Moral and Sacred Poems (1744)1 Volume 2 [Baker List, #78] Editorial Introduction: Poetry played a prominent role in genteel culture in eighteenth-century Britain. In addition to well-selling collections by poets like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Edward Young, there were regular sections of poetry in most of the leading periodicals. The genre was embraced for political critique, moral instruction, philosophical argument, religious devotion, light diversion, and a range of other public purposes. John Wesley was typical of many in his day in keeping a manuscript notebook during his Oxford years where he copied poems that he found instructive or worthy of reading repeatedly (see the MS Poetry Miscellany in this collection). While Wesley’s manuscript collection includes several selections that he would have viewed as entertaining, it is clear that he particularly valued poems with strong moral and religious themes. Thus, he was sympathetic to a suggestion made by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, in 1742 that public culture would greatly benefit from a collection of “chaste” moral and sacred poems. Wesley soon began work on such a collection. It was issued as a series of unbound leaflets, beginning in 1743. The last installment appeared in 1744 and the full compliment were bound as a three-volume set. While the target audience of Wesley’s Collection of Psalms and Hymns series was Anglican worshipers, and the Hymns and Sacred Poems series was particularly aimed at those involved in the renewal movement, the hoped- for audience of this series was the larger public, particularly those of genteel society. Slow sales suggest that it was not well received in this setting. About 150 sets of the initial bound copies remained in the inventory at John Wesley’s house in London at his death, nearly fifty years after its publication. Despite this lack of commercial success, the three volume collection remains valuable as a window into Wesley’s moral and spiritual emphases in the 1740s. Wesley includes several prominent poets of the last century in this published set (some of which appeared in his earlier MS Poetry Miscellany). He also drew upon more recent works, without seeking permission from their original publishers, which drew him into copyright disputes in a couple of cases, most notably over Edward Young’s Night Thoughts in this volume. While we have modernized capitalization in the transcription below, we have generally retained the spelling and punctuation of the original, correcting only the printer errors that are scattered through the text. Edition: John Wesley. Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems. 3 vols. Bristol: Farley, 1744. 1This document was produced under the editorial direction of Randy L. Maddox, with the diligent assistance of Aileen F. Maddox. Last updated: March 28, 2013. Table of Contents Of the True Use of Riches [Alexander Pope] 3–14 The Tenth Satyr of Juvenal [John Dryden] 15–33 [Blank] 34 The Second Satyr of Persius [John Dryden] 35–38 Love of Fame the Universal Passion [Edward Young] 39–49 Satire II [Edward Young] 50–56 A Paraphrase on the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Chapters of Job [Edward Young] 57–70 The Last Day [Edward Young] 71–94 The Forty-Third Chapter of Ecclesiasticus paraphrased [William Broome] 95–99 [Blank] 100 The Song of the Three Children paraphrased [Marc Le Pla] 101–34 Bedlam [Thomas Fitzgerald] 135–41 An Ode [Thomas Fitzgerald] 142 Another [Thomas Fitzgerald] 143 The 104th Psalm paraphrased [Thomas Fitzgerald] 144–48 Abraham’s Sacrifice [Thomas Fitzgerald] 149–56 From Mr. Lewis’s Miscellany An Ode 157–59 On Riches [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 159–60 Against Life [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 160–61 For Life [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 161 The Pyramid 162 On the Death of Alexander the Great 163 Epitaph on a Man and his Wife 163 Alexander and Xerxes 164 Epitaph on an Infant 165–66 Lapidarium 166 Melissa [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 167–69 Grongar Hill [John Dyer] 170–75 The Thracian 175 Epigram [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 176 On the foregoing Epigram [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 176 The Monument [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 177 The Savage 177–78 An Essay on Time 179–84 Adriani morientis ad Animam [Alexander Pope] 184 Christiani morientis ad Animam [Alexander Pope] 185 To Stella, on Her Picture 186–87 A Hermit’s Meditation [George Huddesford ?] 