau; and although we can not exactly say that we reached the summit, yet we are sure that we were a great deal higher than the Origin of Evil, or the water-shed betwixt Liberty and Necessity. Even to old age, Dr. Watts felt something of this temptation, and very naturally. His forte was explanation. He had an admirable faculty of clearing up confusion, within his own line of things. In every-day ethics, and in the elements of mental science, he could expound, distinguish, simplify, so as few could do better. But it was unfortunate that he tried to set philosophers right on the subjects of Space, and of Liberty and Necessity, nor less unfortunate that he sought to readjust for theologians the doctrine of the Trinity. It is scarcely presumption even in us to say, that these were matters too high for him. His mind was not naturally * The merits of Watts's Logic are admirably stated by Tissot of Dijon, in his preface to a French translation. (Paris, 1846.) "Il y a aussi plus de méthode et de clarté peut-être dans la Logique de Watts que dans celle d'Arnaul. Le bon sens Anglais, le sens des affaires, celui de la vie pratique, s'y révèle à un très-haut degré; tandis que le sens spéculatif d'un théologien passablement scolastique encore, est plus sensible dans l'Art de penser. Or, Watts a su être complet sans être excessif; il a touché trèsconvenablement tout ce que devait l'étre, et s'est toujours arrèté au point précis où plus de profondeur urait pu nuire à la clartè." designed to master such difficulties; nor were his habits those of profound, continuous abstract thinking. He was neither Joseph Butler, nor Jonathan Edwards, nor William de Leibnitz, but the Isaac Watts, whom the most of good men would have rather been; and it is no reproach to his general ability to say that he failed to ascend those dizzy altitudes, although it might have been more to the credit of his prudence if he had never tried. He If rightly told, a life like that of Isaac Watts would read great lessons; but, for brevity, and notwithstanding the exception we have just taken, the whole might be condensed into "Study to be quiet, and to do your own business." Dr. Watts had his own convictions. made no secret of his Nonconformity. At a period when many Dissenters entered the Church, and became distinguished dignitaries, he deemed it his duty still to continue outside of the National Establishment. At the same time, he was no agitator. He felt no call to rail at his brethren for their ecclesiastical defection, nor did he write pamphlets against the evils of a hierarchy, real or imagined. But God had given him a "business." He had given him, as his vocation, to join together those whom men had put asunder mental culture and vital piety. And, studying to be quiet, he pursued that calling, very diligently, very successfully. Without concealing the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, without losing the fervor of his personal devotion, he gained for that Gospel the homage of genius and intelligence; and, like the King of Israel, he touched his harp so skillfully, that many who hardly understood the words, were melted by the tune. Without surrendering his right of private judgment, without abjuring his love of natural and artistic beauty, he showed his preference for moral excellence, his intense conviction of "the truth as it in Jesus." And now, in his well-arranged and tasteful study, decorated by his own pencil, a lute and a telescope on the same table with his Bible, he seems to stand before us, a treatise on Logic in one hand and a volume of "Hymns and Spiritual Songs" in the other, asserting the harmony of Faith and Reason, and pleading for Religion and Refinement in firm and stable union. And as far as the approval of the Most High can be gathered from events or from its reflection in the conscience of his effigy reposes beneath the consecrated mankind, the Master has said: "Well roof of Westminster Abbey. And, which done, good and faithful servant." With- is far better, next Lord's day, the Name out trimming, without temporizing, he that is above every name, will be sung in was "quiet" and without bustle, without fanes where princes worship and prelates boasting or parade, he did "his own busi- minister, as well as in barns where meness," the work that God had given him. chanics pray and ragged scholars say, And now, no Church repudiates him. Amen, in words for which all alike must Nonconformity can not monopolize him. thank his hallowed genius; and it will only His eloge is pronounced by Samuel John- be some curious student of hymnology, son and Robert Southey, as well as Josiah who will recollect that ISAAC WATTS is Conder; and whilst his monument looks the Asaph of each choir, the leader of down on dissenting graves in Abney Park, each company. THE POET A SAGE of the starry science sat In his high and guardless tower, And swept the night-heaven's boundless realm "A moment turn thy mighty glass Where the foamy waters spread, To the land he may not tread. The sage smiled cold as the winter moon, He saw, and went, and the long years passed, At length to his far-exploring glass The love was cold and the home was low, "Thy glass can reach," the poet said, Of the winged and wandering soul; "Beside that fount I learned of them For thus it is, that the nearest bond "The wise man parts from wisdom here, And the prophet love is not received From the Eclectic Review. MICHAEL ANGELO AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.* THERE are mighty agencies in the phy- | profligate and degenerate age. Often sical world, which have not only tempo- misrepresented, disappointed, under-valurarily marked the place where their mani- ed, compelled to waste some of the best festations have occurred, but have like- years of his life in works unworthy of wise stamped their impress upon them to him, by the ignorance and obstinacy of endure forever; and so, too, in the world his employers, he never gave way to idle of mind, there are master-spirits which complaints, or sunk into unmanly inaction; have not only exercised a mighty influence Art was his mistress, to whom his thoughts upon their own age and country, but have were unceasingly directed, and whose also defied the power of time; and are, smiles consoled him for the frowns or neg even now, exerting over the human intel- lect of his patrons. Of such a man we lect a more extensive dominion than that can scarcely have too many biographies. which they possessed over their own con- That at present before us, is most caretemporaries. Among these fully compiled, written in a clear and pleasing style, and, besides the life of the "Dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule hero, includes clever sketches of his prinOur spirits from their urns,' none deserve a loftier niche in the temple of fame, and few have had greater influence upon succeeding ages, than Michael Angelo Buonarroti. The architect of St. Peter's-the skillful engineer whose efforts almost saved Florance in her last struggle for freedom-the designer of the Cartoon of Pisa, whose appearance marked an era in Art-the painter of the Sistine Chapel, whence generation after generation of artists have since drawn inspiration-the sculptor of the tomb of the Medici, and the mausoleum of Julius II.-the author of many a graceful madrigal and thoughtful sonnet-the great Florentine possessed a comprehensiveness and universality of genius, to which the whole of history can scarcely furnish a parallel. In him, vigor and originality of conception and matchless fertility of imagination, were combined with energy of purpose and unwearied application. Solitary, self-sustained, incorruptible, incapable of truckling or flattery, he stands forth, a prominent example of a true man in the midst of a *The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti; with Translations of many of his Poems and Letters. Also Memoirs of Savonarola, Raphael, and Vittoria Colonna. By John S. Harford, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S. In Two Vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts. 1857. cipal contemporaries, such as Lorenzo de' Medici, Savonarola, Raphael, Vittoria Colonna, the beautiful and accomplished Marchioness of Pescara, and many other distinguished historical personages. Mr. Harford thus sets forth the objects at which he has aimed in adding another to the already numerous lives of the many-sided Tuscan : "The claims of Michael Angelo to admiration as an artist, have been forcibly portrayed by numerous writers; but his great qualities as a man, present a wide field for further illustration. It has been my aim throughout the foleach of these capacities. And, though it may lowing biography, fully to do justice to him in appear difficult to add to the force of all that a Flaxman and a Reynolds, a Lomazzo and a Fuseli, have so ably written upon the characteristics of his art, I trust it may be found that the subject is not wholly exhausted, but that writers following in their train may be able to glean pre cious materials in the same field of criticism. render them interesting, not only to the artist, My aim throughout these volumes has been to but to general readers, and to the literary world, by developing Michael Angelo's character, artistic and social, political and religious; and by proving him to have been in each of these particulars equally worth of esteem and admiration. His social character, it is true, has been ably illustrated by his biographers Condivi and Vasari, who enjoyed the privilege of his intimate friendship, and published their memoirs of him in his own lifetime. These pages will |