187–91 Wrote at Ocriculum in Italy [John Dyer] 191–93 On an Open Grave 194 The Retirement 195–96 A Thought upon Death [Thomas Fitzgerald] 196–97 On the Creation 198–200 On the Death of a good Poor Woman 200–201 An Anacreontick Ode, Upon a Wedding after Thirteen Years Courtship [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 201–2 To a Young Lady on her Birth-Day [Samuel Wesley Jr.] 203–4 On a Fine Day 204 An Ode 205–7 A Fragment of an Epistle to a Friend 208–9 An Ode to the Creator of the World, by John Hughes 210–16 A Monumental Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes [John Hughes] 217–19 The Ecstasy [John Hughes] 220–28 The Complaint; or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality [Edward Young] Night the First 229–43 Night the Second 244–61 Night the Fourth 262–84 Night the Fifth 285–308 Night the Sixth 309–38 Night the Seventh 339–73 [Page 3] A COLLECTION OF MORAL AND SACRED POEMS. Of the True Use of Riches.1 To the Right Honourable Allen Lord Bathurst. By Mr. Pope. Who shall decide, when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt like you and me? You hold the word, from Jove to Momus giv’n, That man was made the standing jest of heav’n, 1Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope (London: Bernard Lintot, 1736), 2:22–45. [Page] 4 And GOLD a but sent to keep the fools in play, For half to heap, and half to throw away. But I, who think more highly of our kind, (And surely heav’n and I are of a mind) Opine, that nature, as in duty bound, Deep hid the shining mischief under ground: But when, by man’s audacious labour won, Flam’d forth this rival to its sire, the sun, Then, in plain prose, were made two sorts of men, To squander some, and some to hide agen. Like doctors thus, when much dispute has past, We find our tenets just the same at last. Both fairly owning, riches in effect No grace of heav’n, or token of th’ elect, Giv’n to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil, To ward, to waters, Chartres, and the devil. What nature wants, commodious gold bestows, ’Tis thus we eat the bread another sows: But how unequal it bestows, observe, ’Tis thus we riot, while who sow it, starve. What nature wants (a phrase I much distrust) Extends to luxury, extends to lust; And if we count among the needs of life Another’s toil, why not another’s wife? Useful, we grant, it serves what life requires, But dreadful too, the dark assassin hires: _______________ a That the true use of RICHES is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, avarice, or profusion. [Page] 5 Trade it may help, society extend; But lures the pyrate,2 and corrupts the friend: It raises armies in a nation’s aid, But bribes a Senate, and the land’s betray’d. Oh! that such bulky bribes as all might see Still, as of old, encumber’d villainy! In vain may heroes fight, and patriots rave, If secret gold saps on from knave to knave. Could France or Rome divert our brave designs; With all their brandies, or with all their wines? What could they more than knights and ’squires confound, Or water all the quorum ten miles round? A statesman’s slumbers how this speech would spoil! “Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oyl; “Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door; “A hundred oxen at your levee roar.[”] Poor avarice one torment more would find, Nor could profusion squander all, in kind. Astride his cheese Sir Morgan might we meet, And worldly crying coals from street to street, (Whom with a wig so wild, and mien so maz’d, Pity mistakes for some poor tradesman craz’d.) Had Colepeper’s whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have sent it to the dogs? His Grace will game: to White’s a bull be led, With spurning heels, and with a butting head; To White’s be carry’d, as to antient games, Fair coursers, vases, and alluring dames. Shall then Uxorio, if the stakes he sweep, Bear home six whores, and make his lady weep? 2Ori., “yrate”; corrected in the errata. [Page] 6 Or soft Adonis, so perfum’d and fine, Drive to St. James’s a whole herd of swine? Oh! filthy check on all industrious skill, To spoil the nation’s last great trade, quadrille! Once, we confess, beneath the patriot’s cloak,b From the crack’d bagg the dropping guinea spoke, And gingling down the back-stairs, told the crew, “Old Cato is as great a rogue as you.” Blest paper-credit! that advanc’d so high, Now lends corruption lighter wings to fly! Gold, imp’d with this, can compass hardest things, Can pocket states, or fetch or carry kings;c A single leaf can waft an army o’er, Or ship off Senates to some distant shore;d _______________ b “Beneath the patriot’s cloak.” This is a true story which happened in the reign of William III to an unsuspected old patriot, who coming out of the back-door from having been closeted by the king, where he had received a large bag of guineas, the bursting of the bag discovered his business there.